USS Gamble

USS Gamble at anchor
History
United States
Name	Gamble
Namesake	Peter Gamble and John M. Gamble
Builder	Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia
Laid down	12 November 1917
Launched	11 May 1918
Commissioned	29 November 1918
Decommissioned	17 June 1922
Identification	DD-123
Recommissioned	24 May 1930
Decommissioned	22 December 1937
Reclassified	13 June 1930 (DM-15)
Recommissioned	25 September 1939
Decommissioned	1 June 1945
Fate	Sunk by scuttling, 16 July 1945
General characteristics
Class and type	Wickes-class destroyer
Displacement	1,090 tons (1,108 t)
Length	314 ft 5 in (95.8 m)
Beam	31 ft 9 in (9.7 m)
Draft	8 ft 8 in (2.6 m)
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h)
Complement	113 officers and enlisted
Armament	4 × 4 in (102 mm)/50 guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm)/23 guns 12 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × depth charge projector 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Gamble (DD–123/DM-15) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, later converted to a minelayer in World War II.

Namesakes

Peter Gamble was born on 5 November 1793 in

John M. Gamble was the brother of Peter Gamble and achieved the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps.

No other ships in the United States Navy have borne this name.

Construction and commissioning

Gamble was

On 7 December 1941, Gamble had returned from offshore patrol, when her peaceful routine was broken by the first of the Japanese carrier-based planes which attacked American ships in the harbor. Gamble's gunners joined the fire of other warships and saw one enemy plane fall into the water on her port beam. When the U.S. Navy submarine USS Thresher (SS-200) surfaced off Pearl Harbor later that day in attempt to enter the harbor and get medical attention for a severely injured crewman, Gamble mistook her for a Japanese submarine and opened gunfire on her as she surfaced, forcing her to submerge again immediately.^[1] By the time Thresher was able to reach Pearl Harbor on 8 December, her injured crewman had died.^[1]

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gamble took

On 27 August 1942, Gamble joined a task unit headed to Guadalcanal. Although designated a destroyer-minelayer, the old vessel still carried antisubmarine gear. On the morning of 29 August, when her lookouts spotted a large enemy submarine, she immediately went into action. After several depth charge attacks, Gamble ran through large oil slicks, found deck planking, and observed a large air bubble break the surface. Later her victim was identified as I-123, whose dying radio had signaled "under heavy enemy attack." That afternoon she proceeded at full speed to Nura Island where she rescued four stranded aviators from the aircraft carrier Saratoga. Continuing to aid in the struggle for Guadalcanal, she transported 158 Marines to the island on 31 August, patrolled off Lunga Roads, then on 5 September assisted in freeing William Ward Burrows and escorted her to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands. Her patrol, escort, and transport duty continued as the drive for Guadalcanal pressed on to victory.

Five minutes after midnight on 6 May 1943, Gamble, with

Gamble was towed from Saipan to Guam May 16-17, 1945 by USS ATR-52.[2]

Some hope remained for Gamble for a long time, but on 1 June 1945 she decommissioned, and, on 16 July, she was towed outside

Awards

Gamble received seven

References

Citations

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

Bibliography

• Hinman, Charles R., and Douglas E. Campbell. The Submarine Has No Friends: Friendly Fire Incidents Involving U.S. Submarines During World War II. Syneca Research Group, Inc., 2019.
  ISBN 978-0-359-76906-3
  .

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