U S NAVY 4th FLEET AT RECIFE - SHIP INDEX DE

Type: DET (diesel-electric tandem motor drive, long hull, 3" guns) .

7 June 1943: Keel laid at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Port Newark, N.J.

19 September 1943: Launched and christened, sponsored by Mrs. Hazel Vivian Trumpeter, mother of Lt. Trumpeter.

16 October 1943: Commissioned, Cdr John R. Litchfteld in command .

14 June 1946: Decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Fla.

Propulsion: 4 GM Mod. 16-278A diesel engines with electric drive, 6000 shp, 2 screws.

Speed: 21 kts.

Range: 10,800 nm @ 12 knots.Armament: 3 x 3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1 twin 40mm Mk1 AA, 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1), 1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks.

Complement: 15 / 201.

Late in the morning on the first day of March 1943, Trumpeter arrived at Recife, reported for duty with the 4th Fleet then continued on to arrive at Rio de Janeiro on the 7th. She moored at Bahia on the 17th for 10 days availability and routine upkeep. On the 28th, she got underway with Straub (DE-181) and Gustafson (DE-182); then, on the 31st, she rendezvoused with Solomons (CVE-67) and reported to CTG 41.6 for her first antisubmarine patrol.For the next five months, Trumpeter conducted patrols out of Brazilian ports with antisubmarine task groups. 

The escort carrier hunter-killer group was an innovation in antisubmarine warfare which effectively blunted the efficiency of German submarines in the Atlantic shipping lanes. Each group, composed of one escort carrier and its screen of destroyer escorts or old destroyers, aggressively sought out and destroyed enemy submarines in Atlantic waters with notable success. When Trumpeter began patrols in March 1944, however, German submarine activity was not so extensive as it had been earlier in the war, and many of her patrols were uneventful.

In June, while Trumpeter was patrolling in mid Atlantic with Solomons, a plane from the carrier detected the presence of a German submarine. Planes dispatched from Solomons eventually sank the submarine. While Trumpeter remained behind to screen the carrier, Straub and Herzog (DE-178) set out for the area of the sinking, some 40 miles away, to rescue survivors.

The two DE's picked 23 Germans from the waters, but the flier, whose bold low altitude bombing run had finished off the U-boat, was still missing when the search was ended.Trumpeter's routine of patrol interspersed with periods of repair and upkeep was varied in August with four days of antisubmarine exercises and night battle practice out of Recife.

She departed on 1 September and, on the 3d, joined Memphis and Cannon (DE-99) en route to Rio de Janeiro. During two weeks in that port, she underwent availability and prepared for her first Atlantic crossing. Finally, on 22 September 1944, she departed Brazilian waters escorting transports General M. C. Meigs (AP-16) and General W. A. Mann (AP-112) carrying troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force bound for the European theater of war.

On 4 October, she anchored in Gibraltar Bay but, less than six hours later, was again underway for the east coast. Arriving at New York on 13 October, she commenced 30 days of availability and dry-docking; then, on 14 November, she set her course for South America, conducting firing practice as she steamed southward. At 1700 on the 23d, she saw the welcome sight of the Fortaleza harbor blimp, proceeded to that Brazilian port, paused briefly, and then steamed on to arrive at Recife on 25 November.

In December, she engaged in gunnery practice and, later in the month, made routine patrols out of Recife with Marblehead (CL 12) and Micka (DE-176). On the 24th, she moored at Bahia and remained there undergoing availability until 2 January when she got underway again for patrol. In the next three months, she continued Atlantic patrols; then, early in March, she escorted Omaha (CL-4) from Recife to Montevideo.