USS ''Fieberling'' (DE-640) was a in service with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from 1944 to 1948. She sold for scrap in 1972.

History

Namesake

The ship was named in honor of Langdon Kellogg Fieberling, born on 3 January 1910 in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He enlisted in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

on 7 October 1935, and after training and service as an aviation cadet, was commissioned Ensign on 1 March 1937. From 26 July 1941, he aided in establishing

Torpedo Squadron 8 Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8) was a United States Navy squadron of World War II torpedo bombers. VT-8 was assigned initially to the air group of the aircraft carrier , joining the ship shortly after her commissioning in October 1941. After heavy lo ...

, and when this unit was activated, served with it on the . When the ''Hornet'' sailed to undertake the Doolittle Raid in May 1942 half of VT-8 remained at Naval Station Norfolk in order to replace their obsolescent Douglas TBD Devastators with Grumman TBF Avengers. The 21 aircraft detachment reached

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

on 29 May the day after ''Hornet'' had departed the island to fight in the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under Adm ...

. Because

Midway Island Midway Atoll (colloquial: Midway Islands; haw, Kauihelani, translation=the backbone of heaven; haw, Pihemanu, translation=the loud din of birds, label=none) is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean. Midway Atoll is an insular area of the Unit ...

's airfield had some space available, Fieberling took six Avengers there. On 4 June, the first day of the battle, he led his detachment in an attack on the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

aircraft carriers. Of the 18 men, only Ensign Albert K. Earnest and Radioman 3rd Class Harrier H. Ferrier survived. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

Pacific War

''Fieberling'' was launched on 2 April 1944 by

Bethlehem Steel Co. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succe ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

; sponsored by Mrs. C. A. Fieberling, mother of Lieutenant Fieberling; and commissioned on 11 April 1944. ''Fieberling'' arrived at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

on 27 June 1944 for escort duty to

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

, making three such voyages to the staging ground for the

operation Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

until 3 September. Five days later she sailed for

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

, arriving 27 September. Until 15 December, she sailed out of

Port Purvis A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

Florida Island The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a sovereign state (since 1978) in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The chain is composed of four larger islands and about ...

in the Solomons on escort and air-sea rescue duty, then served as station ship at Funafuti until 17 February 1945. After amphibious landing rehearsals at

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

, ''Fieberling'' arrived at

Ulithi Ulithi ( yap, Wulthiy, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap. Overview Ulithi consists of 40 islets totaling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest i ...

on 21 March 1945 to load stores and ammunition for the assault on Okinawa. She arrived off the island on 31 March, covered the landings the next day, and then served on anti-submarine patrol off the island, receiving damage from a near miss in the massive

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

raids of 6 April. After escorting a convoy of unloaded assault ships to

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

between 9 and 29 April, ''Fieberling'' returned to Okinawa for patrol, escort, and radar picket duty until 28 June. ''Fieberling'' operated on escort duty between

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

and

until 22 October 1945, when she sailed to escort a transport from Saipan to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. In a near collision she was struck by the anchor of one of her escorted ships damaging one of her depth charge racks causing the charges to fall onto the deck. The quick thinking crew began stuffing the fuse breaches with wet rags to prevent any accidental discharge while securing them. They discovered that one had mistakenly never had its fuse removed. She returned to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, on 22 November, and after overhaul, sailed from

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

on 15 March 1946 for occupation duty off the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

coast. Gunners Mate Roy Bronson and another sentry watch investigated a noise coming from the forecastle. Upon discovering a civilian junk boat was attempting to steal one of their anchors the sentry retrieved a Thompson. Not wanting to kill the man he shot holes in his boat; sinking it. After bringing him aboard they returned him to shore. While on liberty in port GM Bronson witnessed a policeman shoot a man in the back of the head and walk away. "Had the policeman touched the body he would have been required to dig the hole to bury it. They'd simply leave them laying around. It was not uncommon to see dead bodies this way. Seeing them floating past the ship was an almost daily occurrence." Back in San Diego on 13 August, she operated along the west coast and in the Hawaiian Islands, testing experimental equipment, until decommissioned on 13 March 1948 and placed in reserve at San Diego. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1972, ''Fieberling'' was sold for scrap on 20 November of that same year.

Awards

''Fieberling'' received one

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

for

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

service.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fieberling Buckley-class destroyer escorts Ships built in San Francisco World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States 1944 ships