USS Knight

	USS Knight in October 1943
History
United States
Name	Knight
Namesake	Austin M. Knight
Builder	Boston Navy Yard
Laid down	18 March 1941
Launched	27 September 1941
Commissioned	23 June 1942
Identification	DD-633
Reclassified	DMS-40, 23 June 1945
Decommissioned	19 March 1947
Stricken	1 December 1966
Fate	Sunk as a target off San Diego, California 27 October 1967
General characteristics
Class and type	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement	1,630 tons
Length	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion	50,000 shp (37,000 kW); 4 boilers; 2 propellers;
Speed	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament	4 × dual purpose guns,; 4 × Bofors 40 mm guns (2×2),; 7 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (5×1),; 5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (5 Mark 15 torpedoes); 6 × depth charge projectors,; 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS Knight (DD-633), a Gleaves-class destroyer, is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Admiral Austin M. Knight.

Knight was

Liberty Fleet Day; sponsored by Miss Elizabeth H. Royal, granddaughter of Admiral Knight. The ship was commissioned

on 23 June 1942.

Service history

After

antisubmarine patrols until she sailed 13 November for the United States, arriving Norfolk

on 24 November.

From 12 December to 28 April 1943, Knight escorted three

transports from hostile submarines

and planes. On 11 July she shot down an attacking enemy fighter and on 13 July sailed, arriving at Oran on 16 July.

Knight made escort and patrol runs along the Algerian and Tunisian coasts, then returned to

7th Army. She operated out of Palermo until 22 August, helping repel several German night-bombing attacks and bombarding targets along the northern coast to Cape d'Orlando. While on an escort run to Malta on 11 August, she rescued two sailors who were knocked overboard Brant when the salvage repair ship, displaying inadequate recognition signals, was shelled and damaged by friendly gunfire the previous day. After escorting convoys between Palermo and Bizerte, Tunisia, Knight returned to Sicily on 7 September for the invasion of Italy

.

As

Ventotene Island off Gaeta, Italy

on 8 September, and supported the capture of German and Italian troops on the same day.

Arriving

Salerno Bay on 10 September with 87 German prisoners embarked, she fought off enemy air attacks on 10 and 11 September that damaged the cruiser Savannah. The destroyer then supported the taking charge of Capri from Italian authorities on 13 September. During the next two weeks she operated along the coast of Italy in search of enemy submarines and supply convoys; and she guarded transports in the Gulf of Salerno from intermittent air attacks. On 27 September she embarked Rear Admiral Richard L. Conolly

and sailed for Tunisia, arriving at Bizerte on 28 September. Proceeding along the North African coast, she departed Oran 30 September for the United States, arriving in New York 9 October.

Between 21 October 1943 and 1 May 1944, Knight engaged in five Atlantic convoy escort runs from New York to ports in the

Mediterranean from Norfolk, reaching Oran 28 May. For almost ten weeks, she steamed from North Africa to Italy and Gibraltar on antisubmarine patrols and escort missions. Returning to New York from Oran on 22 August, she resumed convoy escort duty to the British Isles 20 September. After two runs to England

, she again took up convoy operations in the Mediterranean, making three runs between Norfolk and Oran from 28 December to 2 June 1945.

From 3 June to 24 July Knight was converted to a

San Diego, California

on 27 October 1967.