USS Allen, a 1071-ton Sampson class destroyer built at Bath, Maine, was commissioned in January 1917. She operated along the U.S. east coast and in the Caribbean area during her initial months of service, performing patrol and escort missions after the United States entered World War I in April. In June 1917 Allen escorted a troop convoy across the Atlantic and then began began combat service out of Queenstown, Ireland. Until the fighting ended in November 1918 she escorted shipping and made anti-submarine patrols in the waters off the western British Isles and France. In December Allen was one of the many U.S. Navy destroyers that escorted President Wilson, embarked on the transport George Washington, into Brest, France. Less than a month later, she returned to the United States.
In 1919 Allen resumed peacetime operations in the western Atlantic and in the West Indies area. She was designated DD-66 in July 1920, when the Navy implemented its hull number system, and was placed out of commission in June 1922. She returned to commissioned service three years later as a Naval Reserve training ship, based at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Allen was again decommissioned in March 1928 and spent the next dozen years laid up in the Philadelphia Navy Yard's "red lead row".
In August 1940, when Allen was the last survivor of her class, she was placed back in commission in response to the growing crisis that followed the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Shortly afterwards she was sent to the Pacific and was thereafter based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was present there on 7 December 1941, when Japanese aircraft carriers delivered a devasting raid that formally brought the United States into the war. Allen's crew claimed assists in shooting down three of the attacking planes. For the rest of the Pacific War, the old destroyer was employed on escort and patrol duties, mainly in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands, but with some voyages to and from the U.S. mainland. In September 1945, with hostilities concluded, she steamed from Pearl Harbor to Philadelphia, where she was decommissioned in mid-October. USS Allen was stricken from the list of Naval vessels at the beginning of November 1945 and sold for scrapping in September 1946.
USS Allen was named in honor of Commander William Henry Allen (1784-1813), a hero of the 1807 action between USS Chesapeake and HMS Leopard and of the War of 1812.
This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Allen (Destroyer # 66, later DD-66).
For more images related to this ship, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 57795 USS Allen (Destroyer # 66) In Bantry Bay, Ireland, 1918. Note her "dazzle" camouflage. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 560 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 85720 USS Allen (Destroyer # 66) At Queenstown, Ireland, 1918. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1977. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 445 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 57793 USS Allen (Destroyer # 66) Moored with other U.S. Navy destroyers at Queenstown, Ireland, 1918. Note Allen's "dazzle" camouflage scheme. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 465 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 42690-KN "A Fast Convoy" Oil painting by Burnell Poole, depicting USS Allen (Destroyer # 66) escorting USS Leviathan (ID # 1326) in the War Zone, 1918. The original painting measures 60" x 33". Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 50KB; 740 x 420 pixels Note: See Photo # NH 42690-KN (extended caption) for the artist's comments on this painting. |
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Photo #: NH 50743 U.S. Navy destroyers at Queenstown, Ireland, 1918 Pen and ink drawing by Burnell Poole. The ship at left is USS Allen (Destroyer # 66). U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 570 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 45518 USS Allen (DD-66) Underway off Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, 17 December 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 610 pixels Note: This image is disfigured by a crack on its right side. |
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Photo #: NH 103524 USS Allen (DD-66) Off Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, 17 December 1942. Halftone reproduction, published by the Division of Naval Intelligence in June 1943 for ship recognition purposes. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 615 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 45519 USS Allen (DD-66) Underway off Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, 17 December 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 96KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 45520 USS Allen (DD-66) Underway off Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, 17 December 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Online Image: 137KB; 620 x 715 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-276896 USS Allen (DD-66) Underway in Hawaiian waters, 1944. This ship was the only "pre-flush-deck" World War I era destroyer that survived to serve in World War II. Allen retains her original four-inch guns, but has had her after torpedo tubes replaced by six "K-Gun" depth charge mortars. Note the deckhouse added aft of her smokestacks, the SC air search radar antenna atop her foremast and her hull number ("66") faintly visible on her fore deck. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 92 KB; 900 x 740 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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For more images related to this ship, see:
NOTES:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 28 February 2006
New image added and page divided 27 September 2010