USS Herndon (DD-198)

USS Herndon (DD-198) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Herndon served in the United States Coast Guard as CG-17. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Churchill and still later to the Soviet Navy as Deyatelny.

USS Herndon (DD-198)
The first Navy ship named for Commander William Lewis Herndon (1813-1857), Herndon was launched on 31 May 1919 by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, sponsored by Miss Lucy Taylor Herndon, niece of Commander Herndon. She was commissioned on 14 September 1920 at Norfolk, Virginia with Lieutenant Commander L. H. Thebaud in command.

After shakedown in New England waters, Herndon was placed in reserve in Charleston, South Carolina on 3 November 1920. She served in reserve for training exercises and maneuvers along the US east coast until she was decommissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 6 June 1922.

Herndon served in the United States Coast Guard from 1930-1934 as part of the Rum Patrol.

She was recommissioned into the Navy on 4 December 1939. Following trials and shakedown, she reached Guantanamo Bay on 23 January 1940 to join the Caribbean Neutrality Patrol. In July–August, she operated out of the Panama Canal Zone on tactical and antisubmarine maneuvers.

The Herndon Depot Museum in Herndon, Virginia houses artifacts from the USS Herndon. A photo of the ship's flag taken on Memorial Day weekend, 2010, is shown below the career table at the lower right.



HMS Churchill
Herndon decommissioned and was turned over to Great Britain under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 9 September 1940. As HMS Churchill, she served as leader of the first Town-class destroyer flotilla in transatlantic convoys and patrol duty off the western approaches to the British Isles. Notable events in her career in the Royal Navy included participation in the search for the German battleship GERMAN BATTLESHIP Bismarck after she had sunk the battlecruiser HMS Hood (51), and a visit by her namesake, the redoubtable Prime Minister Winston Churchill, on his way home from the Atlantic Conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in August 1941. Churchill was assigned to Escort Group B-7 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoys HX-186 and ON-94. Churchill also served as an escort for the pre- and post-invasion buildup for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. Churchill was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4"/50 caliber guns and three of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of hedgehog. Churchill was assigned to Escort Group C-4 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoys SC-112, ON-158, HX-224, ON-177 and HX-235 during the winter of 1942-43

Deyatelny
Transferred to the Soviet Navy 16 July 1944, the destroyer was renamed Deyatelny (Russian Деятельный, "active"). She was sunk — probably by GERMAN SUBMARINE U-286 — on 16 January 1945, 40 mi east of Cape Tereberski while escorting a convoy over the treacherous route from Kola Inlet to the White Sea.