| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | USCGC Dione (WPC-107) |
| Namesake | Dione, mother of Aphrodite |
| Launched | 30 June 1934 |
| Commissioned | 05 October 1934 |
| Decommissioned | 08 February 1963 |
| Status | Sold 24 February 1964 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Thetis-class patrol boat |
| Displacement | 1933: 337 tons 1945: 350 tons |
| Length | 165 ft (50 m) waterline |
| Beam | 25 ft 3 in (7.70 m) |
| Draft | 1933: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) 1945: 10 ft (3 m) |
| Propulsion | list error: <br /> list (help) 2 × Winton Model 158 6-cylinder diesel engines, 670 hp (500 kW) each two shafts with 3-bladed screws |
| Speed | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Range | 3,000 nautical miles (6,000 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h) |
| Complement | 5 officers and 39 men 1945: 7 officers and 68 men |
| Sensors and processing systems | list error: <br /> list (help) 1933: none 1945: SF-1 radar and QCO sonar |
| Armament | list error: mixed text and list (help) 1933:
1941: 1945:
|
USCGC Dione (WPC-107) was a steel-hulled, diesel-powered Thetis-class patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard that patrolled the Eastern coast of the United States during World War II.
World War II service
editThe United States entered World War II in December 1941 with formal declarations of war against Japan, Germany, and Italy. By mid-January 1942, U-boats involved in Operation Drumbeat had begun to hunt and sink merchant ships in the coastal waters of the eastern seaboard. With the bulk of US naval power in the Atlantic already dedicated to transatlantic escort duty for American troopships and convoys, shipping on the eastern seaboard was left largely unprotected.
Adolphus Andrews—commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier, which extended from the Canadian border south to North Carolina—cobbled together a ramshackle fleet of twenty ships to defend the east coast against submarines:
seven Coast Guard cutters (the 165-foot Dione and six 125-footers), four prewar 110-foot SCs, three 200-foot, World War I Eagle-class subchasers, two ancient (1905) gunboats, and four large (170- to 245-foot) converted yachts. Of these vessels, only the Norfolk-based, 16-knot, Coast Guard cutter Dione, which had a single 3"/50 caliber bow gun and stern depth-charge tracks, was anywhere near capable of engaging a U-boat.
— Clay Blair, Hitler's U-Boat War, 1989, p. 461–462
References
editSources
edit- "Dione, 1934" (PDF). United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 04 August 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - Hickam, Homer H. Jr. (1989). Torpedo Junction. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute.