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USS ''Benson'' (DD-421) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Admiral William S. Benson (1855–1932). ''Benson'' was laid down on 16 May 1938 at Quincy, Mass., by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 15 November 1939; sponsored by Mrs. William S. Benson, the widow of Adm. Benson; and commissioned on 25 July 1940, Commander Clifford A. Fines in command. == 1940 – 1941 == Following fitting out at the Boston Navy Yard, the destroyer made a short cruise to Portland, Maine, before departing Boston on 22 August and heading — via Newport, Rhode Island, and Yorktown, Virginia — for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and abbreviated shakedown training. She sailed for the Chesapeake Bay on 3 September and — after visits to Quantico, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. — departed Norfolk, on the 13th and proceeded via Guantanamo Bay to Cayenne, French Guiana, where she arrived on the 21st to check on the possibility of Axis activity in that French colony and its Dutch neighbor, Suriname. This effort seemed necessary to keep fascism out of the Americas and to protect a rich source of bauxite ore, the source of aluminum, for Allied war production. On the 27th, the colony’s governor embarked in the destroyer for a visit to Îles du Salut, some seven or eight miles off the coast. He returned to Cayenne later that day and disembarked before the ship sailed for Paramaribo, Suriname. ''Benson'' departed Cayenne for the third time on 6 October and proceeded via San Juan, Puerto Rico, to the New York Navy Yard where she underwent a post-shakedown overhaul that lasted through mid-November. ''Benson'' stood out of New York harbor on 18 November to begin the neutrality patrols that constituted her main concern well into the following spring. A highlight of this period of her service came in March 1941 when she escorted while the yacht carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Bahamas for a holiday of fishing. Late in May, the destroyer helped to screen as the battleship patrolled the North Atlantic. While they were at sea, German battleship ''Bismarck'' got underway on 21 May and headed for the Denmark Strait, hoping to prey on Allied convoys. When Prime Minister Winston Churchill learned of her foray, he asked President Roosevelt to have the American Navy look for the raider and to keep the Royal Navy informed of developments during the search. Once alerted, ''Texas'' and her consorts scoured the seas for ''Bismarck'' until the British sank the German warship on 27 May. Soon thereafter, ''Benson'' returned to the Boston Navy Yard for a month's availability to prepare for a new mission. She got underway on 28 June to join Task Force 19 (TF 19) which was being formed to carry marines to Iceland to free the British troops who had been guarding that island for more active service. Task Force 19 departed Argentia, Newfoundland, on 1 July and, at the end of a passage through U-boat-infested waters, anchored in Reykjavík on the evening of 7 July. After returning to Boston, ''Benson'' quickly refueled and moved to Casco Bay for exercises off Portland, Maine. In September, she began almost seven months of duty shuttling between Boston and Iceland escorting convoys. Three months later, in December, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Adolf Hitler's declaration of war allowed the United States to drop the last pretense of neutrality and prosecute the war against the Axis openly. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Benson (DD-421)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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