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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive

USS Menges (DE 320)


Flag Hoist / Radio Call Sign:
N - K - E - F
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive)
Second Row: American Campaign Medal - European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal w/ 2 stars - WWII Victory Medal
Specifications:
Class: Edsall
Type: FMR (geared diesel, Fairbanks-Morse reverse gear drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1200 tons (light), 1590 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 10" (extreme)
Draft: 20' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 4 Fairbanks-Morse Mod. 38d81/8 geared diesel engines, 4 diesel-generators, 6000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 21 kts
Range: 9,100 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Complement: 8 / 201
Menges (DE 320) Building and Operational Data:
  • 22 March 1943: Keel laid by the Consolidated Steel Corp., Orange, Tex.
  • 15 June 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Charles Menges, mother of the late Ensign Menges
  • 26 October 1943: Commissioned, Lcdr Frank M. McCabe, USCG, in command
  • 3 May 1944: While 15½ miles astern of a convoy, she was hit at 0118 by an acoustic torpedo from U-371, with 31 men killed and 25 wounded. Towed to Bougie, Algeria by HMS Aspirant.
  • 23 June 1944: With temporary repairs made, departed Oran, Algeria under tow of Carib (AT 82) for New York.
  • 22 July 1944: Arrived at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York, N.Y. where the stern of torpedoed Holder (DE 401) was welded to Menges' forward section
  • 26 September 1944: Departed New York for shakedown at Casco Bay, Maine before rejoining the fleet
  • January 1947: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla.
  • 2 January 1971: Struck from the NVR
  • 10 April 1972: Sold for scrapping
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By And/Or Copyright
    Menges 23k Herbert Hugo Menges was born in Louisville, Ky. on 20 January 1917. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve as seaman second class at Robertson, Mo. on 3 July 1939. Appointed naval aviator 24 July 1940, he was assigned to Squadron 6 on Enterprise (CV 6) 28 November 1940. Ensign Menges was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941.

    USS Menges (DE 320) (1943 - 1947) was the first ship to be named in his honor.

    		Bill Gonyo
    Menges 110k undated (official U.S.C.G. photo) Mike Green
    Menges 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) Bill Gonyo
    Menges 466k
    Menges 113k Menges being assisted by a Navy tugboat. (U.S. Navy Photo)
    Menges 166k Holder's stern is transplanted to Menges. (U.S. Navy Photo)
    Menges 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)
    Menges 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)
    View the USS Menges (DE 320) DANFS history entry
    located on the Naval History and Heritage Command web site.
    Crew Contact And Reunion Information
    None
    Note About Contacts

    Contact information is compiled from various sources over a period of time and may, or may not, be correct. Every effort has been
    made to list the newest contact. However, our entry is only as good as the latest information that's been sent to us. We list only
    a contact for the ship if one has been sent to us. We do NOT have crew lists or rosters available. Please see the Frequently Asked
    Questions section on Navsource's Main Page for that information.

    Additional Resources
    Destroyer Escort Sailors Association
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    The Destroyer History Foundation
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    Page Last Updated 18 April 2012