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Other ships supporting the fleet included Submarine Tenders, Destroyer Tenders, Seaplane Tenders, Ice Breakers, Tenders, Eagle Boats, Mine Sweepers, Patrol Vessels, Net Tenders, and Oceangoing Tugs.

My father, Milton Sherman, served aboard a destroyer tender, USS Denebola (AD-12). The "Dirty Den" was based at Portland, Maine, in Casco Bay. My Dad was drafted in 1943; on his way to report to the Denebola, he asked a sailor what kind of duty he might expect. "Oh, her? She never goes anywhere. They say she's stuck on a mountain of coffee grounds." Which prospect suited my Dad just fine. However, in the next 22 months, the Denebola went first to the Mediterranean, and then to the South Pacific. Of the cities in the Mediterranean, places like Mers-el-Kebir, Algiers, Naples, Ajaccio, he sad they all were miserable, especially Ajaccio, "where even the rats looked lousy."

Shown on this next page of converted merchant auxiliaries are the famous Liberty ships.

These ships made up the convoys that plowed the Atlantic ceaselessly, building up the vast forces needed for the invasion of Europe and the subsequent push into Germany.

Sources: Public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

and pictures from my father's 1943 Naval Recognition Manual

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