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Navsource Online: Destroyer Escort Photo Archive
Attacked by Kamikazes off Okinawa - 24 of
her crew were lost and remain on eternal duty

USS Oberrender (DE 344)


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


Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row: Combat Action Ribbon
Second Row: American Campaign Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 3 stars - World War II Victory Medal
Specifications:
Class: John C. Butler
Type: WGT (geared-turbine drive, 5" guns)
Displacement: 1350 tons (light), 1745 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 10" (extreme)
Draft: 11' 0" (draft limit)
Propulsion: 2 "D" Express boilers, 2 geared turbine engines, 12,000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 24 kts
Range: 6,000 nm @ 12 knots
Armament: 2 - 5"/38 cal. DP guns (2x1), 4 - 40mm AA (2x2), 10 - 20mm AA, 3 - 21" TT, 1 Mk10 Hedgehog, 8 Mk6 Depth Charge Projectors, 2 Mk9 Depth Charge Stern Racks
Complement: 14 / 201
Oberrender (DE 344) Building and Operational Data:
  • 8 November 1943: Keel laid at the Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Tex.
  • 18 January 1944: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Olin Oberrender, Jr., widow of Lt. Comdr. Oberrender
  • 11 May 1944: Commissioned, Lcdr Samuel Spencer in command
  • 10 November 1944: Heavily damaged while at Seeadler Harbor, Manus Islands, while anchored 1100 yards away when USS Mount Hood (AE 11) exploded
  • 9 May 1945: Irreparably damaged by Kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa with 24 crewmembers killed, wounded, or missing
  • 11 July 1945: Decommissioned at Kerama Retto after being towed there for inspection and repair
  • 25 July 1945: Stricken from the NVR
  • 6 November 1945: Hulk was scuttled off Kerama Retto
    Click On Image
    For Full Size Image    		 Size Image Description Contributed
    By And/Or Copyright
    Oberrender 66k Thomas Olin Oberrender, Jr., born in DuBois, Pa. on 24 September 1906, graduated from the Naval Academy in the Class of 1927. After serving in cruisers Rochester, Tulsa, and Louisville and other ships, he attended postgraduate school from 1934 to 1936, followed by duty in battleship Nevada. Assigned as engineering officer in destroyer Hull in 1938, he became her executive officer the following year. After a brief period of duty ashore he reported on board the new cruiser Juneau in November 1941, when the ship was just fitting out. When she commissioned the following February, he was her engineering officer. Lt. Comdr. Oberrender died 13 November 1942 when Juneau was torpedoed and sunk in action in the Solomon Islands.

    USS Oberrender (DE 344) (1944-1945) was the first ship to be named in his honor.

    (Photo from the U.S. Naval Academy Yearbook; The Lucky Bag, Class of 1927.)    		 Bill Gonyo
    Oberrender 36k 15 July 1944 Bill Gonyo
    Oberrender 36k 15 July 1944 (Photo #BS132048 from the National Archives)
    Oberrender 138k 10 November 1944: Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands - Just after the explosion of USS Mount Hood (AE 11). Small craft gathered around Mindanao (ARG 3) during salvage and rescue efforts shortly after Mount Hood blew up about 350 yards away from Mindanao's port side. Mindanao, and seven motor minesweepers (YMS) moored to her starboard side, were damaged by the blast, as were USS Alhena (AKA 9), in the photo's top left center, and Oberrender, in top right. Note the extensive oil slick, with tracks through it made by small craft. (Copied from the War Diary, Manus Naval Base, for November 1944; U.S. Navy photo #NH 95405 from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command) Fred Weiss
    View the USS Oberrender (DE 344) 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
    Tin Can Sailors
    The Destroyer History Foundation
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    Page Last Updated 26 April 2008