by Keith Hastie
1/350 USS Woolsey DD-437 (Dragon)
At about 1530 on December 16, 1943, USS WOOLSEY (DD-437) received orders to get underway from Oran, Algeria and proceed in company with USS TRIPPE (DD-403) and USS EDISON (DD-439) to investigate the torpedoing of the SS JOHN S. COPLEY off Cape Falcon, Algeria.
At about 1715, the ships arrived in the vicinity of the U-boat attack and began an anti-submarine search. After a few tentative sonar contacts, WOOLSEY obtained a solid contact at about 1835 and made a deliberate depth charge attack. At about 1930, WOOLSEY detected a new radar contact dead ahead, range 1,900 yards. She swung right to unmask her guns and illuminated the contact with her 36-inch searchlight. The contact was identified as a surfaced U-boat and WOOLSEY commenced firing with her 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm batteries. The U-boat briefly returned fire with a 20mm gun, but this was quickly silenced. The U-boat sank at about 1935, going down stern first until it was vertical with the bow section sticking out of the water. Two WOOLSEY sailors were wounded during the action. WOOLSEY and EDISON recovered 34 German submariners from U-73; 16 Germans were killed. This was WOOLSEY’s second U-boat kill. The first was U-173 on November 22, 1942.
