Allied Warships

USS Roper (DD 147)

Destroyer of the Wickes class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Wickes
Pennant	DD 147
Built by	William Cramp and Sons (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)
Ordered
Laid down	19 Mar 1918
Launched	17 Aug 1918
Commissioned	15 Feb 1919
End service	15 Sep 1945
History	Decommissioned at San Diego, California on 14 December 1922 Recommissioned on 18 March 1930 Reclassified High Speed Transport APD-20 on 20 October 1943 Roper was hit by a Kamikaze and returned to the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California for repairs but with the cessation of hostilities repair work was halted She was decommissioned on 15 September 1945 Stricken 11 October 1945 Sold on 31 March 1946 and broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Roper (DD 147)

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	Harry Enson Hubbard, USN	22 Apr 1939	21 Jun 1940
2	Lt.Cdr. Henry Edward Richter, USN	21 Jun 1940	10 Oct 1941
3	Lt.Cdr. Hamilton Wilcox Howe, USN	10 Oct 1941	22 Jun 1942
4	T/Lt.Cdr. John Blair Gragg, USN	22 Jun 1942	1 Oct 1943
5	Lt.Cdr. Winfield Fox DeLong, USNR	1 Oct 1943	5 Jan 1944
6	Ens. Ulysses Brooks Carter, USNR	5 Jan 1944	11 Jul 1945
7	Lt. Alfred Gilbert Steer, Jr., USNR	11 Jul 1945	15 Sep 1945

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Notable events involving Roper include:

23 Mar 1942
USS Roper sank the bow section of the damaged American tanker Naeco with gunfire. The Neaco was torpedoed by German U-boat U-124 about 65 nautical miles south-east of Cape Lookout, North Carolina in position 33°59'N, 76°40'W.

31 Mar 1942
USS Roper picks up 70 survivors of the American passenger ship City of New York that was torpedoed and sunk on 29 March 1943 by German U-boat U-160 40 nautical miles east of Cape Hatteras in position 35°16'N, 74°25'W.

14 Apr 1942
On this day USS Roper (Lt.Cdr. Hamilton Howe) sank U-85 near Cape Hatteras, USA.

U-85 was the first U-boat to be sunk off the North American coast after the start of Operation Drumbeat (Paukenschlag) on 13 January 1942.

On the day that she was sunk U-85 stayed on the surface through the engagement. After repeated gunfire hits on the boat, fatally damaging her, the order to abandon ship was given and maybe half of the crew got into the water and then U-85 started to sink again fast. USS Roper then dropped 11 depth charges onto the already sinking U-boat and its 2 dozen survivors and in the process killed everyone in the water.

The wreck of U-85 is now a popular dive site.

23 Apr 1942
USS Roper picks up 30 survivors from the Panamanian merchant Desert Light that was torpedoed and sunk on 16 April 1942 east of Cape Hattaras in position 35°35'N, 72°48'W by German U-boat U-572.

29 Apr 1942
USS Roper picks up 14 survivors from the British merchant Empire Drum that was torpedoed and sunk on 24 April 1942 southeast of New York by German U-boat U-136. 13 more survivors from the same ship were picked up on 1 May.