Stand by to Repel Boarders! USS Buckley (DE-51) vs. U-66 “The Enemy Below”- GCM to GMC Carl Hendrickson, USN

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Chief Gunner’s Mate (GMC) Carl Hendrickson (7/3/05- 5/28/56) enlisted in the Navy from his hometown, Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 6, 1928. Following graduation from boot camp at NTS San Diego in April 1929 and prior to WW2 he served on the USS MISSISSIPPI (BB-41) for 2 years (S1c), two separate tours on the USS ARIZONA (BB-39) for more than 7 ½ years (S1c, GM3c, GM2c), and the coastal gunboat USS TULSA (PG-22) for 2 years in China and the Philippines (GM2c, GM1c). His summary of service up to WW II is below.

 

The timing of Hendrickson’s transfer from MISSISSIPPI to ARIZONA is interesting. In early March 1931, ARIZONA completed a 2- year modernization at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

 

 

President Hoover, needing a vacation, decided to take a cruise on ARIZONA to Puerto Rico, even before the ship had completed her sea trials. With the President embarked, ARIZONA stood out from Old Point Comfort, Virginia on 3/19/31. The battleship arrived at Ponce, Puerto Rico four days later, on 3/23/31.

 

Meanwhile, MISSISSIPPI, which had been based at San Pedro, California since the 1920’s, was making her way to Norfolk for her modernization. S1c Hendrickson detached from MISSISSIPPI and transferred to ARIZONA on 3/23/31- the day ARIZONA arrived with Herbert Hoover. That day, the President drove to San Juan to address the Puerto Rican legislature. The following day, Hoover returned to Ponce and ARIZONA departed for the return trip to Norfolk via the U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

On 3/30/31, Arizona docked at Hampton Roads, Virginia and President Hoover put ashore. That same day, MISSISSIPPI arrived at Norfolk to deactivate for her modernization that also took 2-years (1931-33) to complete. ARIZONA completed her sea trials in August '31 and departed for the West Coast where she was based until 1940 when she transferred to Pearl Harbor.

 

Hoover posed for a shipboard photo with the USS ARIZONA crew at some point during his 12-day cruise in March 1931. I believe it was taken at the stopover in the Virgin Islands, in which case S1c Hendrickson is somewhere in the photo. If so, I hope to locate him in the photo once I obtain a high resolution scan.

 

 

Hendrickson must have loved the ARIZONA. Near the end of his enlistment, after 3 ¼ years on ARIZONA, he was transferred to the cargo vessel USS SIRIUS (AK-15) from July to September 1934. In 1934, SIRIUS was attached to the Aleutian Island Survey Expedition and made cruises to many of the islands of Alaska, charting their waters as she went. After re-enlistment at San Francisco, he was transferred back to ARIZONA-- four months after he had transferred off-- and spent another 4 ½ years on ARIZONA, until joining the USS TULSA (PG-22) with the China Patrol in May 1939 as a GM2c.

 

 

On December 7, 1941, GM1c Hendrickson was awaiting orders at the Navy Receiving Ship at San Francisco, having re-upped the previous month. His summary of service through WW2 is below.

 

 

On January 8, 1942, Hendrickson mustered aboard the old "four- stacker" destroyer USS SCHLEY (DD-103) at Pearl Harbor. The following month he received an acting appointment to Chief Gunner’s Mate (GMC). SCHLEY was assigned to defensive patrol off the channel approach to Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. For the remainder of 1942, Chief Hendrickson regularly faced the lingering devastation at Pearl Harbor. He needed no reminder to “Remember Pearl Harbor”- particularly with the burned and twisted, half-submerged wreck of his home for 7 ½ years, USS ARIZONA, that he routinely passed by, now a tomb for more than a thousand men, some he knew and served with.

 

 

 

Detached from SCHLEY on December 4, 1942, Hendrickson‘s orders were to proceed to the Subchaser Training Center (SCTC) at Miami, Florida for anti-submarine warfare training (ASW). On December 6, 1942, he was one of 51 sailor/ passengers on the battle- damaged cruiser, USS SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38), when she stood out from Pearl Harbor for Mare Island, California and damage repairs. The previous month, 77 of SAN FRANCISCO’s crew had been killed, including her captain and the task group admiral at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal where the ship took a severe pounding from Japanese air and surface ordinance. While not yet seeing battle, Hendrickson was getting an eyeful of the toll on the Pacific Fleet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After graduation from SCTC Miami, GMC Hendrickson was attached to the “plank owner” commissioning crew of the destroyer escort, USS BUCKLEY (DE-51), the lead-ship in her class of 102 long-hulled DE’s, commissioned at Boston on April 30, 1943. There were six rated gunner’s mates under him: 1- GM1c, 2- GM2c and 3-GM3c.

