USS BALDWIN DD-624

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS BALDWIN DD-624

The Tin Can Sailor, October 2006

The GLEAVES-class destroyer BALDWIN (DD-624) was launched on 14 June 1942 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Company of Seattle, Washington. She was sponsored by Mrs. Ida E. Crawford, daughter of Acting Master’s Mate Baldwin, a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and the ship’s namesake. She was commissioned on 30 April 1943 and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.

Between 13 August 1943 and 25 January 1944 the BALDWIN made three transatlantic convoy escort crossings to Casablanca, French Morocco. With DesRon 18, she also acted as a fire support, patrol, and escort vessel during the landings at Omaha Beach between 5 June and 15 July 1944. On 6 June, she was close inshore firing on Nazi positions when she was hit and slightly damaged by two small caliber shells from enemy guns on the bluffs.

As flagship of ComDesDiv 36, she had moved out to the “Dixie Line” screening the Western Area off Utah Beach on the night of 8–9 June. In her immediate vicinity were DesRon 18’s flagship, the FRANKFORD, and the HAMBLETON when at 0036, the FRANKFORD’s radar picked up three E-boats advancing toward Utah Beach and began firing. By 0052 one boat was believed sunk and the others fled under a smoke screen. In the meantime, the BALDWIN and HAMBLETON chased the two fleeing E-boats. The destroyers continued their search for the E-boats and, at 0110, the BALDWIN and FRANKFORD routed a pair of would-be attackers with their gunfire. Four miles north of the “Dixie Line” the BALDWIN and HAMBLETON found another target and at about 0200 sent it to the bottom. By 0240 the E-boat attack had ended.

From 13 August to 25 September, the BALDWIN was with the Allied forces as they moved from the beaches of Normandy to those of Southern France in Operation Anvil. At 0830 on 15 August, the assault on the naval base at Toulon began with the 5-inch and 40-mm guns of the BALDWIN, HAMBLETON, ELLYSON, RODMAN, EMMONS, HOBSON, MACOMB, FITCH, and FORREST firing in support. By 29 August, Toulon, the port of Marseilles, and the Riviera had been taken. The German defenses along the Riviera were on the verge of collapse and Nazi defeats on land and sea continued through the fall. Those at the highest levels of the Allied command were preparing for the end. Between 21 January and 27 February 1945, the BALDWIN escorted the QUINCY (CA-71), which was carrying President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference to discuss the final phase of the war with Churchill and Stalin.

Upon her return to the states, the BALDWIN stood plane guard and carried out patrols along the East Coast until July 1945, when she left for the Pacific. Between August 1945 and January 1946 she was the flagship for the minesweeping operations off the coasts of Korea and China. She, then, returned to the East Coast where she was decommissioned in reserve at Charleston, South Carolina, on 20 June 1946.

The BALDWIN does not appear in naval records again until 1961 when she was being towed from Boston to Orange, Texas, by the tug USS KEYWADIN (ATA-213). They were off Montauk Point, Long Island, on 16 April 1961, when the cable broke. The BALDWIN drifted ashore where she grounded. It took six weeks of concerted effort by ships and men to free her after which she was struck from the navy’s list on 1 June. The KEYWADIN towed her out to sea where she was used for target practice and sunk on 5 June 1961.

USS BALDWIN DD-624 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, September 2016

Baldwin (DD-624) was laid down on 19 July 1941 at Seattle, Wash., by the Seattle Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 14 June 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Ida E. Crawford, the daughter of Acting Master’s Mate Baldwin; and commissioned on 30 April 1943, Lt. Cmdr. George Knuepfer in command.

After shakedown training along the west coast, the destroyer put to sea from San Francisco, Calif., on 1 JuIy bound for the east coast. The flagship of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 36, Baldwin led her division into Norfolk, Va., on 19 JuIy and operated along the east coast until getting underway from New York on 13 August in the screen of a convoy bound for Casablanca, Morocco. Similar arrangements occupied her time until late January 1944 when she resumed duty along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Some three months later, on 17 April, Baldwin headed for Europe in the screen for battleships Arkansas (BB-33) and Nevada (BB-36), and heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37). The destroyer arrived at Plymouth, England, on 28 April and began a routine that combined patrols in British waters with preparations for the Normandy invasion.

On 5 June 1944, she departed Portland in company with other units of the Western Naval Task Force. As a unit of the gunfire support group during the assault, Baldwin assisted the troops ashore with naval gunfire. In return, she suffered two hits from a light caliber shore battery on D day but sustained only slight damage. On the 9th, Baldwin joined Frankford (DD-497) in repulsing an attack by German E-boats, similar to motor torpedo boats, and received credit for destroying one of them. She operated off the coast of France until 15 July when she returned to England.

Three days later, the destroyer departed Plymouth in the screen of a 50-ship convoy bound for North Africa and arrived in Bizerte, Tunisia, on 28 July 1944. She operated in the western Mediterranean mostly between Oran, Algeria, and Naples, Italy before arriving off Saint-Tropez on 15 August, D day for the invasion of southern France. Baldwin served there as an element of the Antisubmarine and Convoy Control Group, Task Group (TG) 80.6 which screened follow up convoys between Oran and southern France. On 23 September, she concluded her part in that operation and departed Oran in company with her division mates bound for the United States.

Upon her arrival at New York on 3 October 1944, the destroyer resumed operations in American coastal waters. On 21 January 1945, Baldwin put to sea from Norfolk to rendezvous with the heavy cruiser Quincy (CA-71) which carried President FrankIin D. Roosevelt on the first leg of the trip to the “Big Three” conference at Yalta. She returned to New York on 27 February and began four months of operations in American waters. During that time, Baldwin escorted Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) to the Canal Zone and operated off the east coast in the antisubmarine screens of Boxer (CV-21) and Card (CVE-11).

On 24 June 1945, the destroyer sailed from New York on her way to the Pacific. Steaming in company with Nelson (DD-623), she visited Guantanamo Bay in Cuba; Balboa in the Canal Zone and San Diego before arriving at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 12 August. A month later, the warship joined Task Force (TF) 55 at Okinawa to prepare for the occupation of Sasebo, Japan, and participated in that operation between 20 September and 2 October. By 7 October, Baldwin was at Pusan, Korea, supporting forces sweeping mines along the Chinese and Korean coasts, a task at which she labored for the remainder of 1945.

The ship returned to the United States in January 1946 and operated along the east coast through the spring of that year. She was placed out of commission at Charleston, S.C., on 20 June 1946 and remained in reserve there until January 1961 when she was transferred to Boston. Later ordered moved to Philadelphia, Baldwin ran aground about two miles southwest of Montauk Point, Long Island, in the early afternoon of 16 April 1961 when the towline parted during the passage to Philadelphia. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1961, and she was scuttled on 6 June 1961 not far from the point where she had run aground.

Baldwin earned three battle stars for her World War II service.