Rescuing Survivors At Sea
On 8 June, Swenning rescued eight members of the RAF whose Halifax bomber had been ditched in the ocean. The task group arrived at Bermuda on 30 June and departed the next day for Norfolk where it was dissolved. The escorts continued to New York, and Swenning was given an overhaul. She returned to Norfolk on 22 July to rejoin the Bogue group (TG 22.3) which sortied three days later. After a short training period at Bermuda, the group began offensive patrols in the North Atlantic, mainly off the Grand Banks area of Newfoundland. On 19 August, Bogue aircraft attacked a surfaced submarine. Damage was not ascertained as the submarine submerged. The following day another was attacked on the surface. It also submerged; but, approximately two and one-half hours later, it surfaced; the crew abandoned it; and the submarine sank shortly thereafter. The ships replenished at Argentia on 24 August and resumed operations until 24 September when the group was dissolved at New York. After a yard period and refresher training in the New London, Connecticut, area, Swenning sailed to Norfolk.
Swenning participated in antisubmarine training off Bermuda with Bogue and CortDiv 51 from 23 October to 21 November and from 26 December 1944 to 16 January 1945. The escort spent February conducting antisubmarine and gunnery exercises at Casco Bay and March training submarines at New London. She began her last Atlantic war patrol on 16 April when CortDiv 51 joined Bogue to form TG 22.3 at Melville, Rhode Island. Until the end of hostilities with Germany, the group was a unit of a north-south submarine barrier patrol as part of Operation Teardrop. The barrier consisted of 24 ships of TG's 22.3, 22.4, 22.8 and Task Unit 22.7.1. Swenning had no significant role in the ensuing action, but the barrier patrols sank five submarines at the expense of one destroyer escort sunk by a torpedo. On 8 May, news of Germany's capitulation reached TG 22.3 which proceeded to New York the next day. The ships arrived there on 11 May, and the task group was dissolved. Swenning steamed to Boston, Massachusetts, and entered the navy yard for an overhaul in preparation for duty in the Pacific. While there, her torpedo tubes were removed and replaced by twin 40 millimeter antiaircraft guns.
Read more about this topic: USS Swenning (DE-394)
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