Lt. Comdr. Hoffman was skipper of the USS Corry, one of the first destroyers sunk in the invasion of Normandy. He breifly reviews the earlilery activities of the Corry. The ship hit a mine three minutes after H-hour on 6 June 1944 and so his narrative about the Normandy operation is rather brief.
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This is Lieutenant Commander George D. Hoffman speaking, as commanding officer of the USS Corry when she was sunk 6 June 1944 in the Invasion of France, in the Bay of the Seine, in the vicinity of St. Marcouf Islands. The Corry was commissioned on the 18th of December 1941, shortly after our entry into the war. At that time I was Gunnery Officer on board that vessel. For the first year we had the duty of escorting the Ranger in a task force in the Atlantic during which time her mission was that of being on guard against sorties of any of the German Fleet units from Norwegian bases.
We based in Newfoundland and then in the fall of 1943 we were attached to the Home Fleet, British Home Fleet, during which time we sortied several times with Home Fleet. Once when the German fleet raided Spitzbergen and a later time to effect relief for the remaining garrison at Spitzbergen, at which time the USS Tuscaloosa brought in more personnel to man the base, took off the wounded. The mission of the Corry during this time was to escort units of the British Fleet and American Fleet and interpose themselves between Spitzbergen and the German bases.
The mission was successfully completed, the base reopened and we had one more job to do before turning home. It involved escorting with DesDiv 20, the HMS Anson with Vice Admiral, second in command, British Home Fleet, aboard to lie off the entrance of Alten Fjord while the first Russian convoy went north of Bear Island to Murmansk. Twenty-four hours we remained off the entrance to Alten Fjord but the Scharnhorst at that time did not come out.
The Convoy successfully arrived in Murmansk. Our unit returned back to Scapa Flow where we were based. I understand later that the Scharnhorst some month or two later did come out and was sunk by the Duke of York, this time escorted by four British destroyers.
Sank Nazi U-Boat
On the 17th of March 1944, the Corry, while in a hunter-killer group off the Azores, sank the U-801 with the assistance of the DE USS Bronstein at which time we took 47 prisoners and delivered them later in the day to USS Block Island. Two days later, the 19th of March, planes from the Block Island sank a German submarine. It picked up one surviving officer from the plane and two officers and six German sailors from the submarine. The Corry had the job to carry the German prisoners back to the states. Had them aboad for 11 days and during the period we had them aboard we got them all fairly well cured of their wounds. Most of them were badly wounded from bomb fragments. We turned them over to the U.S. Army at Boston.
The last job for the Corry was participation in the invasion of the coast of France, 6 June 1944. Previous to this period, we had escorted a covoy across the channel and upon arrival in the area led the first boat waves down the boat lane in company with the USS Fitch and Hobson, this being before "H" hour. We turned off from the boat lane at about H minus one, and took our station at about 4,000 yards from the beach to fire at selected beach targets.
However, before we left the boat lane we were being fired upon by shore batteries so the Fitch and the Corry were about the first ships to commence firing for the invasion for purposes of self protection. After firing for 15 to 20 minutes we managed to silence the battery firing upon us, and we commenced firing at scheduled beach targets. However, fire was resumed by other batteries and we had to cease firing at the selected beach targets in order to defend ourselves. There ensued rapid continuous fire by us and rapid fire by the shore batteries because at this time our forces had laid a smoke screen which pretty well blanked out the other units of ours further out to sea, the heavier ones, and we were being concentrated upon.
At 0633, about three minutes after the H hour, we hit a mine, probably caused by high speed maneuvers to dodge the shells in going full speed ahead, backing full, giving hard right rudder, hard left rudder. In order to throw off the salvos we probably stirred up an acoustic mine. The ship broke in two. The forward fire room, forward engine room and afer fire room flooded immediately, keel was broken, main deck was severed, causing a large fissure that crossed the main deck and around through the hull. We tried to get out by calling for flank speed, but all power was lost and the ship started going in a high speed circle, because just prior to being hit we had given right full rudder, increased speed. However, the ship gradually slowed down to a stop. We put the boats over for purposes of towing us clear of the area so we wouldn't drift ashore into enemy held territory.
Shortly after the boats were over, why, the water was up over the main deck and gave word to prepare to abandon ship. A couple of minutes later it became obvious that the ship was going down very fast. I gave the word to abandon ship and then we got all the men over and, then, I stepped off into the water from the main deck and all this time, the ship was being rather heavily shelled, in fact, probably the majority of the casualties occurred in the water for as late as an hour and a half after the ship had been sunk, the batteries continued to shell the men in the water.
We were picked up after sinking about two hours by the USS Fitch and Hobson and PT 199, plus another destroyer by the name of Butler.
We believe this subsequent shelling of the men in the water was due to the fact that the Germans did not believe they had sunk the ship. The water was very shallow and the bow and stern were still sticking up. These batteries were well inland; the best estimate would be behind the town of St. Marcouf, Frnce, and it probably took time for the German spotters to get the word back that the ship had been sunk, and that no possible further offensive moves could be made by the Corry.
