USS Corry ( DD - 463 ) USS " Corry " ( DD - 463 ) , a " Gleaves " - class destroyer , ( also known as " Bristol " - class ) , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Commander William M . Corry , Jr . , an officer in the Navy during World War I and a recipient of the Medal of Honor . " Corry " was launched 28 July 1941 by Charleston Navy Yard , sponsored by Miss Jean Constance Corry ; commissioned 18 December 1941 , Lieutenant Commander E . C . Burchett in command ; and reported to the U . S . Atlantic Fleet . Service history . 1942 – 1944 . " Corry " conducted special operations with Radio Washington at Annapolis from 18 to 21 May 1942 , then sailed to escort SS " Queen Elizabeth " into New York Harbor 22 May . After an escort voyage to Bermuda , she patrolled off Newfoundland between 31 May and 23 June and rejoining her group at Newport on 1 July , operated on coastal patrol and escort , voyaging several times to Caribbean ports , until 19 October , when she put in to Bermuda . During this period she picked up survivors of the torpedoed SS " Ruty " from a life raft off Trinidad . " Corry " cleared Bermuda on 25 October 1942 for Casablanca to participate in the Moroccan landings , in the screen of . She left Casablanca 16 November for Norfolk and Boston , and after overhaul resumed her coastal and Caribbean operations until 13 February 1943 , when she sailed on escort duty from Norfolk for north Africa , returning 6 March for operations in the western Atlantic . On 11 August she sailed for Scotland and operated with the British Home Fleet , cruising once to Norway as providing escort for " Ranger " in the successful Allied air raid on Bodø , Norway in October 1943 ( Operation Leader ) . " Corry " sailed twice to Iceland to cover the movement of Russia - bound convoys . Returning to Boston on 3 December , " Corry " sailed on 24 December for escort duty to New Orleans and Panama . Similar operations continued until 16 February 1944 , when " Corry " sailed for hunter - killer operations in the Atlantic with Task Group 21 . 16 ( TG 21 . 16 ) , arriving at Casablanca 8 March . She left Casablanca 11 March , and on 16 March joined with in attacking " U - 801 " . Following " Corry " s depth charge attack mid - day on 17 March , when the submarine surfaced " Corry " sank her with gunfire , and picked up her 47 survivors . Two days later , on 19 March 1944 , " Corry " rescued eight survivors of " U - 1059 " , which was sunk at , southwest of the Cape Verde Islands , by aircraft from . Among the " U - 1059 " survivors was the commanding officer . " Corry " arrived at Boston on 30 March for overhaul followed by training . Invasion of Normandy . " Corry " cleared Norfolk on 20 April 1944 for Great Britain , and the staging of the Normandy invasion . Getting underway from Plymouth , England , she was the lead destroyer of the Normandy Invasion task force , escorting ships and transports across the English Channel . Upon arriving off the coast of Normandy , France , she headed for Îles Saint - Marcouf , her station for fire support on the front lines at Utah Beach . On D - Day morning 6 June 1944 she fired several hundred rounds of 5 - inch ammunition at numerous Nazi targets . As H - Hour ( 06 : 30 ) neared , when troops would begin fighting their way onto the beaches , the plane assigned to lay smoke for " Corry " to conceal her from enemy fire suddenly got shot down , leaving " Corry " fully exposed to German gunners who were now firing at her in full fury . At approximately H - Hour , during a duel with a shore battery , " Corry " suffered direct heavy - caliber artillery hits in her engineering spaces amidships . With her rudder jammed , she went around in a circle before all steam was lost . Still under heavy fire , " Corry " began sinking rapidly with her keel broken and a foot - wide crack across her main deck amidships . After the order to abandon ship , crewmembers fought to survive in bone - chilling 12 °C water for more than two hours as they awaited rescue under constant enemy fire from German shore gunners . One crewmember raised the American flag up " Corry " s main mast , which remained above the surface of the shallow water when the ship settled on the bottom at . " Corry " survivors were rescued by , , , and " PT - 199 " . Of her crew , 24 were killed and 60 were wounded . Discrepancy over the sinking of " Corry " . The official loss of ship report for " Corry " states that at 06 : 33 she hit a mine , which was said to have exploded below her engineering spaces . Initial reports by the commanding officer , however , state that " Corry " was sunk by a salvo of heavy caliber projectiles which detonated amidships below the water level in the engineering spaces and caused the breaking in half and sinking of the vessel . German reports also state that the Saint Marcouf ( Crisbecq ) battery commanded by Walter Ohmsen , located inland , with its three 210 - millimeter ( 8 . 25 in ) guns scored a direct hit on an American warship at approximately H - Hour ( 0630 ) , causing its sinking . The warship was initially believed to be a light cruiser ( due to " Corry " s silhouette resembling that of a light cruiser at a distance ) . About two weeks after D - Day , a detailed report stating that heavy artillery fire had sunk " Corry " was about to be submitted as the official loss of ship report , but it was suddenly scrapped and rewritten stating that " Corry " had struck a mine . No officers or crew were consulted for input on the rewrite of the report . This final official loss report for " Corry " stated on its last page that shelling received simultaneously with the proposed mine resulted in " merely incidental damage " . Awards . " Corry " received four battle star s for World War II service . References . http : / / www . uss - corry - dd463 . com / d - day _ u - boat _ photos / d - day _ McKay . htm