Fate
Post availability trials and further antisubmarine training were completed by 7 October when Beatty embarked upon her last transatlantic crossing. She screened a convoy to Bangor, Northern Ireland, from 7 October to 17 October, and then joined the screen for Convoy KMF-25A, en route to the Mediterranean. Making rendezvous on schedule, the destroyer took her station and proceeded into the Mediterranean. Convoy KMF-25A sailed deployed in three columns, with the escorts steaming in a protective circle around the troopships and merchantmen. Beatty was steaming in the rear of the formation at 1800 on 6 November 1943.
At general quarters, Beatty observed machine gun fire on the port side of the convoy at 1803. Many small pips appeared on her radar screen in the direction of Tillman, stationed on that side of the convoy. A minute after observing the gunfire, Beatty noted a large bomb explode close aboard her colleague, a glider bomb which had missed its target. Beatty's radar picked up five incoming aircraft, two of which passed the port side of the convoy, inside the screen.
The action proved fast and furious. At 1805, Beatty's radar picked up two more incoming planes that showed American IFF (Identification, Friend or Foe) signals. Lieutenant Commander Outerson passed the word to his main battery control to pick them up and open fire if they came within range. Control identified one as a Ju 88, but a smoke screen obscured the view over the next few moments, and radar alternatively picked up and lost contacts in the heavy haze.
While Beatty strove to fight her assailants, one German plane managed to close to about 500 yards and dropped a torpedo which struck the ship near frame 124 at about 1813, only ten minutes after the start of action. The blast jammed mounts 51 and 54 in train, hurled a K-gun and a depth charge stowage rack overboard, bent the starboard propeller shaft, flooded the after engine room, cut off all electrical power, flooded a magazine and put the ship in a 12-degree list to port. A quick muster showed 11 men missing, one officer and six men injured, and a man at the battle searchlight platform fatally burned by steam. One sailor at the starboard K-gun was blown overboard, and was picked up the next morning by Boyle.
The torpedo explosion in Beatty's vitals broke her back at about frame 124. It left the port side of the main deck awash from the break of the forecastle to about mount 54 and only 30 inches of freeboard on the starboard side. As a result, the ship slowly settled aft. While a bucket brigade valiantly attempted to bail out the flooding compartments, Beatty's sailors jettisoned practically everything from ready ammunition to her searchlight and smoke generator. Through a mistake of haste, even the towing cable went overboard as well.
Hopes of saving the ship flickered for the next four hours, as Beatty battled for her life. More and more stations were secured to release men for damage control tasks until only a bridge detail and crews on two 20 mm guns remained at battle stations. Around 1900, her sailors placed her boats and rafts in the water. Forty minutes later, Beatty transferred her wounded to Parker. As the list increased, her crew continued abandoning her until around 2230, when the last group left the ship and reached the rescue vessel, Laub. After breaking in two, Beatty sank at 2305 on 6 November 1943.
An estimated 25 German aircraft, many equipped with glider-bombs, took part in the raid, and sank two merchantmen in addition to Beatty.
Read more about this topic: USS Beatty (DD-640)
Famous quotes containing the word fate:
“Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual: Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The stern hand of fate has scourged us to an elevation where we can see the great everlasting things which matter for a nation—the great peaks we had forgotten, of Honour, Duty, Patriotism, and, clad in glittering white, the great pinnacle of Sacrifice pointing like a rugged finger to Heaven.”
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945)