USS Gustafson (DE-182)

Career (USA)
Name:	USS Gustafson
Namesake:	Arthur Leonard Gustafson
Builder:	Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newark, New Jersey
Laid down:	5 July 1943
Launched:	3 October 1943
Commissioned:	1 November 1943
Decommissioned:	26 June 1946
Struck:	20 December 1950
Honors and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Transferred to the Netherlands, 23 October 1950
Career (Netherlands)
Name:	HNMS Van Ewijk (F-808)
Acquired:	23 October 1950
Fate:	Returned to US Navy, 15 December 1967 Sold for scrapping, February 1968
General characteristics
Class and type:	Cannon-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,240 long tons (1,260 t) standard 1,620 long tons (1,646 t) full
Length:	306 ft (93 m) o/a 300 ft (91 m) w/l
Beam:	36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)
Draft:	11 ft 8 in (3.56 m)
Propulsion:	4 × GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW), 2 screws
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph)
Range:	10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers and 201 enlisted
Armament:	• 3 × single Mk.22 3"/50 caliber guns • 1 × twin 40 mm Mk.1 AA gun • 8 × 20 mm Mk.4 AA guns • 3 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes • 1 × Hedgehog Mk.10 anti-submarine mortar (144 rounds) • 8 × Mk.6 depth charge projectors • 2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks

USS Gustafson (DE-182) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

She was launched on 3 October 1943 by the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newark, New Jersey; sponsored by Mrs. Eva Smythe Stevens, widow of Lt. Gustafson ; and commissioned on 1 November 1943, Comdr. Herman Rich in command.

Lt. Arthur Gustafson

Arthur Leonard Gustafson was born on 13 June 1913 in Watertown, South Dakota. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1932, serving in the battleships Idaho (BB-42) and Colorado (BB-45) before reporting to the destroyer Peary (DD-226) on 4 September 1939. He perished in action against the enemy when Peary was sunk by Japanese bombers off Port Darwin, Australia, on 19 February 1942.

World War II Atlantic Ocean operations

Following shakedown training, Gustafson escorted coastal convoys in waters ranging from New York to Galveston, Texas. On 20 February 1944 she departed New York in the screen of two escort carriers for duty with Admiral Jonas H. Ingrain's U.S. 4th Fleet based at Recife, Brazil. This fleet kept down the German U-boat and raider menace in waters running south from Trinidad to the tip of South America, and across to the coast of Africa. On 14 April 1943, the destroyer escort put to sea in company with escort carrier Solomons (CVE-67) to sweep the Atlantic Narrows. On the 23rd, Gustafson made an unsuccessful hedgehog attack on a target that was probably German submarine U-196. Due south of St. Helena Island, on 15 June 1943, aircraft launched by Solomons sank the German submarine anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort in the South Atlantic. Operating out of Recife and Bahia, Brazil, she helped cover coastal waters from the border of French Guiana down to Rio de Janeiro and across the Atlantic narrows more than halfway to the coast of Africa.

Ship collision

On 22 November 1944, while escorting Navy transport General M. C. Meigs (AP-116) to a mid-way rendezvous in the Atlantic Narrows, she closed alongside cruiser Omaha (CL-4) to pass orders and the two ships collided. Both ships suffered damage but were able to complete the mid-ocean rendezvous escort mission. After temporary repairs at Bahia, Brazil, Gustafson proceeded north to the New York Navy Yard, arriving on 21 December 1944. During a swift overhaul she received additional armament and a new Combat Information Center.

Sinking of U-Boat U-857

Gustafson departed New York on 22 January 1945 for anti-submarine warfare refresher training out of Key West, Florida. From there she proceeded in the escort of a slow convoy to Trinidad and ports of South America. She returned north in March and was stationed at Casco Bay as German submarine Gulf of Maine. The U-boat announced its presence on 5 April 1945 by torpedoing the American tanker U.S. Coast Guard frigates and two destroyer escorts, the Micka (DE-176) and the Gustafson, were soon hunting for the enemy. U-857 lay on the bottom, off Cape Cod, but was rooted out by Gustafson who destroyed the U-boat by repeated hedgehog attacks in the early hours of 7 April 1945.^{[dubious – discuss]}

Gustafson trained out of New London, Connecticut, with submarines until 18 May 1945 when she put to sea as a unit of the escort for a convoy bound to Oran, Algeria. She returned to Charleston, South Carolina on 13 June 1945 and thence to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for refresher training.

Transfer to the U.S. West Coast

Gustafson departed Guantanamo Bay on 24 July 1945 and transited the Panama Canal the 27th on her way to San Diego, California. She sailed for Hawaii on 9 August to be refitted with more anti-aircraft guns for Pacific service and was on the high seas when hostilities ceased with Japan on 15 August 1945. Her base Pearl Harbor, she served as a weather patrol ship north of Hawaii for the remainder of the year, thence via San Diego for return to the Atlantic seaboard.

Post-War inactivation and decommissioning

She transited the Panama Canal on 27 January 1946 for inactivation at Green Cove Springs, Florida. She decommissioned there on 26 June 1946. Gustafson remained in reserve until 23 October 1950 when she was transferred to the Netherlands under terms of the Military Defense Program. She served the Netherlands Navy as HNMS Van Ewijk (F-808). She was returned to the U.S. on 15 December 1967, and sold in February 1968, and scrapped.

Awards

Gustafson received one battle star for World War II service.

See also

• List of United States Navy ships
• World War II
• Destroyer escort

References

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Gustafson (DE-182) at NavSource Naval History