The Ships
(music is "Twilight Time")
(click on pictures for a larger view)
CVE-21
CVE-106
Escort Ships of CVE-21
All of the Destroyer Escorts that were
involved in the sinking of CVE 21 went on to have a service history of
their
own. Other than the surviving crew of CVE 21, remaining together and serving as
the crew of CVE 106,
the
many sailors who were on the DEs lost all
personal contact with the crews of the other DEs.
The following
entry has been found on a published website.: Comdr. Edward E. Lull
replaced Comdr H.
Mullins, Jr. as Commander Escort Division Sixty. Ahrens was
the Flagship of Division 60. Commander Mullins
had been aboard
the Block Island
and actually brought his Flag aboard the Ahrens when he was fished out of
the
water with the other
Block Island survivors on 5/29/44. This action
indicates that an officer that was res-
cued from that sinking actually later
became the Commander of the very ship that saved his life.
DE-576
USS BARR
1/10/2002
This is a picture of the USS Barr taken from
the Official Naval Archives and the story that
was with the picture.
The Story of the USS Barr, from the date of it's commissioning until it was stricken from the Naval Records, could well be a WEBSITE in itself. So many ships sailed with the Block Island, however, the Webmaster feels that the best of the best is that of the actions of the USS Barr and can be viewed on the following Website!
http://trainque.com/blog/2006/11/26/the-story-of-the-uss-barr-by-andrew-soucy/
In reviewing the above Website you will find a four page Story that is in very small print. Click on the individual pages and they will appear in full screen for viewing.
This is the results of a German acoustic
torpedo
attack on May 29, 1944. On that evening the
Carrier/Destroyer Escort
Hunter/Killer Group
consisted of CVE-21 and
4 Destroyer Escorts.
The USS Ahrens
was on her first wartime
mission patrolling off of CVE 21's port bow.
Suddenly,
the carrier was simultaneously struck
by two torpedoes launched by U-549, one in
the bow and the second in the stern. Before long, a third torpedo hit the
carrier and left her dead
in the water and sinking. Without steaming the "Foxer"
as he was called,
Lt. Cdr. H. H. Love,
Commander of the Barr, headed to the port quarter of the
carrier, believing the attacker was at
that location. Slowing his ship to permit
the sound gear to work, no
contacts were detected. Eight
minutes later a tremendous explosion blew the stern off the Barr and flooded the
aft section.
Fire
broke out in the number two engine room and on the main deck. Twisted
wreckage covered the
rear deck
and bodies covered the entire area. Adding to the
confusion, the ship's steam whistle
was stuck open, creating so much
noise that
made communication impossible. As the USS
Elmore hunted down and killed the sub
with a hedgehog attack,
the Paine and the Ahrens res-
cued the carriers survivors.
The Barr remained at GQ throughout the night. The Barr was
taken
under tow by
the Elmore to Casablanca at 4 to 5 knots. 17 sailors were killed in this action.
(other
Navy records
show that 15 were killed)
The Barr was towed to the Boston Navy Yard for repairs
and received the APD
conversion, steaming out of the yard as APD-39 and it ended the war in
Tokyo
Bay.
Note: Found on the Internet
This water color painting by Gordon Grant,
done in 1945 of the USS Ahrens, fairly well shows a sea
condition that is
representative of those existing on May 29, 1944 the date of the sinking of CVE
21
and the damage done to the
USS Barr.
When CVE 21 was sunk
many of the survivors showed exceptional
courage by helping other crewmembers. Their names and list of awards
is as follows.
USS Elmore DE 686
The sinking of CVE 21 became the
major topic for the news media at that time and primarily overlooked the
actions
of
the Destroyer Escorts that played a vital part in that sea battle. Such is
the case of the USS Elmore
DE 686. The following records of the Dictionary of
American Naval Fighting Ships contains
the following
information: "Unlike CVE 21, which was replaced by the new
CVE
106 , the USS Elmore and it's crew went
on to
serve it's Country in
the Battle of
the Pacific."
