Figure 1: USS Jeffers (DMS-27) underway,
23 July 1951. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the
National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Jeffers (DMS-27), date and place unknown. Courtesy Gene Fanton, PCC USN (Ret.). Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure
3: Artist's conception of USS Jeffers
(DD-621) as she appeared in World War II by the renowned graphic illustrator
John Barrett, with the text written by naval author and historian Robert F.
Sumrall. Their company, Navy Yard Associates (http://navyyardassociates.net/) offers
prints of most destroyers, destroyer escorts, submarines and aircraft carriers
in various configurations during the ship's lifetime. The prints can be
customized with ship's patches, your photograph, your biography, etc. If you
decide to purchase artwork from them please indicate that you heard about their
work from NavSource. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after
Commodore William N. Jeffers (1824-1883), the 1,630-ton USS Jeffers (DD-621) was a Gleaves class destroyer that was built
by the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company at Kearny, New Jersey, and
was commissioned on 5 November 1942. The ship was approximately 348 feet long
and 36 feet wide, had a top speed of 35 knots, and had a crew of 270 officers
and men. Jeffers originally was armed
with four 5-inch guns, four 40-mm guns, five 20-mm guns, ten 21-inch torpedo
tubes, and depth charges, but this armament was altered during World War II.
After
completing a shakedown cruise off the coast of Maine, Jeffers escorted a convoy to Morocco in February 1943 and remained
there until April. She briefly was sent to patrol off the coast of Newfoundland
and then re-crossed the Atlantic in June to join the amphibious forces that
were preparing to invade Italy. During the invasion of Sicily in July and early
August 1943, Jeffers provided gunfire
support and was used as an anti-submarine escort. Jeffers returned to the United States in August and was thereafter employed
as a trans-Atlantic convoy escort.
On 6 June
1944, Jeffers participated in the
invasion of Normandy, France. She was assigned to “Utah” Beach on D-Day and was
used as a fire support ship and as an escort. Jeffers remained off Utah Beach until 29 June, driving off several
enemy aircraft and assisting damaged ships. Jeffers
then steamed to the Mediterranean to take part in the invasion of southern
France from August to September 1944. After this amphibious operation was
completed, Jeffers returned to the
United States and was converted into a high-speed minesweeper in New York. In November 1944, she was re-designated
DMS-27.
Jeffers was sent to the Pacific in January
1945 and, beginning in late March, was an active participant in the horrific
fight to capture Okinawa. Jeffers
initially performed minesweeping duties in advance of the amphibious landings.
After that, she was assigned to anti-submarine and radar picket patrols, which
included the difficult and dangerous task of defending other American warships
from Japanese suicide planes. During a major Japanese air attack on 6 April, Jeffers shot down a twin-engine bomber.
Six days later, while on a radar picket station, the ship endured yet another
heavy enemy air attack. The gunners on board Jeffers shot down at least one Japanese aircraft, but the ship was
nearly hit by a kamikaze during the battle.
Jeffers spent the last few weeks of the
Pacific War sweeping mines north of Okinawa. The ship was present in Tokyo Bay
on 2 September 1945, when Japan formally surrendered. Throughout the rest of
the year, Jeffers took part in mine
clearance operations off the coasts of Japan and China.
Returning to
the United States in December 1945, Jeffers
steamed to the Atlantic coast in early 1946. She served in the western Atlantic
and Caribbean for the next nine years and also deployed four times to the
Mediterranean Sea between September 1949 and early 1954. Jeffers reverted back to destroyer status in January 1955, again
being designated DD-621. She was decommissioned in May of that year. After more
than 15 years in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Jeffers was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1971
and was sold for scrapping in May 1973. USS Jeffers
received seven battle stars for her service during World War II.
