USS Elden (DE-264)

History
Name:	USS Elden
Laid down:	23 February 1943
Launched:	6 April 1943
Commissioned:	4 August 1943
Decommissioned:	18 January 1946
Struck:	8 January 1946
Honors and awards:	6 battle stars (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 12 July 1947
General characteristics
Type:	Evarts-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,140 long tons (1,158 t)
Length:	289 ft 5 in (88.21 m)
Beam:	35 ft 1 in (10.69 m)
Draft:	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6,000 shp (4,474 kW) 2 screws
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)
Range:	6,000 nmi (11,000 km)
Armament:	3 × single 3"/50 Mk.22 dual purpose guns 1 × Hedgehog projector 8 × depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Elden (DE-264) was an Evarts-class destroyer escort in the service of the United States Navy, named after Ralph Waldo Elden, executive officer of USS Hammann (DD-412), who was killed during the battle of Midway, 6 June 1942.

Elden (DE-264) operated mainly in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II. Most notably, she participated in "Operation Forager" and "Operation Detachment". Elden earned six battle stars and was scrapped in 1947.

Service history

Elden (DE-264) was launched on 6 April 1943 by Boston Naval Shipyard, Charlestown, Massachusetts; sponsored by Mrs. L. K. Elden, mother of Ralph Waldo Elden; and commissioned on 4 August 1943, Lieutenant Commander George F. Adams in command.

Sailing from Norfolk on 13 October 1943 for duty with the Pacific Fleet, Elden arrived at Pearl Harbor on 17 November. She trained in anti-submarine and amphibious landing exercises and three times screened oilers to rendezvous with the 5th Fleet, the third time during the occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro in the Marshalls. She departed Pearl Harbor on 30 March 1944 to join a hunter-killer task group on patrol in the eastern Marshalls.

Elden departed Pearl Harbor again on 1 June 1944 with a convoy for Eniwetok, then saw action in the capture and occupation of the Marianas. She patrolled off Tinian to prevent enemy troops from landing behind American lines on Saipan. Her guns sank several barges the night of 25–26 June. After anti-submarine patrol off Eniwetok in early July, she returned to screening transports at Saipan, and deliver harassing fire on Tinian. During the invasion of Guam, she escorted convoys from Eniwetok.

Elden operated out of Manus from 26 August 1944, screening oilers to refueling rendezvous with ships invading the Palaus and Leyte. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 November for overhaul and remained there for amphibious and anti-submarine training. She escorted two convoys to Eniwetok in January and February 1945, then arrived off Iwo Jima on 7 March to patrol the transport area until 20 March. She returned to the west coast for overhaul, then operated from Ulithi from 21 July as escort for oilers refueling fleet units executing the final massive raids on Japan. Elden served in the Far East on occupation duty, then returned to San Francisco on 25 November. She was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard on 18 January 1946, and sold on 12 July 1947.

References

• Leach, D. (1987). Now Hear This, Ohio: The Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-344-3
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS Elden at NavSource Naval History