Photo: www.navsource.org By Bill Gonyo
Class: CANNON.
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. Margaret H. Straub
25 October 1943: Commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Lcdr James T. Kilbreth, USNR, in command.
17 October 1947: Decommissioned at
1 August 1973: Stricken.
18 June 1974: Sold for scrapping to the Boston Metals Co.,
Displacement: 1240 tons (light), 1620 tons (full)
Length: 300' (wl), 306' (oa)
Beam: 36' 10" (extreme)
Draft: 10' 6" (draft limit)
Propulsion:
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.
DE 181 STRAUB and task group called at
From there, she put to sea and joined TG 41.6 on the 31st. Led by escort carrier SOLOMONS (CVE-67), STRAUB and the rest of TG 41.6 plied the ocean searching for enemy submarines until 12 April. The task group returned to
This second patrol, on 14 to 30 April, and the third, from 4 to 20 May, were both fruitless. After an 11-day repair period at
In the meantime, six other planes found the submarine, attacked, and sank her. That evening, STRAUB entered the area of the sinking to pick up survivors. She was able to recover the submarine's commanding officer, her executive officer, and 18 other crewmen. Late that night, she was forced by darkness to give up the search for Lt. (jg.) Chamberlain, the pilot whose depth charges had finished off both the U-boat and his own aircraft.
The prisoners were transferred to SOLOMONS on the next day, 16 June, and TG 41.6 returned to
The escort remained in