Lt. Cmdr. George L. Conkey, who
later attained the rank
of Captain, was the commanding officer of the USS
Elmore
and for the actions he took as such Commander,
was awarded the Navy
Cross. The record of the USS Elmore best tells
of the exceptional
leadership Captain
Conkey provided to his Country.
On22 April 1944, at Norfolk, the EUGENE
E. ELMORE joined the antisubmarine group formed around the
carrier
BLOCK
ISLAND (CVE-21), and sailed for Casablanca to
provide cover for
convoys moving across
the mid-Atlantic. During the return passage, on
29
May, BLOCK ISLAND was torpedoed, as was the escort
BARR (DE-576).
Escort AHRENS (DE-575), dead in the
water rescuing BLOCK ISLAND survivors,
made a submarine contact, and directed the
ELMORE to the
target (German U-549). ELMORE
sank the
German submarine, then stood by BARR
throughout the night, next day taking off
her wounded and many of
her
crewmembers. She took BARR in tow for Casablanca, and
was relieved of her tow
one day before reaching
port 2 June 1944.
ELMORE returned to New York City 13, June, 1944, and during the next 4
1/2 months made two voyages
escorting
convoys to the Mediterranean. On 3
November she got
underway way from New York for the South
Pacific, arriving Hollandia 11 December to join the 7th Fleet. She cleared Hollandia 30 December,
and at Biak
joined the escort of a convoy bound with reinforcements and supplies
for newly invaded Lingayen Gulf. Arriving
12, January 1945,
ELMORE
joined
the ships providing antiaircraft fire to protect the assault shipping for
2
days,
then sailed to San Pedro
Bay to prepare for the landings at Subic Bay
29, January. ELMORE continued to oper-
ate out of San Pedro Bay, supporting the
continuing liberation of the Philippines
by escorting convoys from Biak,
the Palaus, Ulithi, and New Guinea.
Between
13 July 1945 and
22 August she twice
escorted convoys from the
Philippines to Okinawa, and on 3 Sept. arrived off Okinawa once more for occupation duty. In October she escorted transports carrying men to Jinsen,
Korea, and on 15 October, sailed from Okinawa
to San Diego,
arriving 5 November. There, she was decommissioned and placed in
reserve 31 May 1946. USS ELMORE
received four battle stars for her service in
WW2..
Navy records are correct in stating that the
USS
AHRENS directed the USS ELMORE to the German Sub-
marine
while it was
dead still in the water picking up the survivors of the
USS Block Island. Navy
records fail
to show the
human elements involved in that it was not
the sounding
devices that first picked up the German
Submarine it was by
actual sighting of
the periscope by a crew member of the USS AHRENS. The Webmaster
dug deep into
this story
because of an “E”
mail that was received after the Website was first published. Con-
firmation
of
the incident shows
that the facts set forth in the “E” mail are correct
except that the name of the in-
dividual could not be confirmed.
From: Maury Gamache to the Webmaster.
“You are the first people that I have talked to that were
there “that” day. We had an old gun mount with 101’s
(similar
to a 40mm)
if I remember correctly. I normally was assigned to the depth charge and K gun
area but
while we were
picking up survivors I was sent to the 101 gun mount,
along with an ensign. While I was there
he told me to keep a
close look out to
the opposite side where the survivor activity was taking place, which I
did with
an occasional look
in that direction. After a while, I think it was just
after
dusk, I saw a periscope on
the left side of the ship and I was so speechless
that I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed and he saw the
same periscope. He
immediately notified the
bridge and that is when the Ahrens had to
break off the
picking up
of survivors and make emergency speed to avoid
being sunk also. "No
awards, no recognition, and no advance-
ment as is normal under such
circumstances". Maury
Gamache was just doing his duty as ordered.
The Ahrens then continued searching and picking up the
survivors of the sinking of the Block Island. The Ahrens
then
sailed for Casablanca to discharge the
survivors it had picked up. Maury Gamache was transferred off the
Ahrens and
spent the rest of the war in the Pacific on a submarine tender because his
specialty was a torpedo
man and the Ahrens did not need torpedo men for the
assignments it was given in escorting Carriers.
