Paul Slater, or “Slats”, as his friends knew him, was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean on the USS Walter S. Brown, the Destroyer Escort which appears in the above photograph. World War II Destroyer Escorts had a two-part mission. They traveled with convoys of transport ships carrying military supplies across the Atlantic and protected them in case of attack by German submarines (U-Boats). They also formed hunter-killer groups which went on the offensive to locate and destroy German U-Boats. Slats explains that Destroyer Escorts are “sorta inexpensive versions of destroyers…they’re faster to build, less expensive.” Its hull, he explains, “was like a quarter of an inch thick or something. They called them tin cans and, by God, that’s what they were.”
This convoy traversed the Atlantic Ocean in the autumn of 1942. It reached the coast of Africa in November and supported the American-led invasion of North Africa called Operation Torch.
As soon as the United States entered World War II, Germany began attacking American shipping using nimble, stealthy submarines known as U- Boats (untersee boots). Although Americans at the time were not generally informed about what Germany called Operation Drumbeat, we now know that five German U-Boats sank 25 allied ships off the east coast of the United States from December 1941 to early February 1942. Ships silhouetted against the brightly lit skylines of American urban ports were especially vulnerable. By the spring of 1942, German U-Boats attacked and sunk hundreds of ships off the coastal United States, taking thousands of lives. In contrast, Germany lost several hundred sailors and a handful of U-Boats over the same period. Only when the U.S. instituted large-scale blackouts and brownouts and began running protective convoys in May of 1942 did the attacks finally diminish.
Paul Slater, on board the USS Walter S. Brown, was in the convoy which participated in the May 1944 battle of UGS 40. UGS stands for the United States Gibraltar Convoy. Paul explains that the “S” indicates that it is a slow convoy which “means you are eating Spam and Vienna Sausage a lot…because the longer a slow convoy [takes], you start running out of food, the real stuff, so you’re opening cans.” The convoy went to the Mediterranean and consisted, according to Paul, “of about sixty-five ships and about fifteen escorts which is a pretty heavy escort. And as we proceeded into the Mediterranean, two free French destroyers joined us, okay. So we, we figured if they’re really beefing it up, we’re gonna be in for something. And we were. In fact, this action was so successful on our part, that it made the, the history books.”
Because its telegraphed messages were coded by the sender and decoded by the recipient using the intricate Enigma cipher machine, World War II Germany was confident that its military secrets were safe. Unbeknownst to Germany, however, by May 1941, Enigma machines, parts and key books began to be captured by the Allies. Further, Polish and British cryptographers began to decipher the key-systems used by the German operators who sent and received communiqués. This, of course, meant that now the Allies could intercept and understand many of the messages through which the German military maintained communication.
With the help of decoded messages sent to and from German U-Boats, Allied forces could anticipate the locations of German submarines. Paul remembers, “we did occasionally go on what they called ‘hunter killer’ groups…because we had broken many of the German codes, and so after a while we knew where we might find the subs. So they’d send out a hunter and killer group just to look for submarines.” German U-Boats would be found using sonar or radar, both of which would rely upon pings which would bounce off the submarine and return to ship in the form of a sound or a picture. Once located, the destroyer escort would attempt to sink the U-Boat using depth charges which were bombs launched into the sea and set to explode at certain depths, and missiles launched using a device called a hedgehog.
“Slats” was an engineer on board the USS Walter S. Brown. He was photographed in the engine room with Engineering Officer Mr. Wayne Hill and a sailor who is, according to Paul, “working on something below one of the four main engines.” Paul explains his responsibilities: “I was a motor machinist’s mate which was a rate that maintained mainly the big diesel engines, but almost all of the other machinery. Some of us were specialized…. I was primarily with the main engines, and my battle station was with the main engines, and my watch station was…I was the leading first class, and, I was strictly, almost strictly after a while, with the main engines, which were huge sixteen v sixteen diesels, and pretty impressive, especially when you…when you feel that…when you realize that most of the crew was a collection of kids, many of whom had never been to sea.”