USS Wilhoite (DE-397) was an built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
Namesake Thomas Mack Wilhoite was born on 12 February 1921 in Guthrie, Kentucky. He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 16 June 1941 at Atlanta, Georgia, and received his aviation indoctrination training at the Naval Reserve Air Base, Atlanta, Georgia. On 7 August, he reported for flight instruction at the Naval Air Station Pensacola Florida, and was appointed an aviation cadet the following day. Transferred to NAS, Miami, Florida, on 15 January 1942 for further training, he became a naval aviator on 6 February. Three days later, he was commissioned an ensign and, at the end of February, reported to the Advanced Carrier Training Group, Atlantic Fleet, NAS, Norfolk, Virginia. There, he joined Fighting Squadron (VF) 9, then fitting out and, in time, became the assistant navigation officer for that squadron.
Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, saw VF-9 assigned to the carrier . Each section of the squadron drew assigned tasks on 8 November 1942, the first day of the landings; and he flew one of five Grumman F4F Wildcats which attacked the French airdrome at Rabat-Sale, the headquarters of the French air forces in Morocco. Despite heavy antiaircraft fire, he pressed home a determined attack and set three French bombers afire with his guns. In a second strike directed at the Port Lyautey airdrome later that day, he flew as part of the third flight and destroyed one fighter, a Dewoitine 520 by strafing. However his Wildcat took hits from the intense fire and crashed about one mile from Port Lyautey. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star.
Construction and commissioning She was laid down on 4 August 1943 at Houston, Texas, by the Brown Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 5 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Corinne M. Wilhoite, the mother of Ensign Wilhoite; and commissioned at Houston on 16 December 1943.
World War II North Atlantic operations
After her shakedown out of Great Sound, Bermuda, from 9 January to 10 February 1944, Wilhoite underwent post-shakedown availability at the Charleston Navy Yard from 11 to 21 February. She then got underway for Gibraltar with Convoy UGS (United States to Gibraltar) 34 on 23 February. On two occasions during the voyage, the destroyer escort depth charged presumed submarine contacts with inconclusive results. After turning the convoy over to British escort vessels once she had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, Wilhoite returned to the United States with Convoy GUS (Gibraltar to the United States) 33 and arrived at New York City on 3 April.
After a 10-day availability at the New York Navy Yard, the destroyer escort operated briefly with submarines and PT boats and conducted antiaircraft firing practice in Block Island Sound, Brooklyn, New York, before shifting south to the Tidewater area to pick up Convoy UGS-40 in Hampton Roads late in April, led by the .
The transatlantic passage proved largely uneventful; but, as the Allied ships transited the Strait of Gibraltar, the British antiaircraft cruiser , the destroyer , and two minesweepers equipped with special jamming apparatus, and , joined the convoy. A recent increase in German air activity had prompted concern over the safety of UGS-40, a large and important convoy consisting of some 80 vessels.
Attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft
At 2106 on 11 May, Wilhoite's search radar picked up "bogeys" some northeast of UGS-40. Two minutes later, the screening ships commenced their barrage. Observers in Wilhoite saw the attacking planes, torpedo-carrying Junkers Ju 88s, sheer away from the flak, fly aft along the transport screen to the northward, and then cut across the stern of the convoy, circling. Soon, as the Ju 88s came around the stern of the convoy, Wilhoite, coordinating the defense of that sector, sent up several barrages with her 3-inch, 40- and 20-millimeter guns.
About 2123, one Ju. 88 singled out Wilhoite as her target and attacked. The destroyer escort responded by bringing all her guns to bear and fired such a heavy and accurate barrage that the German pilot dropped his torpedo about from its target. The plane, apparently damaged by the flak, then banked sharply and disappeared in the ship's smoke screen.
Heavy Luftwaffe losses
The heavy antiaircraft fire from the convoy's escorts and the support by friendly fighters downed an estimated 17 of the enemy torpedo planes. The convoy itself suffered no losses and safely reached its destination, Bizerte, Tunisia. For his part in directing Wilhoite's highly successful sector defense of UGS-40, Lt. Roth, the ship's commanding officer, received a Letter of Commendation.
Sinking of Block Island
Wilhoite rested at Bizerte from 13 to 21 May before getting underway to return to the United States with Convoy GUS-40. At 21:05 on 29 May, however, Wilhoite and were detached from the screen of GUS-40 to go to the aid of Task Group (TG) 21.11 which the had brazenly attacked northwest of the Canary Islands, torpedoing and . The former sank quickly, but the latter remained afloat while and cooperated in sinking the U-boat. The latter then took the stricken Barr in tow.
Wilhoite and Evarts arrived on the scene at 17:15 on the 30th; soon thereafter, and Ahrens sailed for Casablanca, Morocco. The remaining ships then set course for Casablanca as well, avoiding the track of two homeward-bound U-boats reportedly in the area. On the 31st, the small seaplane tender arrived and assumed command over the little force.
At 09:30 on 1 June, Eugene E. Elmore cast off the tow of Barr, and Wilhoite picked it up. Moving ahead at eight knots, Wilhoite towed the damaged Barr, despite the letter's cracked hull which made the task of pulling the ship immeasurably more difficult by causing the damaged ship to yaw. Good damage control in Barr later lessened that problem; and, as the convoy neared Casablanca on 5 June, a Dutch tug, HMRT Antic, joined and took the damaged destroyer escort in tow, relieving Wilhoite. PC-480 then relieved Wilhoite and Evarts of screening duties as the ships neared the swept channel at their destination.
