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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies from 1833 to 1954, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday 19 August 2026: Ward? Is that you?

Above we see the Edsall-class destroyer escort USS Finch (DER-328), carrying another tin can’s hull numbers and still outfitted with very real depth charges, getting ready to fire her forward 3″/50 Mark 34 mount for the cameras, circa 1969. You could say she is ready for her close up.

A WWII Atlantic Convoy veteran, Finch would later serve on the big screen in the Pacific Fleet’s first battle (as well as actual occupation duty in Chinese waters).

She also had a brief Korean War career– in Coast Guard service– recommissioned from mothballs some 75 years ago this week.

The Edsall class

A total of 85 Edsall-class destroyer escorts were cranked out in four different yards in the heyday of World War II rapid production with class leader USS Edsall (DE-129) laid down 2 July 1942 and last of class USS Holder commissioned 18 January 1944– in all some four score ships built in 19 months. The Arsenal of Democracy at work– building tin cans faster than the U-boats and Kamikazes could send them to Davy Jones.

These 1,590-ton expendable escorts were based on their predecessors, the very successful Cannon-class boats but used an FMR type (Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive) propulsion suite whereas the only slightly less prolific Cannons used a DET (Diesel Electric Tandem) drive. Apples to oranges.

Armed with enough popguns (3×3″/50s, 2x40mm, 8x20mm) to keep aircraft and small craft at bay, they could plug a torpedo into a passing enemy cruiser from one of their trio of above-deck 21-inch tubes, or maul a submarine with any number of ASW weapons including depth charges and Hedgehogs. Too slow for active fleet operations (21 knots) they were designed for coastal patrol (could float in just 125 inches of seawater), sub-chasing, and convoy escorts.

This all brings us to…

Meet Finch

Our subject is only the second U.S. Navy warship to carry the name of the small bird, following a small minesweeper/auxiliary seaplane tender (AM-9) built for the Great War and lost off Corregidor in the Philippines in 1942.

Speaking of lost in 1942, LT(j.g.) Joseph Warren Finch, Jr.,USNR, gave his last measure aboard the destroyer USS Laffey (DD-459) off Guadalcanal, aged just 22, when his ship was sunk in an action that earned it the Presidential Unit Citation. A Northwestern grad, LT Finch had just 17 months in the colors and Laffey was his first ship. The next Finch would be dedicated to him.

Our subject, the USS Finch (DE-328) was one of 66 Edsall-class destroyer escorts block ordered from the Consolidated Steel Corp of Orange, Texas on 7 August 1942. She was laid down on 29 June 1943, with sister USS Kretchmer (DE-329) laid down beside her the next day.

Our greyhound was commissioned 13 December 1943, her construction spanning just 168 days. Her plankowner crew was commanded by LCDR Albert Henry Nienau, USNR (University of Washington, NROTC).

In all, Consolidated Steel had been contracted to build 111 DEs during the war, of which only nine were canceled. The last delivered by the Texas Gulf Coast yard was USS Jack W. Wilke (DE-800) on 7 March 1944.

War

Finch was assigned to Escort Division 57 for convoy duty and arrived at Curacao in the Dutch West Indies the same day Wilke was delivered. She spent the next three months there, escorting large tankers from the Caribbean to Casablanca and Algiers on two convoys (OT.13 and OT.14) and back (TO.13/TO.14).

It was during this time that LCDR Nienau got orders to take over the newly commissioned sistership, USS Dufilho (DE 423), which was headed to the Pacific. Her new skipper was LCDR Clement D. LeHardy, who formerly commanded the USS PC-483 (PC-483) and USS SC-499 (SC-499).

Returning stateside in June 1944, Finch then spent three weeks at the Fleet Sound School in Key West in ASW exercises, followed by a two week overhaul at Boston Navy Yard and two more weeks of gunnery drills in Casco Bay, Maine, preparing for invasion work in Europe.

She then took part in the periphery of the August 1944 Dragoon Landings in Southern France, screening troopships carrying 13,597 GIs as part of Convoy UGF.13 from Hampton Roads passed Gibraltar for the invasion, returning to the East Coast with empties in Convoy GUF.13.

Then came more cross Atlantic convoy work for the rest of the war in Europe.

This included four outbound CU convoys and five returning UC Convoys:

• Convoy CU.41 (Sep 1944: NYC – Liverpool)
• Convoy UC.41A (Oct 1944: Liverpool – NYC)
• Convoy UC.47A (Dec 1944: Liverpool – NYC)
• Convoy CU.47 (Nov 1944: NYC – Liverpool)
• Convoy UC.53B (Jan 1945: Liverpool – NYC)
• Convoy CU.59 (Feb 1945: NYC – Liverpool)
• Convoy UC.59A (Mar 1945: Liverpool – NYC)
• Convoy CU.65 (Apr 1945: NYC – Liverpool)
• Convoy UC.65B (Apr 1945: Liverpool – NYC)

Headed to the Pacific

After VE Day, our proven little escort ship prepared for Pacific Fleet duty, and arrived at Pearl Harbor 12 July 1945. She then sailed on to Guam, where on 13 August she joined a jeep carrier task force (CarDiv 27, with baby flattops USS Block Island, Gilbert Island, Kula Gulf and Salerno Bay), which upon the cessation of hostilities was ordered into Leyte 17 August.

