PC 1262

Our local paper - The Door County Advocate - runs a Traveling Back column featuring headline news and events of the past 150 years of publication history.  Last week included this tidbit: 

75 years ago - April 2, 1943 – Lucille Oldenburg, a second shift welder, won the drawing among the 306 women employed at Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding Co. and swung the bottle to launch the PC 1262, the 16th in a series of Navy boats of its class.

PC – Patrol Craft Coastal – the ship in the article was a member of the PC-461 class of 343 submarine chasers constructed from 1941-1944 namely for the US Navy and the Lend Lease Program.  Hull number 1262 was laid down January 21, 1943 by Leathem D. Smith Shipbuilding of Sturgeon Bay and was launched March 27, 1943.  Following her commissioning on June 29, 1943 the ship was assigned to the European theater of operations and participated in the invasion of Normandy earning one battle star for its World War II service.   Following the cessation of hostilities it was utilized as a Naval Reserve training vessel and was subsequently decommissioned in May of 1954 and given to Taiwan (Republic of China) and christened Chung Kiang (PC 115). 

 

 

The ship was finally decommissioned in 1970 and scrapped in 1974. 

This was not a very large vessel by oceangoing standards.  At less than 174 feet in length it had a beam of 23 feet and a draft of less than 11 feet. Two 1,440bhp Fairbanks Morse diesel engines drove twin screws giving the boat a top speed of 20+ knots (23 MPH).  The crew numbered 65 and armament included one 3 inch gun, one 40mm gun, five 20mm guns, two depth charge projectors, two depth charge tracks, and two rocket launchers.   

Some useful factoids:

Sister ship USS PC-1261 was also a supporting participant in the D-Day landings and was struck by shellfire from German shore batteries becoming the first ship sunk during the landing operations of June 6, 1944. 

Another member of this class - the USS PC-1264 - was one of only two ships in the Navy during World War II that had a mostly African-American crew.

 

photos - Navsource

 



That’s likely more than you wanted to know but it’s a fun story nonetheless because the cast of characters includes someone playing the role of Rosie the Riveter, D-Day, segregation in the US military and a journey from Sturgeon Bay to Taiwan and the scrapyard.