Allied Warships

USS Leopold (DE 319)

Destroyer Escort of the Edsall class


The launching of USS Leopold

NavyThe US Navy
TypeDestroyer Escort
ClassEdsall 
PennantDE 319 
Built byConsolidated Steel Corp., Ltd. (Orange, Texas, U.S.A.) 
Ordered7 Aug 1942 
Laid down24 Mar 1943 
Launched12 Jun 1943 
Commissioned18 Oct 1943 
Lost9 Mar 1944 
Loss position58° 44'N, 25° 50'W
History

On 9 March 1944 the US Coast Guard manned USS Leopold (Cmdr. Kenneth Coy Phillips, USCG) was on her second voyage and escorting the convoy CU-16, when she got an acoustic contact about 400 miles south of Iceland and turned to investigate it. But before the destroyer escort reached the U-boat, she was hit at 22.00 hours by a Gnat from U-255 and was abandoned. The vessel broke in two and remained afloat, but both parts sank early the next morning in position 58º44'N, 25º50'W. 172 died which includes all 13 officers and only 28 ratings survived who were picked up by USS Joyce (DE 317).

 

Hit by U-boat
Sunk on 9 Mar 1944 by U-255 (Harms).

U-boat AttackSee our U-boat attack entry for the USS Leopold

Commands listed for USS Leopold (DE 319)

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.

CommanderFromTo
1Kenneth Coy Phillips, USCG18 Oct 19439 Mar 1944 (+)

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Media links


U-Boat Attack Logs

Daniel Morgan and Bruce Taylor


amazon.co.uk
(£ 38.25)


Destroyers of World War Two

Whitley, M. J.


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