USS Forrest – D-Day – Battle of Normandy

USS Forrest history

The USS Forrest was launched on 14 June 1941 and entered service on 13 January 1942. It carried out several escort operations across the Atlantic before participating in Operation Torch in November 1942 off Morocco. The following year it patrolled again in the Atlantic, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Returning to the United States on 3 December 1943, it joined Northern Ireland on 20 April 1944 in order to participate in Operation Neptune. On the night of June 5-6, it escorted the warships heading for Utah Beach, bombing German positions on D-Day in the area. Until June 18, it escorted the allied warships and carried out several missions of naval support to the American ground forces.

It participated in the landing of Provence in August 1944, south of France, off Saint-Tropez before being transformed in the United States in rapid minesweeper in November. It was engaged in the Pacific on 17 January 1945 and participated in the Battle of Okinawa. On 27 May he destroyed two Japanese suicide bombers in flight but a third crossed the steel curtain and exploded against the hull of the Forrest at the level of flotation. Five sailors are killed, and thirteen are wounded.

Repaired on the island of Kerama Retto, it was retired from service on 30 November 1945 and sold for demolition on 20 November 1946.

USS Forrest technical sheet

Creator/User: United States of America
Denomination: DD 461 – U.S.S. Forrest
Class: Gleaves-class destroyer

Crew: 276 sailors

Armament (1944): 5x 127 mm guns, 6x 20 mm Oerlikon guns, 6x 12,7 mm Browning machine guns, 10x 533 mm torpedo tubes

Displacement: 1 630 tons
Speed: 37,4 knots
Length: 106,15 m
Beam: 11 m
Draught: 3,61 m