STATUS:
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Laid
down: March 1, 1943
Launched: December 12, 1943
Commissioned: February 7, 1944 (as USS Gandy /
DE 764)
Decommissioned: June 17, 1946
Stricken: March 26, 1951
transferred
to Italy - January 1951; renamed Altair
Decommissioned:
1971
sunk
as a target in 1971
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F 591 ITS Altair / ex USS Gandy (DE 764):
Service history (USS Gandy)
Gandy was launched 12 December 1943 by the Tampa
Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, Fla.; sponsored by Miss Ruby Gandy, sister of Seaman
Gandy; and commissioned at Tampa 7 February 1944, Lt. Comdr W. A. Sessions in
command.
Gandy, following shakedown training in Bermuda waters, joined Escort Division
22 at New York. After escorting Yukon (AF-9) to Norfolk, she departed New
York 15 April 1944 as part of the escort for fast tanker convoy CU-21 bound
for Northern Ireland. The second day of the voyage at 0806, 16 April, German submarine
U-550 torpedoed and sank tanker Pan Pennsylvania. During recovery of
survivors by Joy, Gandy and Peterson at 0950, Joyce made sound contact with
the U-boat and delivered a depth charge attack. When TJ^550 surfaced about
600 yards on Gandy's starboard bow, Comdr. Sessions ordered "Right full
rudder, come to 320, open fire and stand by to ram."
Gandy headed for the submarine's conning tower but the U-boat's deft
maneuvers caused the escort destroyer to hit it 30 feet from the stern. Gandy
hauled clear, silenced the submarine's machine gun battery with a short burst
of gunfire, then observed the Germans abandoning ship. Joyce recovered twelve
survivors as Gandy, with nearly four feet of her bow strake gone and several
plates buckled, assessed her damage. V-550 was shaken by a muffled explosion
and sank. Four of Gandy's men were injured in the fight.
Gandy continued with the convoy which reached Lisahally, Northern Ireland, 26
April 1944. . She returned to New York 12 May and helped escort nine more convoys
safely out of New York to Lisahally and Liverpool by 24 May 1945 when she
returned from the last of these voyages. After repairs in the New York Naval
Shipyard, she sailed 8 June for brief training in Cuban waters before
proceeding to Hawaii. She departed Pearl Harbor 6 August 1945 en route to the
Philippines via the Marshalls and the Carolines, then sailed from Leyte on
the 24th in the escort of an occupation force convoy which entered Tokyo Bay
1 September. Following the formal signing of the surrender of Japan, the next
day she escorted a convoy from Okinawa to Yokohama, Japan, and then departed
16 November to serve the Philippine Sea Frontier on weather patrol between
Manila, Samar, and Manicani.
Gandy departed Samar 1 February 1946 and reached Norfolk, via Hawaii, San
Pedro, and the Panama Canal, 26 March 1946. She decommissioned at Green Cove
Springs, Fla., 17 June 1946. She was in reserve status until 10 January 1951
when she was transferred to Italy under the Military Assistance Program. She
serves the Italian Navy under the name of Altair.
Gandy received one battle star for service in World War II.
source: US Naval History &
Heritage Command
no service history from ITS Altair
(F 591) at this time
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