The Normandy Invasion -- The Loss of Two Destroyers
The Sinkings of the USS Corry (DD-463) and USS Meredith (DD-726)


USS Corry (DD-463)
USS Meredith (DD-726)

Multiple times, the USS Meredith reported being hit by a bomb. (8 June 1944).
But afterward, the "official" cause of the Meredith's sinking was a mine.

Multiple times, the USS Corry reported being sunk by heavy enemy artillery fire.  (6 June 1944)
But afterward, the "official" cause of the Corry's sinking was a mine. 

The curious question to be asked is:
In the early pre-dawn hours of 8 June 1944, if the destroyer USS Meredith actually hit a mine, why did the Meredith report to other ships that she was hit by a bomb?   See below reports.

Having reporting being hit by a bomb, those aboard the USS Meredith knew the difference between a bomb, which comes from the sky, and a mine, which detonates submerged in the water. On 8 June 1944, they had no problem reporting to other ships that the Meredith was hit by a bomb. 

BELOW: Report of heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) -
8 June 1944  02:05 entry, USS Meredith reported she was hit by a bomb.

BELOW - Report of battleship USS Nevada (BB-36):
8 June 1944  02:11 entry, USS Meredith reported she was hit by a bomb.

BELOW:
From the classic historical account History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, in Volume XI "The Invasion of France and Germany" naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison tells what happened to the USS Meredith -- at 0152 a German HE-177 aircraft fired a radio-controlled, rocket propelled glide bomb that hit the Meredith. The glide bomb, with its 650-pound warhead, traveled at more than 500 miles per hour. Morison gives sources in his footnotes at the bottom of page 170.



Henschel HS 293 Guided missile glide bomb
 		Specifications:
Weight: 1045 kg  (2300 pounds)
Length: 3.82 m (12½ feet)
Width: 3.1 m  (10 foot wingspan)
Diameter: 0.47 m  (18½ inches)
Warhead weight: 295 kg (650 pounds)
Engine: liquid-propellant rocket motor,
   5.9 kN thrust for 10 s; subsequently glided to target
Operational range: at 2.2 km altitude 4.0 km
                                  at 4.0 km altitude 5.5 km
                                  at 5.0 km altitude 8.5 km
Speed maximum: 260 m/s  (580 mph)
               average: 230 m/s  (515 mph)
Guidance system: Kehl-Strassburg FuG 203/230;
                                MCLOS using a joystick

One obvious reason for not officially admitting that the Meredith was hit by a glide bomb is that the Allies did not even want to admit that the Germans had glide bombs, which were the world's first rocket-propelled guided missiles -- highly advanced and effective weapons. In late November 1943 the Allied troop ship Rohna was sunk by a German glide bomb that was launched from a German airplane but all survivors of the Rohna were ordered to say that the Rohna was sunk by a torpedo fired from a German submarine, and for them to say anything about the glide bomb would mean their immediate court martial and execution for aiding the enemy. The Allies did not want the Germans to know how effective and deadly these glide bombs were. Changing the official cause of loss of a ship to a torpedo or a mine might cause the enemy to guess whether its glide bomb weapon had actually hit the Allied ship.

Below: "Official" Loss of Ship report for USS Meredith, which gives an entirely different story of what happened to the Meredith, stating that at 0152 Meredith struck what was believed to be a submerged contact mine.

With the USS Meredith previously having reported multiple times being hit by a bomb, if those aboard the Meredith later wanted to give the explanation, "Well, for a long time, it was believed the cause of the deadly explosion on the Meredith was a bomb, but we made a mistake and now it is fully believed that the fatal damage to the ship was caused by a mine," then USS Meredith would be repeating the same story that was given for USS Corry, where Corry originally reported several times that the Corry was sunk by heavy enemy artillery fire, but then, two weeks after D-Day, at a survivor camp in Scotland, following a meeting of the commanding officers of USS Meredith, USS Corry, and USS Glennon (DD-620), all three of these destroyers were "officially" declared sunk by mines. The detailed near-final action / loss report that was about to be submitted for the Corry, stating heavy artillery fire as the cause of the Corry's sinking, was torn up and her cause of sinking was completely changed -- Corry's new final official report on its last page stated that "it was believed for a long time that the cause of the fatal damage of the ship was a salvo of heavy caliber projectiles" but it was "now fully believed that the major damage was due to a mine and that the shelling received simultaneously and shortly thereafter resulted in merely incidental damage." Astonishingly, the simultaneous shelling officially attributed to causing "merely incidental damage" to the Corry was a salvo of 8.25-inch, 300-pound projectiles. Meredith's cause of sinking was simply changed outright from a bomb to a mine and no explanation was given for the change. 

Battle report noting changed account of the loss of the USS Corry
Post-Invasion Report — Cruiser Division Seven  —  1 July 1944

A salvo from the Saint Marcouf battery hit the Corry amidships on D-Day.  Pre-D-Day Intelligence reported six 155-millimeter (6-inch) guns in the Saint Marcouf battery, but those guns were moved and three heavy long-range 210-millimeter (8.25-inch) guns were installed.


Source of above reports: U.S. National Archives.  All reports fully declassified.


 
Read about the concussion effect
of a salvo of heavy caliber projectiles.

USS Corry DD-463 home page