Allied Warships

USS Amesbury (DE 66)

Destroyer Escort of the Buckley class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer Escort
Class	Buckley
Pennant	DE 66
Built by	Bethlehem Shipyard Inc. (Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
Ordered	10 Jan 1942
Laid down	8 Mar 1943
Launched	5 Jun 1943
Commissioned	31 Aug 1943
End service	3 Jul 1946
History	Converted to High Speed Transport and reclassified as APD-46 on 23 February 1945. Decommissioned 3 July 1946. Stricken 1 June 1960. Sunk as target, the wreck was sold for scrap on 24 October 1962.

Commands listed for USS Amesbury (DE 66)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	T/Cdr. Allen Bond Adams, Jr., USN	31 Aug 1943	10 May 1944
2	Lt.Cdr. Arthur Borden Wilbor, USNR	10 May 1944	Nov 1945

You can help improve our commands section
Click here to Submit events/comments/updates for this vessel.
Please use this if you spot mistakes or want to improve this ships page.

Notable events involving Amesbury include:

3 Jun 1944

Passage of the bulk of ' Bombardment Group O ' from Belfast to the operations area.

Shortly after 0200B/3, the battleships USS Texas (Capt. C.A. Baker, USN, flying the flag of T/R.Adm. C.F. Bryant, USN), USS Arkansas (Capt. F.G. Richards, USN), USS Nevada (Capt. P.M. Rhea, USN), light cruisers Georges Leygues (Capt. J.E.A. Laurin), Montcalm (Capt. L.M.J.A. Deprez). These ships were, with the exception off USS Nevada, part of ' Bombardment Group O ' (Task Group 124.8).

They were escorted by the destroyers USS Jeffers (T/Cdr. H.Q. Murray, USN with COMDESRON 17, T/Capt. A.C. Murdaugh, USN on board), Murphy (T/Cdr. R.A. Wolverton, USN), USS Plunkett (T/Cdr. W. Outerson, USN), USS Gherardi (T/Cdr. N.R. Curtin, USN) and Murphy (T/Cdr. R.A. Wolverton, USN) and the escort destroyers Amesbury (Lt.Cdr. A.B. Wilbor, USNR) and Blessman (Lt.Cdr. J.A. Gillis, USNR). The escort vessels were not part of the actual bombardment group but of an escort group (Task Group 124.7).

Around 0730B/4, when near Plymouth, the force turned around after a signal was received that the invastion was postponed for 24 hours. Course was set to return to the northwards along the same track.

Around 2200B/4, course was reversed again to return to the southwards.

Around 0730B/5, USS Nevada was detached to join ' Bombardment Group U '. Around the same time the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (Capt. C.P. Clarke, DSO, RN) joined the group.

Around 1215B/5, the escort destroyers HMS Tanatside (Cdr. B.J. de St. Croix, RN), HMS Talybont (Lt.Cdr. E.F. Baines, DSO, RN) and HMS Melbreak (Lt. G.J. Kirkby, DSC and Bar, RN) joined.

Around 0300B/6, the group began to arrive in the operations area.