On 3 May 1944, USS Donnell (DE 56) (LtCdr F.C. Billings, USNR) was escorting the convoy CU-22 on her fifth transatlantic voyage, when she made a sound contact and sighted a periscope 450 miles southwest of Cape Clear, Ireland. She prepared for a depth charge attack but at 12.00 hours was hit aft by one torpedo, causing her own depth charges to explode and blowing off the stern. 29 men were killed and 25 wounded. The vessel was towed by the destroyer ecorts USS Reeves (DE 156) and USS Hopping (DE 155) and the tug HMS Samsonia (W 23) to Dunnstaffnage Bay, Scotland, arriving on 12 May.

The damage proved to be too extensive for economical repairs, so the destroyer escort was comissioned in July 1944 as accommodation ship USS Donnell (IX 182) at Lisahally, Northern Ireland. In August 1944 towed via Plymouth to Cherbourg where she supplied electric power to shore installations. In February 1945 she returned to England to serve as barracks ship at Portland and Plymouth until towed back to the USA, arriving in Philadelphia on 18 July to be decommissioned on 23 October. She was stricken on 16 November and sold for scrap on 29 Apr, 1946.