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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 103528:  USS Roe underway at sea, circa 1943-1944

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Roe (DD-418), 1940-1947

USS Roe, a 1570-ton Sims class destroyer, was built by the Charleston Navy Yard, South Carolina. Commissioned in early January 1940, she operated in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific until the summer of 1941. She then began escort and patrol duties in the north Atlantic as the Navy conducted an undeclared war against German submarines. After the United States formally entered the Second World War in December 1941, Roe patrolled between the U.S. and Bermuda, escorted convoys to Iceland and the British Isles, and operated in the vicinity of Trinidad and Brazil.

Roe participated in the invasion of Morocco in November 1942, screening and guiding amphibious shipping and providing gunfire support to the landings. In July 1943, following several more months of convoy escort service on the Caribbean and trans-Atlantic routes, she took part in Allied landings on Sicily. While maneuvering off that island on the night of 9-10 July, Roe collided with the destroyer Swanson. Though both ships were seriously damaged, on the following day they successfully opposed a German bomber attack before withdrawing to Algeria for repairs.

During the fall and early winter of 1943 Roe resumed escorting convoys between the U.S. and North Africa. She was sent to the Pacific early in 1944 and, from March until mid-July, conducted combat operations in the Admiralty Islands along the northern coast of New Guinea. The destroyer then moved into the central Pacific, where she served on aircraft rescue, patrol, picket and escort service for nearly a year. In December 1944 and January 1945 Roe participated in bombardments of Iwo Jima. On 24 December, during one of these raids, she helped sink the Japanese fast transport T-8 and landing ship T-157.

Roe returned to the U.S. West Coast for overhaul in July 1945. Japan surrendered while she was in the shipyard and it was decided to inactivate her rather than completing work on what was, by that time, a outdated destroyer. USS Roe decommissioned in late October 1945 and was stricken from the list of Navy ships a few weeks later. She was sold for scrapping in August 1947.

USS Roe was named in honor of Rear Admiral Francis A. Roe (1823-1901).

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Roe (DD-418), 1940-1947.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 103525

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Underway when first completed, circa 1940.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 525 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 66343

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Off New York City, 13 June 1940
Photographed by Ted Stone.

Courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia. Ted Stone Collection.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 520 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103526

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Off the New York Navy Yard, 16 April 1943.
Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103527

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Off the New York Navy Yard, 16 April 1943.
Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103528

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Underway at sea, circa 1943-1944.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 91KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 41766

USS Roe
(DD-418)

Rescues crewmen of a U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 who had been adrift in the Pacific Ocean for eleven days, 14 December 1944. The men were brought aboard from the two rubber life rafts visible alongside Roe amidships. Their plane crashed at sea following a 3 December 1944 mission against the Japanese mainland.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 550 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Roe (DD-418). The following list features two of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: 80-G-15823
    USS Roe (DD-418) photographed on 4 June 1942.
    Starboard broadside surface view. The ship is wearing the mottled pattern of Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage.


  • Photo #: 80-G-290663
    USS Roe (DD-418) en route to rescue survivors of a B-29 that had crashed at sea, December 1944. Taken from the air by the crew of a PBM flying boat.
    Port broadside aerial view, showing Roe approaching the survivors' life raft.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 28 February 2006