A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History
USS HILARY P. JONES DD-427
The Tin Can Sailor, July 1997
USS HILARY P. JONES was the first BENSON class destroyer to be constructed at Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina. The destroyer, built to Bethlehem Shipbuilding design, was launched on December 14, 1939 and commissioned on September 6, 1940.
DD-427 was named for ADM Hilary P. Jones. The culmination of ADM Jones’ career was assignment as Commander In Chief, U.S. Fleet, in 1922 after almost forty years of continuous service. His service as a member of the General Board marked the beginning of the Navy as a post-World War I force. He also served as a naval advisor to the American delegation at both the Geneva Disarmament Conference and the London Naval Conference.
Like her sisters, USS HILARY P. JONES was pressed into service as a convoy escort on the neutrality patrol both in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean. On one mission to Iceland, she was responsible for rescuing eleven survivors from USS REUBEN JAMES (DD-245) after her loss to a German submarine more than a month before war became “official.” DD-427’s career as a convoy escort would continue, with brief interruptions, for the next two years, taking the vessel across the North and Central Atlantic dozens of times in all types of weather and against all forms of opposition. The valiant destroyer faced wolf packs while protecting tankers off the Azores and troop transports in the North Atlantic.
As significant numbers of destroyer escorts became available for escort service, larger destroyers were freed from convoy work for other assignments and in January 1944, the veteran escort was transferred to operations in the Mediterranean. DD-427’s first major assignment was to screen USS PHILADELPHIA (CL- 41) in a fire support role off the embattled Anzio beachhead in Italy. The destroyer alternated between convoy duty between the naval anchorage at Naples and the Anzio area south of Rome. It was not unusual for USS HILARY P. JONES to trade shots with German shore batteries along the way.
Enemy submarines and aircraft had exacted a toll on Allied shipping that was particularly galling during the early spring of 1944 and escort resources in the Mediterranean were collected to end the threat. CAPT A. F. Converse was given command of a squadron of eight veteran destroyers to hunt the undersea marauders. USS HILARY P. JONES helped drive the prey into a waiting net, then aided in containing the raider while USS HAMBLETON (DD-455), USS ELLYSON (DD- 454), and USS RODMAN (DD-456) finished off the Nazi.
Preparations were being made for the invasion of Southern France, and USS HILARY P. JONES sped north and lent her expertise in shore bombardment to the effort. With new equipment, DD-427 was able to provide electronic jamming against German robot bombs, certainly a useful adaptation in the maelstrom off northern Italy and southern France. In her role as a fire support vessel for the First Airborne Division along the French-Italian border, the destroyer was credited with the destruction of bridges, gun emplacements, railroad emplacements, and coastal vessels. One German E-boat, the Nazi equivalent of a PT, made the mistake of attempting an attack on the destroyer. The enemy craft was destroyed by gunfire. Even human torpedoes, launched from the coast, failed to deter DD-427.
Mediterranean forces began to be transferred to Pacific operations in the fall of 1944, and USS HILARY P. JONES sailed for New York, arriving in January, 1945. Soon she would face a new enemy, and a refit, along with additional training, vital to success. She would finally leave the East Coast for her new assignment in April.
Initially, DD-427 would operate from Pearl Harbor in both a patrol and convoy escort role, before being transferred to operations in the Caroline chain. The surrender of Japan found her at the Ulithi anchorage. USS HILARY P. JONES would escort 8th Army occupation troops to Japan and be present at the formal surrender of Japanese forces in Tokyo Bay On September 2, 1945.
DD-427 would return to the United States and be decommissioned at Charleston, South Carolina on February 6, 1947. She would remain with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until loaned to the Nationalist Chinese Government in February, 1954. She would serve as HAN YANG (D-15) with the Taiwanese Navy for more than twenty years. The former HILARY P. JONES would be scrapped by Taiwan in 1975.