USS BORIE vs. U-405 (cont.)
1-2 NOVEMBER 1944
USS BORIE vs. U-405 (cont.)
With the two combatants stuck fast and grinding together in the 20-foot swell, the tenor of the battle shifted to that more common in the age of sail. Sailors from each side began spilling onto the decks. Small arms fire erupted over the howling wind. Those Americans who could not find a tommy-gun or rifle began hurling whatever they could at the Germans. A signalman fired a flare pistol whose white-hot phosphorus ignited the sub’s conning tower. FN1c D.F. Southwick landed his sheath knife in the belly of an enemy sailor who was running for a gun. BMC Walter C. Kruz knocked another German overboard with a spent 4″ shell casing. Canned goods, pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, and even potatoes became weapons. When another German was seen dashing for a gun mount, a BORIE sailor felled him with a wrench. The dazed German grabbed his head, staggered, then fell overboard.
Below BORIE’s decks the scene was equally chaotic. The collision had gashed the aging destroyer’s hull plates, and the “black gang” was struggling amid rising water to keep the turbines turning. The forward engine room had to be abandoned and those in the after room worked in chest-deep water. Engineering officer LT Morrison R. Brown remained at the throttle until seawater reached his neck. Meanwhile, Motor Machinist Mate Irving R. Saum dove repeatedly into the oily, black water before he succeeded in closing a valve in the pumping system. Then after ten minutes, the two antagonists heaved apart in the pitching seas. Again, they began circling, each intending to fight to the death. U-405 next attempted to ram the destroyer, but a pair of depth charges straddled the sub and crushed her hull.
BORIE’s sailors had no time for the sub’s survivors as they were now in a desperate fight to save themselves. Seawater continued to pour through breeches in her hull despite the labors of damage control parties. When her radiomen attempted to power the spare generator, they found the fuel hopelessly contaminated with seawater. Lower and lower BORIE settled, until she was awash from amidships aft. With the coming of the cold, rainy dawn her boilers flooded and she went dead in the water. The future now looked bleak for BORIE’s exhausted sailors, who found themselves alone and sinking in heavy squalls, with no radio. However, a group of enterprising sailors pooled the fluid from their cigarette lighters which, supplemented with alcohol from the Pharmacist’s Mate, powered the generator long enough to send a terse distress call followed by a continuous “V” signal. This brought the destroyers GOFF (DD-247) and BARRY (DD-248) who took off BORIE’s indefatigable crew before their gallant ship went under.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 9 NOV 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A-B”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1959, p. 142.
Maher, William and James E. Wise, Jr. “Stand By for a Ram! Part I.” Naval History, Vol 7 (2), Summer 1993, pp. 24-28.
Maher, William and James E. Wise, Jr. “Stand By for a Ram! Part II.” Naval History, Vol 7 (3), Fall 1993, pp. 40-45.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 10 The Atlantic Battle Won. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1956, pp. 162-68.
Parkin, Robert Sinclair. Blood of the Sea: American Destroyers Lost in World War II. New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 177-84.
Roscoe, Theodore. United States Destroyer Operations in World War II. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1953, pp. 289-91.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: BORIE was outdated at the outset of WWII, a left-over Clemson-class destroyer built during WWI and launched in 1919. She was not considered worthy of front-line destroyer service and spent the war as a convoy escort. In spite of this, as a result of her actions this day she received the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award that can be given a ship or unit. She lost 27 sailors in the action. Within eight months of her loss the Navy commissioned another BORIE, DD-704, who went on to see combat in WWII and Korea.
Thirty-five of the 49-man German crew were lost in the battle.
BORIE was named for Adolph Edward Borie, who served as Secretary of the Navy for a short three months from March to June 1869 under President Grant. GOFF remembers Nathan Goff, Jr, Secretary of the Navy during WWI. BARRY, of course, remembers Commodore John Barry of our Revolutionary War.
