Today the editor brings you an analysis of the attributes of the Battleship Girls destroyer William D. Porter. The Fletcher-class destroyer USS William D. Porter belongs to the United States Navy and is the Fletcher-class DD-579 ship. Construction began on May 27, 1942 at the Ora

Today, the editor brings you an analysis of the attributes of the Battleship Girls destroyer William D. Porter. The Fletcher-class destroyer USS William D. Porter belongs to the United States Navy and is the Fletcher-class DD-579 ship. Construction began on May 27, 1942 at the Orange Shipyard in Texas. It was launched on September 27 of the same year. It was commissioned into the Atlantic Fleet on July 6, 1943. It was sunk by the Japanese on June 10, 1945.

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She is just one of the more than one hundred Fletcher-class destroyers built by the U.S. Navy since the height of World War II. But unlike her other sisters who made great achievements or were unknown, this destroyer almost changed the course of history.

The new ship takes on major responsibilities

The ship was commissioned in July 1943. Just like the U.S. military was building dumplings at a speed, the crew of the William D. Porter were all new recruits - 125 of them were the first Before he served on a ship for the first time, he was still in high school or working on a farm.

But in 1943, when the fighting was dark and the world was dark, there was not much time left for them to train. Less than four months into its service, the USS Porter was ordered to participate in one of the most top-secret operations of the U.S. Navy during World War II: escorting President Roosevelt on his way to meet with allied leaders.

The task is simple yet difficult. Escort the president and a group of senior officials to the port of Kebir in French North Africa to participate in the first meeting of the top leaders of the Allies during the war. The small fleet would cross the Atlantic at high speed. Even at top speed, the trip would last eight days. During this period, each ship will conduct routine training and exercises as usual, so that the sailors have something to do. The William D. Porter, in particular, was in desperate need of training for her rookie crew.

On November 12, the battleship Iowa left Norfolk Naval Port and quietly entered Sabic Bay. Then it sailed into the Atlantic Ocean carrying President Roosevelt. Two escorting aircraft carriers and three destroyers came to meet. One of these destroyers was the USS William D. Porter.

However, the destroyer's journey was bumpy from the start. When Captain Walter directed the warship to reverse out of the trestle of Norfolk Harbor, a terrible noise came from somewhere. Walter and other officers looked out from the bridge and were shocked to find that their ship was actually hanging on another destroyer next door - the anchor of the William D. Porter was pulled on the bridge of the warship next door. , tearing off the ship's deck railings, life rafts, launches and a bunch of other miscellaneous equipment. Fortunately, although the William D. Porter lost her anchor to a neighboring ship, this loss could only be considered negligible compared to the latter's messy superstructure.

The captain had no choice but to apologize and hurried after the Iowa.

Unlucky things keep happening

After the escort operation began, William D. Porter still took the trouble on himself.

Operation entered the second day, and the fleet approached the waters where Nazi submarines were active. The nerves of all the ships were tense, and suddenly there was a huge explosion from underwater. The fleet immediately set up an anti-submarine formation and began searching intensively. Soon, the William D. Porter signaled that there was no attack. It turned out that the safety valve of a depth charge on the ship was not screwed properly. It fell into the sea while sailing at high speed and exploded, so everyone was only in for a false alarm. However, one wave after another broke out. The William D. Porter suddenly encountered a strange wave, and a sailor was swept away by the wave and disappeared. Immediately afterwards, the ship's power boiler suddenly stopped operating and had to break away from the fleet formation.

The embarrassing behavior of the William D. Porter made General Ernest King on the Iowa feel ashamed and severely reprimanded Captain Walter. The captain hurriedly promised to behave well and not make any mistakes again.

Lightning Strike President

On November 14, the fleet sailed to the ocean east of Bermuda. The captain of the Iowa decided to show Roosevelt the battleship's strength against air strikes. Iowa released dozens of balloons and shot them down with a dense barrage of anti-aircraft fire. President Roosevelt sat on the deck and watched the exercise.

At this time, some balloons floated within range of William D. Porter.Here's your chance to show yourself! The captain immediately ordered the balloons to be fired upon. Watching the balloons being shot down one by one, the excited captain decided to have another simulated torpedo shooting exercise.

