Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places- Christopher Eger.
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Warship Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024: Ignore the orders, we will save the Sailors
U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-299180
Above we see, some 80 years ago today, the cramped deck of the tiny “WGT” (John C. Butler-class) destroyer escort USS Tabberer (DE-418), crowded with shocked and waterlogged survivors of the lost destroyers USS Spence (DD 512) and USS Hull (DD 350). LCDR James A. Marks, USN, the former skipper of Hull, is being brought aboard to the left.
How had Tabberer survived the tempest that sent a trio of three larger greyhounds to the bottom? Keep reading.
The Butlers
At just 306 feet long overall, the 1,750-ton Butlers were not built to slug it out in surface actions, as they only mounted a pair of 5″/38 DP guns and a trio of 21-inch torpedo tubes, which was about half the anti-ship armament of contemporary U.S. Navy destroyer. Alternatively, they did come to war with an impressive anti-submarine armament for their size in the form of two Mk 9 depth charge racks, and eight Mk 6 K-gun projectors, along with 100 “ash cans” to keep them at work, making them popular in convoy escort in the Atlantic. A fixed 24-spigot Mk 10 Hedgehog ASW rocket launcher rested in a box between the No. 1 5-inch gun and the forward 40mm twin.
Likewise, they had a decent AAA suite for their to include a mix of 15 to 20 40mm and 20mm cannons, which would come in handy in smoking attacking Japanese planes at low level. The typical fit was two twin Bofors, one forward and the other aft, along with 10 Oerlikon singles clustered in four mounts around the bridge wings, four amidships around the stack, and two aft sandwiched between the stern 5-inch mount and the depth charge racks.
Camouflage Measure 32, Design 14D prepared by the Bureau of Ships for a camouflage scheme intended for escort ships of the DE-339 (John C. Butler) class. This plan, showing the ship’s starboard side, stern, superstructure ends and exposed decks, is dated 17 May 1944 and was approved by Commander William C. Latrobe, USN. 80-G-109627
Using a pair of “D” Express boilers and a matching set of two Westinghouse geared turbines (hence the WGT designation), they had 12,000 shp installed, allowing the Butlers to run up to a theoretical maximum of 24 knots (although one of the class, USS Samuel B. Roberts, made an estimated 28.7 knots while on a torpedo run against impossible odds by raising pressure on her boilers past the safe limit and diverting steam to the turbines.)
USS John C. Butler (DE-339) underway, possibly off Boston Navy Yard
While not fast enough for fleet operations, this was enough for convoy and patrol work. It also allowed them to have a nice, long range of some 6,000 nm when poking along at 12 knots.
Capable of being produced rapidly, some 293 Butlers were on the drawing board at one time or another from four shipyards (Boston NSY, Brown SB, Federal SB, and Consolidated Steel), with many constructed in fewer than six months apiece.
However, “just” 83 were completed, ranging from USS John C. Butler (DE-339), which was laid down on 5 October 1943 to USS Vandiver (DER-540) which, although laid down only a month later, languished on the builder’s ways until she was finally commissioned in 1955.
Meet Tabberer
USS Tabberer (DE-418) was the first vessel named in honor of Lt. (jg.) Charles Arthur Tabberer.
Born in 1915, he enlisted in the USNR’s aviation cadet program in 1939 and, a newly minted ensign with a set of gold wings on his chest, was assigned to Fighting Squadron 5 (VF-5) in early 1941, flying first the pokey F3F biplane and then the F4F Wildcat.
Making j.g. on 29 May 1942, Tabberer and his squadron flew from the old USS Saratoga (CV-3) for the invasion of Guadalcanal and he perished on 7 August during a swirling dogfight under near suicidal odds.
Lt. (jg.) Tabberer earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, posthumously:
DE-418 was one of 23 Butlers built at Brown Shipbuilding Company, Houston, Texas. Laid down on 12 January 1944 she was launched on 18 February 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Mary M. Tabberer, widow of the late Lt. (j.g.) Tabberer.
