USS Frederick C. Davis

## USS Frederick C. Davis (DE-136)

USS Frederick C. Davis

**USS *Frederick C. Davis* (DE-136)** was an *Edsall*-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. It was the last US Naval vessel lost in the Battle of the Atlantic.

### Career

*Frederick C. Davis* was laid down on 9 November 1942 by the Consolidated Steel Company of Orange, Texas that was launched on 24 January 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy H. Robins. The ship was commissioned on 14 July 1943. *Frederick C. Davis* sailed from Norfolk on 7 October 1943 to escort a convoy to Algiers. She was assigned to escort duty between North African ports and Naples, and on 6 November first came under enemy air attack. A wave of torpedo and medium bombers damaged three ships in her convoy but were driven off by the escort's anti-aircraft fire before further damage could be done. Again, under air attack on 26 November, *Frederick C. Davis* shot down at least two of the enemy aircraft.

Continuing her escort duty in the western Mediterranean Sea, *Frederick C. Davis* took part in an attack on 16 December 1943 which resulted in the sinking of *U-73* by two of her group. On 21 January 1944 the escort sortied from Naples for the Anzio landings, during which her superlative and courageous performance was to win her a Navy Unit Commendation. After providing protection from submarines and aircraft to ships giving fire support to the assault on 22 January, *Frederick C. Davis* maintained a patrol off the besieged beachhead for the next six months, leaving only for brief periods of replenishment at Naples. Equipped with special equipment to jam the control frequency of the enemy's rocket-propelled, radio-directed glider bombs, *Frederick C. Davis* fought off enemy air attacks, protecting shipping in the anchorage and the men enduring the fighting ashore. Particularly during the earlier stages of this bitter operation, *Frederick C. Davis* came under shellfire from shore batteries. Shrapnel caused slight damage to the ship, but only one man was wounded during this service.

After a return to escort duty in the Mediterranean in June and July 1944, *Frederick C. Davis* cleared Naples on 9 August for Corsica, her staging point for the assault on southern France. Here again she provided her special jamming services to protect the headquarters ship for the operation, USS *Catoctin*. She remained off the assault area on anti-submarine patrol and controlling shipping until 19 September, then returned to New York Navy Yard for overhaul.

Returning to duty in the western Atlantic early in 1945, *Frederick C. Davis* served on coastal convoy escort and anti-submarine patrol service and in mid-April joined a special surface barrier force, formed to protect the Atlantic coast from the threat of close penetration by snorkel-equipped German submarines during Operation Teardrop. It was one of these, *U-546*, which was contacted 24 April by *Frederick C. Davis*. Within minutes, as the destroyer escort prepared to attack, the submarine torpedoed her, hitting on the port side, forward. Five minutes later, *Frederick C. Davis* broke in two, and efforts to preserve the buoyancy of the stern, where the damage was less and the majority of survivors were located, failed. Her survivors abandoned the ship and were taken from the water within three hours, while 115 men were lost. The attacking submarine *U-546* was sunk by the other US Navy escorts later that day with the surviving German crew being captured.