Incredibly good luck? Or was this fighting Escort just in the right “ here’ll always be an England — in the !” Such was the message of place at the right time doing the job for which Tcongratulations sent by Adm. Ernest J. King, Commander-in-Chief, US Fleet, to the officers and her crew had been trained? Whatever the men of USS England, a that had just answer, this pint-sized returned from the most successful cruise ever made by an anti- vessel. compiled one of the most Her amazing toll of sinkings had required precise teamwork on the part of her crew and those of the impressive records in the other in the hunter-killer group of which she history of modern was a part. Behind the scenes, however, and excluded from the official commendations was a secret communications intelligence center in Hawaii that had enabled England to score six kills in rapid BY BERNARD NALTY succession. Lieutenant Commander W.B. Pendleton stood on the bridge of USS England (DE-635) on 18 May 1944, The “scoreboard” from England , the as the 1400-ton destroyer escort steamed out of actual metal from the bulkhead form above the bridge port side. Purvis Bay on Florida Island in the southern Solomons. He had received orders to join two similar England to the attack! This ships, George and Raby, in searching out and sinking dramatic painting depicted the Japanese carrying destroyer escort going full-speed against a Japanese supplies to troops holding out on 1977 Edito-Service card, #47.17 featues submarine target the island of Bougainville in the the England, US Destroyer,World War II. while firing northern part of the Solomons The Second World War cards (also hedgehogs. known as World War II cards) were chain. The officer in tactical released by Edito-Service cards in 1977 command of the hunter-killer through mail subscription. group was Cmdr. Hamilton Hains, on board George, while a junior office building at the Pearl Harbor escort division commander, Cmdr. Navy Yard. There the Fleet Radio C.T. Thorwald, embarked with Unit, Pacific — FRUPac, for short Pendleton. — intercepted and decoded Although none of these officers Japanese radio traffic. knew the details, the actual In this air-conditioned vault, a objective of the three ships was a talented group of individuals, few force of Japanese submarines of whom would ever experience deployed along a picket line set up combat at sea, pored over near the . Earlier intercepted messages. Responsible in the year, carriers and fast for launching the decoding project from V/Adm. Raymond was Cmdr. Joseph Rochfort, a A. Spruance’s Fifth Fleet had cryptanalyst since 1925, who had twice knifed through these waters, spent three-years studying the raiding the Palau Islands, the Japanese language in Tokyo. His bastions of Wakde, Sarmi, and staff included L/Cmdr. Thomas Hollandia along the New Guinea Dryer, a pioneer in the use of coast, and the Japanese base at calculating machines in the work Truk in the Caroline Islands. If of code-breaking. Also interested the Americans should return for DE-635 was named for John Charles another strike at the Palaus or England. On 3 September 1941, beyond, the submarines had the England reported for duty aboard USS dual mission of attacking the task Oklahoma (BB-37). He was killed in action during the Japanese sneak force and alerting air and surface attack. Ensign England survived the units in time for them to mass and initial attack and escaped topside as destroy the advancing . the was capsizing. He remembered the men still in the radio When England and the other room and returned three times to the two destroyer escorts slipped their room — each time guiding a man to moorings and set out upon the safety. He left to go back below decks course assigned them, they were for the fourth time and was not seen again. He was one of 20 officers and acting upon secret information 395 enlisted men killed on board that came from the basement of an Oklahoma that December morning. 18 SEA CLASSICS/January 2017 seaclassicsnow.com 19