USS Frankford (DD-497)

USS Frankford (DD-497) was a Gleaves class destroyer that mainly served on convoy escort duty, but also played a major part in the fighting on Omaha Beach and took part in the invasion of the South of France.

The Frankford was named after Captain John Frankford, who commanded the privateer Belvedere during the Quasi-War with France in 1799.

The Frankford was laid down by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Wash, launched on 17 May 1942 when she was by Mrs. William F. Gibbs and commissioned on 31 March 1943

The Frankford was originally classified as a Bristol class ship, which were built with four 5in guns instead of the five installed on the Livermore/ Gleaves class. However after the fifth gun was removed from those ships all of the Bristol class ships joined the Livermore/ Gleaves class.

The Frankford began with a spell of coastal escort duties. She then moved onto trans-Atlantic convoys, making three round trips across the Atlantic escorting convoys to Casablanca and Northern Ireland between 27 June and 29 November 1943.

1944

After this she spent the first months of 1944 carrying out a mix of coastal escorts, anti-submarine patrols and new crew training along the US East Coast.

USS Frankford (DD-497) at New York, 19 June 1945

On 18 April she left New York heading to Plymouth to join the forces being gathered to take part in the D-Day landings. During the build-up to D-Day she served as an escort on the busy routes between the training areas in Scotland and the assembly areas in the south of England. During this period the Frankford was the flagship of Destroyer Squadron 18, which was based in the River Clyde. On 25 May the squadron apart from the Frankford left Belfast Lough to escort twelve transports south.

She was with the squadron by 1300 on 4 May, when it set sail to take part in the planned invasion of 5 May. They were close to Point Z, where they were to turn towards Normandy, when the recall order was received, after Eisenhower decided to postpone the invasion by one day. The message didn’t reach all of the Rhino ferries, and the Frankford had to divert to get the message to them.

D-Day

On D-Day the Frankford was allocated to Omaha Beach. The initial assault was supported by eight US and three British destroyers. The three British destroyers withdrew after the first hour (as planned), and the Frankford joined the battle at about 0900. The squadron commander, Captain Sanders, ordered all of his destroyers to close with the beach to provide direct fire support for the struggling infantry.

The Frankford operated at the eastern end of the beach, helping US troops attempting to use the eastern three exits.  The Frankford was unable to make contact with her shore based fire control party, so had to fire on targets of opportunity throughout the day, mainly hitting targets on beaches Dog Red and Dog White.

At 1002 she reported firing on a German light artillery or anti-tank gun battery in trees on the Vierville-sur-Mer to Formigny road, firing four salvoes at them and gunfire from the area stopped.

At 1021 she fired at a pillbox in the Ruquet valley, destroying it.

At 1036 she fired on a mortar battery on a ridge near the River Ruquet that was holding up troops on Easy Red beach, after being directed towards the target by the crew of a US light tank. After five salvos a cloud of green smoke was seen, the battery stopped firing and German troops were seen to surrender. This shows just how close the destroyers had come, with this engagement taking place at a range of 1,200 yards.

From 1045 to 1057 she fired on two machine guns nests, stopping when they had stopped firing. 

On 1050 she took on board five wounded from one of the wrecked landing craft.

At 1115 she fired on an anti-tank gun on the ridge east of Les Moulins. This time she reported ‘No apparent damage’ but that no more firing was seen from the area.

By 1140 the destroyer fire had helped open the exit from Easy Red beach.

At 1308 contact was finally established with her shore fire control party. They gave her a target at the road junction at Formigny, two and a half miles inland. The Frankford opened fire, but was then ordered to cease fire because the shore party couldn’t observe their fall of shot. Soon after contact with the shore party was lost and never regained.

At 1555 the Frankford withdrew from the Fire Support Group and moved further out to sea to take up the role of flagship of the Commander Area Screen.

After D-Day the Frankford remained off Normandy until 15 July (apart from two brief trips back to Plymouth to replenish stores and fuel). She was used to rescue survivors from mined ships, on air sea rescue and against E-boats.

Early on 9 June a force of ten E-boats was detected approaching the invasion area. They had orders to lay mines off the Iles Saint Marcouf then attack an Allied convoy. However they were detected by the Hambleton’s radar, and attacked by the Baldwin, Hambleton and Frankford. They were driven off after a four hour gun battle, although the Germans did manage to sink LST-314 and LST-376.

After Normandy

On 18 July the Frankford departed from Plymouth to escort a convoy of landing craft heading to the Mediterranean to take part in the invasion of the South of France. She reached Naples on 6 August, and sortied with her task force on 13 August.

She patrolled off the invasion beaches from for most of the second half of August. On the night of 17-18 August she took part a battle with a group of enemy torpedo boats, sinking three and capturing one.

On 30 August she returned to Naples. She then visited a number of ports in the western Mediterranean before departed for New York. She arrived on 3 October and underwent an overhaul.

1945

In January 1945 the Frankford joined TU 21.5.4 (Savannah, Baldwin, Frankford and Murphy) to take part in the operation to escort President Roosevelt across the Atlantic on USS Quincy, the first part of his journey to the Yalta conference.

The task unit joined the escort force 300 miles to the south of the Azores on 28 January.

The task unit briefly detached from the escort force after passing through the Straits of Gibraltar to refuel at Oran, then rejoined the President’s convoy. The convoy reached Malta on 2 February, where they met up with Churchill’s party. The combined party then departed for the Crimea by air.

The Quincy, Baldwin, Frankford and Murphy left Malta on 6 February, arriving at Port Said, Egypt on 8 February. One of the Frankford’s role during this voyage was to act as an air rescue ship.

The Frankford was allocated to the forces escorting the President on his return trip in February, but on 15 February had to leave the force to head to Oran for engineering repairs. These were quickly completed and she managed to catch up with the convoy on the evening of 18 February. On 20 February she was sent 50 miles ahead of the main convoy to act as a relay ship for radio messages between the Presidential party and the US.

After this diversion she carried out a mix of anti-submarine patrols and screening new carriers in training along the US East Coast, before moving to New York on 10 May to prepare for a move to the Pacific.

While she was at New York she underwent a refit in which her torpedo tubes were removed and replaced with extra 40mm guns. This was complete by 19 June 1945 when she was photographed at New York in the new configuration.

The Frankford arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 August 1945, and carried out exercises in the Hawaiian Islands. She reached the western Pacific after the Japanese surrender and joined the occupation forces. She protected minesweepers and covered landings on Honshu.

On 25 October she departed from Tokyo to return to the US East Coast. On 4 March 1946 she was decommissioned and placed into the reserve at Charleston. The Frankford was struck off on 1 June 1971 and sunk as a target off Puerto Rico on 4 December 1973.

The Frankford received two battle stars for World War II, for Normandy and the South of France. Anyone who served on her between 3 September and 25 October 1945 qualified for the Navy Occupation Service Medal (Asia).

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History, Norman Friedmann . The standard history of the development of American destroyers, from the earliest torpedo boat destroyers to the post-war fleet, and covering the massive classes of destroyers built for both World Wars. Gives the reader a good understanding of the debates that surrounded each class of destroyer and led to their individual features.

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