“Without a Single Day’s Upkeep”: USS Benson (DD-421) During Operation Husky

Author’s Note: During this 80^th anniversary cycle of World War II, I hope to correct, at least in some small way through multiple weblog posts, the incomplete scholarship given to the U.S. Navy’s missions and activities in the European and Mediterranean Theaters of Operation, compared with those in the Pacific Theater. By utilizing little known records in collections of the NHHC’s Archives Branch, the stories of the men that lived, served, and fought aboard ships will be honored––while simultaneously allowing the reader to gain a better insight into the richness, breadth, and depth of our textual holdings. Hopefully these entries will ignite a spark of desire to conduct historical research here at the Navy’s official archives, using the same collections I cite as documentary evidence.
 
Eighty years ago this July, American, British, and Canadian forces commenced Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. After the Allied armies defeated Field Marshal Erin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in the deserts and along the coasts of North Africa, the next logical move in driving the Germans from the Mediterranean Theater of Operations was invading Sicily. A successful campaign would allow for the reopening of sea lines of communication and supply in that theater, while ensuring another base from which to launch an invasion of the Italian mainland. Additionally, it would enable more time for planning, accumulation of resources, and manpower for the Allies’ long-sought after European objective––the invasion of the continent. A successful operation would have the added benefit of removing the Italians as an Axis partner.[1]

The invasion began in the early morning hours of 10 July 1943. The British 8^th Army, with Canadian forces attached, landed on Sicily’s eastern coast. They were supported by, and until firmly established ashore under the control of, the Eastern Naval Task Force. The American 7^th Army, commanded by LTG George S. Patton, Jr., USA, landed on the island’s southern coast between Scoglitti and Licata. They were supported by, and until firmly established ashore under the control of, the Western Naval Task Force (WNTF). It was led by then-VADM Henry K. Hewitt, USN.[2] Among the approximately 130 WNTF warships that saw action was USS Benson (DD-421).[3]

The actions of Benson and her crew––not only during Husky but throughout her entire service life––are detailed in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)––found here: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/b/benson-i.html. DANFS is a semi-official, turned-digital, dictionary-like publication containing histories on most naval ships throughout American history. The primary documentary evidence used to write entries come from collections in the NHHC’s former-named Ships History Branch (SHB), compiled over many years by command historians and archivists. However, Benson’s entry does not fully capture her story during her first ‘baptism by fire’ off Sicily. With additional archival research conducted in SHB collections, this story will now be fully told.

As described on the well-preserved, single page “Ship Historical Identification Card”––likely used by SHB staff as a template to collect important data about a ship––Benson was contracted under the Naval Appropriations Act of 1938. She was the first ship of the new class of destroyers named in honor of ADM William S. Benson, USN, who became the first Chief of Naval Operations in March 1915 when that position was established. She was built at the Bethlehem Ship Building Corporation of Fore River, Massachusetts, with her keel laid on 16 May 1938. She was launched by sliding down the ways on 15 November 1939, with her sponsor, ADM Benson’s widow, looking on. She was then commissioned on 25 July 1940 with LCDR C. A. Fines, USN, in command. Benson was 347 feet and ten inches long, had a beam of thirty-six feet and one inch, possessed a draft of seventeen feet and six inches, and displaced 1,620 tons. Her top speed was 36.5 knots, had a complement of 276 officers and men, and was armed with five 5-inch deck guns and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes.[4]

Upon commissioning, Benson was assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Her first mission was patrolling along the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea. Benson’s first overseas operation began on 5 May 1941, when she joined a neutrality patrol searching from Greenland to the Azores Islands for the fearsome German battleship Bismarck. However, the patrol’s ships did not find it, so they returned to the U.S., where Benson put in at the Boston Navy Yard for an overhaul. Upon completion, she participated in additional convoy escort duties between the U.S., Iceland, the U.K., and Bermuda. On 27 June 1942 she arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, for another overhaul. Upon leaving these dry docks, she returned to additional escort duty until August, when she entered the New York Navy Yard for another refit. Then she joined trans-Atlantic convoys to the U.K. in preparation for the Allies’ first offensive operation in the European theater, Operation Torch. At the end of 1942 and into the new year, Benson returned to the coast of New London, Connecticut for exercises. After successfully completing that work, she steamed for the Mediterranean Sea to undertake convoy and patrol duty, where she remained until getting underway to escort convoy NCS-1 on 6 July 1943 in preparation for Husky.[5]

According to text in the leather-covered, rawhide-bound narrative Amphibious Assault, when approaching Sicilian shores, Benson was assigned to the WNTF/U.S. 8^th Fleet’s Task Group (TG) 80.2, Escort Group. Within TG 80.2, Benson’s commanding officer, LCDR Ronald J. Woodman, USN, reported to Commander, Destroyer Division 13, who in turn reported to his superior officer of Commander, Destroyer Squadron 7 (COMDESRON-7).[6] This chain of command allowed plans, orders, and message traffic to be communicated effectively from superiors to subordinates, which was necessary to command and control such a large invasion force.

