Gustafson

U.S.S. Gustafson

DE-182

1944

(Neptun 1352)

Class: Cannon (DET) - 66 destroyer escorts of 1942-43
Displacement: 1,240 tons standard / 1,620 tons full load
Dimensions: 300'(wl) 306'(oa) x 36'10" x 11'8"
Machinery: 2-shaft diesel-electric drive, S.H.P. 6,000 = 21 knots
Armament: 3-3"/50 (3x1), 2-40mm (1x2), 8-20mm AA guns, 3-21"(1x3) TT, 2 DCT, 8 DCP, 1 hedgehog
Complement: 200

Builder: Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co, Newark, New Jersey
Keel Laid: 5 Jul 1943
Launched: 3 Oct 1943
Commissioned: 1 Nov 1943
Decommissioned: 26 Jun 1946

Notes: A representative of the "long hull" or DET (Diesel Electric Tandem drive) class. A total of 116 were planned, of which 66 were completed for the U.S. Navy and 6 were commissioned directly into the Free French forces. (Model incorrectly shows a quad 1.1in mount in X position - but this class all completed with twin 40mm mount.)
Service: Gustafson escorted coastal convoys from New York to Galveston before being assign to the 4th Fleet covering the South Atlantic from Recife, Brazil. She served in a hunter-killer group with escort carrier USS Solomons in mid-1944, making an unsuccessful hedgehog attack on what was probably German submarine U-195 on 23 Apr. Group aircraft sank U-860 on 15 Jun 1944. On 22 Nov while escorting a transport in the Atlantic Narrows she was in collision with cruiser USS Omaha which required repairs and overhaul in New York until Jan 1945. She participated in a search for a German U-boat NE of Cape Cod and on 7 Apr 1945 attacked a target which produced in a large oil slick. Postwar she was credited with sinking U-857 which disappeared about this time and in this vicinity. In Jul she was transferred to the Pacific and was on her way to Hawaii when the war ended. One battle star.
Decommissioned in 1946, whe was reactivated in Oct 1950 for transfer to the Netherlands Navy as HNLMS Van Ewijk, where she served until 1967. Returned to U.S. and scrapped in 1968.
My father, Lt.(j.g.) Leon Otis Wiringa, served as gunnery officer on USS Gustafson during the first year of her commission.