USS Tripoli in
Copenhagen 1952
Thanks to Art Lurvey
USS
TRIPOLI history
A joint land-sea
operation against Derna during the war between the United States
and the Barbary state of Tripoli which resulted in the capture of
the fortress city on 27 April 1805. After a long and grueling
march across the desert form Alexandria, William H. Eaton- the
American Naval agent in the Barbary states- led a polyglot force
of Arabs, Greek mercenaries, and a small detachment of marines in
storming the Tripolitan defensive positions. Gunfire from the
United States warships Hornet, Nautilus, and Argus, and the valor
of the marines- commanded by Lt. Presley O’Bannon, USMC- were
instrumental in achieving the American victory which has been
immortalized by the phase from the Marine Corps hymn”...to the
shores of Tripoli...”
The first Tripoli (CVE-64) -an escort aircraft carrier
built under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 1101 at
Vancouver, Washington- was laid down by the Kaiser Shipbuilding
Co. on 1 February 1943 as Didrickson Bay (ACV-64; renamed
Tripoli on 3 April 1943; launched on 13 July 1943;
sponsored by Mrs. Leland D. Webb; and commissioned on 31 October
1943, at Astoria, Oregon, Capt. Wendell G. Switzer in command.
Following shakedown
training off the California coast, the escort carrier entered the
repair base at San Diego, Calif. There, on 4 January 1944,
gasoline was inadvertently and unknowingly dumped into the water
around the forward part of the ship, on the starboard side.
Acetylene touch sparks set the volatile mixture ablaze, and flames
quickly spread from the bow to frame 82, engulfing the forward
galley walkway and the island superstructure. Yardcraft and the
ship’s force battled the flames and soon had the blaze under
control. but not before one man died.
Subsequently repaired,
Tripoli departed San Diego on 31 January, bound for the Panama
Canal and duty with the Atlantic Fleet. She arrived at her new
home port, Norfolk, Va. on 16 February. Embarking Composite
Squadron 13-Wildcat fighters and Avenger bombers- the escort
carrier put to sea on 15 March as the center ship in Escort
Carrier Task Group (TG) 21.15, Supported by five destroyer escorts
of Escort Division (CortDiv) 7, Tripoli patrolled west of
the Cape Verde Islands to break up German U-boat refueling
activities in that area.
After providing air cover
for a convoy routed to the British West Indies,
Tripoli’s covey of Wildcats and Avengers searched the sea
lanes northwest, southwest, and west of the Cape Verdes before
putting into Recife, Brazil, on 5 April to refuel and provision.
Back at sea again two days later, Tripoli continued the
routine of daily launches and recoveries of her planes, guarding
the Allied sea lanes against the incursions of enemy U-boats.
About one hour before
sunrise on 19 April, one of Tripoli’s Avengers made radar
contact with a German U-boat as the submarine cruised on the
surface awaiting the arrival of her “Milch Cow” or refueling
partner. The enemy U-543, put up a spired antiaircraft
barrage while the Avenger made three attacks. A pattern of rockets
bracketed the dodging, twisting submarine on the first pass as the
Germans prepared to “pull the plug” and dive for comparative
safety. On the second run, the plane’s depth charges failed to
release, giving the enemy submersible all of the time she needed
to dive. Leaving only swirling water, the U-boat evaded the
plane’s last attack- a mine dropped in the tell-tale swirl but, in
so doing, also missed her fueling rendezvous with “Milch Cow”
U-408.
Returning to Norfolk on
29 April, Tripoli underwent voyage repairs before embarking
Composite Squadron 6-12 Avengers and 9 FM-2 Wildcats. She then
formed up with CortDiv 7 and departed Hampton Roads on 24 May for
further searches in the vicinity of the Cape Verdes. Four days
out, she changed course to intercept a German submarine estimated
to be proceeding south-west from a position west of the Madeira
Islands. When no contact was made by 30 May, Tripoli and
her consorts steamed north to rendezvous with a convey bound for
Nova Scotia.
Following her return to
Norfolk on 18 June. Tripoli Spent two months in carrier
qualification training off Quonset Point, R.I., before making port
again at Norfolk on 15 July. Embarking Composite Squadron 6, she
conducted two weeks of pilot qualifications in the Chesapeake Bay
area before departing Hampton Roads on 1 August, bound for her new
base of operations, Recife.
Screened by O’Toole
(DE527) and Edgar G. Chase (DE-16), the escort carrier
proceeded south until 1 August when O’Toole developed a
sonar contact and gave chase. Tripoli’s planes laid
patterns of sonobuoys at the initial point and dropped smoke
floats and float lights on an oil slick. Picking up the “scent,”
O’Toole straddled the floats with her hedgehog projectiles
and depth charges and soon radioed victoriously “We hit the rodent
! ” A brief visual examination of the evidence - debris and a
large quantity of diesel oil-satisfied the hunter - killer group
that they had indeed sunk an enemy submarine. However a post - war
examination of German records did not confirm the kill. As night
fell, Tripoli vectored two planes to another sonar contact
by O’Toole, and four depth bombs thundered - thrashing the
sea, keeping another U-boat down and running.
Tripoli and her
group then returned to Recife on 13 August and reported for duty
with Admiral Jonas H. Ingram’s 4th Fleet. Designated as the center
of TG 47.7, the escort carrier put to sea on 22 August with the
four destroyer escorts of the CortDiv 24 to operate against a
homeward-bound German submarine estimated to pass at 25 degrees
south latitude and 5 degrees west longitude.
