| Navy | The US Navy |
| Type | Patrol craft |
| Class | Eagle |
| Pennant | PE-56 |
| Built by | Ford Motor Co. (Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.) |
| Ordered | |
| Laid down | 25 Mar 1919 |
| Launched | 15 Aug 1919 |
| Commissioned | 26 Oct 1919 |
| Lost | 23 Apr 1945 |
| Loss position | 43.33N, 70.10W (See a map) |
| History | Completed in October 1919 as submarine chaser USS Eagle No. 56. On 17 Jul, 1920, reclassified as patrol craft USS PE-56. On 23 Apr, 1945, USS PE-56 (Lt. James Early, USNR) broke in two and sank after a heavy explosion amidships 3 nautical miles south-southeast of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The commander, four officers and 44 ratings were lost. One officer and twelve ratings were picked up about 30 minutes later by USS Selfridge. U-853 was known to operate in the area, but could not report her success because she was herself lost a few days later. Some survivors reported the sighting of a conning tower and saw the colors of the emblem on U-853. In June 2001 the US Navy finally changed its assessment of the loss of USS PE-56. The original assessment claimed that the ship had been sunk by a boiler explosion - in stark contrast to what the survivors of the ship reported. Hit by U-boat |
| U-boat Attack | See our U-boat attack entry for the USS PE-56 |
We don't have any commands listed for USS PE-56 (PE-56)
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Noteable events involving PE-56 include:
28 Feb 1942
USS PE-56 picks up the survivors from the American destroyer USS Jacob Jones (DD 130) which had been sunk by the German submarine U-578 earlier that day off Cape May.