Commended for towing Barr to safety
Upon finishing fueling at Casablanca, Wilhoite departed that Moroccan port, her commanding officer, Lt. Roth, having earned a second Letter of Commendation for his ship's performance in towing Barr to safety, and sailed to New York with GUS-41. After her arrival there, the ship received repairs at the New York Navy Yard before she sailed on 24 June for battle practices in Casco Bay, Maine. She later acted as a target in training exercises for submarines operating out of New London, Connecticut, before she once more touched at New York and shifted south to Norfolk, Virginia, where, on 21 July, she joined a hunter-killer task group based around the escort carrier .
Four days after her assignment to Bogue's group, TG 22.3, Wilhoite sortied with that carrier and the rest of her screen, , , , and , bound for Bermuda. While exercising in that area on antisubmarine warfare (ASW) exercises and night battle practice, Bogue and her consorts honed their respective and collective skills in those areas for the rest of July and into the following month.
At 06:30 on 3 August, however, a message arrived that abruptly cut short the training. TG 22.3 was to proceed to the vicinity of for offensive operations against a westbound enemy submarine. At 1646 on the next day, Wilhoite picked up a sound contact and attacked at 17:02; listeners picked up seven detonations but could ascertain no positive results. At 14:05 on the 7th, the destroyer escort laid two "hedgehog" projectile patterns and one standard depth charge pattern on a target later evaluated as a school of fish.
Undaunted, the Bogue group pressed on with the hunt. Their vigilance and training ultimately paid off. At 00:43 on 19 August, night-flying aircraft from Bogue attacked a submarine running on the surface. Wilhoite was the first ship to hear the transmission and relayed it to Bogue. Six minutes later, Haverfield, Janssen, and Swenning headed for the scene, detached to take part in the hunt while Wilhoite and Willis remained with Bogue as her screen. Meanwhile, the carrier launched planes, maintaining the start of a continuous air patrol over the area.
Unfortunately, the trio of destroyer escorts returned empty handed at 12:25 on the 20th. However, no sooner had they returned, when carrier aircraft reported attacking a submarine that had just surfaced. Wilhoite, Janssen, Haverfield, and Willis headed for the scene, a spot some distant, hearing a report at 14:43 that the submarine (which had apparently submerged but had been damaged and brought to the surface) had again surfaced and was under attack.
Sinking of German Submarine U-1229
Ultimately, the planes from Composite Squadron 42, flying from Bogue, inflicted enough damage on the submarine, later identified as , to force the German crew to abandon ship. While Bogue's airmen watched, U-1229s crew went over the side. The submarine, scuttling charges apparently set, exploded and settled into the Atlantic. Later, at 16:10, the destroyer escorts arrived on the scene; Wilhoite picked up one body of a German sailor, who was summarily buried at sea. Janssen picked up U-1229s survivors.
Wilhoite, along with the other units of TG 22.3, later received the Presidential Unit Citation for the group's submarine-hunting activities. Wilhoite had been a part of the powerful and sustained offensive during a period of heavy U-boat activity threatening the uninterrupted flow of supplies to the European theater that, since the Allied invasion of France in June 1944, had assumed great importance. As the citation text concluded: "The gallantry and superb teamwork of the officers and men who fought the embarked planes and who manned Bogue and her escort vessels were largely instrumental in forcing the complete withdrawal of enemy submarines from supply routes essential to the maintenance of our established military supremacy."
But, for ships like Wilhoite, there was little time to rest on her laurels. Germany was not beaten yet; there would still be more U-boats to fight. Proceeding to Argentia after TG 22.3's kill of U-1229, Wilhoite and her consorts again went after enemy submarines reported in that area. Attacks made over a three-day period, 8, 9, and 10 September, were all unsuccessful. Wilhoite then patrolled off the Grand Banks before she sailed for the New York Navy Yard at the end of September for voyage repairs.
Upon completion of her yard period on 7 October, Wilhoite trained off Montauk Point, Long Island, in ASW tactics before she got underway for Norfolk on 14 October with the remainder of CortDiv 51. Joining Bogue at Norfolk and becoming TG 33.3, the ships headed south to Bermuda, arriving there on 23 October. Wilhoite and her consorts subsequently trained in ASW tactics out of Great Sound, Bermuda, into November.
Wilhoite returned to New York with TG 33.3 before the unit put to sea for a "barrier patrol" between Brown's Bank and the Nova Scotia entrance to the Gulf of Maine in early December. Detached from Bogue's screen at 12:35 on 7 December, Wilhoite assisted in developing a sonar contact until 11 December, when Wilhoite headed for Norfolk.
Wilhoite rejoined Bogue's screen and departed Norfolk on the day after Christmas 1944, bound for Bermuda. The destroyer escort patrolled with TG 22.3 out of Port Royal Bay before she returned to New York for repairs on 16 January 1945. Wilhoite resumed operations with that illustrious aircraft carrier on 20 January, planeguarding for her as she conducted carrier qualifications (carquals) off Quonset Point, Rhode Island.