USS Lansdale (DD-426) - 1943

1943

Reaching New York on 10 January 1943, she underwent overhaul until 30 January, when she departed with a convoy for Northern Ireland. She reached Derry on 9 February, joined with units of the 42nd British Escort Group, and departed on 15 February to escort tanker convoy UC 1 from the United Kingdom to the West Indies. As the convoy steamed south of the Azores on the 23rd, a German wolf pack of six to 10 submarines made early morning and late night attacks that sank three tankers and damaged two others. Lansdale made several ASW counterattacks without known results, but two nights later she hit a submerging U-boat with 5 in (130 mm) gunfire. Although scattered night attacks continued until the 27th, prompt, aggressive counterattacks by American escorts prevented further losses by the Americans.

Lansdale arrived Port-au-Spain, Trinidad on 6 March as escort for SS Maasyerk before proceeding on 8–9 March to Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles for more escort duty. From 20 March to 6 October, she made eight escort runs between the Caribbean and the United Kingdom, three convoy runs between Curaçao and New York, and periodic escort and patrol runs to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.