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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive

Japanese aircraft attack off Okinawa - 21 of her crew
were lost with the ship and remain on eternal duty

USS Bates (DE 68 / APD 47)

Flag Hoist / Radio Call Sign:
N - G - A - Q

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive) - American Campaign Medal
Second Row: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/2 stars - European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - WWII Victory Medal

Specifications:
Class: Buckley
Type: TE (turbine-electric drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1400 tons (light), 1740 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 9" (extreme)
Draft: 10' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 2 "D" Express boilers, G.E. turbines with electric drive, 12000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 24 kts
Range: 6,000 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Complement: 15 / 198

Bates (DE 68) Building and Operational Data:

29 March 1943: Keel laid by the Bethlehem Steel Co., Hingham, Mass.

06 June 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Elizabeth Nason Bates, the mother of Ens. Bates

12 September 1943: Commissioned at Hingham, Mass. by Radm. Travis Smith; Lcdr. Eugene H. Maher in command, shipyard workers presented a check to the ship in the mount of $75.

27 July 1944: APD conversion commenced at Marine Basin Co., Gravesend Bay, Brooklyn, N.Y.

31 July 1944: Reclassified APD 47

23 October 1944: APD conversion completed, departed for the Pacific on 28 October

25 May 1945: At 11:15, attacked by 3 kamikazes while patrolling two miles south of Ie Shima, 21 crewmembers were killed in the attack, Bates sank at 19:23

25 June 1945: Struck from the NVR after 1 year and 7⅓ months of service (hulk was donated to the government of the Ryukyu Islands, 01 July 1957)

Size	Image Description	Contributed By And/Or Copyright
43k	Edward Munroe Bates, Jr. was born on 19 September 1919 at Philadelphia, Penn. to Edward Munroe Bates, Sr., and Elizabeth Bates. He grew up in Philadelphia with his two brothers, Robert and Peter Bates. While residing in Great Neck, Long Island, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 12 July 1940 at New York City as an apprentice seaman. Following active duty training on board USS *Wyoming* (BB 32), Bates received an appointment as a midshipman on 10 August 1940. Commissioned ensign on 14 November 1940, he was assigned to USS *Arizona* (BB 39), reporting to that battleship on 01 December. Ultimately, Bates served as a junior watch and division officer in the ship’s F Division. On board when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 07 December 1941, Bates was numbered with the dead in the destruction of Arizona that morning. His body was unrecoverable, and he is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punch Bowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii. USS *Bates* (DE 68) (1943-1945) was the first ship to be named in his honor. (Photo from the web site: Honor States)	Mike Smolinski Clifton, N.J. Archive Manager DE / FF / LCS Archive Navsource
809k	16 August 1943: Hingham, Mass. - The future USS *Bates* (DE 68) and an unidentified sister at the fitting out pier of the Bethlehem Steel-Hingham Shipyard (Source: Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard)	Mike Green Port Angeles, Wash.
39k	crew portrait	Carolyn Hooper
115k	undated wartime image	Don Scott via Robert Taylor
133k	Two views of the undated wartime image which was given to crewmembers as a remembrance of their service. Many ships gave a ship portrait like this one to crewmembers. (Top photo from Randy's Dad, a wartime crewmember)	Randy Barsalou
308k		Chin Yu Chu Brunei Darussalam South East Asia

Bates History
View the USS Bates (DE 68 / APD 47) DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command web site.
View the last official War Diary entry of USS Bates as submitted by the ship on 31 May 1945.

Bates' Commanding Officers
Thanks to Wolfgang Hechler & Ron Reeves

Dates of Command	Commanding Officers
1.) 12 Sep. 1943 - 05 May 1944	Lcdr. Eugene Hugh Maher, USNR (Comm. CO) (Ogden, Utah)
2.) 05 May 1944 - 25 May 1945	Lcdr. Henry Albert Wilmerding Jr., USNR (CO at ship's loss) (Oyster Bay, N.Y.)

Crew Contact And Reunion Information

Reunion Contact: William S. McMillan, SoM 1/c
Address: 17 Highland Place
City/State: Canajoharie NY 13317-1303
Phone: (518) 673-3589
E-mail: Stan McMillan

Note About Contacts

Contact information is compiled from various sources over a period of time and may, or may not, be correct. Every effort has
been made to list the newest contact. However, our entry is only as good as the latest information that's been sent to us. We list
only a contact for the ship if one has been sent to us. We do NOT have crew lists, rosters, or deck logs available. Please see the
Frequently Asked Questions section on NavSource's Main Page for that information.

Additional Resources

Navsource APD Pages, USS Bates (APD 47)
Tin Can Sailors
The U.S. Navy Memorial
Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
The Destroyer Escort Historical Museum
The Destroyer History Foundation
Tin Can Sailors Shipmate Registry - USS Bates

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This Page Created And Maintained By Mike Smolinski
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