USS Donnell (DE-56)

History
Name:	USS Donnell
Ordered:	1942
Builder:	Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard
Laid down:	27 November 1942
Launched:	13 March 1943
Commissioned:	26 June 1943
Decommissioned:	23 October 1945
Reclassified:	IX-182, 15 July 1944
Struck:	16 November 1945
Honors and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 29 April 1946
General characteristics
Class and type:	Buckley-class destroyer escort
Displacement:	1,400 long tons (1,422 t) light 1,740 long tons (1,768 t) standard
Length:	306 ft (93 m)
Beam:	37 ft (11 m)
Draft:	9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) standard 11 ft 3 in (3.43 m) full load
Propulsion:	2 × boilers General Electric turbo-electric drive 12,000 shp (8.9 MW) 2 × solid manganese-bronze 3,600 lb (1,600 kg) 3-bladed propellers, 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) diameter, 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m) pitch 2 × rudders 359 tons fuel oil
Speed:	23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Range:	3,700 nmi (6,900 km) at 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) 6,000 nmi (11,000 km) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	15 officers, 198 men
Armament:	3 × 3"/50 caliber guns 1 × quad 1.1"/75 caliber gun 8 × single 20 mm guns 1 × triple 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar 8 × K-gun depth charge projectors 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Donnell (DE-56), a Buckley-class destroyer escort of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Ensign Earl Roe Donnell (1918–1942), who was killed in action while serving in Scouting Squadron 6 aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise (CV-6) during an attack on the Marshall Islands on 6 February 1942.

Donnell was laid down on 27 November 1942 at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, at Hingham, Massachusetts, launched on 13 March 1943, sponsored by Mrs. E. R. Donnell, mother of Ensign Donnell, and commissioned on 26 June 1943, with Lieutenant Commander F. C. Billings, USNR, in command.

Donnell sailed from Boston on 31 August 1943 for trans-Atlantic convoy duty. She guarded the safe passage of four convoys to Derry and return in the buildup for the invasion of Europe in June. At sea bound for Derry again on her fifth voyage, on 3 May 1944 Donnell made a sound contact, then sighted a periscope a few minutes later and pressed home a depth charge attack on German submarine U-473. Simultaneously she was struck by a torpedo which blew off her stern. Explosion of her own depth charges inflicted additional damage on the escort. Her casualties were 29 killed and 25 wounded. Arriving after a 300-mile dash in response to a call from Donnell, an 18-hour hunt by the 2nd Support Group under Captain Frederic John Walker began which brought U-473 to the surface, where she was sunk by gunfire.

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