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Launched in October 1919 in
Philadelphia, the BORIE (DD-215) was commissioned on 24 March 1920. Following a
year operating in Turkish waters, she reported to the Asiatic Fleet, and for
the next four years she spent winters in the Philippine Islands and summers in
Chefoo and Shanghai, China. In September 1923, when an earthquake destroyed
Yokohama and part of Tokyo, the BORIE and other U.S. ships sped to Japan to
join disaster relief efforts. Her sister ship, the STEWART (DD-224) was the
first foreign naval vessel to reach Yokohama after the quake. The BORIE
returned home to serve with the Atlantic Fleet in the Caribbean and Europe
until 1929 when she began a three-year tour with the Asiatic Fleet.
Following conversion to a squadron
leader she operated along the West Coast until late 1939 and then, with the
BARRY (DD-248), GOFF (DD-247), TATTNALL (DD-125), and J. FRED TALBOT (DD-156),
she transferred to the Panama Sea Frontier Command. With the coming of war, the
old four-pipers struggled to meet the U-boat challenge in the Caribbean
and along the East Coast with inoperative World War I sound gear and no radar.
On 9 June 1942, the BORIE was ordered to hunt for the sub that had torpedoed
the freighter MERRIMACK off Cozumel and look for survivors. The U-boat escaped
but a week later, the destroyer found eight men clinging to life on a raft.
The BORIE subsequently assumed
role of escort commander in the sub-infested Caribbean where her fellow escorts
were usually no more than two or three patrol craft and converted yachts.
Hoping to ward off the enemy, her crew rigged a bunk bed spring to her foremast
to simulate a radar installation. Not until August 1942 did the BORIE receive
four 20-mm machine guns and effective sound gear. She finally got her radar in
January 1943 and reported to the South Atlantic to escort convoys on the
4,000-mile route between Trinidad and Recife, Brazil. In the BORIE's group were
the corvettes COURAGE (PG-70) and TENACITY (PG-71) and a couple gunboats. With
as many as ten ships in a convoy, the escorts were hard put to prevent U-boat
attacks. In March and May 1943 enemy submarines loosed their torpedoes and
escaped, leaving crippled merchantmen in their wake despite the best efforts of
the BORIE and her fellow escorts.
The BORIE left the Caribbean and
on 30 July 1943 joined one of the newly organized hunter-killer groups. With
the escort carrier CARD (CVE-11), the BORIE, BARRY (DD-248), and GOFF
(DD-247) set out sweep the U.S.-North African convoy route. In the first month,
the carrier's planes netted three submarines. On 9 August, while rescuing
forty-four survivors from one of the doomed U-boats a trio of torpedoes forced
the BORIE to end the effort.
In September and October 1943, the
CARD's planes accounted for four more submarines and on the stormy night of 31
October, the BORIE sank a fifth. Continuing her search at 0153 on 1 November,
she made radar contact again and attacked with depth charges. As she drew back
from the area of the attack, the U-405 rose from the disturbed water where the
BORIE's search light found her. Closing on the U-boat, the destroyer opened
fire with her main battery and 20-mm machine guns. As the destroyer and
U-boat maneuvered for position, their gunners waged a deadly machine-gun
battle. The submarine managed to fire one torpedo, which missed, while the
BORIE's 4-inch gun obliterated the sub's deck gun.
As the U-405 tried to run, the tin
can's skipper, Lieutenant Charles H. Hutchins, gave the order to ram.
Increasing her speed to twenty-five knots, the BORIE set a crash course. Just
seconds before the collision, the sub turned to parallel the destroyer, and a
huge wave lifted the BORIE and put her down on the U-boat's deck, pinning it
under her bow. Men on both vessels opened fire with small arms as the two ships
lay locked bow over bow. In the meantime, the pounding of sub against ship
caused severe underwater damage along the BORIE's entire port side, including
both engine rooms. The ensuing gun battle lasted ten minutes, until the U-405
pulled away and again attempted to escape. In slow pursuit, the BORIE fired her
guns, torpedoes, and finally depth charges, which straddled the sub, lifting it
out of the water. Nearly dead in the water, herself, the destroyer shook with
the explosions. Her main battery gunners kept up their fire and ultimately
brought the sub to a halt. Signaling their surrender, the boat's crew launched
life rafts and abandoned the sub minutes before it went down. The entire
encounter with the U-405 lasted one hour and four minutes.
As the BORIE maneuvered to port to
pick up the U-boat survivors, her sound operator heard a torpedo, and the
destroyer turned hard to port, evading the torpedo but running down the men in
the water as she cleared the area. Soon, however, her forward engine room had
flooded completely, and she lost all power. The crew managed to keep her nose
into the huge waves and she remained afloat through the night and into the next
morning when the CARD's search planes spotted her. By afternoon, the task group
reached the BORIE, which by that time was beyond saving. Lieutenant Hutchins
gave the order to abandon ship, but the seas were too rough for a rescue ship
to go alongside. As the GOFF and BARRY stood by in the gathering darkness to
pick up her crew, the men of the BORIE went overboard, into rafts and icy cold
water. Three officers and twenty-four men survived the battle but died when
they abandoned the ship.
The task group stood by overnight,
and on the morning of 2 November 1943, gunfire from the BARRY and depth bombs
from the CARD's planes sent the BORIE to the bottom at 0955.
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