The U-578

From Wikipedia

The ship that sank the Jacob Jones was the U-boat U-578 which went on five war patrols.  During its career, it sank 4 merchant ships and one warship (the Jones).  It was reported missing in the Bay of Biscay in August 1942.

On its first war patrol it was rammed by a Soviet escort ship, but received only slight damage.  It was on its third patrol that it sank the Resor on February 27th and then the next day, it sank the Jacob Jones which became the first Navy ship lost to enemy action in U.S. aters.

When the U-578 was sunk on the fifth patrol, qall 40 aboard died.

The Enemy.  --GreGen

USS Jacob Jones (DD-130)-- Part 2

As part of Destroyer Division 54, it had several submarine contacts.  As a member of a roving ASW patrol on February 22nd, it dropped 37 depth charges during twelve attacks on a target.  An oil slick was spotted, but no proof of a kill was found.

The ship returned to New York for more depth charges and then on 27 February 1942, the Jones spotted the burning wreck of the R.P. Resor.  It circled the stricken ship for two hours looking for survivors, but found none.

At dawn of the 29th, the U-578, which had fired the torpedoes at the Resor and had been following the  Jacob Jones, fired a spread of torpedoes and 2-3 hit the target.  All but 20-30 men died, especially after the depth charges started going off as they were set atpredetermined depths.  This also caused loss of life when the first Jacob Jones sank.

GreGen

USS Sagamore (AT-20)

Going back to the USS Jacob Jones and R.P. Resor stories, the USS Sagamore towed the Resor to a different spot.  I couldn't find out much about the Sagamore, but the AT stood for Fleet Tu and the name came from the Algonquin Indian word for chief.

It was 157 feet long and commissioned in 1918, serving until decommissioned in 1946 when it was bought and renamed the John E. McAllister before being scrapped in 1953.

In 1928, it raised the submarine S-4 (SS-109).

That Is About All I Found.  --Cooter

The R,P, Resor-- Part 2

Seaman John Forsdale said that when the torpedo hit, everyone was knocked off their feet and the deck erupted in flames.  Three more torpedoes hit the Resor.  The flames were spotted at the Shark River Life Boat Station twenty miles away and a picket boat dispatched to the site.

Two survivors were found, but the ship stayed afloat and burning 46 more hours because of trapped air.

The USS Sagamore towed the Resor thirty miles until it grounded east of Barnegot Lighthouse and a buoy placed over the wreck so other ships didn't hit it.

Later, the wreck was demolished and moved to deeper water.

It is reported that crowds gathered to watch the ship from the beaches at Asbury Park, New Jersey.

The Resor was the 24th ship and 15th tanker sunk during the U-boat campaign in early 1942 off the U.S. coast.

That Was Quite a Fire.  --GreGen

The R.P. Resor-- Part 1

Wikipedia

This past week, I have been writing about the destroyer USS Jacob Jones which was sunk by a German U-boat aftre attempting to find survivors from the torpedoed tanker SS R.P. Resor.

The Resor was owned by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey and launched in 1936, homeported in Wilmington, New Jersey.  The ship was 435 feet long and weighed 7.541 tons, crewed by 41 with an additional wartime nine man Navy Armed Guard to man the 4-inch stern gun.

The ship left Houston, Texas,  Feb. 19, 1942 carrying 78,729 barrels of crude oil to Fall River, Maine.  U-boats were very active off the U.SZ. Atlantic coast in the early months of 1942 and the ship was zig-zagging but was torpedoed by the U-578.

Part of That War Off Our Coast That Most People Don't Know About.  --GreGen