NAVY KNOWLEDGE

The Donald Duck Navy

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor many American men joined the U. S. Navy and Coast Guard U.S. Reserve. The Navy sent them to boot camp and other training stations then assigned some of them to newly constructed submarine chasers, patrol craft, mine sweepers, gun boats, cutters, barges, tug boats, net tenders, converted yachts, and other small craft.

During World War II most of those ships never had names, only numbers. The crew members of this force of more than one thousand small craft dubbed this fleet the Donald Duck Navy.

Book containing World War II pictures and details of the Donald Duck Navy.

These ships guarded the coastlines of the Americas. They escorted merchant convoys across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In Europe and among the Pacific Islands they did similar duties but also swept mines and did picket duty, air-sea rescues, and many other functions. Some of them became beach control vessels leading landing craft to invasion beaches. After invasions they acted as picket ships to warn of and protect the fleet from submarine and air attacks.

The young men who served on small ocean going ships of the Navy and the Coast Guard of the United States during World War II were mostly reservists with no or little previous sea duty. Despite their lack of experience they learned fast and performed all the missions the Navy assigned to them.

Compared to battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, and destroyer escorts they were bantam craft. Because of their small size, life aboard them was crowded and cramped and allowed no privacy. Specifications for those Navy ships classified as ocean going small craft are given below. These descriptions and specifications are typical for a type or a class of ship.

For more specifications and some general information on small ships the reader should see the website of the Patrol Craft Sailors Association, a book about SC subchasers, and a book about the PC Patrol Craft.