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

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

USS Trippe (DD-403), 1939-1948

USS Trippe, a 1500-ton Benham class destroyer built at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, was commissioned at the beginning of November 1939. Following a shakedown cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean area, in June 1940 she began Neutrality Patrol work in the same region. A year later Trippe's operating area was moved to the north Atlantic, where she participated in efforts to impede German submarine activities in the western half of the ocean. Later in 1941 she screened the aircraft carrier Ranger during convoy and flight operations in the West Indies.

During the year after the United States formally entered World War II in December 1941, Trippe continued her western Atlantic convoy, patrol and escort work, and also made one voyage to the British isles. She was damaged in a collision with USS Benson (DD-421) on 19 October 1942, an accident that took the lives of four of her crew. When repairs were completed in mid-November, she returned to convoy escort service, making three voyages across the Atlantic to North Africa in the next seven months. Trippe then began service in the Mediterranean Sea, taking part in the invasions of Sicily in July 1943 and Salerno in September, as well as shelling German forces ashore in Italy and screening convoys. On 13 October she rescued survivors of USS Bristol (DD-453) after that destroyer was torpedoed by an enemy submarine. On 16 December her guns helped sink U-73 off Algeria.

Trippe's Mediterranean tour lasted into the first two months of 1944, mainly involving gunfire support of the late January and early February landings at Anzio, Italy. She returned to the U.S. in March as part of an anti-submarine task group and spent the next year escorting trans-Atlantic convoys, performing patrol missions, and escorting new aircraft carriers in the West Indies. In the spring of 1945 Trippe was sent to the Pacific, where she was employed on escort work until the Second World War ended. Occupation, training and air-sea rescue service followed from September until mid-December, when she steamed to the U.S. West Coast. Early in 1946 the now-obsolescent destroyer was assigned to target duty in connection with the planned atomic bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. Rendered dangerously radioactive by the 25 July 1946 underwater blast at Bikini, USS Trippe was placed out of commission late in August. She was sunk as a gunfire target off Kwajalein on 3 February 1948.

USS Trippe was named in honor of Lieutenant John Trippe (1785-1810), a hero of the Tripolitan War.

This page features all the views we have concerning of USS Trippe (DD-403).

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

Photo #: 80-G-415474 USS Trippe (DD-403) Steaming down the Anacostia River, after a visit to the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., 18 July 1940. Photographed from the Naval Air Station, Anacostia, with Hains point park in the background. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 600 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-K-14443 (Color) USS Trippe (DD-403) Steaming down the Anacostia River, off Washington, D.C., 18 July 1940, after visiting the Washington Navy Yard. The Army War College is in the background, with a blimp overhead. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-K-454 (Color) USS Trippe (DD-403) Steaming down the Anacostia River into the Potomac, off Washington, D.C., 18 July 1940. Photographed from the Officer's Club at Naval Air Station Anacostia. National Airport is under construction in the distance. Hains Point is at the right. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 505 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: NH 99649 USS Trippe (DD-403) Off the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, 23 May 1941. She is painted in Camouflage Measure 2. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 109KB; 740 x 595 pixels Note: The original print has closely spaced scan lines. It was made from an print in National Archives' Record Group 19.
Photo #: 80-G-405270 USS Trippe (DD-403) Covered with ice in February 1942, after arriving at Portland, Maine, from a North Atlantic patrol. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-K-453 (Color) Church Pennant Flying above the National Ensign on board USS Trippe (DD-403), at a berth in the Panama Canal Zone, circa 1940. Note the ship's canvas-covered depth charge racks and motion picture screen. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 19-N-21332 USS Trippe (DD-403) Ship's Historical Data Plaque, photographed at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts, on 11 December 1939. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 156KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: NH 99650 USS Trippe (DD-403) Recognition drawing, prepared during World War II. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 28KB; 740 x 425 pixels

In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Trippe (DD-403). The following list features some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".

Photo #: 80-G-466169 USS Trippe (DD-403) underway at sea, 17 January 1941. Port bow (relatively tight on the bow) surface view, taken from about the height of the top of Trippe's smokestack. Photo #: 80-G-12241 USS Trippe (DD-403) underway off the U.S. Atlantic coast, 26 May 1942. Photographed from an aircraft based on USS Wasp (CV-7). Port bow (relatively toward the broadside) aerial view. Trippe is painted in what appears to be a Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage pattern. Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".

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Page made 27 October 2004