USS Spangenberg
USS Spangenberg (DE/DER-223), a of the United States Navy, was named in honor of Gunner's Mate Kenneth J. Spangenberg (1922–1942), who died as a result of wounds suffered during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, while serving aboard the heavy cruiser . He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. Spangenberg, a destroyer escort, was laid down on 5 April 1943 by the Philadelphia Navy Yard; launched on 3 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Gussie Spangenberg; and commissioned on 15 April 1944. Service history World War II, 1944–1945 After completing trials around Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia and shakedown in the vicinity of Bermuda, Spangenberg returned to Norfolk on 1 June. She served temporarily as school ship for student officers and as escort to coastwise merchant traffic before beginning duty with transatlantic convoys. On 13 July, the destroyer escort joined Escort Division 66 (CortDiv 66) and put to sea the next day from Hampton Roads, Virginia, in the screen of a convoy bound for the Mediterranean Sea. The convoy, UGS 48, made a fairly quiet passage until the day before it reached Bizerte, Tunisia. At 01:00 on 1 August, a flight of about 20 German bombers attacked the formation. Spangenberg was able to lay a good smoke screen which helped to prevent the German attack from damaging the American ships. This was Spangenbergs only brush with the Luftwaffe. The convoy made Bizerte on 2 August, and Spangenberg stayed for 11 days before sailing for the United States on the 13th. She reached Boston on the 28. From 9/17 September, CortDiv 66 conducted training exercises at Casco Bay, Maine. Spangenberg returned to Hampton Roads on 20 September and, two days later, sailed in the screen of convoy UGS 55, headed for North Africa. She was at Bizerte from 12–18 October; then she screened the convoy back to the United States and arrived in Boston on 6 November. Spangenberg and the other ships of CortDiv 66 conducted more exercises at Casco Bay and, at the end of November, moved to Argentia, Newfoundland, to act as killer group for Task Unit 27.1.2. She conducted anti-submarine searches around Argentia and Halifax until February 1945 and, on one occasion, made a depth charge attack on a sound contact, but scored no kill. The destroyer escort spent February operating with friendly submarines in Block Island Sound, Long Island Sound, and in the area south of Block Island. Spangenberg began an availability period at Boston on 3 March. After a short cruise to Casco Bay on 20/21 March, she got underway for Horta in the Azores, en route to England. She arrived in Liverpool on 3 April. From that port, she moved to Derry in Northern Ireland. There CortDiv 66, under British control, operated as an anti-submarine escort group out of Derry and out of Milford Haven, England. Spangenberg returned to the United States at New York City on 1 June 1945 and was converted to a radar picket destroyer escort. Post-war activities, 1945–1947 At the completion of her conversion