Of the 134 Buckley (DE-51)- class destroyer escorts built for the U.S. Navy during World War II, a dozen (DE-633-DE-644) were ordered from Bethlehem Steel’s San Francisco shipyard. The $2,368,950 paid for the third ship of the group, the England (DE-635), proved a wise investment. Of the 25 Japanese submarines deployed on 14 May 1944 to the Marianas Islands region, only 7 returned to base six weeks later, and none had sunk any ships. U.S. Navy forces, alerted by decrypted communications, were positioned to decimate the indifferently operated Japanese boats.
Commissioned on 10 December 1943 and with only about ten weeks’ experience in the Pacific combat theater, the 1,740-ton full-load displacement, 306-foot England and her crew sank half a dozen Japanese submarines in less than two weeks, a feat unmatched by any warship in the Navy.
On 19 May, operating with sisters George (DE-697) and Raby (DE-698), under the tactical command of Commander Hamilton Hains aboard the George, the England, with Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander W. B. Pendleton in command, sank the 2,100-ton I-]6, obtaining two hits from her second 24- round hedgehog mortar attack and three more on her fifth and final run over the target. On 22 May, after the group had surprised the RO-106 on the surface, the England sank the hurriedly submerged submarine with her second hedgehog attack. The next day, the process was repeated, with the RO-104 as victim of the England’s second hedgehog attack. And on the 24th, the tiny destroyer escort improved on her performance by sinking the RO-116 with the first salvo. On 25 May, the RO-108 became the England’s fifth conquest after the Raby lost the initial contact. Then followed a five-day respite while the destroyer escorts replenished their supply of hedgehog projectiles and joined a group escorting the escort aircraft carrier Hoggatt Bay (CVE-75); after the destroyer Hazelwood (DD-531) detected the submarine RO-105 and three other destroyer escorts had missed the target, the England struck, again successfully.
For the remainder of 1944 and into spring 1945, the England led a quieter existence, providing escort services in the Southwest Pacific. Assigned during March 1945 to the massive forces assembled for the amphibious invasion of Okinawa, the destroyer escort was near-missed by a Japanese suicide aircraft on 25 April while on station as part of the outer antisubmarine screen northeast of Okinawa. The ship’s luck ran out on 9 May when she was attacked by three kamikaze aircraft; one got through, striking her on the port side at the base of the bridge, its bomb detonating a split-second later. When the ensuing flames were extinguished after 45 minutes, the England had lost 35 of her crew, with another 27 injured. Towed into Kerama Retto and patched up enough to head for interim repairs in the Philippines, the ship made the long voyage to U.S. waters, arriving at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 July 1945. There, she began repairs and conversion as a fast transport, fulfilling an earlier plan to reclassify her as APD-41 that had been canceled in July 1943, prior to her launch. But with the end of the war, the partially completed conversion no longer was required, and the battle-worn ship was decommissioned on 5 September. Sold for scrap for only $11,000 on 26 November 1946, the England had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and ten Battle Stars for her brief but uniquely eventful service. A promise by Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King that “there’ll always be an England in the United States Navy" was not honored until the name was conferred on the guided-missile frigate DLG-22 on 6 October 1960, and the Navy has again been without an England since the striking of the CG-22 (ex-DLG-22) on 21 January 1994.