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NavSource Online: Mine Warfare Vessel Photo Archive

Hambleton (DD 455)
ex-DMS-20



DMS-20 call sign:
November - India - Xray - Zulu

ex-DD-455

Gleaves Class Destroyer/Ellyson Class Highspeed Minesweeper:

  • Laid down 16 December 1940 at Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Kearny, NJ
  • Launched 26 September 1941
  • Commissioned USS Hambleton (DD-455), 22 December 1941
  • Reclassified and converted to a High Speed Minesweeper, DMS-20, 15 November 1944
  • Reclassified back to a Destroyer, DD-455, decommissioned 15 January 1955 at Charleston, SC and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet Texas Group, Orange, TX
  • Struck from the Navy Register 1 June 1971
  • Sold for scrap 22 November 1972.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 1,630 t.(lt), 2,575 t.(fl)
  • Length 348' 3"
  • Beam 36' 1"
  • Draft 13' 9"
  • Speed 37.4 kts.
  • Complement 272
  • Armament: Three 5"/38 mounts and two quad 40mm mounts
  • Propulsion: Four Babcock and Wilcox boilers, two 50,000shp turbines (Port turbine - Boston Navy Yard turbine, Starboard turbine - Westinghouse turbine), De Laval double reduction gears, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		 Size Image Description Source
    Hambleton
    11092007    		 2.29k Torpedo-Damaged Hambleton (DMS-20) at Casablanca, ca. 11/1942. National Archives Identifier: 38329767
    Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
    Hambleton
    11092006    		 1.88k Hambleton (DMS-20): after Being Cut in Half in Dry Dock No. 1, Boston Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts, 1943. National Archives Identifier: 38329785
    Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
    USS Hambleton (DD 455)
    Hambleton 70k c. February 1944. Repaired between 28 June 1943 and early 1944 at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, following a torpedo hit on 11 November 1942
    National Archives photo BS 54741 from the Bureau of Ships Collection    		 Joe Radigan
    USS Hambleton (DMS 20)
    Hambleton 158k c. December 1944
    Underway off Boston Navy Yard
    National Archives photo from Commandment, 1st Naval District, Boston, MA    		 Mike Green
    Hambleton 217k At Boston on 18 December 1944, wearing camouflage 32a/22D. The colors appear to be navy blue with either haze gray or light gray
    National Archives photo 80-G-382799    		 Original photo: Hyperwar U.S. Navy in World War II
    Replacement photo: Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Hambleton 371k At Boston on 18 December 1944
    National Archives photo 19-LCM-DMS20-1    		 Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage
    Hambleton 49k 20 May 1954
    Algiers, Algeria
    At left is USS Randall (APA 224)
    Photo by Larry Bohn    		 Larry Bohn
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Forrest Close, USN - USNA Class of 192422 December 1941 - 27 December 1941
    02LCDR James Bernhardt Hogle, USN - USNA Class of 1924
    Awarded the Silver Star (1944) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		27 December 1941 - December 1942
    03LCDR Henry Algernon Renken, USN - USNA Class of 1931
    Awarded the Silver Star (1944) and four Legions of Merit (1944 w/Combat "V", 1946, 1965 and 1967) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		December 1942 - 15 September 1944
    04LCDR George Albert O’Connell, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1935
    Awarded two Silver Stars (1942/1943), two Bronze Stars and the Legion of Merit w/Combat "V" (1945) - Retired
    as Captain    		15 September 1944 - 18 October 1945
    05LCDR William Staunton Hitchins, USNR18 October 1945 - 16 March 1946
    06LCDR Arthur Henry Berndtson, USN - USNA Class of 1940
    Awarded the Bronze Star (1944)    		16 March 1946 - September 1946
    07LCDR George Mellotte Hagerman, USN - USNA Class of 1941
    Awarded the Silver Star (1945) and the Legion of Merit (1967) - Retired as Captain    		September 1946 - September 1947
    08LCDR George Edgar Brandt, Jr., USN - USNA Class of 1941September 1947 - July 1948
    09LCDR Edwin Fletcher Woodhead, USN - USNA Class of 1938July 1948 - November 1949
    10LCDR William Adali Robie, USN - USNA Class of 19421952
    11CDR Richard Galt Zimermann, USN - USNA Class of 1943
    Awarded the Silver Star (1945) and the Legion of Merit (1972) - Retired as Captain    		March 1953 - July 1954
    12LCDR George W. Kingston, USNJuly 1954
    ??CDR Lawrence Dener Earle, USN
    Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler, Ron Reeves, Joe Radigan and R. A. Moody
    View the Hambleton (DMS-20)
    DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway website
    Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Destroyer (DD) Photo Index Back To The Hambleton (DD-455) Page Back To the Mine Warfare Ship Photo Index Back to the Highspeed Minesweeper (DMS) Photo Index
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    This page was created by Gary P. Priolo & maintained by Joseph M. Radigan (of blessed memory) & David Wright

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