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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Sutton
Shelton Beverly Sutton, Jr.,
born in
Brewton,
Ga., on 21 August
1919, was appointed ensign, USNR, on 21 April 1941. On 12 February 1942, Sutton was ordered to the 3d Naval District to await transportation to light cruiser
Juneau (CL-52). He reported for
duty in the new ship on 2 March
1942. Ens. Sutton was killed on 13 November 1942 when
Juneau was
torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-26 and sunk with heavy loss of life in the aftermath of the nocturnal naval Battle
of Guadalcanal.
_________
William C. Cole (DE-286) -- a Rudderow-class destroyer escort -- was
renamed Sutton on 18 September
1943, but the contract for her
construction by the Bethlehem Steel Co.,
Hingham,
Mass.,
was cancelled on 12 March 1944.
I
(DE-771:
displacement 1,240; 1ength 306'; beam 36'7"; draft 11'8"; speed 21 knots;
complement 216; a. 3 3-inch, 1 40 millimeter, 10 20 millimeter, 2 depth charge tracks,
8 depth charge projectors, 1 depth charge
projector (Hedgehog), 3 21-inch torpedo tubes; class Cannon)
The unnamed destroyer escort DE-771 was laid down on 23 August
1943 by the Tampa
Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, Fla.; named Sutton on 30 March 1944; launched on 6 August 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Shelton B. Sutton, Sr. mother of the late Ens. Sutton; and commissioned on 22 December 1944, Lt. Thomas W. Nazro, D-V(S), USNR, in command.
After
fitting out, Sutton sailed on 12 January 1945 for the Bermuda operating area
and held her shakedown
there until she headed for
Boston
on 14 February. After
yard work at the Boston Navy Yard and training at
Casco Bay,
Maine, she was assigned to Escort Division (CortDiv)
79 which was attached to Task Group (TG) 22.13 and sailed for
Argentia,
Newfoundland, on 1 March. The group conducted antisubmarine patrols off
Newfoundland from 4 to 22 March when it returned to
Casco Bay. The destroyer
escort stood out of
Casco
Bay on 3 April with her task
group that took station on the North-South antisubmarine barrier patrol.
Following the German surrender on 7 May 1945 and
the cessation of all operations against
Germany
on “V-E day” (8 May), Sutton and Neal A.
Scott (DE-769) were relieved of
patrol duty on 9 May to intercept the German submarine U-1228 that
wished to surrender. They contacted the U-boat
the next day, and the two ships began
escorting her to
Casco Bay. Sutton was soon detached, however, to accept the surrender of U-234, that had been en route to
Japan
when
Germany
surrendered. Sutton met the U-boat two days later, and she escorted her towards the
United States
.
On 15May, she put a 15-man boarding
party on board the submarine and
embarked 37 prisoners (two Japanese naval officers who had been on board the
German boat had committed suicide after they had learned of their Axis partner’s
surrender), including General der FliegerUlrich
Kessler of the Luftwaffe. Sutton's destination
was changed to
Portsmouth,
N.H., where she arrived with U-234 on the 19th. The submarine and the prisoners were delivered to a representative of
the 1st Naval District. The escort steamed
on to
New York two days later and remained there
until early June.
Sutton and CortDiv 79 departed
New York
for
Jacksonville,
Fla.,
on 10 June 1945 and arrived on the 14th. Sutton then operated out of Mayport, serving as plane guard for the escort carriers Guadalcanal (CVE-60) and Charger (CVE-30) until 29 August when she sailed for
Charleston and a yard overhaul that lasted for
all of September. She moved up the coast to
Norfolk from 5 to 18 October, when she
sailed for the
Gulf
of Mexico. She lay at
New
Orleans from 23 October to 6
November when she got underway for
Norfolk. The escort vessel operated from there until the
fall of 1947 when she moved to
New
York to be inactivated. She was placed in reserve, out of commission, in September
1947 and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In
1948, the destroyer escort was moved to
Florida and joined the “mothball fleet” at Green Cove Springs.
Loaned to the
Republic
of
Korea under the
provisions of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program on 2 February 1956 and renamed Kang Won, the ship operated under the
South Korean flag into the 1970s. Sutton was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 November 1974. The ship,
ultimately classified as a frigate, was eventually deleted from the
Republic of
Korea’s naval forces on 28 October 1977.
Corrected, Robert J. Cressman, 2 June 2008