Tabberer’s sister, the famed future USS Samuel B. Roberts (DE-413) leaving the ways at Brown Shipbuilding Company, Houston, Texas, 20 January 1944. All 23 of the Butlers built at Brown were side-launched.
USS Tabberer was commissioned on 23 May 1944, her construction period spanning just 132 days.
USS Tabberer (DE-418) underway near Houston, Texas (USA), circa in May 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 31, Design 22D. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships photo BS 95010A
Tabberer’s first skipper was LCDR Henry Lee Plage, USNR (Georgia Tech NROTC ’37). A Florida insurance adjuster who volunteered for active duty and sea service in 1941, Plage had already picked up some solid chops as a small escort sailor, commanding the subchaser USS PC-464 in 1942, then serving as XO on the Evarts-class destroyer escort USS LeHardy (DE-20) and then skipper of her sister, USS Donaldson (DE 44), until just two months before Tabberer was commissioned.
Following an abbreviated shakedown cruise across the Gulf Coast and up the East Coast to Boston NSY– one of the yards where her sisters were built– Tabberer spent two weeks in post-shakedown availability then left for Hawaii via the “Ditch.”
She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 7 September, to spend a month working up with the ships she would deploy with to the West Pac. Of her 225 officers and men, only about 10, primarily chiefs, were regular Navy.
On the night of 9 October, while acting as a plane guard for the Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Anzio (CVE-57), Tabberer made her first rescue at sea in the form of one of the flattop’s aviators.
It would be just one of many for our tin can.
War!
On 16 October 1944, with sequential escort sisters USS Lawrence C. Taylor (DE 415), Melvin R. Nawman (DE 416), Oliver Mitchell (DE 417), and Robert F. Keller (DE 419) of Escort Division 72, Tabberer joined the new anti-submarine Hunter Killer group (T.G. 12.3, later T.G. 30.7) built around Anzio and her embarked air group. The overall commander of the group was Captain George Cannon Montgomery (USNA ’24), a tough career naval aviator from Alabama.
USS Anzio (CVE-57) underway at sea, on 21 May 1945, with an Avenger (TBM-3E) and three Wildcats on deck. NH 96548
The Anzio group– consisting entirely of ships that were all just barely off their shakedowns– would be responsible for at least five confirmed “kills” of Japanese submarines in the eight months between 18 November 1944 and 16 July 1945: I-41 (Kondo), RO-43 (Ts’kigata), I-368 (Irisawa), I-361 (Matsuura) and I-13 (Ohashi). Using Anzio’s embarked Wildcats and Avengers of VC-82/VC-13 to spot and pin the Japanese boats in place, the greyhounds would get to finish off the carcass and sift through the wreckage to find out which of the Emperor’s boats they killed.
This type of work was extremely dangerous for small escorts such as the Tabberer and her sisters as their compact hulls couldn’t shrug off a torpedo hit of any sort. At least two Butlers were lost to Japanese subs in October 1944 alone: USS Shelton sunk by RO-41 off Morotai, and USS Eversole by I-45 east of Leyte.
Besides her task in helping to send Japanese subs to the cold and dark embrace of Poseidon, Tabberer continued to perform the yeoman work long familiar to escorts in a carrier group– that of plane and lifeguard to the flattop’s aircrews. On at least two further occasions (7 July and 12 July 1945) she plucked soggy Anzio aircrews from the drink after water landings and delivered them back “home” via breeches buoy.
USS Anzio pilot and observer began to extricate themselves after their TBM-1C (Bu# 73282) crashed on take-off, 21 December 1944. 80-G-298075/80-G-0298071
Pacific maelstrom
While at Ulithi Lagoon with the rest of the Anzio group, on 6 December 1944, the group logged 39-knot winds in squalls and high seas.
With the weather slacking, and operations in the Philippines looming (the landings at Mindoro), the group left Ulithi on Sunday 10 December on orders from Com3rdFlt (Halsey), linking up with a replenishment group of oilers (T.G. 30.8) along the way. The next few days saw Anzio’s DEs race at flank speed to investigate sonar contacts as the skies grew grey.
