USS Emmons (DD-457/DMS-22) was a Gleaves-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named for Rear Admiral George F. Emmons (1811–1884). Emmons was launched 23 August 1941 by Bath Iron Works Corp., Bath, Maine, sponsored by Mrs. F. E. Peacock, granddaughter of Rear Admiral Emmons. The ship was commissioned on 5 December 1941. She was reclassified DMS-22 on 15 November 1944.
Service history
1942-1943, Atlantic service Emmons sailed from Norfolk 31 January 1942 on her shakedown to Callao, Peru, where she embarked Peruvian officers for Valparaíso, Chile, returning to Boston via several ports in Ecuador. She patrolled in New England waters, and in April escorted the aircraft carrier Ranger across the Atlantic to the Gold Coast, where the carrier launched Army fighter planes, brought for the base at Accra and other African air bases. The summer of 1942 found Emmons patrolling out of NS Argentia, Newfoundland, and escorting troopships from Boston to Halifax. At Halifax on 5 July she joined an Army transport and a merchantman, whom she shepherded to a mid-ocean rendezvous with a British escort unit to take them safely into Iceland. Emmons sailed on to join the British Home Fleet in Scapa Flow on 16 July. She underwent training necessary to coordinate American and British procedures and tactics. Between 26 and 31 July, she escorted the battleship HMS Duke of York to Iceland and back to Scapa Flow, then had convoy escort duty on the Scottish coast. On 17 August she cleared Scapa Flow for Iceland where she made rendezvous with a convoy bound through the treacherous northern shipping lanes to Kola Inlet in the Soviet Union, from which she returned to Greenock, 30 August. Emmons returned to New York on 9 September 1942 and trained in Casco and Chesapeake Bays, and at Bermuda, for the invasion of north Africa, for which she sailed from Bermuda 26 October. She screened carriers covering landings at Safi between 8 and 13 November, returning by way of Bermuda and Norfolk to Boston. After brief overhaul and coastwise escort duty, she went to Cristobal to await a convoy to New York. Meanwhile, she passed through the Panama Canal on 9 January 1943 to train briefly with officers of the Ecuadoran Navy. She guarded the passage of a convoy to north Africa in February returning to New York on 11 March for training. On 2 April Emmons put to sea via Argentia for Scapa Flow, where she joined the British Home Fleet again on 19 May. During the next 2½ months, Emmons joined in patrolling northern waters, guarding the movement of convoys across the North Atlantic, unceasingly alerted against the possible sortie of German ships from Norwegian bases. She also guarded British carriers in air attacks on Norway in July. Returning to Norfolk 9 August 1943, she voyaged to Gibraltar between 3 November and 19 December in the advance scouting line guarding the battleship Iowa, carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Teheran Conference.
1943-1944, Atlantic and Mediterranean
Between December 1943 and April 1944, Emmons guarded carriers during their operations at Newport and in Casco Bay, aiding in the training of aviators. On 20 April she sailed from Maine waters for the Azores, and Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, arriving 1 May for antisubmarine patrols. On 17 May, her group teamed with British aircraft to sink the German submarine U-616, and the next day, Emmons sailed for England, and final preparations for the invasion of France, 6 June. After guarding pre-assault minesweeping, she joined in the heavy bombardment prior to the landing. Emmons and other destroyers engaged in combat, less than a thousand yards, with onshore batteries. She remained off the beachhead for three days as watchdog for the vast armada of ships lining up with men and supplies, then retired across the English Channel to Plymouth, England, screening the battleship Texas. Returning to the assault area 11 June, Emmons served in the screen guarding transports and supply ships from submarine attack. After replenishing at Portland, England, from 21 to 24 June, she kept watch around battleships and cruisers on 25 June in the Task Force 129 Bombardment of Cherbourg supporting the U.S. First Army VII Corps victory at the Battle of Cherbourg. Emmons returned to Mers-el-Kebir 10 July 1944 with a transport convoy she had brought across from Portland, then had escort duty in the Mediterranean ports preparing for the assault on southern France. She sailed from Taranto, Italy, for the beachheads, 11 August, and on the 15th began pre-invasion bombardment. She remained off the beaches all day to provide fire support to troops storming ashore. Escort duty took her away to Italian and Corsican ports, but she returned to patrol off the French Riviera until October.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