Of course, it is not really necessary to shoot a torpedo. If the detonator is pulled out, the torpedo will not be able to be fired. Other than that, everything is the same as in actual combat. Since they were going to shoot torpedoes, they had to have a target, and the crew immediately selected the Iowa, which was closest to them.

Everything was ready, and the bridge commander ordered the crew below the deck: "No. 1, fire!" - He paused, because this time is usually used to confirm whether the launch was successful. "No. 2, fire!", the commander ordered again. After waiting for a while, he ordered for the third time: "No. 3, fire!"

But this time, he really saw a torpedo "swish" out of the torpedo tube, heading straight towards Iowa, and A group of crew members whose faces turned pale with fear.

There was an explosion on the ship immediately. Their falsehood became true! The torpedo will hit Iowa in 2 minutes, and it's almost too late! what to do? Quickly notify the other party! But the mission required radio silence, so they wanted to use a flashlight to report the message, but in a hurry they reported "the torpedo is moving away from your ship". The message again was wrong, and it became "our ship is reversing at full speed."

Even the captain couldn't stand it anymore and ordered the radio silence to be broken, finally sending the correct message.

The correspondent on the Iowa was surprised who broke the silence, and cautiously replied, "Please double check, where is the submarine?" William D. Porter typed, "There are torpedoes in the water, turn right!"

This Down Iowa did not respond, because at this time the scout above had already shouted: "A torpedo was found on the starboard side! This is not a drill!"

Iowa made an emergency turn and accelerated, and the ship's long guns and short guns all fired at the torpedo. The crew was busy. The deck tilted so severely to the left that Roosevelt's bodyguards had to hold on to his wheelchair, and one of them pulled out a pistol and prepared to fire a torpedo.

Thank God, Iowa turned in time and finally avoided the torpedo. Roosevelt wrote in his diary: "During Monday's maneuvers, the Porter fired a torpedo, which we saw exploded a thousand feet from us."

All crew members were detained

Although later The president made it safely to his destination, but for William D. Porter, it was not over yet. She was ordered to return halfway and parked at the nearby Bermuda Naval Base. She was "welcomed" by the Marine Corps as soon as she landed, and then the entire crew was detained.

The crew of William D. Porter will face rigorous interrogation next - are there saboteurs who have sneaked into the ship and want to assassinate the president? Or was this just a ridiculous mistake? After several days of investigation, the matter finally came to light - in fact, the operator who launched the torpedo actually forgot to pull out the fuse of torpedo tube No. 3.

Okay, you have made such a big mistake, big brother, take over your blame. He was charged with attempted assassination of the president and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. But fortunately, the president was merciful and said that the young man was ignorant and let it go this time. This way he did not ruin the rest of his life.

Since then, William D. Porter has become famous. The most common greeting wherever he goes is "Don't fire, we are Republicans." (The then President Roosevelt was a Democrat, and Republicans had many objections to many of his policies. Dissatisfied)" she also became the most unlucky warship in the U.S. Navy that no one wanted to serve on.

Subsequently, Porter's captain, Major Walter, resigned and was later promoted to rear admiral. Retreat from Porter to stay safe.

Bombardment Command

After this incident, the Navy no longer dared to send this broom star to perform important tasks. The ship was subsequently transferred to the most remote Aleutian Islands. William D. Porter also cultivated his mind and character, worked diligently all the way, and made no major mistakes.

So, it seems our fortune has turned around? But no.

During a break from an exercise, a sailor on the ship was so drunk that he insisted on firing a cannonball to cheer up the fun. No one could stop him, so they could only watch as the man fired a shot into the sky from the ship's 127mm cannon.This shell exploded in the yard of the base commander's house, turning the commander and his guests into disgrace as they were having a feast at home. Believe it or not, miraculously no one in the Commander's family was injured.

The Pacific War entered its final stage. The William D. Porter was transferred from the Aleutians to the Philippine Sea to participate in the final battle against Japan.

During the Battle of Okinawa in March 1945, she served as the most dangerous air defense radar sentry. The daily training finally paid off. William D. Porter shot down 6 Japanese aircraft and led the fleet to shoot down 7.