Wreck of USS Meredith (DD-726)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

Laid down at the Bath Iron Works in July 1943 as a member of the Allen M. Sumner Class of Destroyers, the USS Meredith commissioned into US Navy service in March 1944 as a member of the US Atlantic Fleet. After training off Bermuda, the Meredith and her crew provisioned and loaded munitions at Boston before joining an England-bound convoy as an escort on May 8th, 1944, arriving safely at Plymouth on May 27th. Briefed on the upcoming Allied Invasion of France, codenamed 'Operation Overlord', the Meredith was ordered to escort troopships from England to the landing beaches off Normandy, and departed in convoy during the night of June 5th, 1944.

Arriving off Normandy as planned at daybreak on June 6th, the Meredith screened her transports as they put Allied troops into landing craft, then began fire-support missions on German bunkers and defensive positions as the troops moved onshore. Continuing her fire support through the night of June 6th and into the morning of June 7th, the Meredith was maneuvering offshore when she set off a German mine directly beneath her Starboard midship, causing a blast which knocked out her engines, severely warped her hull and accounted for 7 deaths and 50 other casualties onboard. Going dead in the water, the Meredith's crew effected damage control measures to check the progressive flooding spreading through her midship but the damage to her propulsion systems was too great to repair without port facilities. While the ship was still afloat, she was moved to shallower waters South of Utah Beach where attempts were made to salvage her. Work continued through the 9th of June, but the immobile and defenseless ship was targeted by Luftwaffe bombers during air raids and after her hull seams were opened up by several near-misses, the Meredith began to catastrophically flood. As salvage crews were hastily pulled from the rapidly sinking Destroyer her keel gave way and the young ship broke in half and sank at this location on the morning of June 9th, 1944.

Her wreck remained on this site until the majority of her hull and superstructure was salvaged in the 1960's. All that remains of the Meredith today is small hull sections and fittings, now covered in several feet of sand.

USS Meredith received one Battle Star for her World War Two service.


www.navsource.org/archives/05/726.htm