USS Edsall (DE 129).
GENERAL INFORMATION
Length: “Long hull” 306' 0" x 300' 0"
Molded Beam: 36' 7"
Displacement: 1,200 long tons standard; 1,590 full load.
Draft: Light: 8' 3"; Deep: 11' 8";
Designed Complement: Officers, 15; Enlisted, 201.
Shaft Horsepower: 6,000
Speed: Trial: 21.2 knots; Service: 21 knots.
Screws: Two.
Rudders: Two.
Bridge: High, open.
Stack: One.
ARMAMENT
Gun battery: 3 x 3-inch/50 caliber dual purpose guns.
Initial: 1 x quad 1.1-inch cannon or 1 x single 40mm Bofors.
Later: later 1 x quad and 2 x twin 40mm Bofors.
Short range: 8 x single 20mm Oerlikon.
Anti-submarine battery: 2 x depth charge tracks, 8 x depth charge projectors, 1 x Hedgehog.
In the Edsall class, diesels were again fitted in a
Buckley hull—this time a Fairbanks Morse design for submarines with a compact single reduction gear transmission—the FMR (Fairbanks Morse diesel with reversible gear drive) type. They were regarded as the most successful of the 6,000 shp classes.
BUILDERS
FMRs were built at
Consolidated and Houston.
MODIFICATIONS
Plans were made to replace the 3-inch main battery with two 5-inch guns, but only
Camp was refitted following a collision in April 1945.
LOSSES
- Leopold was torpedoed by U-255 south of Iceland, 9 March 1944.
- Holder was damaged beyond repair by German aircraft torpedoes off Algiers, 11 April 1944. Her stern was used to repair Menges.
- Fiske was torpedoed by U-804 north of the Azores, 2 August 1944.
- Frederick C. Davis was torpedoed by U-546 in the North Atlantic, 24 April 1945.
DECORATIONS
- Frost received the Presidential Unit Citation for anti-submarine action in World War II.
- Haverfield, Swenning, Willis, Janssen, and Wilhoite received Presidential Unit Citations with Francis M. Robinson as part of hunter-killer task groups with escort carrier Bogue (CVE 9) in the Atlantic.
- Pillsbury, Pope and Chatelain received the Presidential Unit Citation with Jenks as part of a hunter-killer task group with escort carrier Guadalcanal (CVE 60).
- Frederick C. Davis and Herbert C. Jones each received the Navy Unit Commendation for action during the Anzio operation.
- Kretchmer received the Navy Unit Commendation for action three days after the war ended.