On VJ+3, sisters USS Kretchmer (DE-329) and Thomas J. Gary (DE-326) arrived in Keelung (Chilung or Jilong, Formosa, now Taiwan) to pick up American POWs, joined the following day, the USS Brister (DE-327) and Finch, the low-draft tin cans being the largest vessels able to pull alongside the damaged piers. Finch would take aboard at least 221 former prisoners of war, 171 of which were later transferred to Santee. She carried the remaining 50 to Manila herself.

In all, the four ships took away about 1,200 prisoners of war and transferred most them to Block Island (CVE-106) and Santee (CVE-29) to be sent to Manila to prepare for their return home.

Finch remained in the Far East until 1 April 1946, carrying mail and inspection teams, sinking floating mines (29 Sept ’45), surviving typhoons (October), supported the landing of occupation forces on Formosa, rescuing crashed aviators while on plane guard duty (LT Jack E. Perry USMCR, off Salerno Bay, 15 October), swapping out her second skipper (LeHardy) for her third (LCDR Eugene Taylor MacDonald), and spending lots of time steaming between Guam and China.

She finally returned stateside, the long way round, via the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, completing a 10 month circumnavigation at Charleston, South Carolina on 29 May 1946.

Finch was decommissioned and placed in mothballs at Green Cove Springs, Florida on 4 October 1946, having made port calls at 63 harbors around the world in her 27 months of global service.

Finch did not earn any battle stars for her WWII service despite her 15 convoys, but was listed as eligible for the Occupation Service medal, with China service listed from 2-7 Sep 45, 12-22 Dec 45, and 1 Jan – 2 Apr 46.

Korean USCG service

With the dramatic surge in air and maritime traffic across some downright vacant stretches of the Pacific that came with the Korean War, the USCG was again tapped to man a growing series of Ocean Stations. Two had been formed after WWII and the Navy added another three in 1950, bringing the total to five.

These stations would serve both a meteorological purpose– with U.S. Weather Bureau personnel embarked– as well as serve as floating checkpoints for military and commercial maritime and air traffic and communication “relay” stations for aircraft on transoceanic flights crisscrossing the Pacific. Further, they provided an emergency ditch option for aircraft (a concept that had already been proved by the Bermuda Sky Queen rescue in 1947, which saw all 69 passengers and crew rescued by the cutter Bibb.)

As detailed by Scott Price in The Forgotten Service in the Forgotten War, these stations were no picnic, with the average cutter logging 4,000 miles and as many as 320 radar fixes while serving upwards of 700 hours on station.

Ocean station duty could be monotonous at one moment and terrifying the next, as the vessels rode out storms that made the saltiest sailors green. One crew member noted: “After twenty-one days of being slammed around by rough cold sea swells 20 to 50 feet high, and wild winds hitting gale force at times, within an ocean grid the size of a postage stamp, you can stand any kind of duty.”

A typical tour was composed of arriving at Midway Island for three weeks on SAR standby, three weeks on Ocean Station Victor midway between Japan and the Aleutian Islands, three weeks on SAR standby at Guam, two weeks “R and R” in Japan, three weeks on Ocean Station Sugar, three weeks on SAR standby Adak, Alaska, and then back to home port.

To stand post on these new ocean stations and backfill for other cutters detailed to the role, the Navy lent the USCG 12 mothballed Edsalls (Newell, Falgout, Lowe, Finch, Koiner, Foster, Ramsden, Rickey, Vance, Lansing, Durant, and Chambers), nine of which the service had originally operated during WWII.

To man these extra vessels and fill other wartime roles such as establishing new LORAN stations and pulling port security, the USCG almost doubled in size from just over 18,000 to 35,082 in 1952.

The conversion to Coast Guard service included a white paint scheme, an aft weather balloon shelter (they would have to launch three balloons a day in all sea states), and the fitting of a 31-foot self-bailing motor surfboat for rescues in heavy weather. The USCG designator “W” was added to the hull number, as was the number 100 so they wouldn’t be confused with Barnegat class AVPs in CG servcie.

Thus, USS Finch (DE-328) became USCGC Finch (WDE-428), under the command of CDR G. R. Boyce, Jr., USCG, on 24 August 1951.

Stationed at Alameda, Finch served on all six Pacific Ocean Stations during the war: OS Uncle; 21 Jul-9 Aug 52, on OS Victor, on OS Sugar 30 Aug-18 Sep 52, on OS Queen 3 Nov-14 Dec 52; back on OS Uncle 15 Feb-8 Mar 53; on OS Nan 10-31 May 53. back to OS Victor 4-25 Aug 53; and finally on OS Sugar 4-25 Oct 53.

