USS Fitch (DD-462)

History
USS Fitch underway in 1942
United States
Name:	Fitch
Builder:	Boston Navy Yard
Laid down:	6 January 1941
Launched:	14 June 1941
Commissioned:	3 February 1942
Decommissioned:	24 February 1956
Struck:	1 July 1971
Identification:	DD-462
Fate:	Sunk as target off Florida, 15 November 1973
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,630 tons
Length:	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam:	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft:	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion:	50,000 shp (37,000 kW) 4 boilers 2 propellers
Speed:	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range:	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement:	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament:	5 × 5 in (127 mm)/38 cal dual purpose guns, 6 × 0.5 in (12.7 mm) machine guns, 6 × Oerlikon 20 mm cannons, 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 2 × depth charge tracks

USS Fitch (DD-462/DMS-25), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Commander LeRoy Fitch, an officer during the American Civil War.

Fitch was launched on 14 June 1941 by Boston Navy Yard; sponsored by Mrs. H. W. Thomas, grandniece of Commander Fitch. The ship was commissioned on 3 February 1942, Lieutenant Commander Henry Crommelin in command. She was reclassified DMS-25 on 15 November 1944, and again classified DD-462 on 15 July 1955.

Fitch's first mission, from 1 July to 5 August 1942, was to escort the aircraft carrier Ranger to a point off the Gold Coast, where the carrier flew off United States Army Air Forces planes for Accra. The destroyer returned to Norfolk on 5 August for exercises in preparation for the assault on North Africa, for which she sailed from Bermuda 25 October. Screening Ranger and two escort carriers, Fitch took part in the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco, on 8 November, and guarded the carriers as they flew Army planes off to the captured airfield at Port Lyautey. Returning to Norfolk 24 November, Fitch joined in exercises in Casco and Chesapeake Bays, and performed coastal escort duty, sailing as far south as the Panama Canal Zone, through the remainder of 1942.

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