Launched in October
1919 in Philadelphia, the BORIE (DD-215) was
commissioned on 24 March 1920. Following a year
operating in Turkish waters, she reported to the Asiatic
Fleet, and for the next four years she spent winters in
the Philippine Islands and summers in Chefoo and
Shanghai, China. In September 1923, when an earthquake
destroyed Yokohama and part of Tokyo, the BORIE and
other U.S. ships sped to Japan to join disaster relief
efforts. Her sister ship, the STEWART (DD-224) was the
first foreign naval vessel to reach Yokohama after the
quake. The BORIE returned home to serve with the
Atlantic Fleet in the Caribbean and Europe until 1929
when she began a three-year tour with the Asiatic Fleet.
Following conversion to
a squadron leader she operated along the West Coast
until late 1939 and then, with the BARRY (DD-248), GOFF
(DD-247), TATTNALL (DD-125), and J. FRED TALBOT
(DD-156), she transferred to the Panama Sea Frontier
Command. With the coming of war, the old four-pipers
struggled to meet the U-boat challenge in the Caribbean
and along the East Coast with inoperative World War I
sound gear and no radar. On 9 June 1942, the BORIE was
ordered to hunt for the sub that had torpedoed the
freighter MERRIMACK off Cozumel and look for survivors.
The U-boat escaped but a week later, the destroyer found
eight men clinging to life on a raft.
The BORIE
subsequently assumed role of escort commander in the
sub-infested Caribbean where her fellow escorts were
usually no more than two or three patrol craft and
converted yachts. Hoping to ward off the enemy, her crew
rigged a bunk bed spring to her foremast to simulate a
radar installation. Not until August 1942 did the BORIE
receive four 20-mm machine guns and effective sound
gear. She finally got her radar in January 1943 and
reported to the South Atlantic to escort convoys on the
4,000-mile route between Trinidad and Recife, Brazil. In
the BORIE’s group were the corvettes COURAGE (PG-70) and
TENACITY (PG-71) and a couple gunboats. With as many as
ten ships in a convoy, the escorts were hard put to
prevent U-boat attacks. In March and May 1943 enemy
submarines loosed their torpedoes and escaped, leaving
crippled merchantmen in their wake despite the best
efforts of the BORIE and her fellow escorts.
The
BORIE left the Caribbean and on 30 July 1943 joined one
of the newly organized hunter-killer groups. With the
escort carrier CARD (CVE-11), the BORIE, BARRY
(DD-248), and GOFF (DD-247) set out sweep the U.S.-North
African convoy route. In the first month, the carrier’s
planes netted three submarines. On 9 August, while
rescuing forty-four survivors from one of the doomed
U-boats a trio of torpedoes forced the BORIE to end the
effort.
In
September and October 1943, the CARD’s planes accounted
for four more submarines and on the stormy night of 31
October, the BORIE sank a fifth. Continuing her search
at 0153 on 1 November, she made radar contact again and
attacked with depth charges. As she drew back from the
area of the attack, the U-405 rose from the disturbed
water where the BORIE’s search light found her. Closing
on the U-boat, the destroyer opened fire with her main
battery and 20-mm machine guns. As the destroyer and
U-boat maneuvered for position, their gunners waged a
deadly machine-gun battle. The submarine managed to fire
one torpedo, which missed, while the BORIE’s 4-inch gun
obliterated the sub’s deck gun.
As the U-405 tried to
run, the tin can’s skipper, Lieutenant Charles H.
Hutchins, gave the order to ram. Increasing her speed to
twenty-five knots, the BORIE set a crash course. Just
seconds before the collision, the sub turned to parallel
the destroyer, and a huge wave lifted the BORIE and put
her down on the U-boat’s deck, pinning it under her bow.
Men on both vessels opened fire with small arms as the
two ships lay locked bow over bow. In the meantime, the
pounding of sub against ship caused severe underwater
damage along the BORIE’s entire port side, including
both engine rooms. The ensuing gun battle lasted ten
minutes, until the U-405 pulled away and again attempted
to escape. In slow pursuit, the BORIE fired her guns,
torpedoes, and finally depth charges, which straddled
the sub, lifting it out of the water. Nearly dead in the
water, herself, the destroyer shook with the explosions.
Her main battery gunners kept up their fire and
ultimately brought the sub to a halt. Signaling their
surrender, the boat’s crew launched life rafts and
abandoned the sub minutes before it went down. The
entire encounter with the U-405 lasted one hour and four
minutes.
As the BORIE maneuvered
to port to pick up the U-boat survivors, her sound
operator heard a torpedo, and the destroyer turned hard
to port, evading the torpedo but running down the men in
the water as she cleared the area. Soon, however, her
forward engine room had flooded completely, and she lost
all power. The crew managed to keep her nose into the
huge waves and she remained afloat through the night and
into the next morning when the CARD’s search planes
spotted her. By afternoon, the task group reached the
BORIE, which by that time was beyond saving. Lieutenant
Hutchins gave the order to abandon ship, but the seas
were too rough for a rescue ship to go alongside. As the
GOFF and BARRY stood by in the gathering darkness to
pick up her crew, the men of the BORIE went overboard,
into rafts and icy cold water. Three officers and
twenty-four men survived the battle but died when they
abandoned the ship.
The task group stood by
overnight, and on the morning of 2 November 1943,
gunfire from the BARRY and depth bombs from the CARD’s
planes sent the BORIE to the bottom at 0955. |