Allied Warships

USS Ludlow (DD 438)

Destroyer of the Benson / Gleaves class

USS Ludlow as completed

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Benson / Gleaves
Pennant	DD 438
Built by	Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine, U.S.A.)
Ordered	15 Jun 1939
Laid down	8 Dec 1939
Launched	11 Nov 1940
Commissioned	5 Mar 1941
End service	20 May 1946
History	Decommissioned 20 May 1946. Stricken 24 January 1951. Transferred to Greece 22 January 1951 being renamed Doxa. Doxa was stricken and broken up for scrap in 1972.

Commands listed for USS Ludlow (DD 438)

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	Lt.Cdr. Claude Henry Bennett, Jr., USN	5 Mar 1941	19 Sep 1942
2	Lt.Cdr. Liles Walker Creighton, USN	19 Sep 1942	8 Feb 1944
3	Lt. Phillip Cutler, USNR	8 Feb 1944	25 Feb 1944 (1)
4	T/Lt.Cdr. William Roy Barnes, USN	25 Feb 1944	28 Feb 1945 (1)
5	T/Cdr. Stanley Maitland Barnes, USN	28 Feb 1945	26 Feb 1946 (1)

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 Ludlow include:

1 Jun 1942
USS Ludlow (Lt.Cdr. C.H. Bennett, Jr., USN) picks up 32 survivors from the British merchant Fred W. Green that was shelled and sunk by German U-boat U-506 on 31 May about 200 miles southeast of Bermuda in position 30°20'N, 62°00'W.

3 Sep 1942
HMS H 32 (Lt. J.R. Drummond, RN) conducted A/S exercises off Lough Foyle with HMCS Amherst (T/Lt. H.G. Denyer, RCNR), HMCS St. Croix (A/Lt.Cdr. A.H. Dobson, DSC, RCNR), USS Nicholson and USS Ludlow. (2)

4 Sep 1942
HMS H 43 (Lt. J.C.Y. Roxburgh, DSC, RN) conducted A/S exercises off Lough Foyle with USS Nicholson, USS Ludlow and USS Cole. (3)

21 Jan 1944
Around 1220/21, the Task Group 82.8, part of 'X-ray Force', made up of the light cruisers USS Brooklyn (Capt. R.W. Cary, Jr., USN), HMS Penelope (Capt. G.D. Belben, DSC, AM, RN) and the destroyers USS Trippe (T/Cdr. R.C. Williams, USN), USS Mayo (T/Cdr. F.S. Habecker, USN), USS Woolsey (T/Cdr. H.R. Wier, USN), USS Ludlow (T/Cdr. L.W. Creighton, USN) and USS Edison (T/Cdr. H.A. Pearce, USN) departed Naples in support of Operation Shingle, the landings at Anzio. En-route to the landing area they escorted a convoy (NAF 1).

They entered the 'fire support area' around 0130/22.

22 Jan 1944
Task Group 82.8, part of 'X-ray Force', made up of the light cruisers USS Brooklyn (Capt. R.W. Cary, Jr., USN), HMS Penelope (Capt. G.D. Belben, DSC, AM, RN) and the destroyers USS Trippe (T/Cdr. R.C. Williams, USN), USS Mayo (T/Cdr. F.S. Habecker, USN), USS Woolsey (T/Cdr. H.R. Wier, USN), USS Ludlow (T/Cdr. L.W. Creighton, USN) and USS Edison (T/Cdr. H.A. Pearce, USN) is still operating in their part of the landing area.

Several air attacks were carried out in the area by the Germans during the day.

At 1440 hours, HMS Penelope commenced a bombardment. [No further details available.]

Around 1730 hours, USS Brooklyn, HMS Penelope, USS Trippe and USS Edison proceeded to seaward.

At 2026 hours, they were informed that two enemy destroyers might attack during the night. These ships had been reported in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea and USS Brooklyn, HMS Penelope, USS Trippe and USS Edison proceeded northwards to intercept.

23 Jan 1944
Task Group 82.8, part of 'X-ray Force', made up of the light cruisers USS Brooklyn (Capt. R.W. Cary, Jr., USN), HMS Penelope (Capt. G.D. Belben, DSC, AM, RN) and the destroyers USS Trippe (T/Cdr. R.C. Williams, USN), USS Mayo (T/Cdr. F.S. Habecker, USN), USS Woolsey (T/Cdr. H.R. Wier, USN), USS Ludlow (T/Cdr. L.W. Creighton, USN) and USS Edison (T/Cdr. H.A. Pearce, USN) is still operating in the Anzio landings area.

USS Brooklyn, HMS Penelope, HMS Trippe and HMS Edison were outside the landing zone to try to intercept two German destroyers. At 0600 hours, the hunt for these destroyers was abandoned and they returned to the landing zone for fire support duties.

At 0858 hours, USS Brooklyn opened fire on a shore target having been requisted to do so. Fire was ceased at 0904 hours. A total of 27 rounds had been fired.

At 1743 hours, USS Brooklyn, HMS Penelope, HMS Trippe and HMS Edison again departed the landing zone to proceed to seawards.

19 May 1944
German U-boat U-960 was sunk in the Mediterranean north-west of Algiers, in position 37°20'N, 01°35'E, by the US destroyers USS Niblack, USS Ludlow and Wellingtons (Sqdn 36) and Venturas (Sqdn 500).