ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
Actually England has a place of fondness in my heart , and my spouse's family. Her Uncle , MM3 Oland Paradis was aboard USS LST 342 off Tulagi when RO-106 torpedoed her. England got her.
The Wiki on her last sub kill is amusing-as much as such things can be 'amusing'. You can get a sense of the frustration of the other ASW ships as they send her in and she immediately scores:
RO-105
The three destroyer escorts reached Manus at 1500 on 27 May. After taking on fuel, provisions, and ammunition, they sailed at 1800 28 May with Spangler (DE-696) to rejoin the search. Hazelwood detected RO-105 on RADAR at 0156 on 30 May and missed with a depth charge attack. George and Raby joined Hazelwood and made sixteen Hedgehog and depth charge attacks over a period of 25 hours. RO-105 came up for air at 0310 on 31 May and was immediately detected by George and Raby. RO-105 stayed directly between the two destroyer escorts for five minutes before submerging so neither Raby nor George could fire without endangering the other. Sequential Hedgehog attacks were then made by Raby, George, Raby, and Spangler. All missed. Division Commander Hains then radioed, "Oh, hell. Go ahead, England." [6] England then scored six to ten detonations in a Hedgehog attack at 0736. A major explosion followed at 0741 and a fountain of oil and debris appeared on the surface.[7]
This anti-submarine warfare performance was never matched in World War II, and won for England a Presidential Unit Citation, and the assurance from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral E. J. King, "There'll always be an England in the United States Navy." His pledge was fulfilled on 6 October 1960, when DLG-22 was assigned the name England.