As detailed by NOAA:
The Navy’s Fleet Weather Center in Pearl Harbor had analyzed the sparse data in the area to show the typhoon much further east than it was and forecast it to move northward, avoiding the Fleet. However, the U.S. Army Air Force forecast center on Saipan sent a reconnaissance flight and found the storm heading toward Halsey and with estimated winds of 140 knots (260 km/hr). Capt. Reid Bryson tele-typed the observations to Pearl Harbor, but the Navy forecasters didn’t believe him and did not forward the information to the Third Fleet. Halsey’s chief aerologist, CDR George Kosco, who would later dub the storm “Cobra”, also believed the typhoon was closer than Pearl Harbor was depicting but still thought their southeastern course would avoid the worst of the storm.
By the 17th, the jeep carrier observed that a “tropical typhoon was developing and approaching during the day, with wind and sea increasing in intensity and Anzio laboring heavily. The northerly course toward the rendezvous assigned, 15 30′ N, 127 40′ unfortunately led near the path of the typhoon.”
That afternoon, she lost an Avenger on approach, with the crew picked up by Oliver Mitchell, and three planes in her hangar broke loose during a 19-degree roll to port. One of her escorts, Melvin Nawman, noted the ship’s barometer was dropping at .02 per hour, every hour.
USS Anzio. Rolling heavily while trying to maintain course and speed during a typhoon east of the Philippines, 17 December 1944. Note TBM Avenger heavily lashed to the flight deck. 80-G-298079
By 0629 on the 18th, Capt. Montgomery signaled Halsey that the Anzio group, along with the refueling group, were giving up on heading northeasterly to their assigned rendezvous point– into the storm– and instead reversed course south for safety. The 512-foot/11,000-ton jeep carrier had difficulty that morning holding a steady course against the wind abeam even with a 30-degree rudder and turns for 5 knots on one engine and 15 on the other.
Typhoon Cobra, as observed by radar. NOAA photo
The worst of the storm hit the two groups around 1000 and, losing radio and visual contact with the rest of her group, Anzio measured winds of 90 knots sustained before the vanes on her anemometer were carried away. Her Met department estimated she was taking 120-knot winds and seeing 60-foot seas. She rolled 36 degrees to starboard then 38 to port, losing two planes stored topside overboard while 11 others cracked up. By 1400 the seas became calmer, the winds dropped to gale force, and soon she was able to start maneuvering again. However, as the storm went by, she was only in contact with one of her five escorts who had somehow managed to remain on station– Lawrence C. Taylor.
The other DEs had suffered indeed.
Robert Keller and Oliver Mitchell, blown several miles off by the cyclonic force and heavy seas, remained out of contact with Anzio over the horizon until 1903. Keller had narrowly avoided a collision with Tabberer who was sighted around 0930 in the trough of a 60-foot swell and then vanished from radar. Mitchell lost TBS and radar contact with Melvin Nawman at 0908 and with Tabberer at 1213.
Nawman rolled an amazing 62 degrees and she lost her mast including all her radar and TBS gear. She only managed to ride best at 4 knots, right full rudder, to the NW. Steaming alone and blind back toward Ulithi at 15 knots, she contacted a passing PBM via blinker to ask the flying boat to relay that she was still afloat and headed in. Later that afternoon she spotted a different refueling group, TG 30.8.6, and fell in with it. She arrived back at Ulithi on 23 December, coming alongside the tender USS Markab to begin immediate repairs.
As for our Tabberer, her top weight was removed where possible and, fully ballasted and battened down on orders from her skipper, she survived an amazing roll of 72 degrees to starboard while visibility fell to about 30 feet and wind speed came at over 100 knots. The ship’s barometer bottomed out at 27.92 inHg (921 millibars, within the range considered “Category 4” on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) at 1230 on the 18th. At 1351, she lost the top of her mast and by 1828 the entire mast buckled while the escort was on a 50-degree roll, with the ship having to stop all engines and break out a cutting torch and axes to cut away the offending wreckage– at the loss of her radio, radar, and TBS ability.
