USS Winslow (DD-359)

Winslow was named after Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow and Cameron McRae Winslow. She was laid down on 18 December 1933 at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation; launched on 21 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Mary Blythe Winslow; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 February 1937.https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/winslow-iii.html

The warship completed outfitting in October and, on the 19th, embarked upon a shakedown cruise which took her to a number of European ports. Upon her return to the western hemisphere, she passed her final acceptance trials off the coast of Maine and was assigned to Battle Force, Destroyers, in the Pacific. Early in 1938, she transited the Panama Canal and joined Destroyer Squadron 9 at San Diego, California. Over the next three years, Winslow conducted operations in the eastern Pacific—generally between Hawaii and the west coast—from her home port at San Diego.

By 1941, events in Europe—where World War II was already in its second year—necessitated the strengthening of American naval forces in the Atlantic. Accordingly, Winslow retransited the canal in April and, after visiting Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, reported for duty at Norfolk, Virginia. That summer, she conducted training operations with submarines off the New England coast. Later, she also participated in Neutrality patrols, particularly those directed at keeping watch over the Vichy French ships at Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Antilles. Early in August, Winslow joined the cruiser {{USS|Tuscaloosa|CA-37|2}} in escorting {{USS|Augusta|CA-31|2}} as that heavy cruiser carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to NS Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the conference which resulted in the Atlantic Charter. Then, after escorting transports carrying reinforcements to Iceland, the destroyer arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, early in November and became a unit in the screen of America's first convoy to Southeast Asia. Convoy WS-12X, bound via the Cape of Good Hope for Singapore, departed Halifax on 10 November. Just before the convoy reached Cape Town, South Africa, where the destroyers were to part company with the convoy and head for home, word arrived that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

After leaving the convoy at Cape Town, Winslow returned to the United States where she was assigned to the 4th Fleet, which had grown out of the South Atlantic neutrality patrols. The warship patrolled the area between Brazil and Africa, searching for German submarines and blockade runners until April 1944. On two occasions during that period, she returned briefly to the United States—in June 1942 and in October 1943—to undergo repairs at Charleston, South Carolina.

Robert Morgenthau, son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and future longest serving Manhattan, NY, District Attorney (1962-2010) was a naval officer commissioned at age 20 through the V-7 program prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Morganthau was attached to Winslow from early 1942 through mid-1943. Winslow was the first of three destroyers that Morgenthau was assigned, the second USS Lansdale was sunk by a German aerial torpedo in 1944. Morgenthau was one of 234 survivors (47 men went down with the ship) and bobbed and treaded water for nearly three hours in the frigid sea before being picked up by one of two destroyer escorts that plucked the survivors from the water. Shortly after the destroyer sank, Morgenthau gave his life vest to a screaming sailor in the water next to him, who had suffered a concussion when the ship was hit. Morgenthau's third and last destroyer, USS Harry F. Bauer, was attacked by thirteen kamikazes, and survived a torpedo and dive bomber attack (both failed to detonate) at the Battle of Okinawa in April 1945. Bauer was credited with destroying 17 kamikaze planes, and the ship and all the members of her crew were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (United States).{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/h/harry-f-bauer-dm-26.html|title=Harry F. Bauer (DM-26)|website=NHHC}} Morganthau was acting executive officer on Winslow near the end of his duty on the ship, and permanent X.O. during his attachment to the Lansdale and Bauer. He was discharged as a lieutenant commander and received two awards of the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" device.

In April 1944, the warship began escorting newly constructed warships from Boston, Massachusetts via Norfolk, to the West Indies. After three such voyages, she began escorting convoys from New York to England and Ireland in August. She made five round-trip voyages across the Atlantic before putting into Charleston again in March 1945 for a four-month overhaul.

While in Charleston for alterations, she lost her torpedo tubes, traded her light, single-purpose, 5-inch guns for five dual-purpose 5-inch guns. In addition, she received 16 40-millimeter and four 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns in preparation for services in the Pacific.

However, by the end of her refresher training out of Casco Bay, Maine, hostilities had ceased. Accordingly, Winslow received orders to begin experimental work testing antiaircraft ordnance. On 17 September 1945, the ship was redesignated AG-127.

File:USS Winslow (DD-359) passing under the Cooper River Bridge at Charleston, South Carolina (USA), about August 1945 (19-N-86592).jpg

She continued her experimental work with the Operational Development Force until she was decommissioned on 28 June 1950. Winslow remained in reserve, berthed with the Charleston Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, until declared unfit for further naval service on 5 December 1957. Her name was struck from the Navy list on that same day, and she was sold on 23 February 1959 for scrapping.

{{Reflist}}

{{DANFS|http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/winslow-iii.html}}

{{Commons category|USS Winslow (DD-359)}}

{{Porter class destroyer}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winslow (DD-359)}}

Category:Porter-class destroyers

Category:World War II destroyers of the United States

Category:Ships built by New York Shipbuilding Corporation

Category:1936 ships