HMS Goodson (K480)

Career (U.S.)
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Laid down:	20 May 1943
Launched:	8 July 1943
Transferred:	9 October 1943
Career (UK)
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Decommissioned:
Fate: Sold 9 January 1947
Struck:
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HMS Goodson (K480), originally USS George (DE-276), was named after Eugene Frank George, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 23 April 1925. He enlisted in the Navy on 18 May 1942, and reported for duty on the heavy cruiser San Francisco at Pearl Harbor on 17 July. As an antiaircraft gunner, he participated in the bitterly-fought naval engagements against the Japanese off the Solomon Islands following the American invasion of Guadalcanal 7 August. For his grim perseverance and relentless devotion to duty in the face of certain death, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for action in an air attack on 12 November. DE-276, an Evarts class destroyer escort, was laid down as George on 20 May 1943 at the Boston Navy Yard; assigned to the United Kingdom under the lend-lease on 22 June 1943; launched on 8 July 1943; transferred to the United Kingdom on 9 October 1943; and commissioned in the British Royal Navy as HMS Goodson. During the remainder of World War II, she served on escort and patrol duty in the Atlantic and along the English coast. She supported the Allied Invasion of Europe at Normandy on 6 June 1944. Damaged late in August, she was returned to the United States on 21 October. On 9 January 1947 she was sold to John Lee of Belfast, Northern Ireland. A subsequent vessel named George was launched 14 August 1943 at the Defoe Shipbuilding Company, Bay City, Michigan.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.