In the darkness, CRM Ralph Tucker climbed to the highest point remaining on Tabberer— her stack– to rig a makeshift TBS radio antenna– good for a couple of miles– and saw a light in the still-heaving seas. A light attached to a voice. A voice attached to QM3 August Lindquist, of the destroyer USS Hull (DD-350), one of the escorts of the Anzio group’s adjacent T.G. 30.8 refueling group.
As retold by LCDR Plage, Tabberer’s skipper:
Hull, under the somewhat controversial command of LCDR James A. Marks, (USNA ’37) had been lost during the storm after suffering 80-degree rolls as her bunkers were almost empty. Without getting too much into the weeds, Marks is thought by many to be the basis of the fictional LCDR Queeg of Caine Mutiny fame.
Besides Hull, USS Monaghan (DD-354) and USS Spence (DD-512), both also riding light with the refueling group, were lost in the storm. Monaghan rolled to starboard at least six times and on her final roll continued and capsized. Spence succumbed to a 72-degree roll that flooded her electrical system, killing her pumps and lights, leaving a follow-on roll to deliver the coup de grace.
Between the Hull, Spence, and Monaghan, no less than 718 souls perished on the sea on or about 18 December 1944. Nimitz noted later that “It was the greatest loss that we have taken in the Pacific without compensatory return since the First Battle of Savo.”
Besides the skippers of Spence (LCDR James Andrea, USNA ’37) and Monaghan (LCDR Floyd Garrett, USNA ’38), several newly minted ensigns of the Annapolis Classes of ’44 and ’45 were lost on their first assignments.
Over the next several days, 3rd Fleet ships scoured the seas for survivors.
Just 24 men were recovered from Spence, 10 of those by the destroyer escort USS Swearer (DE-186), part of the screen for the jeep carrier USS Rudyerd Bay (CVE-81).
USS Brown (DD-546), part of the screen for the light carriers of TG 38.1, rescued the six survivors from Monaghan as well as 13 men of Hull’s ship’s company from a life raft on 21 December, delivering them to Ulithi on Christmas Eve.
Anzio group escort Robert Keller found four additional survivors of the Hull on the 21st. The same day, Mitchell and Lawrence C. Taylor each recovered three men who were “beyond human help” and later consigned them to the deep with honors.
As for our Tabberer, she picked up 55 living men at peril on the sea: 41 from Hull including her skipper and four other officers, and 14 from Spence on the 20th. The latter came due to Plage disobeying orders to retire.
Keep in mind that Tabberer was using her big 24-inch searchlights only about 150 miles off the coast of Japanese-occupied Luzon, in waters thought crawling with enemy submarines.
With the waves still too high to launch small boats, Tabberer went for the recovery in the old-fashioned way and used her cargo nets and close-in maneuvering to get near enough for the survivors to grab on.
Volunteers with safety lines and lifejackets went over the side to help those who could not.
Typhoon Cobra (Halsey’s Typhoon), December 17, 1944. Survivors of USS Spence (DD 512) and USS Hull (DD 350) were rescued by USS Tabberer (DE 418) after the typhoon had capsized the U.S. destroyers on December 17, 1944. Shown: Tabberer’s gunnery officer Lieutenant Howard J. Korth, USNR, in water where he added to the rescue. Note, the other destroyer lost was the USS Monaghan (DD 354). Photograph released on January 21, 1945. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-299181
As a twist of fate, Tabberer had Escort Division 72’s only doctor, LT Frank W. Cleary, aboard going into the storm, and all of the 55 men she pulled from the ocean survived.
Typhoon Cobra (Halsey’s Typhoon), December 17, 1944. Survivors of USS Spence (DD 512) and USS Hull (DD 350) were rescued by USS Tabberer (DE 418) after the typhoon had capsized the U.S. destroyers on December 17, 1944. Shown: Officers and men of USS Hull (DD 350) recuperating from their ordeal onboard USS Tabberer (DE 418). Note, the other destroyer lost was the USS Monaghan (DD 354). Photograph released on January 21, 1945. U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-299182
The seriously damaged, blind, and mute Tabberer remained on station for 40 hours.
