USS VARIAN DE-798

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS VARIAN DE-798

The Tin Can Sailor, October 1995

Two Nazi submarines sunk, one captured, and a distance traveled equal to four times around the world is the story of the USS VARIAN in her twenty one months of service.

The VARIAN was commissioned February 29, 1944 at Orange, Texas. She was the one-hundredth ship launched at Consolidated Shipbuilding Company Texas. Her first Commanding Officer was Lt. Comdr. C. W. Petrie who hailed from Charleston, South Carolina.

The officers and crew tame from all walks of life, with only ten percent having been to sea before. However, they were molded into an efficient fighting unit during shakedown training at Bermuda in early March of 1944.

After shakedown training the VARIAN was assigned to Escort Division Sixty-two of the Atlantic Fleet. Escort Division Sixty-two was placed in an Atlantic Task Force which escorted convoys to the Mediterranean, protecting the merchant ships from the deadly “U-BOAT” wolf packs and from the Nazi air attacks in the Mediterranean itself. In August the Command was transferred to Lt. Comdr. L. A. Myhre of Seattle, Washington who, before the change was the Executive Officer.

Late in 1944 the VARIAN was assigned to a Killer Group, whose sole purpose was to hunt and destroy German submarines. January 16, 1945 marked the climax of a three week search for a weather reporting “U-BOAT”. On this date the VARIAN and three assisting destroyer escorts; the OTTER, HAYTER, and HUBBARD, searching about five hundred miles north of the Azores Islands, gained contact on the German sub. The small destroyer escorts hung on to the “U- BOAT” like fox terriers on a wolf.

After two hours of attacks and reattacks the Nazi wolf was literally blown to pieces, with only human flesh and other debris rising to the surface amidst a pool of fuel oil. A legion of Merit, two Bronze stars, and Letter of Commendation were awarded personnel on board for their heroic parts in the action.

On April 24, 1945, as part of a task force counteracting the desperate effort of a dying nation’s fleet to destroy American shipping off the North Atlantic coast, the officers and crew of the VARIAN were shocked by the terrible and sudden sinking of the destroyer escort USS FREDERICK C. DAVIS by a torpedo from the U-546.

Within a few hours, the VARIAN with several assisting ships, located the enemy prowler and managed to maintain contact on it most of the day until the sub desperately eluded its pursuers. Very shortly, the VARIAN again located the killer, and attacking fiercely with the other escorts, forced it to the surface into a heavy spray of merciless gunfire. In six minutes, the U-546 headed, bow first, to the floor of the Atlantic.

German prisoners, described as a typical bunch of arrogant Nazis, were rescued by the VARIAN and delivered to an allied port for questioning. Commendations were awarded to officers and crew members deserving the honors.

After Nazi Admiral Karl Doenitz ordered all German Naval Units to surrender themselves, the VARIAN and another escort met and brought back intact to New England the U-805, second sub to reach the United States. A carefully selected boarding party took command of the submarine out at sea and kept it functioning through several days of hectic steaming to East Coast destination.

Following V-E day, the VARIAN became a part of the Naval Training Center at Miami, Florida for a six week period in which newly commissioned officers were given practical experience aboard a vessel direct from the war zone.

Proud of their record in the Atlantic, the officers and crew of the VARIAN commenced rigid training in order to be ready for their chance at the Japs. The vaporization of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the atomic bomb and finally the surrender of Japan, turned back the VARIAN from her journey to the Pacific, again for training purposes; this time for newly commissioned submarines.

With submarines and other ships, Navy Day terminated this duty in New Haven, Connecticut, where the hatches and watertight doors of the VARIAN were thrown open to the public for the first time. Ten thousand citizens walked her decks and climbed her ladders, anxious to explore a fighting ship.

