USS Vance (DE-387) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort, named after Joseph Williams Vance, Jr.
Namesake
Joseph Williams Vance Jr. was born on 4 December 1918 in Memphis, Tennessee. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 26 July 1940 as an apprentice seaman. After serving at sea on the during the late summer and early fall, he was appointed midshipman on 22 November and reported to Prairie State (IX-15) for further training.
Commissioned ensign on 28 February 1941, Vance joined in the Philippine Islands on 16 April. Soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December (8 December west of the date line), Parrott joined the American-British-Dutch-Australian effort to stem the Japanese tide sweeping down from the north.
During the 24 January 1942 Battle of Makassar Strait, Vance was in charge of the destroyer's 12-tube battery of 21-inch torpedo tubes—in effect the ship's "main battery." On 23 January, DesDiv 58 began a final approach to the town of Balikpapan, Borneo, captured only that day by the Japanese. On 24 January, in the initial phase of the Battle of Makassar Strait, three of Parrotts torpedoes sank the 3,500-ton transport Sumanoura Maru. Within minutes, Parrott teamed up with and to sink Tatsukami Maru with torpedoes. For his gallantry during the first action, Vance was awarded the Bronze Star. He remained on Parrott through the spring, when he was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on 15 June 1942.
As Allied forces gathered for the assault on Japanese-held Guadalcanal, Vance received orders to HMAS Canberra as a liaison officer with the Royal Australian Navy. On 8 August, the Australian cruiser helped to screen American transports off the landing beaches. That night, Canberra was sunk in the Battle of Savo Island, and Vance was killed in action.
History
Vance (DE-387) was laid down on 30 April 1943 at Houston, Tex., by the Brown Shipbuilding Co., launched 16 July 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Joseph W. Vance, mother of the late Lt. (jg.) Vance, and commissioned on 1 November 1943.
Following shakedown off Bermuda, Vance became the flagship for Escort Division (CortDiv) 45, a Coast Guard-staffed unit, and convoyed a group of oil tankers from Norfolk, Va., to Port Arthur, Tex., and back. Upon its return to Norfolk, it served as a training ship for destroyer escort crews while awaiting the arrival of the rest of its division.
In February 1944, the ship conducted local escort operations before joining the New York section of Convoy UGS-33, bound for Gibraltar. Its section rendezvoused off Norfolk with the remainder of the convoy and its flagship, Bibb (WPG-32), and set out across the Atlantic. On 7 March, Vance departed Casablanca with GUS-33 for the return voyage and put into the New York Navy Yard on 23 March for availability.
Vance next got underway on 12 April with the other ships of CortDiv 45 and a destroyer escort division to screen the 102 merchantmen of convoy UGS-39 to Tunisia. Arriving at Bizerte on 3 May, the warship left Tunisian waters eight days later, bound for New York with GUS-39. Off Oran on 14 May, a German U-boat slipped through the screen of escorts and torpedoed two merchantmen. Vance, holding the "whip" position of the screen (where the ship had the duty of shepherding stragglers) came up through the convoy, sighted the periscope, and attempted to ram. The U-boat "pulled the plug" and dove deeper, evading the onrushing escort's sharp bow. Vance remained on the scene for 10 hours, subjecting the U-boat to depth charge and hedgehog attacks, until relieved by a squadron of Navy destroyers. Three days later, after an extensive hunt, the relief ships sank U-616.
Altogether, Vance made eight round-trip voyages to the western Mediterranean and followed each with availability at either Boston or New York. Four times the ship engaged in training exercises out of Casco Bay, sharpening the crew's antisubmarine and gunnery skills. On 14 July 1944, Vance helped to fight off a German air attack against an Allied convoy off Oran. During most of the voyages, the destroyer escort held the "whip" position in the convoy, a grueling and sometimes frustrating detail since merchantmen frequently displayed a lack of discipline and straggled behind the convoy. Carrying the division doctor on board, Vance on occasion would take on board men from other ships for medical treatment.