More than 70 years ago, a twin-tube destroyer named William D. Porter (DD-579) served with the US Navy. The ship was no different from dozens of Fletcher-class destroyers that were mass-produced during World War II. Commissioned in 1943; an experienced officer, Lieutenant-Commander Wilfred Walter, was appointed its commander.
In November 1943, "Willie Dee" (as the destroyer was familiarly dubbed in sailors' circles) was ordered to leave the naval base in Norfolk and join the escort of the battleship Iowa, on which US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt headed the American delegation to Tehran. conference.
Departing from the pier, "Willie Dee" collided with a destroyer of the same type and, screeching along the neighboring side, tore off its rail, boat, trawls and life rafts with her anchor.
After touching up the stripped side, the William D. Porter finally joined the battleship's escort, and the formation (Iowa and three destroyers) sailed into the Atlantic. Given the threat from German submarines, radio silence was ordered. Suddenly, the calm sailing of the marching order was disrupted by a violent explosion.
The escort ships switched to anti-submarine zigzag. Anti-torpedo maneuvers continued until "Willie Dee" protested that it was just one of its depth charges, which, accidentally falling off the rack, fell overboard and exploded. The wave raised by the explosion washed away from the stern everything that was not properly secured, as well as one of the sailors, who could not be saved.
Then, for some unknown reason, there was an accident in the car. After some time, the steam pressure in one of the boilers dropped, and so on and so forth. Almost every hour, reports of new accidents were received from the board of the Willie Dee to the flagship. It was a formal way of the cross, and, probably, no one would have condemned the commander of the formation if he had sent the ill-fated destroyer back to Norfolk.
The morning of November 14, 1943 was sunny and warm. The ocean rolled its waves calmly under a cloudless sky. As the Iowa escorted past Bermuda, President Roosevelt and his entourage expressed a desire to see what a reflection of an enemy air raid would have looked like. The battleship commander ordered to launch meteorological balloons into the air, the balloons of which were supposed to serve as targets for anti-aircraft gunners.
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As eyewitnesses recalled, the spectacle turned out to be impressive. Still, more than a hundred guns of various calibers fired at the balloons. Overseeing the exercise, the president could well be proud of the power of his fleet.
From the William D. Porter, Lieutenant-Commander Walter oversaw the anti-aircraft exercise, pondering intensely how to mitigate the negative impression caused by the depth charge.
To show himself from the best side, he also announced a military alert. The destroyer's gunners opened fire on the balloons, and the rest of the crew began to prepare to simulate a torpedo attack on the battleship Iowa, which majestically cut the ocean surface a few miles from Willie Dee.
Two torpedo men were ordered to remove propellant charges (primers) from the torpedo tubes. However, evil fate stubbornly did not want to leave the destroyer alone: one of the sailors, for some inexplicable reason, forgot to remove the primer from the torpedo tube of the torpedo tube. Meanwhile, the commander of the mine-torpedo unit gave the order to fire a volley and began counting down: “First - fire! The second - or! Third - pli!"
Before he had time to command "Fourth - pli!", Everyone heard the characteristic clap of a cannon shot and saw a deadly cigar flying out of the torpedo tube. Observing everything that happened from the upper bridge, Lieutenant Seward Lewis in a voice breaking with excitement asked the commander if he had given the order for combat torpedo firing.
The lieutenant-commander froze, seized with horror, seeing a white-bladed torpedo breaker, as if nothing had happened rushing towards the battleship, on board which was the president. Panic broke out on the Willie Dee's bridge. Chaotic, contradictory teams rained down. Everyone understood that the main thing now was to warn the battleship of the impending danger.
They decided to violate the radio silence order, but the radio operator on the Iowa did not work on reception. And precious seconds were gone. Finally, the battleship received confirmation of the receipt of the radiogram. The huge ship increased speed and changed course.
News of the torpedo attack reached President Roosevelt, who even asked the adjutant to move his wheelchair to the rails so that he could personally observe the development of events. Meanwhile, the circulating battleship turned all its guns on the unfortunate William D. Porter, as the command had a thought that the destroyer's crew might be involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States.
A minute later, an explosion thundered behind the stern of the battleship: the torpedo detonated in the propeller-foamed water of the Iowa's wake. Everyone on her bridge took a deep breath in relief. The crisis, which threatened with unpredictable consequences, ended, and with it several looking very promising seafarers.
To persistent inquiries from the battleship, Lieutenant Commander Walter sadly admitted that responsibility for the incident, which almost ended in tragedy, fell on him and his ship. The destroyer, together with the commander and the entire crew, was declared arrested and sent to the port of Hamilton in Bermuda, where the perpetrators of the fatal incident were awaiting a military trial.
This was the first time in the history of the US Navy that a ship and all of its crew were seized on the high seas.
Arriving at the port of destination, "Willie Dee" was immediately surrounded by a cordon of the Marine Corps, and the military court at its closed sessions began to find out what happened on board the destroyer on the memorable day of November 14. After several interrogations, the torpedo operator Lawton Dawson confessed that he mistakenly left a propelling charge in the torpedo tube, the ignition of which led to the launch of the torpedo.
When the truth was finally found out, the commission of inquiry recognized everything that had happened as the result of an incredible combination of circumstances and, just in case, classified both the results of the investigation and the fact of the incident itself. Lieutenant Commander Walter, his assistant and several other officers from the destroyer were transferred as punishment to non-standard coastal positions, and Dawson was fired from the navy and sentenced to 14 years in hard labor.
However, President Roosevelt intervened, and the convict was pardoned.
Unfortunately, the further history of the destroyer William D. Porter was replete with unexplained incidents and accidents. When the ship was sent on patrol in the waters surrounding the Aleutian archipelago, before taking up a battle watch, by mistake (but with great accuracy), a shell of its main caliber hit the location of the headquarters of the American garrison on one of the islands.
After arriving in the Okinawa area, "Willie Dee" as an air defense ship of the landing force shot down several Japanese and three … their own aircraft.
After that, in order to avoid misfortune, American pilots preferred to bypass the fatal destroyer. The crew of the similar ship "Lewis" (DD-522), whose side and superstructures "Willie Dee" were riddled with the fire of their anti-aircraft artillery, were convinced that this was a very useful precaution, trying to shoot down a Japanese plane.
On June 10, 1945, while the William D. Porter was on anti-aircraft duty, a Japanese dive bomber broke through long-range defenses. It was a bomb-laden kamikaze, targeting a large transport next to the destroyer.
Struck by anti-aircraft fire, the plane lost its course at the last moment and fell into the sea at the side of "Willie Dee". However, the sailors had no time to congratulate each other on their unprecedented luck, as a powerful explosion thundered under the keel of the destroyer: the downed Japanese pilot still managed to avenge his death.
The William D. Porter began to fill quickly with water, lurching to starboard. Three hours later, the commander of the damaged destroyer, along with the crew, boarded the approaching landing barge. The ship that almost changed the course of world history sank at a depth of about 800 meters off the coast of the distant island of Okinawa.
Thus ended the incredible story of the destroyer William D. Porter full of unsolved mysteries.