And so ends the story of the VARIAN DE-798. Members of the crew of the USS VARIAN are proud of their ship and of the story behind. For like a mother and her children the VARIAN has taken care of its crow through storms, hurricanes, and battles. There are not many destroyer escorts in the US Navy that have done so much for the good of her country in so little time. The US Navy is proud of the VARIAN and I know that her crew is too, and if another war is to start the VARIAN will be there to give her best. The VARIAN consisted of a good combination, a fighting ship and a fighting crew.

USS VARIAN DE-798 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, June 2022

Varian (DE-798) was laid down on 27 August 1943 at Orange, Texas, by the Consolidated Steel Corp.; launched on 6 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Arnold F. Brunkow, sister of the late Ens. Varian; and commissioned on 29 February 1944, Lt. Cmdr. C. W. Petrie, USNR, in command.

After fitting out, Varian conducted shakedown out of Bermuda for the last half of March 1944. She then joined the homeward-bound ships of Convoy GUS-33 on 30 March and helped to escort them to Hampton Roads, Va. Following repairs at Boston and further training out of Casco Bay, Varian shifted south and rendezvoused with Mediterranean-bound Convoy UGS-44 on 2 June. After subsequently shepherding GUS-44 from Bizerte to Hampton Roads, the destroyer escort arriyed at New York on 18 July. She then conducted two more round-trip convoy missions, with UGS/GUS-51 from mid-August to mid-September and with UGS/GUS-58 until mid-November, before she was assigned to the first “hunter-killer” group, formed on 30 November 1944 to track down and destroy enemy submarines.

Varian and her sisters accordingly underwent intensive training for 26 days. They received special instruction, principally in high-frequency direction finding and gunnery; and spent 60 hours perfecting unit tactics for coordinated attacks on maneuvering submarines. Before they put to sea, the ships, grouped as Task Unit (TU) 27.1.1, practiced every type of known antisubmarine warfare attack, rehearsing them in simulated operating conditions.

In less than a month after TU 27.1.1’s departure from Casco Bay on the day after Christmas of 1944, the new, crack unit proved the “hunter-killer” concept valid. On the morning of 16 January 1945, Varian, Hayter (DE-212), Otter (DE-210), and Harry E. Hubbard (DE-748) hunted down U-248 and sank her after a dogged two-hour hunt, 500 miles north of the Azores. A little over three months later, on 24 April, Varian and nine other DE’s tracked down the U-boat that had recently torpedoed Frederick C. Davis (DE-136). The 10 American DE’s avenged their sister’s loss with a punishing depth charge barrage that forced U-546 to the surface, where the DE’s then destroyed her with gunfire. Varian picked up nine survivors.

The end of the war in Europe on 7 May 1945 saw many of Germany’s U-boat fleet still at sea. On 12 May, Varian rendezvoused with one of these unterseebooten, U-805, and a party from the destroyer escort, led by Lt. (jg.) Earl D. Stevenson, USNR, boarded the submarine and brought her to the east coast.

Following upkeep at the Boston Navy Yard, Varian got underway on 23 May and proceeded via New York to Hampton Roads. Shifting to Miami, Fla., soon thereafter, the destroyer escort operated in a training role, providing practical experience for newly commissioned officers until 16 July. The next day, earmarked for conversion to a radar picket ship, Varian arrived at Charleston for availability. However, her conversion was cancelled; and the ship soon resumed training operations in the Caribbean.

On 2 September, the ship departed Culebra, Puerto Rico, and she steamed north to New London, Conn., for training duty with Atlantic Fleet submarines. At New Haven, Conn., for Navy Day festivities, Varian subsequently sailed south for inactivation at Green Cove Springs near Jacksonville, Fla. Arriving there, via Boston, on 27 November, Varian was decommissioned on 15 March 1946 and placed in reserve. She was later shifted to the Texas group of the Reserve Fleet at Orange. There, she remained through the 1960’s. Struck from the Navy list on 1 December 1972, Varian was sold on 12 January 1974 to the Southern Scrap Metal Co., Ltd., of New Orleans, for scrapping. Towed by three tugs, the erstwhile U-boat killer began her final voyage on 31 January.

Varian received two battle stars for her World War II service.