USS Thomas E. Fraser
USS Thomas E. Fraser off Boston in September 1944
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Thomas E. Fraser |
Namesake | Thomas E. Fraser |
Builder | Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine |
Laid down | 31 January 1944 |
Launched | 10 June 1944 |
Commissioned | 22 August 1944 |
Decommissioned | 12 September 1955 |
Stricken | 1 November 1970 |
Fate | Scrapped 1 June 1974 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Robert H. Smith-class destroyer |
Displacement | 2,200 tons |
Length | 376 ft 6 in (114.76 m) |
Beam | 40 ft 10 in (12.45 m) |
Draft | 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m) |
Speed | 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) |
Complement | 363 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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USS Thomas E. Fraser (DD-736/DM-24) was a
Namesake
Thomas Edward Fraser was born on 6 February 1901 in
On 10 November 1941, he became commanding officer of
Construction and commissioning
Thomas E. Fraser was
Service history
World War II
Following shakedown training out of
Battle of Iwo Jima
On 27 January, Thomas E. Fraser got underway to screen Task Group 51.11 (TG 51.11) as it proceeded via
After protecting the transports during the original landings, the minelayer proceeded in mid-afternoon to a fire support sector southeast of
During a dusk air raid alert on 23 February, Thomas E. Fraser opened fire on a Japanese airplane as it passed down the port side of the ship, but the raider disappeared, apparently unharmed.
Thomas E. Fraser remained off Iwo Jima through the first week in March, providing screening for the transports and fire support for the marines fighting ashore. She scored hits on enemy supply dumps, machinegun nests, and entrenchments, and knocked out numerous gun emplacements. At night, she often fired star shells or delivered harassment fire.
On 8 March, with the help of a plane spotter, her 5-inch guns scored three direct hits on a Japanese blockhouse. Shortly before sunset that day, she departed that battle-torn island, escorting USS Lakewood Victory.
Battle of Okinawa
Arriving at
In the early hours of 29 March, Thomas E. Fraser fired on an attacking Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bomber, bringing the Japanese plane down in flames. Air attacks became more frequent in the last days of March; and, after midnight on 31 March, the warship drove off an attack by a single Japanese plane. Minutes later, a dive bomber attacked. Hit by 5-inch gunfire from the ship, the enemy aircraft passed overhead and splashed astern. At 03:20, a low flying floatplane appeared without warning, dropped a bomb which exploded just off Thomas E. Fraser's port quarter, and disappeared into the night before the ship could fire a single shot. The DM continued her support and direction of the minesweeping group until the completion of its assigned sweeps later that day, then took up her station off Kerama Retto as an anchorage screening vessel.
While screening Mine Division 7 southwest of Kerama Retto on 2 April, the warship took two planes under fire in quick succession, repelling the first and hitting the second with automatic weapons fire as it passed overhead. The attacker burst into flame and splashed. As dawn approached, the ship fired on other aircraft but scored no more hits. After taking on ammunition at Kerama Retto that afternoon, Thomas E. Fraser got underway to join a transport task unit for night retirement. As the warship approached the convoy, seven "Bettys" attacked. Antiaircraft fire from the convoy and its escort downed four enemy planes. However,
Thomas E. Fraser continued screening duties off Kerama Retto until 5 April when she got underway to help escort a convoy of transports to Saipan. En route, orders arrived detaching her from the convoy; and she proceeded with USS Bache to Guam where they arrived on 8 April.
Following the installation of a new radar antenna, Thomas E. Fraser moved to Saipan on 18 April and, two days later, headed back toward the Ryukyus with a convoy of tank landing ships. After conducting the convoy to a dispersal point off
The light minelayer was next ordered back to Okinawa to strengthen the thinning ranks of American destroyers on radar picket duty off that island. Steaming on her starboard screw while her port engine was being repaired, the warship left Apra Harbor on 4 May and arrived off Okinawa on 7 May to resume screening and radar picket duties. While operating in the transport screen off Hagushi Beach on 12 May, she helped to fight off a swarm of Japanese kamikazes during the raid in which one crashed into the battleship USS New Mexico.
Throughout the month, she alternated radar picket duty off Okinawa with maintenance and replenishment at Kerama Retto and
On 6 June, Thomas E. Fraser relieved
Into August, Thomas E. Fraser operated out of
1945
In September, the minelayer operated with sweep units clearing mines in
She continued off the Japanese coast into October. Following a week at Buckner Bay, she got underway on 25 October for a new sweep area in the East China Sea. Assigned to lay buoys and to assist in navigation, the warship operated in the northern reaches of the East China Sea into November. On 17 November, she put in at
1946 – 1955
On 26 December, she got underway and steamed via the Panama Canal Zone to Norfolk, Virginia, arriving there on 8 January 1946. Late in March, the destroyer minelayer put in at Charleston, South Carolina for overhaul and remained in that port until late in the year when she participated in a reserve training cruise with USS Wisconsin which continued into January 1947. From February until May, she operated out of various Caribbean ports; then returned to Norfolk. On the last day of June, she departed Hampton Roads; steamed to Recife, Brazil; then proceeded on to the African port of Monrovia for a courtesy and good-will visit during Liberia's centennial celebration. After stopping at Senegal, she returned to the east coast on 16 August.
The destroyer minelayer continued operations off the Atlantic coast ranging as far north as NS Argentia, Newfoundland and as far south as the Caribbean. On 1 December 1947, she was immobilized; but she was again back in service by May 1949. Following local operations out of Guantanamo Bay in July, the ship departed Hampton Roads early in August and called at Cherbourg, France, before returning to the Caribbean where she remained until she returned to Charleston in November.
In September 1950, she broke the routine of training operations off the east coast with a Mediterranean Sea deployment which continued until 22 January 1951 when she departed Oran. In June, she was again underway for European ports, this time on a midshipman cruise which took her to Copenhagen, Plymouth, and Lisbon. In July, she visited Cuba before returning to the east coast. For the next three years, she varied exercises off the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean with brief voyages to Europe.
In February 1955, she engaged in mine planting off
Thomas E. Fraser received three
As of 2009, no other ship in the United States Navy has been named Thomas E. Fraser.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.