Plage sent the below memorandum to all hands on the 20th after the escort made her belated turn to Ulithi:
When she rolled into the immense 3rd Fleet anchorage, she looked pretty rough.
Almost unidentifiable.
USS Tabberer demasted after Typhoon Cobra
Legend has it that, when passing the mighty battlewagon USS New Jersey, Halsey’s flagship, she was signaled:
“What type of ship are you?”
Weary and exhausted, his vessel packed with 55 survivors he had to fight both the sea and the brass to save, Plage had his signalmen proudly reply: “Destroyer escort. What type are you?”
In addition to the serious damage to Tabberer and Nawman, three light carriers, another three escort carriers, three destroyers, and the cruiser USS Miami also sustained yard-worthy injuries, with many losing men to the sea during the storm. For example, on the light carrier USS Monterrey (CVL 26), three men were killed and another 34 seriously injured. At least 19 other vessels logged lesser damage.
USS Santa Fe (CL 60) rolls heavily, 53 degrees, as she rides out of a wave encountered in the South China Sea during Typhoon Cobra, December 1944. 80-G-700024
Destroyer in heavy seas during heavy weather in the China Sea. Possibly taken during a typhoon in December 1944. Photographed from USS New Jersey (BB-62) by LCDR Charles Fenno Jacobs, USNR. The destroyer wears camouflage design 9d. 80-G-470284
The entire Third Fleet was sidelined for 18 days following Cobra.
Nimitz noted, “Some 146 planes on various ships were lost or damaged beyond economical repair by the fires, by being smashed up, or by being swept overboard.”
It was a hell of a lick.
Plage was presented a Legion of Merit by Halsey himself during a 20-minute visit and inspection on 29 December.
In the name of the President of the United States, the Commander, Third Fleet, United States Pacific Fleet, takes pleasure in awarding the Legion of Merit to
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HENRY L. PLAGE
UNITED STATES NAVAL RESERVE
for service as set forth in the following
CITATION
For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service to the Government as Commanding Officer of the U.S.S. Tabberer operating in the Western Pacific war area from December 18, 1944 to December 20, 1944. During this period, while his ship was combating a storm of hurricane intensity and mountainous seas causing severe damage, Lieutenant Commander PLAGE directed the rescue of fifty-five survivors from two destroyers which foundered as a result of the same storm. In spite of seemingly insurmountable hardships and adverse conditions, he persisted in the search for survivors for fifty-one hours. Lieutenant Commander PLAGE’s courageous leadership and excellent seamanship through treacherous and storm-swept seas and his timely reports aided materially in the rescue of additional survivors by other ships which later arrived at the scene. His outstanding conduct was in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Naval Service.
W. F. Halsey
Admiral, U.S. Navy
In addressing the assembled crew, Halsey was frank:
Your seamanship, endurance, courage, and the plain guts that you exhibited during the typhoon we went through are an epic of naval history and will long be remembered by your children and their children’s children. It is this spirit displayed throughout the world by the American forces of all branches that is winning the war for us.
Plage had recommended decorations for those who had spent considerable time in the water aiding men who were either too weak or injured to climb the boarding nets unassisted. These included the ship’s XO, LT Robert M. Surdam, the ship’s gunnery officer, LT Howard L. Korth, TM1/C Robert Lee Cotton, and BM1/C Louis Anthony Purvis. The brass authorized the Navy & Marine Corps Medal, the highest non-combat decoration awarded for heroism by the United States Department of the Navy, for these four men.
Dressed in their best and gathered in the wardroom of USS Tabberer after the Typhoon Cobra rescue are seated (left to right): LT Robert M. Surdam, USNR; LCDR Henry L. Plage, USNR, and LT Howard L. Korth, USNR. Standing, (left to right): TM1/C Robert Lee Cotton and BM1/C Louis Anthony Purvis. This photo was likely taken on 29 December 1944 during Halsey’s visit to the battered ship at Ulithi Atoll. 80-G-299183
Tabberer, and all hands, were the first to receive the new Navy Unit Commendation (although others would receive it retroactively for past service that predated the honor).