After months of preparation and planning, soldiers of Patton’s 7^th Army were lowered into landing craft to make their way ashore, primarily at Gela, in the early morning hours of 10 July. As described in the text of the well-preserved “War Record of the U.S.S. BENSON (DD-421),” during this time the ship was still conducting convoy escort duty for NCS-1, having first steamed out of the Oran, Algeria harbor on the sixth. She remained off the coast of Gela, with her sailors undoubtedly watching the landings. On 11 July, Benson began performing anti-aircraft screening duties off Gela, to prevent German or Italian airplane pilots from attacking the invasion fleet and troops on the beaches. It was in the evening of that day that Benson’s crew were first ‘baptized by fire.’[7]

On the first page of the Benson’s medical officer’s “Report of Casualties” to the Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery––the Navy’s top doctor––at “approximately 2200 Baker time on July 11, 1943, while effecting a rendezvous    with the Flagship of Destroyer Squadron Seven to shoreward of minefield off Gela, Sicily, this ship was subjected to an aerial bombing attack by enemy (German or Italian) aircraft. One or more near bomb misses about fifty feet from the starboard side of the ship were sustained.”[8] Shrapnel from the bomb explosions radiated everywhere. Benson’s commanding officer, LCDR Woodman, was standing on the bridge during the attack and was “hit on the right side of the nose . . . by three small pieces of steel.”[9] The steel fragments were removed, allowing him to remain on board and direct the actions of his crew. In total, nineteen men were wounded as a direct result of the explosions, while two men sustained injuries in the performance of their duties during the bombing. One of the nineteen wounded was the medical officer himself, LT Harold E. Spille, MC, USNR, who pulled bomb fragments out of his left foot and then continued climbing down a ladder to help another injured Sailor. Both Woodman and Spille received the Purple Heart Medal for their wounds.[10] 

Lieutenant Spille wrote in his report that “the general physical and mental condition of the ship’s company before, during and shortly after the (a)ttack was excellent.”[11] Even though this was their first battle experience, the men of Benson held fast. Undoubtedly, the uninjured men helped four of their wounded shipmates––S2c Ernest W. Walters, USN; GM2 Julian M. D’Aloise, USN; TM2 Richard B. Dunne, USN; and TM3 Harvey L. Eure, USNR––embark aboard the converted minelayer USS Weehawken (CM-12). From there, the men would be transferred on the next day, 12 July, to the nearest naval hospital or dispensary for treatment. On that same day, Benson was once again underway, this time escorting the attack cargo ship USS Betelgeuse (AK-28) from the coast of Gela to Algiers. There was little time for the Benson’s crew to process the events of, and reflect upon, the preceding day––Husky was still ongoing and they needed to press on.[12]

For the remainder of July, Benson escorted various ships to and from Sicily and Algiers. At the beginning of August, she performed anti-aircraft and anti-submarine patrols off the coast of Palermo, Sicily. Still attached to COMDESRON-7, Benson came under enemy air attacks on two separate occasions, on 1 August and 4 August. Her crew probably downed a German-piloted FW-190 airplane, likely her first confirmed kill. Then on 8 August, she escorted the ocean tug USS Nauset (AT-89) with the destroyer USS Shubrick (DD-639) in tow to the island of Malta, likely for repairs.[13]

It was during this transit, on the night of 10 August, that a deadly friendly-fire incident occurred. As stated in the Amphibious Assault history, “failing to identify each other quickly enough brought about the opening of fire of the U.S.S. BENSON on the U.S.S. BRANT [AM-24]. There were casualties in both dead and wounded but no injury was done to the BRANT’s hull and she was able to sail under her own power for Bizerte” in Tunisia.[14] This incident was undoubtedly not lost on Benson’s men, whom, after returning to Palermo, on 12 August began supporting the leap-frog landings and advances of the 7^th Army along the northern Sicilian coastline. This was accomplished through the accurate use of their 5-inch deck guns, providing naval gunfire support “as necessary” while firing on “targets of opportunity,” especially at Milazzo.[15] She also dropped depth charges on a reported enemy submarine, but with no results. Additionally, she conducted offensive sweeps of the waters off Marino Dell Platti in company with the light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) and destroyer USS Rowan (DD-405). The men of Benson finished out Operation Husky––successfully ending on 17 August 1943––by conducting a shore bombardment of the Italian mainland with two other WNTF ships.[16]

The record of Benson’s busy actions during Husky, while seemingly routine, are commendable for the fact that, as recorded in her War Record: “during and adjacent to the invasion of Sicily, the North Sicialian (sic) operations and the invasion of Italy at Salerno, this vessel for over six months operated consistently in combat areas. She was in frequent contact with the enemy without a single day’s upkeep.”[17] These feats were perhaps not accomplished by another WNTF ship. However, to fully answer that question requires scholars, World War II buffs, and Sailors to dive further into the rich holdings of the Archives Branch.