USS Underhill (DE-682) - Atlantic/Mediterranean Service

Atlantic/Mediterranean Service

After trial runs and crew training, Underhill moved to the Boston Navy Yard for provisioning and loading of ammunition. On 2 December 1943, she was underway to Bermuda for further training and shakedown, returning to Boston Navy Yard on 10 January 1944 for minor repairs. She got underway from Boston on 17 January 1944 and arrived at Guantanamo Bay on 22 January, reporting to Commander, Caribbean Sea Frontier, for duty. She operated out of Trinidad and Guantanamo escorting convoys until late in May when she escorted SS George Washington from Kingston, Jamaica, to Miami, Florida.

Returning to Boston Navy Yard on 30 May 1944, Underhill's torpedo tubes were removed and replaced with Bofors 40-millimeter antiaircraft guns. Additionally two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns were added on the fantail. Her new area of operations was the Mediterranean Sea, where the Junkers Ju 88 dive bombers flying out of Southern France had been converted to torpedo planes and were taking a toll on British and French convoys.

Following training exercises in Casco Bay, Maine, Underhill got underway before dawn on Independence Day and steamed from Hampton Roads to screen UGS 47, a large, slow convoy bound for Mediterranean ports. Underhill conducted battle drills and investigated sonar contacts during the long, uneventful Atlantic voyage. In the Mediterranean Sea on 21 and 22 July, she responded to several air raid warnings, but no enemy action materialized, although the last three convoys to pass along this route had been attacked by German planes.

She escorted convoys between Bizerte, Tunisia and Oran, Algeria. After her first convoy in Bizerte, Underhill was ordered out into the Mediterranean Sea where she steamed all night at flank speed, fully illuminated in waters known to be populated with U-boats and overflown by German aircraft. The invasion of southern France was launched a few days later; it is likely Underhill's cruise was a diversion or a probe. When returning to Bizerte, she struck a ship sunken in the channel and badly damaged her port propeller and shaft, which was repaired in Oran. After arriving at that port on 27 July, she underwent temporary repairs; then, on 5 August, she departed North Africa. Early on 6 August, she joined the escort of Convoy GUS 47, with which she arrived safely at New York City on 18 August. Six days later, Lieutenant Commander Robert M. Newcomb relieved Jackson as commanding officer; he would hold the post for the rest of his life.

The next convoy, UGS 54 to Plymouth, England, in September, was uneventful until Underhill left Plymouth in October. Upon leaving the harbor, a submarine sonar contact was made in the English Channel. Several hours of depth charging accomplished nothing, but while running the patterns, the ship struck an underwater object (possibly a U-boat) destroying the ship's sonar soundhead. Underhill drydocked at Plymouth, but the British were unable to make needed repairs, so Underhill returned to Boston with a group of tank landing ships (LSTs) for a new sound head.

She escorted Convoy UGS 60 from Boston to Mers el Kebir in November; then engaged in anti-submarine warfare exercises out of Oran with French submarine Doris. She departed that Algerian port on 3 December escorting GUS 60 and reached New York on 21 December. She entered the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 21 December, departing for New London, Connecticut, on 8 January 1945 for a temporary assignment with Submarine Forces, Atlantic. Operating out of New London, she served as a training and escort ship for submarines, took part in exercises in Block Island Sound and Long Island Sound; and trained intensively in anti-submarine warfare.