USS Rich, a 1400-ton Buckley class escort ship built at Bay City, Michigan, was commissioned at the beginning of October 1943. She shook down off Bermuda and served on escort and patrol duties off the U.S. East Coast until February 1944, when she began the first of three round-trip trans-Atlantic voyages as a convoy escort. In May Rich joined the forces preparing for the invasion of Normandy. On "D-Day", 6 June 1944 and the two days following, she screened naval gunfire support ships off "Utah" Beach. On the morning of 8 June, while offering assistance to the mine-damaged destroyer Glennon, she hit two more German mines. One blew off her stern while the other exploded under her hull forward of amidships. Her back broken, USS Rich quickly sank. Ninety of her crew were lost with her, and over seventy were wounded.
USS Rich was named in honor of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Ralph M. Rich, USNR, (1916-1942).
This page features all the views we have related to USS Rich (DE-695).
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 44311 USS Glennon (DD-620), at right After her stern was blown off by a mine, off Normandy on 8 June 1944. USS Rich (DE-695), a U.S. PT boat, a British motor launch, and a U.S. "Auk" class minesweeper are standing by. Rich soon hit another mine, which also destroyed her stern, and was then sunk by a third mine. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 44312 USS Rich (DE-695) Strikes a mine, amidships, while operating off Normandy on 8 June 1944. She had previously hit another mine, which blew off her stern. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 44313 USS PT-504 Rescues survivors of USS Rich (DE-695), which had been sunk by two German mines off Normandy on 8 June 1944. In the upper left background is the British ML-116, which is also rescuing Rich's survivors. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: 80-G-K-14425 (Color) Christmas decorating at a Naval Hospital Ensign Audrey Etie, a Navy Nurse, and two patients decorate a small tree, circa 25 December 1944. Seaman Second Class Robert S. Whitaker, a survivor of USS Rich (DE-695), sunk during the June 1944 Normandy invasion, is at left. Another Normandy veteran, Ship's Cook Third Class John Elliot Hunter, is at right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 510 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. Note that the original Ansco transparency's color has shifted significantly over the years. |
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If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 18 January 2004