USS Savage (DE-386) - World War II North Atlantic Operations

World War II North Atlantic Operations

On Christmas Day, Savage completed her training and ship and crew reported to Norfolk, Virginia as members of the Atlantic Fleet.

In January 1944 the ship was assigned as one of six vessels composing Escort Division 23 of Task Force 63. This task force was engaged in escorting convoys of 60 to 80 merchant ships from United States ports to the Mediterranean Theatre.

During the operations, lasting approximately seven weeks for each convoy, the USS Savage and her sister ships safely escorted hundreds of ships loaded with vital war materials safely past the heavy enemy submarine and air concentrations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.

On 1 April 1944, Convoy UGS 36, whose escort included USS Savage, was attacked by thirty enemy aircraft north of Algiers, Algeria. So intense was the gunfire of the escorting ships that the attack was repelled without a single allied vessel lost. Her only casualty during the action was a member of the depth charge crew, James W. Searcy, MoMM3c, who was struck in the ankle by shell fragments. He earned a Purple Heart for his injuries and this action earned the Savage and her crew a World War II battle star.

During the latter half of 1944 and the first six months of 1945, USS Savage escorted high-speed troop convoys between New York and the British Isles to support the final assault on Nazi Germany.

During eighteen crossings of the Atlantic, the boat and her sister ships safely brought through over 1,000 loaded troop and supply ships without a single loss despite the persistent threat of enemy vessels and treacherous weather conditions.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Savage sailed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she was fitted with more anti-aircraft guns. She then sailed on 30 May 1945 for an intensive period of operational and gunnery training in the Caribbean off Culebra Island, 20 miles east of the main island of Puerto Rico.