Allied Warships

USS Woolsey (DD 437)

Destroyer of the Benson / Gleaves class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Benson / Gleaves
Pennant	DD 437
Built by	Bath Iron Works (Bath, Maine, U.S.A.)
Ordered	15 Jun 1939
Laid down	9 Oct 1939
Launched	14 Feb 1941
Commissioned	7 May 1941
End service	13 Jun 1946
History	Decommissioned 13 June 1946. Stricken 1 July 1971. Sold 12 June 1974 and broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Woolsey (DD 437)

Please note that we're still working on this section.

	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. William Henry von Dreele, USN	7 May 1941	21 Feb 1942
2	Lt.Cdr. Bernard Lige Austin, USN	21 Feb 1942	1 Dec 1942 (1)
3	T/Cdr. Henry Robert Wier, USN	1 Dec 1942	28 Feb 1945 (1)
4	William Marshall Shifflette, USN	28 Feb 1945	13 Jun 1946

You can help improve our commands section
Click here to Submit events/comments/updates for this vessel.
Please use this if you spot mistakes or want to improve this ships page.

Notable events involving Woolsey include:

16 Nov 1942
German U-boat U-173 was sunk at Casablanca in position 33°40'N, 07°35'W by depth charges from the US destroyers USS Woolsey, USS Swanson and USS Quick.

16 Dec 1943
German U-boat U-73 was sunk in the Mediterranean near Oran, in position 36°07'N, 00°50'W, by depth charges and gunfire from the US destroyers USS Woolsey and USS Trippe.

21 Jan 1944
Around 1220/21, the Task Group 82.8, part of 'X-ray Force', made up of the light cruisers USS Brooklyn (Capt. R.W. Cary, Jr., USN), HMS Penelope (Capt. G.D. Belben, DSC, AM, RN) and the destroyers USS Trippe (T/Cdr. R.C. Williams, USN), USS Mayo (T/Cdr. F.S. Habecker, USN), USS Woolsey (T/Cdr. H.R. Wier, USN), USS Ludlow (T/Cdr. L.W. Creighton, USN) and USS Edison (T/Cdr. H.A. Pearce, USN) departed Naples in support of Operation Shingle, the landings at Anzio. En-route to the landing area they escorted a convoy (NAF 1).

They entered the 'fire support area' around 0130/22.

19 Apr 1945
USS R-1 (Lt. W.A. Schoenfeld, USN) conducted A/S exercises off Casco Bay, Maine together with USS Woolsey (Lt.Cdr. W.M. Shifflette, USN), USS Eberle (Lt.Cdr. H.C. Transue, USN) and USS Cates (Lt.Cdr. T.N. Broaddus, USNR).