User:Maralia/USCGC Dione (WPC-107)

History
Name	USCGC Dione (WPC-107)
Namesake	Dione, mother of Aphrodite
Launched	30 June 1934
Commissioned	05 October 1934
Decommissioned	08 February 1963
Status	Sold 24 February 1964
General characteristics
Class and type	Thetis-class patrol boat
Displacement	1933: 337 tons 1945: 350 tons
Length	165 ft (50 m) waterline
Beam	25 ft 3 in (7.70 m)
Draft	1933: 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m) 1945: 10 ft (3 m)
Propulsion	list error: <br /> list (help); 2 × Winton Model 158 6-cylinder diesel engines, 670 hp (500 kW) each; two shafts with 3-bladed screws
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h)
Range	3,000 nautical miles (6,000 km) at 11 knots (20 km/h)
Complement	5 officers and 39 men 1945: 7 officers and 68 men
Sensors and ; processing systems	list error: <br /> list (help); 1933: none; 1945: SF-1 radar and QCO sonar
Armament	list error: mixed text and list (help); 1933: 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 23 caliber gun; 2 × one-pounder machine guns; 1941: 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 23 caliber gun; 1 × Y-gun; 2 × depth charge tracks; 1945: 2 × 3-inch / 50 cal guns; 2 × 20 mm guns; 2 × Y-guns; 2 × depth charge tracks; 2 × Mousetrap anti-submarine rockets;

USCGC Dione (WPC-107) was a steel-hulled, diesel-powered Thetis-class patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard that patrolled the Eastern coast of the United States during World War II.

World War II service[edit]

The United States entered World War II in December 1941 with formal declarations of war against Japan, Germany, and Italy. By mid-January 1942, U-boats involved in Operation Drumbeat had begun to hunt and sink merchant ships in the coastal waters of the eastern seaboard. With the bulk of US naval power in the Atlantic already dedicated to transatlantic escort duty for American troopships and convoys, shipping on the eastern seaboard was left largely unprotected.

Adolphus Andrews—commander of the Eastern Sea Frontier, which extended from the Canadian border south to North Carolina—cobbled together a ramshackle fleet of twenty ships to defend the east coast against submarines:

seven Coast Guard cutters (the 165-foot Dione and six 125-footers), four prewar 110-foot SCs, three 200-foot, World War I Eagle-class subchasers, two ancient (1905) gunboats, and four large (170- to 245-foot) converted yachts. Of these vessels, only the Norfolk-based, 16-knot, Coast Guard cutter Dione, which had a single 3"/50 caliber bow gun and stern depth-charge tracks, was anywhere near capable of engaging a U-boat.
— Clay Blair, Hitler's U-Boat War, 1989, p. 461–462

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

"Dione, 1934" (PDF). United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 04 August 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
Hickam, Homer H. Jr. (1989). Torpedo Junction. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute.