Livermore Class Destroyer USS Maddox (DD-622)
The Livermore Class Destroyer USS Maddox (DD-622) was laid down 7 May 1942 by the Federal Ship Building and Dry Dock Company, Reamy, New Jersey, and launched 15 September 1942. The destroyer was sponsored by Mrs. Ellen-Venita Browning Wilhoit, great-grand daughter of Captain William A. T. Maddox. The ship was commissioned 31 October 1942. The Ship's captain was Lieutenant Commander Eugene S. Sarsfield.
Early missions
The Maddox departed New York 2 January 1943 for Norfolk, Virginia, where she commenced escort duties. following her first two-convoy missions, safeguarding fleet oilers plying between Norfolk and the petroleum centers of Galveston, Texas, and Aruba, Maddox began a series of trans-atlantic voyages escorting convoys from New York and Norfolk to North Africa.
Battle of Gela
On 8 June 1943, Maddox departed Norfolk for Oran, Algeria, where she became a unit of Task Force 81 TF81, the assault force for Operation Husky the Allied invasion of Sicily. As US Army Rangers opened the Battle of Gela on 10 July, USS Maddox was on antisubmarine patrol about 16 miles offshore. A 0458 hours, according to Lieutenant W. R. Laird, Jr (on the Maddox's bridge), the destroyer and British submarine HMS Safari were attacked by Stuka dive bombers that had cut their engines and dived keeping the sun behind them in order to achieve maximum surprise.[1][2][3][4] The Italian Stuka[5]that attacked Maddox dropped four 250 pound bombs, the first landed in the water, the second two hit the fantail and detonated the powder ammunition magazine and the last bomb hit in the water by the side of the ship. The Maddox sank in 90 seconds, 70 men survived, but 212 men went down with the ship including her captain. The USS Sentinel (a picket ship) was hit by Luftwaffe aircraft, and sank a short time later. Besides the Maddox and the Sentinel sunk of Gela, the American tank landing ship, LST 313 was sunk and another set on fire during the Anglo-American landings and the British hospital ship Talamba and American transport ship Robert Rowan sunk in follow up raids.[6] In total, the Luftwaffe conducted 370 sorties on the first day of the landings and the Regia Aeronautica completed a further 141 missions.
The Livermore destroyer USS Maddox, has the unfortunate distinction of having been the fastest sinking US warship to be lost in World War II. The ship's captain is memorialized at the Rome American Cemetery, Nettuno, Italy. The Maddox did receive two battle stars for her World War II service.
Notes
- ↑ "At 0458, just as daylight began to spread over the sea, she was attacked by a Stuka. A bomb exploded under her starboard propeller guard, completely demolishing the stern and probably exploding after the magazine. An officer in a distant ship observed: "a great blob of light bleached and reddened the sky, tearing the night into threds. It was followed by a blast more sullen and defeaning than any we have so far heard. Within two minutes Maddox rolled over and sank, taking down most of her crew. Beacon submarine Safari, on her way out, was straddled by two sticks of bombs in the same attack; unhurt she hastened to the spot where Maddox had disappeared, and, in conjunction with stray landing craft, searched for the survivors , but found none." History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 100-101, University of Illinois Press, 2001
- ↑ "German pilots had learned to hunt stragglers by tracking the ships wakes, then gliding out of the sun with their engines cut. An officer on the Maddox's bridge realized he was under attack only when he heard the whistle of falling bombs. The first detonated twenty five yards astern; a second hit beneath the propeller guard, detonating depth charges aligned on the aft deck." The Day Of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-44, Rick Atkinson, Hachette, 2013
- ↑ "While her guns were firing on the shore and her radar was concentrated landward, a lone German Stuka divebomber swooped in on the stern of the unsuspecting destroyer." Blood on the Sea: American Destroyers Lost in World War II, Robert Sinclair Parkin, p. 145, Da Capo Press, 2007
- ↑ "Therefore, when Allied forces crosssed the narrows to launch Operation Husky on 10 July 1943, the dive-bomber response was entirely in the hands of the Italians ... The Regia Aeronautica had taken delivery of a bunch of Ju87Ds earlier in the year, but rather than re-equip their existing dive-bomber units, the 'Doras' had been used to form two new gruppi: 103° and 121° ... Still working up on Sardinia, the largely inexperienced crews were dispatched at once to southern Italy and Sicily to counter the invasion ... A bomb from an unseen aircraft struck the destroyer's stern, blowing it apart 'in a gust of flame, smoke and debris'. In less than two minutes she had disappeared beneath the waves ... The surviving Doras of 121 Gruppo were to retire back to Sardina before the Sicilian campaign had run its 38-day course." Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader of North Africa & the Mediterranean, John Weal, pp.81-82, Osprey Publishing, 1998
- ↑ "The first victim of the air attack was USS Maddox (DD-622), which was steaming alone on antisubmarine patrol when she was hit by a bomb dropped by an Italian Ju 87 Stuka at 0421. One of the bombs exploded Maddox's aft magazine, causing the ship to roll over and sink within two minutes, taking 210 of her crew with her. The Stuka returned, strafing the 74 survivors before departing." Bloodstained Sands: U.S. Amphibious Operations in World War II, Michael G. Walling, p. 270, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017
- ↑ Circles of Hell: The War in Italy 1943-1945, Eric Morris, p. 73, Hutchinson, 1993
