Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description		Contributed By And/Or Copyright
0632001	44k	Herbert Hugo Menges, the son of Charles Edward and Lena (Siefher) Menges, was born in Louisville, Ky. on 20 January 1917. After graduating from duPont Manual High School, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve as a seaman second class at Robertson, Mo. on 03 July 1939. After completing flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, he was appointed a Naval Aviator on 24 July 1940. He was assigned to Fighting Squadron 6 (VF-6) on USS Enterprise (CV 6) on 28 November 1940. Ensign Menges was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 07 December 1941. Flying off a half dozen aircraft carriers, swarms of Japanese bombers and fighters struck the Pacific Fleet and military airfields on Oahu island shortly before 8 a.m. that Sunday morning. They sank or damaged dozens of ships and destroyed scores of planes on the ground. The Japanese had hoped to sink Enterprise and the Pacific Fleet’s two other carriers: Lexington and Saratoga, but they were at sea. When Enterprise neared Pearl Harbor that morning, she launched some of her scout planes that blundered into the attack. Later, Menges joined a group of fighters and bombers dispatched to find and fight the Japanese fleet, however, the search was fruitless, and most the planes returned to Enterprise, except for half dozen Wildcat fighters, including Menges’s plane. By the time they returned to Enterprise near Pearl Harbor, it was too dark to land safely, and they were sent on to the Ford Island airstrip in the middle of Pearl Harbor. Word was flashed to Navy and Army gunners not to fire on the approaching Wildcats. Even so, they did, shooting down and killing the flight leader and Menges. The other pilots survived; two bailed out, and two managed to land safely on Ford Island. Menges was burned beyond recognition. One of the surviving Wildcat pilots identified him by the wristwatch still on his arm. A small group of trees marks the approximate spot in Pearl City where Menges crashed and burned. Menges was reburied in Louisville in 1947. His funeral notice did not tell how he died, only that he “passed away, Pearl Harbor Day, 07 December 1941.” While the Navy ultimately confirmed his death to his parents, it is unclear how or when they learned the tragic circumstances of how he perished. USS Menges (DE 320) (1943 - 1947) was the first ship to be named in his honor. (U.S. Navy photo #NH 96616 from the Naval History and Heritage Command) (Text from Berry Craig, Professor Emeritus of History, West Kentucky Community and Technical College)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource
0632002	110k	undated (official U.S.C.G. photo)		Mike Green Port Angeles, Wash.
0632014	110k	undated: The enginerooom of USS Menges. The Coast Guardsmen in the photo are Seymour Lein, Edmund Zemros, and Howard Woods (in the white t-shirt). Woods, a fireman 1st class from Wilmington, Del., was killed when Menges was torpedoed.		Lowell Silverman Newark, Del.
0632010	185k	20 April 1944: the Mediterranean - One of many rescued by Coast Guardsmen of two Destroyer Escorts during a German bomber attack off the coast of North Africa, a U.S. Navy seaman relaxes as two Coast Guardsmen scrape a thick coating of oil from his body. The survivor's ship, the USS Lansdale (DD 426), was sunk by Nazi planes. The Coast Guardsmen in this picture are: Virgil Mathis (left), Motor Machinist's Mate, of St. Augustine, Fla.; and Melvin Howard of Pittsburg, Kansas. These men are on board the Coast Guard-manned Destroyer Menges (DE 320), when it picked up 119 survivors of the ill-fated destroyer Lansdale. Virgil Mathis later was himself a survivor when Menges was torpedoed by a Nazi submarine on 03 May 1944. (U.S. Coast Guard Photo #2140 by PhoM1/c Arthur Green, USCGR. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource
0632005	165k	Menges as she looked from midships and above while being towed to North Africa after being struck by an acoustic torpedo fired from U-371. (Top: U.S. Navy Photo; Bottom: U.S. Coast Guard photo)
0632008	466k
0632011	703k	May 1944: USS Menges (DE 320) moored at Algiers in early May, awaiting temporary repairs. The ship left, under tow by USS Carib (AT 82), on 23 June 1944, bound for the New York Navy Yard. (official U.S. Navy photo)		Mike Green Port Angeles, Wash.
0632006	113k	Menges being assisted by a Navy tugboat. (U.S. Navy Photo)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource
0632003	100k	Menges (left) and USS Holder (DE 401) (right) in drydock prior to their "melding." Note the welded repair plate across the Menges' stern area which was used during her tow across the Atlantic. (U.S. Navy Photo)
0632009	178k	August 1944: Brooklyn, N.Y. - Photo of the USS Menges (DE 320) in Drydock 2 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the temporary stern towing repair plate removed. The ship is being prepared to be melded to the stern of the decommissioned Holder (DE 401). (U.S. Navy Photo)		Mike Green Port Angeles, Wash.
0632007	166k	Holder's stern is transplanted to Menges. (U.S. Navy Photo)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource
0632012	101k	25 September 1944: at sea, Atlantic - Overhead port side view of USS Menges (DE 320), as seen from an aircraft of squadron ZP-11, 25 miles northeast of Portsmouth, Massachusetts. She is wearing modified MS 32/3D camouflage scheme. During her battle damage repairs the triple torpedo tubes were replaced with a 40mm Bofors. Her short main mast carries a HF/DF unit. (U.S. Navy photo #80-G-280104 and 80-G-280103 from the National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md., courtesy of C. Lee Johnson, Ships of the U.S. Navy in WWII “Dazzle” Camouflage)		Mike Green Port Angeles, Wash.
0632013	142k
0632004	285k	'DOOMED' COAST GUARD-MANNED DE BACK IN ACTION AFTER 'SURGICAL MIRACLE' MAKES ONE SHIP FROM TWO: BEFORE - The Coast Guard-manned destroyer escort USS Menges, thought doomed after being torpedoed in May 1944, is back in action again today as a result of a 'miracle surgical operation' which took two torpedoed DE's and made them into one healthy, fighting ship. Shown here from the mast, looking aft, in Mediterranean convoy two weeks before falling victim to a German sub, Menges lost a third of her hull when the underwater missile ripped into her stern. The Coast guard skipper refused to abandon ship. After transferring dead and wounded the stricken vessel was towed to North Africa and then to New York. There, the Navy Bureau of Ships conceived the plan of making one whole ship out of two disabled ones, and American shipyard workers did the job. Half of the USS Holder, another torpedoed DE in dock for repairs, and the floating portion of the Menges were joined. Today, two men o' war fight as one." (no date; CG Photo No. 4624)		Bill Gonyo Downey, Cal. Assoc. Researcher Navsource

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Additional Resources

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Tin Can Sailors
The U.S. Navy Memorial
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The Destroyer History Foundation

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