In 1944, a Small American Destroyer Escorted by Ordinary Sailors Was Sent Into the Pacific — No One Expected Much, Yet Within Just 12 Days the USS England Would Do the Impossible: Hunt Down and Destroy Six Japanese Submarines One After Another, Staggering the Entire U.S. Navy and Changing Anti-Sub Warfare Forever

Story: “The Twelve Days of the USS England”

1. The Ocean of Uncertainty

The Pacific in 1944 was a battlefield stretching beyond imagination — endless blue hiding invisible hunters.
Japan’s submarines prowled like shadows beneath the waves, sinking merchant ships and ambushing convoys.
The U.S. Navy, though powerful on the surface, still feared what it couldn’t see below.

In early May, the destroyer escort USS England (DE-635) was just another small ship in a vast war.
Barely three hundred feet long, armed with depth charges and hedgehog mortars, she was commanded by Lieutenant Commander Walton Pendleton, a calm, methodical officer barely in his thirties.

Her crew was young — farmers’ sons, factory workers, and students who’d barely seen the ocean before the war.
They didn’t look like heroes.
And yet, in twelve unbelievable days, they would write one of the greatest undersea-war stories ever told.

2. A Routine Patrol Turns Deadly

On May 18, 1944, the USS England was part of an escort group protecting Allied ships near the Solomon Islands.
The weather was calm, the sea deceptively peaceful.

Suddenly, a coded message arrived from intelligence command:

“Japanese submarine sighted heading east. Proceed to intercept.”

Pendleton read it twice. Enemy submarines in those waters usually hunted American convoys — not the other way around.
But orders were orders. He turned the ship toward the coordinates and pushed the throttle forward.

“Let’s go fishing,” joked Sonar Operator Harry Dubois, pressing his headphones tighter over his ears.

3. The First Kill — I-16

By dusk, sonar caught the faint metallic echo of something large moving deep below.
“Contact bearing zero-nine-zero!” Dubois shouted.

The crew went silent. The hum of engines dropped to a low growl.
Pendleton ordered the ship into attack position.

The USS England carried a relatively new weapon — the Hedgehog, a forward-firing mortar that launched dozens of small depth bombs ahead of the ship. Unlike traditional depth charges, they detonated only if they actually hit a submarine.

The men loaded the tubes. Pendleton gave the word.
“Fire!”

A chorus of thumps sent 24 projectiles arcing into the sea.
For a moment — nothing. Just waves slapping the hull.

Then— a muffled explosion. Then another. Then four in quick succession.

The ship trembled. A column of oil and debris surfaced.
Dubois whispered, “We got her.”

The I-16, a 2,000-ton Japanese submarine, was gone — the USS England’s first kill.

4. The Message the Navy Didn’t Believe

When Pendleton radioed in the sinking, the response from command was skeptical.

“Confirm hit,” the operator said flatly.
“Confirmed,” Pendleton replied. “Multiple detonations. Oil slick. Wreckage.”

Silence. Then:

“Understood. Resume patrol.”

Nobody in headquarters expected a tiny destroyer escort to take down a fully armed Japanese submarine on her own.

But three days later, the USS England would do it again.

5. The Hunt for RO-106

On May 22, while patrolling near Bougainville, Dubois picked up another faint sonar echo.
The men rushed to battle stations.

“Could be a whale,” muttered one sailor.
Pendleton shook his head. “Whales don’t travel at nine knots.”

The submarine, RO-106, tried to dive deep and run silent, but England’s sonar tracked it relentlessly.

For five hours, the ship circled, attacked, lost contact, then reacquired.
Finally, a perfect echo lined up beneath them.

“Fire!”

Another cluster of hedgehog bombs sank into the dark.
The seconds crawled.

Then— BANG!
Another underwater bloom.

The crew erupted in cheers.
Two submarines in four days.

Pendleton radioed again.

“Second enemy sub confirmed destroyed.”

The reply came slower this time.

“Repeat, second?”

The Navy began to take notice.

6. The Impossible Streak Continues

By May 23, the USS England joined two other destroyer escorts — the George and Raby — to form a hunter-killer team.
Their mission: sweep the area and destroy any remaining submarines threatening Allied reinforcements heading toward New Guinea.

That night, radar spotted another blip on the surface — a periscope wake slicing through moonlight.

Pendleton ordered full speed. The ships closed in, their searchlights cutting through the waves.
The target was RO-104.

The submarine dove instantly, vanishing beneath the surface.
But England’s sonar caught her again minutes later.

Another hedgehog pattern fired.
Another explosion rolled under the hull.

Third kill.

The men could hardly believe it. In less than a week, they had achieved what entire fleets had failed to do.

7. Word Reaches the Admirals

By now, radio reports of the England’s success were spreading through the Pacific like wildfire.

Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, commanding the Third Fleet, was briefed personally.
He frowned at the message, then grinned.

