Qualla: USS Brownson (DD-518) https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: USS Brownson (DD-518) https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518 USS Brownson (DD-518): Introduction https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. At 14:42 on December 26, 1943, two bombs from a single Japanese dive bomber punched through the main deck of USS *Brownson*. The detonation took out everything above the main deck amidships. Plates, bulkheads, the after stack - gone. She listed ten degrees to starboard, then fifteen, and began settling fast. Eight minutes later, Lieutenant Commander Maher gave the order to abandon ship. Nine minutes after that, she was gone, with 108 of her crew. *Brownson* had been in commission for ten months.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full USS Brownson (DD-518): A Square Bridge and a Famous Name https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Navy named her for Rear Admiral Willard H. Brownson, a career officer who had served from 1846 until 1935. She was the first ship to bear his name. She was also a design milestone: the first Fletcher-class destroyer built with a "square-bridge" configuration, replacing the ea...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-a-square-bridge-and-a-famous-name.mp3 0:06 2 full USS Brownson (DD-518): An Ocean of Drills https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Her first year read like a training manual for an Atlantic destroyer. Shakedown off Cuba. Post-shakedown availability in the yard. Weeks of transit between Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay, Casco Bay in Maine, Norfolk, and Melville, Rhode Island, conducting anti-submarine drills and...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-an-ocean-of-drills.mp3 0:06 3 full USS Brownson (DD-518): The Aleutians https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Aleutian campaign was her first combat operation. In August 1943, *Brownson* joined Task Unit 16.4.3 - a bombardment group built around the battleships *Tennessee* and *Pennsylvania* and the light cruiser *Santa Fe* - for the assault on Japanese-held Kiska and Little Kiska. O...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-the-aleutians.mp3 0:06 4 full USS Brownson (DD-518): South to New Britain https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On December 11, 1943, *Brownson* departed Pearl Harbor for the Southwest Pacific with the destroyer *Bache*. They stopped at Funafuti in the Gilbert Islands, refueled at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on December 19, and reached Milne Bay on December 21 - four days before Chr...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-south-to-new-britain.mp3 0:06 5 full USS Brownson (DD-518): Seventeen Minutes https://qualla.com/uss-brownson-dd-518/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The attack came from an Aichi D3A Type 99 dive bomber, the aircraft American sailors called "Val." Two bombs, one near miss, both hits striking to starboard of the centerline near the number two stack. The explosion was catastrophic. The superstructure above the main deck simply ...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/r/r/1/9/uss-brownson-dd-518-wp/rr19-uss-brownson-dd-518-seventeen-minutes.mp3 0:06 6 full