After a fruitless search
pursuing two fading sonar contacts in the mid-South Atlantic
narrows, Tripoli and her group returned to Recife on 11
September for provisioning and fueling. Underway again two days
later, TG 47.7 headed out to conduct another search - this time
along the estimated track of two U-boats slated to rendezvous for
refueling. One of the target U-boats was U-1062, a “Milch
Cow” bound for Penang, Malaya, with cargo of valuable petroleum
products for the German war effort. Ordered to fuel U-219,
outward-bound for the Far East, U-1062 prepared to
rendezvous with her smaller sister boat in the South Atlantic
narrows - directly in the path of the Tripoli escort group.
Passing to the westward
of the Cape Verdes, TG 47.7 made rendezvous with the Mission
Bay (CVE-59) escort group to conduct a joint hunter-killer
operation against the two enemy boats. Round-the-clock searches by
prowling, radar-equipped Avengers continued with un-related
vigilance until 40 minutes after sunset on 28 September, when a
TBF piloted by Lt. William R. Gillespie ,USNR, reported a definite
contact with the surfaced U-219 only 11 miles from the
enemy’s estimated track.
Gillespie went in to
conduct a low-level rocket attack, but heavy flak slapped the
intrepid airman’s plane and crew into the sea. Another Avenger ,
drawn to the battle, braved the maelstrom of flak to conduct
another rocket run and also dropped depth bombs, while a Wildcat
strafed the twisting and turning U-boat which struggled
desperately to dodge the harassing attacks by the American planes.
Indeed, U-219
emerged from the fracas unscathed; but U-1062 did not enjoy
similar good fortune. Fessenden (DE-242), one of Mission
Bay’s screen, homed in on sonobuoy indications on 30 September
and killed the “Milch Cow” with a four - charge pattern. In the
meantime, U-219 was not yet out of the proverbial woods-
one of Tripoli’s Avengers dropped depth bombs on the
fleeing boat on 2 October. Keen - eared American sonar men felt
that they had definitely “killed” the submersible, but postwar
accounting showed that U-219 had escaped to Batavia, Java.
When fuel supplies ran
low, Tripoli came about and made port at Recife on 12
October. She conducted one further search of the narrows from 26
October to 12 November before heading for a much needed overhaul
at Norfolk. Subsequently, the escort carrier sailed for the
Pacific and after transiting the Panama Canal and touching at San
Diego, arrived at Pearl Harbor 10 days into the new year, 1945.
Tripoli
transferred Composite Squadron 8 ashore to conduct operations from
Hilo, Hawaii, before she loaded a miscellaneous cargo of fighters
and bombers to be off-loaded at Roi, in the Marshall Islands,
where she made port on 20 February 1945. Returning to Pearl Harbor
after this ferry run, the escort carrier commenced raining
operations which would continue through the end of the war and
into the late fall of 1945. With Japan’s surrender and the welcome
end to hostilities in the Pacific, Tripoli was assigned to
the gigantic “Magic - Carpet” operation.
Arriving at San Diego on
29 August with 500 Navy veterans, Tripoli returned to Pearl
Harbor on 8 September before resuming local operations - including
night carrier qualifications - though November. She subsequently
made one trip with Army passages to San Pedro, Calif., and further
“Magic - Carpet” run to San Diego. The carrier departed the west
coast on 15 January 1946 for deactivation overhaul at Norfolk. On
22 May 1946, the need for her services no longer pressing,
Tripoli was decommissioned and laid up, in reserve.
Communist aggression in
Korea in the summer of 1950 resulted in the return of many of the
Navy’s reserve ships to active service to support American
operations in the Far East. Accordingly, Tripoli was
recommissioned at New York on 5 January 1952, Capt. Raymond N.
Sharp in command. Assigned to the Military Sea Transportation
Service (MSTS), Atlantic Area, the erstwhile “hunter - killer”
began her new career as an aircraft transport and ferry.
Over the next six years,
Tripoli conducted 44 transport voyages, mostly to European
and Mediterranean ports but with one visit to Hawaii and two to
the Far East. Following the ship’s third voyage to Europe,
Tripoli was berthed at the port Newark Terminal on 5 August
1952 where she loaded 45 Republic F-84 Thunderjet aircraft, 90
wingtip fuel tanks, and related gear for transport to the Far
East. After going to sea on 7 August, bound for Japan, Tripoli
steamed via the Panama Canal and San Diego and made port at
Yokosuka with her vital cargo on 5 September, where cranes lifted
the reinforcements ashore - soon to be in action in their ground -
attack role in Korea.
After onloading battle -
damaged aircraft for repairs in the United States, the carrier
embarked 245 Navy and Marine Corps personnel for rotation back to
Alameda Naval Air Station, Calif.. Making port on the west coast
on 22 September, she then put to sea for the Far East a second
time, once again carrying jet aircraft to Yokosuka, as well as
transporting men of the Sea Echelon of Boat Unit 1. Loading a
cargo of helicopters and military passages, Tripoli
returned to the west coast and arrived at Alameda on Armistice Day
1952. Subsequently making her sole Hawaiian voyage under MSTS,
Tripoli then headed east to finish out her career with
transport voyages to European and Mediterranean ports.
Receiving “smart ship”
awards from MSTS in the intervening years, Tripoli was
reclassified a utility carrier and redesignated CVU-64 on 12 June
1955. Again redesignated T-CVU-64 on 1 July 1958, Tripoli
was decommissioned at New Orleans, La. on 25 November 1958 and
subsequently struck from the Navy list on 1 February 1959. Her
hulk was then scrapped by a Japanese firm in January 1960.
