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USS England (DE-635)

Please see below for item level images and donated collections containing photographs of USS England (DE-635)

USS England (DE-635) was launched 26 September 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. H. B. England, mother of Ensign England; and commissioned 10 December 1943, Commander W. B. Pendleton in command.

USS England (DE-635) arrived at Espiritu Santo 12 March 1944 from San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Funafuti, and Guadalcanal. She took up escort duty between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal, occasionally sailing to Noumea, and once to the Marshalls. On 18 May 1944, with two other destroyers, USS England (DE-635) cleared Port Purvis on a hunt for Japanese submarines during a passage to Bougainville. Through the summer of 1944, USS England (DE-635) sailed throughout the northern Solomons, providing the escort services necessary for the building up of bases, preparations for the renewed assaults on Japanese territories to the north, and provision of supplies to garrison forces on the islands of the southwest Pacific. 

From 2 January 1945, USS England (DE-635) escorted convoys between Manus and Ulithi, the major base for operations of the carrier task forces, and later to be the staging point for the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She sailed from Ulithi 23 March for the preinvasion bombardment of Okinawa, returned to Ulithi to join the screen of two cruisers, guarding them back to Okinawa to join the 5th Fleet just after the initial assault on 1 April. On 9 May 1945, while on station, USS England (DE-635) was attacked by three Japanese dive bombers. Her antiaircraft fire set the first of these flaming, but the plane crashed USS England (DE-635) on her starboard side, just below the bridge. USS England (DE-635) sailed on to Leyte, where she received temporary repairs to put her in shape for the long voyage home. On 16 July 1945 she arrived at Philadelphia for permanent repairs and conversion to a high-speed transport. The end of the war, however, halted this work, and USS England (DE-635) was decommissioned 15 October 1945 and sold 26 November 1946.

For a complete history of USS England (DE-635) please see its DANFS page.