The second USS Tillman
was named after Benjamin Ryan Tillman. He was born on August
11, 1847 in
Edgefield County, S.C. In July 1864, Tillman left
school to enter the
Confederate Army, but his service
to the South during the
Civil War was prevented by
serious illness. He
served as governor of South Carolina
from 1890 to 1894; and,
during his administration, he
founded Clemson
Agricultural and Mechanical College. He entered the
United States Senate on March 4, 1895, and held the position
of senator for the remainder of his life. During World War I,
Tillman was chairman of
the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs until his death
on July 3, 1918.
The USS
Tillman (DD-641)
was launched
on December 20, 1941 at the Charleston Navy
Yard. The ship was sponsored by
Mrs. Charles Sumner Moore
and commissioned on
June 4, 1942
under the command of Lieutenant Commander Francis
Douglas McCorkle.
From June until September
1942, Tillman underwent
sea trials and shakedown off the east coast. In
September and October, the
new destroyer escorted
convoys and participated
in exercises on the Eastern
Sea Frontier before
getting underway on October 23
from Chesapeake Bay with a
convoy bound for
"Operation
Torch," the invasion of
North Africa.
Shortly before midnight on
November 7th, Tillman reached a point some six miles
off the coast of Africa
and began screening the
unloading transports of the
Center Attack Group during
the successful assault on
Fedhala. While screening
off the transport area, Tillman
engaged an
enemy patrol vessel, W-83, which had
attempted to slip six
merchant ships into the transport
area despite the
destroyer's warnings. After coming under fire from
Tillman's five-inch guns, the patrol
vessel exploded and
beached. Tillman later captured
three French merchantmen.
On November 10th, American
troops advancing on
Casablanca from the east came
under fire from enemy
destroyers. Tillman, Augusta
(CA-31), and Edison
(DD-439) attacked the enemy
ships, at the same time
drawing fire from the shore
batteries including that
at El Hank. Maneuvering at
speeds up to 34 knots,
Tillman fired on the enemy ships,
leaving one vessel
steaming in circles, before she returned
to her station off the transport area. On November 12th,
Tillman departed the area escorting a convoy
which weathered 50 to 60
foot seas before arriving
safely at New York on
December 1.
Tillman
continued convoy duty in
the wintry Atlantic
and then participated in
exercises off Casco Bay, Maine.
Departing New York harbor
in the early hours of
February 8, 1943, a dark
night with unusually strong
tides, Tillman
sideswiped the paravane boom of an improperly
illuminated merchant vessel anchored directly
in the channel. After
repairs at New York, Tillman
operated on the Eastern
Sea Frontier through February and
March, performing escort
duties and participating in
exercises. During the
months of April through June, Tillman ran convoys
in the Atlantic and
Mediterranean.
On July 5, she screened
the sortie from Oran of a
convoy bound for Operation
"Husky,"
the invasion of
Sicily. In the days that
followed, the destroyer provided
neutralizing fire on beach defenses and picked
off artillery which
menaced troops landing near
Scoglitti. Before dawn on
July 10, Tillman fired her
first salvo into Yellow
Beach at 0331, as the assault
got underway. At 0430, a
stick of six bombs dropped
by enemy aircraft
exploded 300 yards off Tillman's starboard bow,
temporarily knocking out her radar. An hour later, Tillman
silenced a shore battery which had been firing on Yellow
Beach. Enemy air attackers, flying
in low over the land where they were indiscernible
by radar, harassed landing
troops and supporting
ships. Fear of hitting
troops on the beaches forced the
Allied ships to withhold
their fire when aiming at the low-flying planes. During the
night of July 10-11,
Tillman
patrolled off the invasion
beaches. On the llth,
she repelled enemy air
bombing attacks and supplied
fire missions called in by
shore observers. On July 15
Tillman
returned to Oran to guard
returning transports.
During the remainder of
1943, Tillman escorted
convoys in Mediterranean
and Atlantic waters, experiencing
many dangerous moments as she protected vulnerable merchant
vessels from enemy submarines and
airplanes. While enroute
from New York to Bizerte
on September 2, 1943
after passing through the
Strait of Gibraltar;
Tillman was attacked by a German
torpedo plane. Patchy
haze limited visibility to 2,000
yards when the plane,
incorrectly identified as friendly,
dropped torpedoes. Quick
maneuvering saved Tillman
from destruction by the
torpedo which crossed about
30 yards ahead and passed
down her port side.
During the same attack, Kendrick (DD-612)
was damaged by a German torpedo. Two days
later, the convoy arrived
at Bizerte, but the illusion of
safety in port was
dispelled on 6 September by a 30-minute air attack on the
harbor. Tillman engaged the
attackers with her main
battery and machine guns.
Thirteen members of her
crew were injured when a
spent shell exploded on
the deck of the ship.
On November 6,
1943, as she steamed off the coast of
Algeria, Tillman
helped repel a German air attack on
the port quarter of a
convoy carrying troops and supplies
for the Italian campaign. An estimated 25 German
aircraft, many equipped with glider-bombs, took part in the
raid, and sank two merchantmen and the
destroyer Beatty
(DD-640). In the first wave of the
attack, a Dornier 217
singled out Tillman as the target of her glider-bomb.
The radio-controlled missile came
in at a terrific speed,
but Tillman's machine guns
splashed it in a violent
explosion only 150 yards off
the destroyer's port bow.
Soon after, a second glider
intended for Tillman's
destruction splashed and exploded
only 150 yards away, as Tillman shot
down its launching plane.
A third glider splashed off the
ship's starboard beam as
its parent craft turned back
in the face of
Tillman's concerted fire. During this first
stage of the attack,
Tillman maneuvered constantly and
rapidly to evade the
gliders. Her own safety temporarily secured, Tillman
then turned her guns on planes attacking
the convoy and splashed another attacker. Soon,
the final and fiercest
phase of the attack began as five
German planes attacked
Tillman. As her main battery
engaged the raiders,
Tillman turned left full rudder
to evade torpedoes, two of
which passed nearly parallel
to the ship at distances
of 60 and 100 feet. Moments
later, as the destroyer
swung to port to regain her
station, a heavy
explosion shook the ship. This detonation,
thought to have been caused by a torpedo exploding
in the destroyer's wake, caused her no serious
damage; and she turned to
the task of rescuing survivors
from the sinking merchant freighter SS Santa
Elena.
She then proceeded to
Philippeville to disembark
the survivors.
During December of 1943
and throughout 1944; Tillman
escorted convoys between
ports in the United States,
the Mediterranean, and
the United Kingdom. Occasionally,
she varied this duty with overhaul at New York
or exercises off New
England. In the first three months
of 1945, Tillman
participated in exercises in the Caribbean
and off the east coast before departing on
March 28 from Delaware
Bay and steaming via the Canal
Zone and San Diego for
Hawaii.
Following her arrival at
Pearl Harbor on April 21,
she took part in exercises
in Hawaiian waters, then
departed the area on May
1st. Until September, Tillman
performed life guard and
antisubmarine picket duties
out of Guam and Ulithi.
On September 5 at Tamil
Harbor; the commanding
officer of the Japanese garrison on Yap Island formally
surrendered to the American
Atoll Commander from Ulithi on board Tillman.
Tillman
continued to operate in the Caroline Islands
and southern Marianas
until November 3, 1945 when she steamed for Charleston, SC via
Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal;
arriving at
Charleston on December 11, 1945 for deactivation.
Tillman
was decomissioned on February 6, 1947
and was struck
from the Navy list in March 1972.
Tillman earned
three battle stars for her World War II
service
Source:
Naval
Historical Center - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting
Ships