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
WASHINGTON
The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending the
UNITED STATES SHIP TABBERER
For service as follows:
For extremely meritorious service in the rescue of survivors following the foundering of two United States Destroyers in the Western Pacific Typhoon of December 18, 1944. Unmaneuverable in the wind-lashed seas, fighting to maintain her course while repeatedly falling back into the trough, with her mast lost and all communications gone, the U.S.S. TABBERER rode out the tropical typhoon and, with no opportunity to repair the damage, gallantly started her search for survivors, steaming at ten knots, she stopped at short intervals and darkened her decks where the entire crew topside, without sleep or rest for 36 hours, stood watch to listen for the whistles and shouts of survivors and to scan the turbulent waters for small lights attached to kapok jackets which appeared and then became obscured in troughs blocked off by heavy seas.
Locating one survivor or a group, the TABBERER stoutly maneuvered windward, drifting down to her objective and effecting rescues in safety despite the terrific rolling that plunged her main deck underwater. Again and again, she conducted an expanding box search, persevering in her hazardous mission for another day and night until she had rescued fifty-five storm-tossed and exhausted survivors and had brought them aboard to be examined, treated, and clothed.
Brave and seaworthy in her ready service, the TABBERER, in this heroic achievement, has implemented the daring seamanship and courage of her officers and men.
All personnel attached to and serving on board the TABBERER, during the above-mentioned operation, are hereby authorized to wear the NAVY UNIT COMMENDATION RIBBON.
James Forrestal
Secretary of the Navy
Continued Service
Sent to Pearl Harbor NSY on 30 December in company with her storm-damaged sisters Nawman and Conklin (DE 439), the three patched-up tin cans escorted another Cobra survivor, the light carrier USS Monterey (with future President Gerald Ford aboard as a junior officer) to Oahu via Eniwetok for repairs. Proceeding at 15 knots, they made Pearl on 10 January 1945, with Tabberer docking at Berth Baker 17.5.
The workers at Pearl worked fast in 1945 and, just a fortnight later, both Nawman and Tabberer, fresh and looking new, set out for Eniwetok as part of T.U. 16.8.5, the covering force for Convoy PD-275-T.
Transferring to the 5th Fleet on 28 January 1945 saw the Anzio group switch numbers from TG 30.8 to TU 50.7.1. Tabberer and Nawman rejoined the group at Saipan on 7 February– the first time back with Anzio since Cobra hit some seven weeks prior.
Joining up with other baby carriers– including USS Rudyerd Bay, Saginaw Bay (CVE 82), Makin Island (CVE 93), Luga Point (CVE 94), and Bismarck Sea (CVE 95), the force, under RADM G.R. Henderson, headed for Iwo Jima.
Tabberer was present for the five-plane kamikaze attack during the night of 21-22 February that hit the latter carrier, sending her to the bottom with 318 gallant sailors. The destroyers of the screen rescued 625 men from the water that night.
Large explosion on board Bismarck Sea (CVE-95), after she was hit by a kamikaze during the night of 21-22 February 1945, while she was taking part in the Iwo Jima operation. She sank as a result of her damage. Photographed from Saginaw Bay (CVE 82). 80-G-335103.
Regrouping, the force continued their operations off Iwo for 42 days, with Tabberer typically spending burning the midnight oil (and jo pots full of coffee) running nightly ASW sweeps of the area while rousing her sleepy gun crews back to GQ during daylight as enemy planes came in close.
Given a short few days of downtime in San Pedro Bay in mid-March, Tabberer would spend the next six weeks screening assorted TF38 vessels during the invasion of Okinawa, again in night-time ASW sweeps supporting Anzio, spending another 52 days at sea under combat situations.
USS Tabberer (DE 418) underway replenishment, taken from the escort carrier USS Makin Island (CVE-93) on 25 March 1945. 80-G-323053
Sent to Guam for a short yard period in early May, by the 23rd of that month she was back on station off Anzio, sanitizing shipping and supply routes between the Marianas and Okinawa of Japanese submarine activity.