It was during this lonely service that, Finch, while taking a break from on Ocean Station Nan on SAR standby at Midway, unsuccessfully searched for “The Royal Hawaiian,” a downed Transocean Air Lines Flight 512 (N90806) DC-6A in July 1953.

Of the 12 DEs loaned to the Coast Guard during Korea, nine earned Korean Service Medals between 1951 and 1954, including our Finch:

• USCGC Durant; WDE 489
• USCGC Falgout; WDE 424
• USCGC Finch; WDE 428
• USCGC Forster; WDE 434
• USCGC Koiner; WDE 431
• USCGC Lowe; WDE 425
• USCGC Newell; WDE 442
• USCGC Ramsden; WDE 482
• USCGC Richey; WDE 485

Finch was decommissioned the second time (the first from the USCG) on 23 April 1954, having served 32 months in CG white during the Korean era vs 27 with the Navy in WWII. She was handed over to the Navy at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

DER days

The DER program filled an early gap in the continental air defense system by placing a string of ships as sea-based radar platforms to provide a distant early warning line to possible attack from the Soviets. The Pacific had up to 11 picket stations while the Atlantic had as many as nine. A dozen DEs became DERs through the addition of SPS-6 and SPS-8 air search radars to help man these DEW lines as the Atlantic Barrier became fully operational in 1956 and the Pacific Barrier (which Finch took part in) by 1958.

To make room for the extra topside weight of the big radars, they gave up most of their WWII armament, keeping only their Hedgehog ASW device and two Mark 34 3-inch guns that would eventually be fitted with aluminum and fiberglass weather shields.

Finch’s conversion began at Mare Island on 1 October 1955 and 10 months later, on 17 August 1956, reclassified as DER 328, recommissioned.

With her eight skipper (sixth Navy), LCDR James Keith Athow, in command, she was assigned to Escort Squadron 5 at Seattle.

The next two years consisted of quiet seaborne radar early warning duty, shifting to Pearl Harbor in September 1958, and to Treasure Island (San Francisco) in May 1960.

The 1960 Jane’s entry for her class:

Upon the disestablishment of the floating radar barriers in 1965, when the seaward extension of early warning lines was discontinued, Finch and her sisters would have probably been decommissioned but instead the Navy found another, new, mission for them.

Vietnam

Finch made five tours off the coast of Vietnam, in support of Operation Market Time, between January 1966 and October 1968, often working alongside her DER sisters. During these deployments, the ship’s primary mission was coastal interdiction, to prevent the seaborne infiltration of weapons and supplies to enemy forces. It was lonely stints of halting and searching junks, interspersed with UNREPs every few days.

She often served as a “mother ship” for up to a half dozen U.S. Navy Swift Boats (PCFs), providing logistical and personnel support for “brown water navy” operations in the Mekong River Delta.

A typical log entry from the period:

She also occasionally provided naval gunfire support ashore with her 3-inch guns. CONGA lists 16 gunfire support records for her, mostly bunched in July 1968 off Nin Thuan, and in October 1968 off Quang Ngai. During the former she was working in conjunction with the USCGC Point Young (WPB 82303).

From her October ’68 log:

Finch earned six campaign stars and a Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation for her tours in Southeast Asia.

Movie Star

Shifting port to Pearl Harbor on 15 January 1969, Finch, a three-war veteran, was tapped by the company filming Tora, Tora, Tora! to portray the Wickes-class Great War-era four-piper destroyer USS Ward (DD-139), which had famously sank a Japanese midget submarine just prior to the general attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December. This included picking up the old Ward’s hull numbers, although the two ships had little else in common other than size (1,600 t /306 feet oal vs 1,300 t/314 feet).

She had previously appeared in the 1960 film, The Wackiest Ship in the Army, moored outboard of sistership USS Durant (DE-389/WDE-489/DER-389) while at Pearl.

Finch’s role in Tora, Tora, Tora!, which was released in September 1970, came while she was in her fourth (and final) stint in mothballs.

She had been decommissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 3 October 1969 and placed in reserve where she swayed until September 1974 when, stricken seven months prior she was sold to the Levin Metals Corp. of San Jose for breaking.

Epilogue

All in all, Finch accumulated 18 years and 8 months in commission across her two Navy and one Coast Guard service stints, alternating with about 12 years in mothballs, which isn’t bad for an expendable war baby designed to survive a few convoys.

She had 18 skippers, including two who were USCG regulars. Among the most notable was her first, Al Nienau, who, as commander of the DE USS Dufilho, was one of the first rescue ships to reach the site of the USS Indianapolis survivors– ordering his men to turn on their 24-inch searchlights to facilitate the search in the inky darkness. He passed in 2004, aged 88, survived by at least “eight devoted grandchildren and eighteen loving great grandchildren.”

The Navy has not had a third USS Finch, which is a shame.

The USCG does have a cutter named Finch these days, though it recalls S2/c Florence Ebersole Smith Finch, USCGR, a WWII SPAR who clocked in on intelligence efforts in the occupied Philippines who was later captured and tortured by the Japanese.

Thanks for reading!

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

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