“Give that ship a bigger bathtub,” he said, “she’s running out of room for fish.”

The “fish” were submarines. The joke became legend.

But the mission wasn’t over. Another signal came through — Japanese submarine RO-116 was transmitting coded traffic in the area.

Pendleton plotted an intercept course.
The crew, though exhausted, readied for another hunt.

8. The Fourth Submarine

On May 24, England’s sonar picked up a contact at 1,800 yards.

This time the sea was rough, the rain slashing across the deck.
Visibility near zero. But the sonar didn’t lie.

Dubois tracked the bearing, his voice steady despite the storm.
“Range closing… firing solution ready.”

Pendleton nodded. “Fire hedgehogs.”

Explosions rolled through the deep — first faint, then sharper.
Moments later, air bubbles and oil rose to the surface.

RO-116 was gone.

Four submarines. Six days.

No other ship in the U.S. Navy had ever accomplished such a streak.

9. The Japanese Realize the Threat

Unaware that one small destroyer escort was decimating their fleet, Japanese command ordered another sub, RO-108, to search for the missing boats.
She transmitted a status signal — and the American codebreakers intercepted it.

The message was forwarded to Pendleton’s group.

“Intercept coordinates transmitted. Proceed immediately.”

By dawn, England had contact.
The familiar dance began — sonar pings, evasive maneuvers, hedgehog bursts.

At 8:15 a.m., multiple detonations tore through the ocean.
A vast oil slick followed.

RO-108 was gone.

Five submarines down.

At this point, the men no longer cheered — they simply stared at one another in disbelief.

They had become specialists, almost machines. The war below the waves was suddenly tilting.

10. The Final Hunt — RO-105

By May 30, the task group received new intelligence: another enemy submarine, RO-105, was heading their way.
Admiral Halsey’s message was simple:

“Get that one too.”

RO-105 was clever — surfacing only at night, transmitting short bursts of radio, then diving again.
For 30 hours, the three destroyers searched without sleep.

Finally, early on May 31, Dubois picked up a faint echo, barely audible.

“There!” he shouted. “Range two thousand yards, slow moving.”

Pendleton’s voice was calm. “All stations, battle readiness.”

The attack began.
England dropped her first hedgehog pattern — nothing.
Second — still nothing.

Then, on the third run, a thunderous explosion shook the ship from bow to stern.

When the smoke cleared, the sea boiled with oil and debris.

RO-105 had been destroyed.

Six Japanese submarines in twelve days.

The ocean went silent again.

11. The Aftermath

When the USS England returned to port, she was greeted not with fanfare but stunned silence.
The brass had never seen anything like it.

In total, the six submarines she sank had been responsible for the loss of dozens of Allied ships. Each one carried experienced crews and valuable intelligence.

Pendleton was awarded the Navy Cross.
Every member of the England’s crew received commendations.

Admiral Halsey sent a telegram that read simply:

“There will always be an England in the U.S. Navy.”

12. What Made the England Different

Historians later tried to explain how such a small ship achieved the impossible.
It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t advanced technology alone.

It was discipline — the kind drilled into the crew through endless practice.
They trusted their sonar. They trusted each other.
While larger ships hesitated, Pendleton’s men reacted instantly, with precision and teamwork.

The Hedgehog system gave them a technical edge, but courage gave them victory.

In 1944, at a time when submarine warfare terrified sailors worldwide, a humble destroyer escort had proven that undersea hunters could be hunted too.

13. The Twist of Fate

After her legendary streak, the USS England continued to escort convoys across the Pacific.
In May 1945, nearly a year after her triumph, she was struck by a Japanese dive bomber off Okinawa.
The explosion tore through her decks, setting fires across the ship.

But even then, she refused to sink.
Her crew fought the flames for hours and saved most of their shipmates.

Though damaged beyond repair, the England’s legacy was already written in salt and steel.

She was decommissioned later that year — her name preserved as a symbol of unbreakable resolve.

14. Legacy

Naval cadets still study her missions today.
Six confirmed submarine kills in twelve days remains a record unmatched by any other anti-submarine vessel in history.

In the years after the war, sailors who had served aboard her often spoke not of triumph, but of duty.

One crewman, years later, told his grandson:

“We didn’t think we were heroes. We just did our job — and somehow the ocean listened.”

The ocean did listen — and remembered.

15. Epilogue

If you stand today on the quiet shores of San Diego, where the sea hums with the echoes of history, you might imagine that small ship once again slicing through the waves, sonar pinging softly, crew ready at their posts.

A storm overhead.
An unseen enemy below.
And a handful of young Americans who refused to be afraid.

For twelve days in 1944, the USS England defied every expectation, silenced six predators of the deep, and showed the world what courage and precision could do against impossible odds.

Her story isn’t just about war — it’s about ordinary people who, when the moment came, did something extraordinary.