This continued for the next several weeks, with the Anzio group ordered closer to Tokyo in July to screen replenishment ships just offshore of the Japanese Home Islands. This saw Tabberer’s crew engage in target practice on assorted floating mines belonging to the Emperor and rescue aviators from both an F4F and a TBM.
TBM lost from Anzio, July 1945
Post VJ Day, she was sent to Korean waters on occupation duties, berthing at Jinsen (Incheon) on 11 September for nine days before being sent to Okinawa.
On 7 October, steaming out of Buckner Bay with her fellow tin cans of Escort Div 72 (without Anzio for once), they made for Tsingtao, China, the treaty port that had been under Japanese control since they wrested it from the Germans in 1914, followed by the troopship USS Dade (APA 99), filled with U.S. Marines returning to China for the first time since 1941. From there, the force went to Taku, China on the 12th, with Tabberer sinking two floating Japanese mines via gunfire– the mines apparently missing the memo that the war was over. On the 15th she saved a lost Allied aviator from the water off Taku anchorage and then escorted a convoy of LSTs and LSMs from Chinese waters to Okinawa.
Detonating three more floating mines on 19 October, she then escorted USS Blue Ridge (AGC2) to Tsingtao and Taku, sinking another mine on the 23rd and a 75-foot derelict coaster on the 29th. Remaining in Taku at the disposal of Com7thPhib until 15 November, she was sent as an escort for three auxiliaries returning to Okinawa before heading back to Taku by the end of the month with her old friend, Melvin Nawman.
Tabberer would remain in Chinese waters until 22 December 1945 when she was ordered back to to CONUS for the first time since August 1944, stopping at Okinawa, Eniwetok, and Pearl Harbor before entering San Francisco on 15 January 1946 with her homeward-bound pennant whipping overhead.
“With over 110,000 miles of steaming behind her, the Tabberer has contributed her share to the records set and glory earned by the ships of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet,” ended her official War History.
She was placed out of commission, in reserve, at San Diego on 24 April 1946.
In her 15 months of WWII service and four months on occupation duty, Tabberer earned four battle stars, received the Navy Unit Commendation, and survived the Navy’s worst storm suffered at sea.
Cold War
With the Korean War mobilization, Tabberer was dusted off and recommissioned on 7 April 1951. Ordered to the East Coast, she was homeported at Newport for the next decade.
September 1953. USS Tabberer (DE 418) at sea off Newport, Rhode Island. Note the Cold War-era big hull numbers, her twin 40mm Bofors behind mount No. 1, and her WWII-era sensors. Note there are two rockets loaded in her deck-mounted Mk 10 Hedgehog. 80-G-626823
Her taskings were typically being used as an ASW exercise vessel for subs out of New London and in taking Annapolis and NROTC midshipmen on summer cruises to the Caribbean and back, interspersed with trips down south to get her annual gunnery tables at Vieques to help beat the old smoke boats at Key West.
Speaking of which…
In November 1954, she suffered a collision with the submarine USS Diablo (SS-479) while in ASW exercises off Block Island that caused no casualties and left both vessels still afloat.
In the mid-1950s our DE underwent a series of modifications including landing her 20mm guns along with her fixed Mk 10 Hedgehog as well as her surface torpedo tubes, installing a remotely trainable 24-spigot Mk 15 Hedgehog device forward. Her 40mm twins were moved to platforms amidship, instead of twin 3″/50s which would have added too much weight.
She also picked up accommodations for a squadron commodore and his staff to allow Tabberer to serve as the flagship of an escort squadron. She rated more modern radar (SPS-6), sonar, and communications upgrades.
USS Tabberr (DE-418) seen 1950s after her modernization. Note her trainable 24-spigot Hedgehog ASW system, just behind her No. 1 mount and more modern radar package on her mast. Courtesy of Mr. Ted DiCecco, Avondale, Pennsylvania. NH 73660
Same as above. Note her hull number repeated on her No.1 mount. You can also make out the two twin Bofors mounts aft of her stack. NH 73661
On 30 August 1957, as part of Operation Deep Water, a test of Atlantic convoy duty should WWIII break out, Tabberer got operational from Key West, bound for Europe as the flagship of CortRon12.
