Allied Warships

USS Childs (AVD 1)

Destroyer of the Clemson class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Clemson
Pennant	AVD 1
Mod	Sea plane tender
Built by	New York Shipbuilding Corp. (Camden, New Jersey, U.S.A.)
Ordered
Laid down	19 Mar 1919
Launched	15 Sep 1920
Commissioned	22 Oct 1920
End service
History	Reclassified as sea plane tender AVP-14 on 1 July 1938 Reclassified as AVD-1 on 2 August 1940 Decommissioned on 10 December 1945 Stricken on 3 January 1946 Sold to be broken up for scrap on 23 May 1946

Commands listed for USS Childs (AVD 1)

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	Harold Foster Fick, USN	30 Sep 1937	16 May 1940 (1)
2	Lt.Cdr. John Lockwood Pratt, USN	16 May 1940	10 Apr 1942 (1)
3	Lt.Cdr. Frank O'Beirne, USN	10 Apr 1942	9 Nov 1942
4	T/Lt.Cdr. Thomas Aloysius Christopher, USN	9 Nov 1942	10 Sep 1943
5	Lt. Charles Daniel Ingebrand, USNR	10 Sep 1943	17 Apr 1945
6	Richard William Evans, USNR	17 Apr 1945	21 Sep 1945
7	Ted J. Welch, USNR	21 Sep 1945	10 Dec 1945

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Notable events involving Childs include:

1 Jun 1942
HMAS Stuart (Cdr. S.H.K. Spurgeon, DSO, RAN) and HMAS Voyager (Lt.Cdr. R.C. Robison DSC, RAN) departed Geraldton for exercises but shortly after departure they were informed that a strange ship escorted by two destroyers had been spotted by aircraft. The destroyers worked up to full speed to intercept and investigate but later a signal was received that there was one destroyer and that she had been identified as USS Childs (Lt.Cdr. F. O'Beirne, USN) en-route from Exmouth Bay to Fremantle. The movements of this ship had been unknown to the local naval command.

The destroyers then return to Geraldton. HMAS Voyager had one engine out of action due to her starboard condenser outlet being blocked by thick seaweed. which was subsequently removed. (2)