USS Winslow (DD-53) - World War I

World War I

When the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917 entering World War I, the destroyer was anchored in the York River near Yorktown, Virginia. She had been there guarding the river mouth since February when American relations with Germany began to deteriorate as a result of the latter country's return to unrestricted submarine warfare. Soon after US Congress declared war, Winslow moved north to the New York Navy Yard to prepare for duty overseas. Less than a month later, she moved to Boston from where she got underway for Europe on 7 May with Cassin, Ericsson, Jacob Jones, Rowan, and Tucker. After a 10-day passage, Winslow reported for duty at Queenstown, Ireland, on the 17th. On the 21st, she began patrolling the approaches to the British Isles.

Winslow operated out of Queenstown for almost a year escorting convoys into and out of Queenstown and going to the assistance of ships attacked by U-boats. Just after midnight on 11 June, she spied her first submarine and rushed to the attack. Her target submerged, and the destroyer dropped a series of depth charges. She failed, however, to find any evidence supporting the success of her attack and resumed her patrol.

On 30 July, Winslow picked up the master and 12 crewmen from SS Whitehall, torpedoed the day before by U-95, and brought them safely into Queenstown. She sighted another U-boat off Queenstown on 16 August, but heavy weather covered the submarine's tracks when it submerged and Winslow made no attack.

Six weeks later, on 24 September, the warship rushed to the assistance of Henry Lippitt, an unarmed American schooner being shelled by U-60. When the destroyer reached the 895 GRT sailing vessel, she was in flames, and the U-boat had just submerged. Winslow dropped a depth charge barrage on what appeared to be the submarine's moving wake, but broke off the attack to assist the schooner's crew; all were saved, but Henry Lippitt was sunk.

During the remainder of her assignment at Queenstown, Winslow attacked two more submarines, the first on 11 October and the second on 3 January 1918. In both cases, she depth-charged oil slicks which appeared to originate from damaged, submerged U-boats. In neither case did she receive visible confirmation of a sinking; however, during the 3 January attack, one of her depth charges threw a large mass of dark liquid high in the air. From this description, it appears that her depth charge brought up fuel oil from what was believed to be U-61. Unfortunately for Winslow, lack of definite proof kept her from being credited with a sinking.

At the beginning of April 1918, the destroyer was reassigned to the United States Naval Forces in France. Operating from Brest, she spent the remainder of the war escorting American troop transports into French ports. Although she engaged German submarines on at least seven different occasions, she did not score any confirmed successes. On 8 August, she came to the aid of Westward Ho, torpedoed in the Bay of Biscay earlier the same day by U-62.

On 5 September, she attacked the German submarine U-82, which had just torpedoed U.S. Navy transport Mount Vernon. Depth charges dropped by Winslow, Conner, Nicholson, and Wainwright failed to sink the U-boat, but, combined with defensive efforts from Mount Vernon herself, helped prevent the submarine from launching a coup de grâce against the former German liner. Mount Vernon safely made it back to Brest with the loss of 37 crewmen out of the 1,450 persons on board.

Winslow continued her patrols out of Brest through the end of hostilities on 11 November.