Technical
destroyer
class: Wickes
steam 2-shaft SHP=24,200
1,190 tons displacement
314.5'� x 31.75'� x 9.75'
Service speed 35 knots

Commissioned 5 August 1919
1919 joined the Atlantic Fleet
1922 in reserve
1932-1937 served in Scouting Fleet
16 October 1939 recommissioned for Neutrality Patrol and later served in the Caribbean.
1 January to 23 February 1943 served in the hunter-killer group TG 21.13 in the North Atlantic
1943-1945 escort duty in the Caribbean.
21 July 1945 decommissioned and sold for scrap
The ship received one battle star for her convoy duty in WW II

The United States were worried that the Vichy-French naval units stationed in Martinique in the French West Indies might join the German offensive in the Caribbean and therefore Washington had decided to block the port of Fort de France. To that purpose the destroyers USS Blakeley, USS Ellis and a patrol craft were operating in that area. All ships entering or leaving the port were searched by the American ships. The Germans, on the other hand, were afraid that the French might help the Allied in their war effort in the Caribbean. Therefore U-156 and later U-69 (Gräf) were in their turn ordered to block Fort de France too.

On 22 May 1942, the USS Blakeley picked up seven survivors from the Quaker City, which was sunk by U-156 four days earlier at 15°01'N-57°38'W and landed them on 24 May at Barbados.

On 25 May the Blakeley was patrolling off Martinique when U-156 detected the destroyer between her and the coast. At 15:52 CET two torpedoes were fired. One passed ahead of the destroyer but the second one struck target. The explosion blew off sixty feet of her bow, killing 6 and wounding 21 crewmen. The commanding officer of the destroyer acted quickly and turned his ship away from the U-boat and managed to limp into Fort-de-France. Hartenstein reported the incident to the BdU and asked for permission to enter the port to finish the destroyer off. BdU, however, refused and did not allow U-156 to enter Fort de France.

As a result of the attack on the Blakeley the US navy despatched the destroyers USS Breckenridge, Greer and Tarbell and two PBY Catalina aircraft to the area, thus forcing U-156 and U-69 to leave the area. The Blakeley received emergency repairs in Fort de France. An American ship later towed her to the nearby island of St Lucia where the US had air and naval bases, there she got additional repairs. Later she got some more repairs in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She then steamed to Philadelphia where she was refitted with the bow taken from her stricken sister ship USS Taylor (DD 94). She was also thoroughly overhauled and returned to duty in the Caribbean in September 1942.

Thanks to Walter Janssens for extra information on this page and thanks to Dennis Peck for casualty figures on this page.�

Unless otherwise stated, all dates and times are from the German perspective and are given in CET.
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