 

 

Following shakedown in the waters around Bermuda, for the next ten months BUCKLEY and her mostly USNR crew operated along the Eastern seaboard and as far south as the Florida Keys and Guantanamo, as training ship for prospective officers and nucleus crews of other destroyer escorts. Initially based out of Norfolk and later out of SCTC Miami, BUCKLEY’s crew honed their own skills while teaching others. DE’s were built and designed for one main purpose: defensive or offensive warfare against submarines. One of the offensive tactical methods was through hunter-killer groups, where usually 4 or 5 DE’s would join an escort carrier to search and destroy submarines.

 

On April 22, 1944, USS BUCKLEY joined Hunter-Killer (HUK) Task Group 21.11, centered on the escort carrier, USS BLOCK ISLAND (CVE-21) for a sweep of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean convoy routes. As the senior enlisted gunnery NCO on BUCKLEY, GMC Hendrickson played a key role during arguably the single-most daring "submarine kill" of the war, when USS BUCKLEY rammed and sank the German submarine U-66 in the Atlantic sea-lanes off North Africa on the night of May 5-6, 1944. Since commissioning in 1940, U-66 had been a scourge to the vital trans-Atlantic supply lines to the war effort in Europe and North Africa. She was the 7^th most successful U-Boat in WW2 in terms of shipping tonnage sunk by her torpedoes- 33 merchant vessels and 2 motor torpedo boats damaged.

 

The order, “Stand by to ram”, is rarely heard on a US Navy ship—and the order LCDR Maxwell gave after USS BUCKLEY rammed U-66 and sat perched on the sub’s forecastle, “Stand by to repel boarders”, just before German sailors clambered onto BUCKLEY, had not been heard since the days of Commodore Matthew Perry 100 years earlier.

The BUCKLEY’s after-action report authored by her skipper, LCDR Brent Maxwell Abel USNR, is reprinted at the USMF.com post linked below, as well as a series of 9 group photos of about 120 of BUCKLEY’S crew taken on the ship’s foredeck shortly after the engagement:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/175705-may-6-1944-uss-buckley-de-51-rams-and-sinks-u-66-crew-photos/

 

 

USS BUCKLEY remained on scene for 3 hours after sinking U-66 and rescued 36 survivors, including 4 officers. Based on the firepower hitting them, the German POWs were surprised to learn later that they had been attacked by a destroyer escort and not a light cruiser.

 

At midnight on May 7, BUCKLEY was detached from HUK TG 21.11 and set out for the Boston Navy Yard for repairs- her bow bent from ramming U-66 and with only her port screw operable to give 13 knots, the starboard shaft sheared off when the sub struck BUCKLEY in the final moments before sinking.

USS BUCKLEY'S C.O., LCDR Abel was awarded the Navy Cross for his combat action against U-66. In addition to the Navy Unit Commendation awarded BUCKLEY, her crewmen were authorized to wear a battle star on the European- African Theater ribbon. Some high ranking Navy officers of the day considered the battle between USS BUCKLEY and U-66 to be the "most exciting" submarine kill of World War II.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Navy Unit Citation to USS BUCKLEY (DE-51)

 

 

 

 

US Navy Good Conduct Medal issued to Carl Hendrickson (1932)

 

 

 

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Close-up of planchet, USN Good Conduct Medal to Carl Hendrickson (1932)

 

 

 

 

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Following WW2, GMC Hendrickson served his last shipboard duty on the light cruiser USS FARGO (CL-106) in 1948. Never married, he retired from the Navy on January 4, 1954. He died on May 28, 1956 at his hometown, Salt Lake City, where he is buried in his family's plot. The following year saw the release of "The Enemy Below", a WW2 movie about a fictional high seas battle during WW2 between the captain of an American destroyer, the USS HAYNES, a BUCKLEY-class destroyer escort and the commander of a German U-boat, starring Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens. If he’d been around, Chief Hendrickson just might have bought a ticket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Garandomatic]

Very cool.

[tarbridge]

Interesting and very well researched.Well done and Thanks for posting.Robert

[kanemono]

Great job of research and presentation. You have brought the life of Carl Hendrickson to the forefront where his service can be honored. Thank you.

Dick

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BTT on the 71st of the Buckley's run-in with U-66.

[Medalman90]

This is awesome! What a find, thanks for posting.

[dhcoleterracina]

Great history lesson

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Thanks, guys. Glad you found it interesting.

[Rakkasan187]

This is one of the most detailed and researched presentations that I have seen. Extremely well done..

 

This is museum quality work..

 

Leigh

[normaninvasion]

Wow! U-66 sunk my grandpa's ship, Esso Heinrich Von Riedmann. He was the radio man and in the "can" when the ship was hit. No hands lost.

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BTT on the 110th anniversary of Carl Hendrickson's birth. A Yankee Doodle Dandy and real live nephew of his Uncle Sam, born on the 3rd of July. A compromise between July 2 when the Continental Congress officially declared its freedom from Britain and July 4 when we celebrate it.

[PVON]

Thanks for sharing! Details are amazing of his service!

 

PVON