Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 91565:  USS Newell anchored in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Newell (DE-322, later DER-322), 1943-1971.
Served as USCGC Newell (WDE-422) in 1951-1954

USS Newell, a 1200 ton (standard displacement) Edsall class escort ship, was built at Orange, Texas. Commissioned in late October 1943 with a U.S. Coast Guard crew, she was briefly used for training and then began trans-Atlantic convoy escort missions. While off Algeria on 20 April 1944, her convoy was attacked by German torpedo planes which sank USS Lansdale (DD-426) and the freighter Paul Hamilton and damaged three other merchantmen. Newell helped rescue survivors and tow the damaged ships into port. While in the western Mediterranean on 4 and 5 May, her convoy ran into U-boats that sank USS Fechteler (DE-157) and damaged USS Menges (DE-320) and the French escort ship Senegalais. The German submarne U-371 was also lost in this encounter.

Newell continued convoy operations until February 1945, then was assigned to training and experimental duty which lasted until after Japan's surrender brought World War II to an end. She was decommissioned in November 1945 and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In July 1951 Newell returned to active service, this time as a U.S. Coast Guard ship. Following conversion for search and rescue service, she operated in the northern Pacific for a year and a half. Decommissioned at the end of March 1954, Newell reverted to Navy custody and was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

In 1956-1957 Newell was converted to a radar picket escort ship and redesignated DER-322, recommissioning in August 1957 for service as part of the Nation's defenses against surprise air attack. Based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, she operated as part of the Pacific Barrier until its disestablishment in May 1965. She then deployed to Vietnam to conduct "Market Time" patrols against enemy seaborne infiltration efforts. Her first southeast Asian cruise ended in January 1966. It was followed, in June 1966-January 1967 by a second, and by a third from July 1967 to February 1968. Following service in the Hawaiian area, USS Newell was placed out of commission and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in September 1968. The following year she was used as a prop for the motion picture "Tora Tora Tora", playing the role of U.S. battleships during a dramatic reenactment of the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Her hulk was sold for scrapping in December 1971.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Newell (DE-322) and USCGC Newell (WDE-422), and provides links to images related to her after conversion to a radar picket escort ship (DER-322).

For more pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Newell (DER-322) -- As a Radar Picket Escort Ship (DER).


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 91568

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91567

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91569

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 625 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91565

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91564

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91566

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At anchor in New York Harbor, 2 June 1944, while painted in a modified version of Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D.
    Photographed by the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 91592

    USS Newell
    (DE-322)

    At the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, California, awaiting conversion to a radar picket ship (DER), 20 August 1956.
    She is wearing U.S. Coast Guard markings, used during her service as USCGC Newell (WDE-422) in 1951-1954.

    Courtesy of A.D. Baker III.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     


    In the following views, USS Newell (DE-322) is seen in the background of an image of another ship, or is possibly present:

    Photo #: 80-G-245464

    USS Mattole
    (AO-17)

    Refuels USS Pride (DE-323) by the astern method, 17 August 1944.
    USS Newell (DE-322) is approaching, from the far right.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 620 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 75615

    Sinking of USS Lansdale (DD-426)
    ,
    20 April 1944, off North Africa

    The bodies of two men killed in the sinking of Lansdale are brought ashore at a North African port from a U.S. Coast Guard manned destroyer escort which conducted rescue operations.
    The DE is either USS Menges (DE-320) or USS Newell (DE-322).

    Coourtesy of Mr. James Russell.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 113KB; 595 x 765 pixels

     

    For more pictures related to this ship, see:

  • USS Newell (DER-322) -- As a Radar Picket Escort Ship (DER).


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 26 November 2005