Her outbound squadron comprised four other WWII-era DEs including her old bosom buddy, Melvin Nawman. By 2 September, the escorts linked up off the Virginia Capes with a mixed group of nine troopships, auxiliaries, and phibs, packed with a reinforced Marine brigade, to shepherd over to Europe at the regal speed of 12 knots. Engaging Allied OPFOR submarines along the way, the circular convoy stepped it up to 14.5 knots and made it successfully to Naples by noon on 14 September.
Attached to PhibGroup2, Tabberer, and company spent the next seven weeks in a series of amphibious warfare exercises and friendly port calls in the Mediterranean ranging from Saros Bay, Turkey (the country had joined NATO in 1952) to Patras, Greece; Suda Bay, Crete; Palermo, Sicily; Palma, Spain, and Gibraltar.
The exercise saw 8,000 Marines hit the beach in Gallipoli, linking up with a Turkish Army corps, simulating a response to a Soviet attempt to seize the straits. It was notable as it was both the first Marine vertical envelopment during an overseas deployment and the first time that a U.S. Marine joint air-sea-ground task force had been used in a NATO exercise. Supported by three full carrier battle groups, it sent a message.
Leaving “The Rock” late in the night of 7 November, the five aging but still operable DEs set out across the Atlantic again. Without having to shepherd a convoy, they made Bermuda without issue on the morning of 15 November, pulling up to the British colony at 19.5 knots. Following a couple days of libo, the DEs, led by Tabberer with ComCort12 still aboard, made Key West on the 19th. It was her last operational deployment.
Transferred to Philadelphia, she would spend the next two years in the same sort of laid-back semi-reserve service she had before Operation Deepwater.
Effective Friday, 2 September 1960– the 15th anniversary of VJ Day– USS Tabberer was decommissioned at Philadelphia, having been towed, cold iron, under the bridge to the Reserve Basin and, placed in mothballs for the second, and final, time on the 1st.
The Butler class listing in the 1960 Janes. Most of these vessels were in mothballs.
On 1 July 1972, Tabberer’s name was struck from the NVR and in October 1973 she was sold for scrapping to Mr. David Hahn, of Key West.
Navy destroyer escorts USS Raymond (DE-341), USS Oswald (DE-767), USS Melvin R. Nawman (DE-416), USS Tabberer (DE-418), and USS Coffman (DE-191) laid up at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania (USA), circa in early 1973. By Jim Cunliffe via Navsource
Epilogue
Few lingering relics remain of Tabberer.
Her War History and deck logs are in the National Archives.
No Butler class destroyer escort is preserved or remains in service.
She has a tribute marker at the National Museum of the Pacific War (the Nimitz Museum) in Texas.
The Navy, in its wisdom, has not elected to reuse the name Tabberer for another vessel.
For the men associated with the vessel, her most famous wartime skipper, LCDR Henry Lee Plage, remained on sea duty after the war and gave the Navy 17 years of service before retiring in 1954. Returning to Florida, he passed in 2003, aged 88, leaving behind a batch of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Plage. The Navy could use a destroyer named in his honor.
Of the 92 survivors rescued from the sea after Typhoon Cobra, 55 were saved by Tabberer. Those men went on to lead their own lives and create children to carry on their own stories.
The most senior of those survivors, LCDR Marks, the lightning rod skipper of the ill-fated USS Hull, committed suicide in 1986.
Capt. George Montgomery, the gold wing-wearing leader of the Anzio group that gave the order counter to Halsey to turn his ships south, earned a Legion of Merit of his own for his group’s work off Iwo and Okinawa in 1945.
Basketball team, USS Anzio, 1945. “Over two years, undefeated.” Capt. Montgomery at center.
Post-war, Montgomery joined the staff of the Naval War College and was commander of a fleet air wing in the Caribbean then capped his career, appropriately, as Chief of Naval Air Safety before retiring in 1954 after 30 years in the Navy. RADM Montgomery passed in 1992, aged 92. He was survived by a son, retired Navy Capt. George C. Montgomery Jr., three grandchildren; and a great-grandson. It seems the salt was in the blood.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.
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