USS Charles F. Hughes (DD-428) - 1941

1941

After training operations in the Caribbean, Charles F. Hughes reported at Newport, Rhode Island 3 April 1941 to join in the U.S. Navy's support of Britain. In September 1941, Hughes and other American destroyers took up the responsibility for providing convoy escort in the western Atlantic.

Twice during this period, Hughes rescued survivors from sunken merchantmen. The first rescue came as she steamed escorting the Marine forces bound for the occupation of Iceland in July 1941, when she saved fourteen survivors, including four American Red Cross nurses, from a torpedoed Norwegian freighter. On 16 October, she rescued seven men from a lifeboat, survivors of a ship sunk a few days previously.