Allied Warships

USS Woolsey (DD 437)

Destroyer of the Benson / Gleaves class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Benson / Gleaves
Pennant	DD 437
Built by	Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine, U.S.A.)
Ordered	15 Jun 1939
Laid down	9 Oct 1939
Launched	14 Feb 1941
Commissioned	7 May 1941
End service	13 Jun 1946
History	Decommissioned 13 June 1946. Stricken 1 July 1971. Sold 12 June 1974 and broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Woolsey (DD 437)

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. William Henry von Dreele, USN	7 May 1941	21 Feb 1942
2	Lt.Cdr. Bernard Lige Austin, USN	21 Feb 1942	1 Dec 1942 (1)
3	T/Cdr. Henry Robert Wier, USN	1 Dec 1942	28 Feb 1945 (1)
4	William Marshall Shifflette, USN	28 Feb 1945	13 Jun 1946

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Notable events involving Woolsey include:

16 Nov 1942
German U-boat U-173 was sunk at Casablanca in position 33°40'N, 07°35'W by depth charges from the US destroyers USS Woolsey, USS Swanson and USS Quick.

16 Dec 1943
German U-boat U-73 was sunk in the Mediterranean near Oran, in position 36°07'N, 00°50'W, by depth charges and gunfire from the US destroyers USS Woolsey and USS Trippe.

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 Apr 1945
USS R-1 (Lt. W.A. Schoenfeld, USN) conducted A/S exercises off Casco Bay, Maine together with USS Woolsey (Lt.Cdr. W.M. Shifflette, USN), USS Eberle (Lt.Cdr. H.C. Transue, USN) and USS Cates (Lt.Cdr. T.N. Broaddus, USNR).