Figure 1: Launching of USS Meredith (DD-726) at the Bath Iron Works shipyard, Bath, Maine, 21 December 1943. Official US Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Meredith (DD-726) off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 29 March 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. Courtesy of the US Naval Institute Photograph Collection, Annapolis, Maryland. Official US Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Meredith (DD-726) off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 29 March 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. Courtesy of the US Naval Institute Photograph Collection, Annapolis, Maryland. Official US Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Meredith (DD-726) underway at sea, 16 April 1944. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. Courtesy of the US Naval Institute Photograph Collection, Annapolis, Maryland. Official US Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Meredith (DD-726) after striking the mine off Utah Beach on 8 June 1944. Courtesy James D. Bass, Jr. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Ernest C. Graham, GM3C, was in the salvage crew that attempted to save Meredith (DD-726) before she broke in half. After abandoning the ship for the second time, he saw her sink from a Higgins Boat that had rescued the salvage crew. Courtesy Ernest C. Graham, GM3C. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Meredith (DD-726) going down after she is hit by a German aircraft and breaks in half on 9 June 1944. Courtesy James D. Bass, Jr. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Meredith (DD-726) going down after she is hit by a German aircraft and breaks in half on 9 June 1944. Courtesy James D. Bass, Jr. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Ernest C. Graham, GM3C, was in the salvage crew that attempted to save Meredith (DD-726) before she broke in half. After abandoning the ship for the second time, he saw her sink from a Higgins Boat that had rescued the salvage crew. Courtesy Ernest C. Graham, GM3C. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Ernest C. Graham, GM3C, was in the salvage crew that attempted to save Meredith (DD-726) before she broke in half. After abandoning the ship for the second time, he saw her sink from a Higgins Boat that had rescued the salvage crew. Courtesy Ernest C. Graham, GM3C. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after Jonathan Meredith, a Marine Corps hero in the war with the Barbary Pirates, USS Meredith (DD-726) was a 2,200-ton Allen M. Sumner class destroyer that was built by the Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine, and was commissioned on 14 March 1944. The ship was approximately 376 feet long and 40 feet wide, had a crew of 357 officers and men, and had a top speed of 34 knots. Meredith was armed with six 5-inch guns, 12 40-mm guns, 11 20-mm guns, 10 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.
After her shakedown cruise off Bermuda, Meredith left Boston, Massachusetts, and escorted her first convoy to England. She arrived at Plymouth, England, on 27 May 1944. Once in England, Meredith, along with hundreds of other ships, prepared for D-Day, or the invasion of Normandy. On 5 and 6 June 1944, Meredith escorted transports that were participating in the invasion. Then on D-Day, 6 June, Meredith provided gunfire support to the landing forces on Utah Beach.
Early in the morning of 8 June 1944, Meredith hit an enemy mine while working off the coast of Normandy as an escort vessel. The blast killed 35 crewmembers, wounded 15 others, and severely damaged the ship. The destroyer was being taken under tow when she was attacked and bombed by a German aircraft on the morning of 9 June. USS Meredith suddenly broke in two without warning and sank. Although the ship was sunk less than three months after being commissioned, she received one battle star for her wartime service. The sunken hulk of USS Meredith was sold to a French company in 1960 and the ship was raised and scrapped that same year.
