The Escort Ships of the 1945 USN

Posted by
Christopher Eger
Jul 9, 2007

In 1942, the roughest spot of the war at sea during World War Two, the allies were on the ropes. They needed every type of ship everywhere at the same time. The allied navies’ need for small escort ships that could fight submarines, rescue downed sailors and shepard convoys at sea was met by two new ships, the destroyer escort and the frigate. The destroyer escort was basically a scaled down destroyer and no less than 450 were built in eight different classes. The frigate was a small destroyer-sized ship but was built to merchant specifications instead of naval specifications. This meant that lower quality materials could be used and the ships could be built to a more lenient code with fewer watertight compartments, firefighting and damage control features. The frigates also were given lighter armament. Whereas a destroyer would carry as many as six large 5” guns in protective turrets as a brace of heavy anti-ship torpedo tubes, the frigate was equipped more like a coast guard cutter with a few open 3” guns with a couple depth charges and anti-aircraft guns thrown in for good measure. In fact, almost all of the 99 patrol frigates of the Tacoma class were even manned by coast guardsmen.

Comparison of Destroyers-Destroyer Escorts-Patrol Frigates

USS Butler (DE-339) class Destroyer Escorts (87 built 1944-1945) 1350 tons, 306 feet in length, could make 25knots, carried two 5" guns, 4x40mm guns, 10 20mm guns, three 21inch heavy torpedo tubes, a hedgehog device and 200 assorted depth charges.
USS Gearing (DD-710) class Destroyers (98 built 1944-49) weighed 3460 tons, 390 feet in length, could make 37 knots, carried six 5" guns, 12x40mm guns, 11x20mm guns, 10 21inch heavy torpedo tubes.
USS Tacoma (PF-03) class Frigates (99 Ships 1944-45) weighed 1264 tons, 303 feet in length, could scarcely make 20 knots, carried three 3" guns, 4x40mm bofors, 9x20mm guns, a hedgehog and depth charges.

After the war all three types of ships became sought after by the other fleets of the world as the US Navy eventually replaced them with faster, better armed and more modern designs. The Tacoma’s went first, all transferred abroad by 1953. The Last Butler left the USN in the 70’s followed by the last FRAM’d Gearing in 1979.