NavSource Online:
Submarine Chaser Photo Archive

Gilmer (PC 565)
ex-PC-565

Call sign:
November - Echo - Papa - Uniform

Gilmer served the Navies of the United States and Venezuela

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Specifications: Displacement 280 t.(lt) , 295 t.(fl); Length 175'; Beam 23'; Draft 10' 10"; Speed; 20k; Complement six officers, 53 enlisted; Armament one single 3"/50 gun mount, one single 40mm gun mount; three 20mm guns, two rocket launchers, four depth charge projectiles, two depth charge tracks; Propulsion two 2,880bhp Fairbanks Morse 38D8 1/8 diesel engines (Serial No. 832229 and 832230), Westinghouse reduction gear, two shafts.

Click on thumbnail for full size image	Size	Image Description		Source
	133k	Thomas Walker Gilmer Secretary of the Navy, 19 February 1844 - 28 February 1844. Naval Historical Center photo NH 54751 from a 19th Century engraving		Bill Gonyo
	49k	.		Original photo from Patrick Ward via E. J. Comeau, PC 553/1228. Replacement photo from CAPT Jerry Mason, USN U-Boat Archive
	37k	.		Bob Daly/PC-1181
	83k	c. 1943 Bridge Watch		Bob Daly/PC-1181
	75k	Photo caption: PC-565 with crossed-out swastika. A 170-foot United States Patrol Chaser destroyed a German U-boat so swiftly in the Atlantic recently that the underseas craft did'nt have a chance to fight back. PC-565 was guarding a convoy when her sound apparatus picked up the hum of a sub's motors. Depth charges brought the raider to the surface, eventually sank her. U. S. Navy photo from the October 1943 edition of All Hands magazine		Joe Radigan
	17k	7 June 1944 Off the coast of Normandy. USS Ancon (AGC 10) in background US Navy photo 80-N-257287		Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. 1, pg. 283

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The second Gilmer (PC 565) was laid down as PC-565 by Brown Shipbuilding Co., Houston, Tex., 14 August 1941 ; launched 27 February 1942 ; sponsored by Miss Jacqueline B. Perry ; and commissioned 25 April, Lt. Walter T. Flynn in command.

After shakedown off Florida, PC-565 engaged in ASW training, then performed convoy escort and patrol duty in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. On 2 June while escorting a southbound convoy from New York to Cuba, she made an underwater sound contact and immediately attacked. After PC-565 dropped a depth charge barrage the submarine U-521 surfaced to be met with 20mm. gunfire. Several hits were scored and the enemy U-boat went under only to be met with another depth charge barrage. Large oil slicks and debris resulted, proving the destruction of the German U-boat. A survivor of the submarine was rescued and his testimony substantiated PC-565s
victorious encounter.

Departing New York 25 March 1944, PC-565 sailed en-route to England where she joined the amphibious forces in preparation for the landing in Northern France. On 4 June she sailed from England arriving off the Normandy beaches 2 days later. There she effectively performed ASW patrols, antiaircraft defense, and shuttle control duties.

Throughout the rest of the war, PC-565 remained in Europe on escort and patrol missions in the North Sea-English Channel area. Departing Bremerhaven 4 October 1945. the submarine chaser steamed for the United States arriving Norfolk on the 22d. Two months later she arrived Green Cove Springs, Fla., and decommissioned 26 ApriL 1946, joining the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. PC-565 was named Gilmer 15 February 1956. She was stricken from the Navy List 1 July 1960, and sold to Venezuela.

PC-565 received two battle stars during World War II service.