Langdon K. Fieberling

History


Name:	USS Fieberling
Namesake:	Langdon K. Fieberling
Builder:	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco
Laid down:	19 March 1944
Launched:	2 April 1944
Commissioned:	11 April 1944
Decommissioned:	13 March 1948
Struck:	1 March 1972
Honors and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 20 November 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Buckley-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,400 long tons (1,422 t) standard 1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full load
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	36 ft 9 in (11.20 m)
Draft:	13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Propulsion:	General Electric turbo-electric drive 12,000 shp (8.9 MW) 2 × propellers
Speed:	24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range:	4,940 nmi (9,150 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers, 198 men
Armament:	3 × 3 in (76 mm) DP guns 3 × 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes 1 × quad 1.1 in (28 mm) AA gun 8 × 20 mm cannon 1 × hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 2 × depth charge tracks 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors

USS Fieberling (DE-640) was a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, named in honor of Lieutenant Langdon K. Fieberling (1910–1942).

Fieberling was launched on 2 April 1944 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, California; sponsored by Mrs. C. A. Fieberling, mother of Lieutenant Fieberling; and commissioned on 11 April 1944, Lieutenant Commander E. E. Lull, USNR, in command.

Half of Torpedo Squadron Eight (VT-8) remained in Norfolk, Virginia, after its aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8), left for the Pacific in May 1942, in order to replace their obsolescent Douglas TBD Devastators with Grumman TBF Avengers. The 21 aircraft reached Hawaii on May 29, the day after Hornet had departed the island to fight in the Battle of Midway. Because Midway Island's airfield had some space available, Fieberling took six Avengers there. On June 4, the first day of the battle, he led his detachment in an attack on the Japanese aircraft carriers. Of the 18 men, only Ensign Albert K. Earnest and Radioman 3rd Class Harrier H. Ferrier survived. Fieberling was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

Fieberling arrived at Pearl Harbor on 27 June 1944 for escort duty to Eniwetok, making three such voyages to the staging ground for the operation until 3 September. Five days later she sailed for Manus Island and Purvis Bay, arriving 27 September. Until 15 December, she sailed out of Port Purvis on escort and air-sea rescue duty, then served as station ship at Funafuti until 17 February 1945.

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