Allied Warships

USS Blessman (DE 69)

Destroyer Escort of the Buckley class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer Escort
Class	Buckley
Pennant	DE 69
Built by	Bethlehem Shipyard Inc. (Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
Ordered	10 Jan 1942
Laid down	22 Mar 1943
Launched	19 Jun 1943
Commissioned	19 Sep 1943
End service	15 Jan 1947
History	Converted to a high speed transport and reclassified as such (APD-48) on 31 July 1944. Decommissioned 15 January 1947. Stricken 1 June 1967. Transferred to Taiwan 3 July 1967 being renamed Chung Shan. Chung Shan was stricken in May 1995 and broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Blessman (DE 69)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. Joseph Albert Gillis, USNR	19 Sep 1943	6 Aug 1944
2	Pierre DeBoutillier, USNR	6 Aug 1944	21 Jul 1945
3	Cdr. Clement Olmstead Davidson, USNR	21 Jul 1945	Oct 1945

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Notable events involving Blessman include:

3 Jun 1944

Passage of the bulk of ' Bombardment Group O ' from Belfast to the operations area.

Shortly after 0200B/3, the battleships USS Texas (Capt. C.A. Baker, USN, flying the flag of T/R.Adm. C.F. Bryant, USN), USS Arkansas (Capt. F.G. Richards, USN), USS Nevada (Capt. P.M. Rhea, USN), light cruisers Georges Leygues (Capt. J.E.A. Laurin), Montcalm (Capt. L.M.J.A. Deprez). These ships were, with the exception off USS Nevada, part of ' Bombardment Group O ' (Task Group 124.8).

They were escorted by the destroyers USS Jeffers (T/Cdr. H.Q. Murray, USN with COMDESRON 17, T/Capt. A.C. Murdaugh, USN on board), Murphy (T/Cdr. R.A. Wolverton, USN), USS Plunkett (T/Cdr. W. Outerson, USN), USS Gherardi (T/Cdr. N.R. Curtin, USN) and Murphy (T/Cdr. R.A. Wolverton, USN) and the escort destroyers Amesbury (Lt.Cdr. A.B. Wilbor, USNR) and Blessman (Lt.Cdr. J.A. Gillis, USNR). The escort vessels were not part of the actual bombardment group but of an escort group (Task Group 124.7).

Around 0730B/4, when near Plymouth, the force turned around after a signal was received that the invastion was postponed for 24 hours. Course was set to return to the northwards along the same track.

Around 2200B/4, course was reversed again to return to the southwards.

Around 0730B/5, USS Nevada was detached to join ' Bombardment Group U '. Around the same time the light cruiser HMS Glasgow (Capt. C.P. Clarke, DSO, RN) joined the group.

Around 1215B/5, the escort destroyers HMS Tanatside (Cdr. B.J. de St. Croix, RN), HMS Talybont (Lt.Cdr. E.F. Baines, DSO, RN) and HMS Melbreak (Lt. G.J. Kirkby, DSC and Bar, RN) joined.

Around 0300B/6, the group began to arrive in the operations area.