Destroyer Escort (DE)
After shakedown training in the vicinity of Bermuda, the destroyer escort performed escort duty along the east coast until 25 March when she departed Tompkinsville, N.Y., in the screen of a convoy bound for England. She reached Plymouth on 19 April and returned — via Milford Haven, Wales, and Belfast, Northern Ireland — to New York City on 12 May.
Her second and third transatlantic voyages took the ship to North Africa. She departed the east coast on 28 May in the screen of the escort carriers Kasaan Bay, Tulagi, and Mission Bay headed for French Morocco. Upon delivering planes at Casablanca, the warships returned to the United States on 17 June 1944, and Tatum moored at Bayonne, N.J. She joined Kasaan Bay and Tulagi once again on 28 June as they weighed anchor for Algeria. The ships made Oran on 10 July; and, the next day, Tatum got under way to pick up SS Cross Keys at Casablanca and escort her to Bizerte, Tunisia. The destroyer escort returned to Oran on the 16th and, four days later, cleared port once again to protect the British aircraft carriers HMS Hunter and HMS Stalker during their passage to Malta. On the 23d, Tatum dropped 130 depth charges on a submarine contact but apparently scored no kill. The force reached Malta on 25 July. Augmented by Kasaan Bay and Tulagi, the unit steamed to Alexandria, Egypt, and then returned to Malta where they arrived on 3 August.
The next day, Tatum reported to Naples where she embarked the commander of a landing craft convoy for the impending invasion of southern France. Tatum stood out of Naples on 9 August, joined the landing craft in the Gulf of Pozzuoli, and escorted them to the staging area at Ajaccio, Corsica. Before dawn on the 15th, the convoy arrived off St. Tropez where Tatum transferred the convoy commander to LCI-196. She then patrolled off Cape Camarat until the following afternoon. From 17 July until early autumn, Tatum protected convoys shuttling between Corsica, Sardinia, and southern France. On 16 October, she departed Marseilles in the screen of a convoy bound for Bizerte and Oran. During the early part of November, Tatum escorted another convoy from Oran to Marseilles then screened the Army transport Mariposa to Naples and returned to Oran on 15 November. Tatum got underway again on 24 November to screen a convoy back to the United States, arriving at New York on 11 December.
Read more about this topic: USS Tatum (DE-789)
Famous quotes containing the words destroyer and/or escort:
“The supreme, the merciless, the destroyer of opposition, the exalted King, the shepherd, the protector of the quarters of the world, the King the word of whose mouth destroys mountains and seas, who by his lordly attack has forced mighty and merciless Kings from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same to acknowledge one supremacy.”
—Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–59 B.C.)
“When you escort someone, escort him all the way to his destination; if you help someone, help him thoroughly.”
—Chinese proverb.