From the
day he was
transferred
until
the day he sat down at his computer on February 23, 2000 Maury Gamache
never
had any contact with any of his old crewmembers or the crewmembers of any
of the ships involved. This was a
period of over 57 years that this memory
was
just that “a memory”. He closed his “E” mail with this “I am glad
that
I have finally shared my memory with some
one else who was there”. He also
apologized to the survivors
that the Ahrens had to leave stranded there in the
water as none of those survivors had any idea that the sub-
marine contact had been made. After the ELMORE sunk the submarine the Ahrens returned and did pick
up
the remaining survivors.
At this point the Webmaster is going to take
the liberty of quoting from Paul Harvey's radio broadcast byline
"And
now
for the rest of the story".
Within the Website the Webmaster has indicated
that the news media had indicated that the present generation
is seeking
some
personal stories of individuals who served on the ships. The Webmaster indicated
that while
there were many personal stories that can be told, however, on
a ship very rarely one single individual is involved
because of the nature of
the combat assignments of the ship. Each crewmember is a part of a team each
depend-
ing on the other members of that team
and even other teams doing other
duties or assignments relating to any
specific task.
While the story provided by Maury Gamacho is
from an individual a circumstance arose that provided more
information
toward
that story.
At the Reunion held in 2000 a Chief Radioman
from the USS Ahrens by the name of Frank Burt attended the
Reunion.
His
attendance drew attention in that he was, at the age of 92, the oldest member to
ever attend the
Reunions. Being without a computer the Association made the
decision to have a copy of the Website made
and presented to him for preservation by his family.
In undertaking the printing of the Website the
many Navy Records were reviewed and it was determined that
Frank was also
involved in the Maury Gamacho incident related herein. That incident will
help explain the state-
ment regarding personal individual stories.
Maury saw the periscope of the submarine,
brought it to the attention of an officer (?) who then notified the Fire
Control
Officer, who then notified the Sonar Officer who traced the submarine but found
that the USS Elmore,
the ship that sunk
the submarine, had not picked it's
location up on their sonar gear. The Sonar Officer contact-
ed the Radio Room
Officer
where Frank Burt got involved and passed the location of the submarine
over the
airways to the Elmore's Radio room,
who passed that position on
to the Fire Control Officer who then gave
directions to the depth charge crews.
The result
was that the submarine was sunk and 34 German Sailors
( the enemy)
were killed. What was taking place was that each
crew member was doing his
assigned task that
they were trained to do while under fire. There were over 900
men there
in the cold stormy seas, depth charges
going off and maybe even
torpedoes being fired and the USS Ahrens standing still
in the water picking up
the
survivors.
In the Navy Records the USS Elmore (the ship)
got credit for sinking the submarine but the individual crew
members
names are
only on the Navy Records as serving on the ships. Even the Navy crew member (Jim
Owen)
who was searching for life vests ( even though he had his own) in the
aircraft on the sinking carrier for shipmates
who had none, and
was killed
when the aircraft was thrown into the air and then fell two decks below, was not
recognized for his bravery
only to the fact that he was killed in
the sinking of the ship. Other ship crew members
were also searching for life
vest in
the other aircraft but they survived.
The daughter of Frank Burt said it best
when she gave her father the copy of the Website on his 95th Birthday
and that
was "it was a group of men doing there duty and undertaking the task for
which they had been trained".
Another part of this story is that at the time the
submarine was spotted some of the Block Island gun crews were
still at
their
stations. Word was passed for the 5” gun on the fantail to train on the area
where the periscope was
spotted. This
gun crew answered that it was impossible
for them to train on the periscope because the carrier
was so low in the water that any shots they could take would strike the underside of the flight deck.
The orders
then were for the gun crew to
abandon ship as ordered.
To avoid this problem of the flight deck
overhanging the gun the
later " jeep carriers" were provided
with a "gun sponson"
that provided for a complete 180 degree firing
area. The below
picture was taken on the same class carrier as CVE 106.