USS Walter S. Brown (DE-258) was an of the United States Navy during World War II. She was engaged in protecting convoys in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. Namesake Walter Scott Brown was born on 14 March 1916 at North Loup, Nebraska. He enlisted in the Navy on 9 January 1940. He was assigned to Patrol Squadron 24 based at Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii on 9 October. He advanced to the rank of aviation machinists' mate 2d class on 1 November 1941. He was killed in action during the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor. He was posthumously commended by the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet for his bravery during the attack. Construction and commissioning She was laid down on 10 January 1943 at Boston, Massachusetts, by the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 22 February 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Garth Thomas; and commissioned on 25 June 1943. World War II North Atlantic operations Following shakedown in Casco Bay, Maine, Walter S. Brown joined Escort Division CortDiv 5 and began escorting convoys across the Atlantic to Gibraltar and North African ports. By the spring of 1944 she had completed four such round-trip voyages. Interspersed between these voyages were periods of refresher training and availability. On 20 April 1944, Walter S. Brown arrived at Hampton Roads, Virginia, to join the screen of UGS-40. Three days later, this group which included some 65 merchantmen sailed for the Mediterranean. The screen, led by contained three elderly flush-decked, four-pipe destroyers, six American destroyer escorts from CortDiv 5, and two French destroyer escorts. Preparations for German Air Attacks Due to the success of recent attacks by the German Luftwaffe against Allied convoys in the western Mediterranean, UGS-40 sailed with an elaborate air defense plan, formulated by the convoy's screen commander, Comdr. Jesse C. Sowell, in Campbell. Practiced in Hampton Roads prior to the convoy's departure and as it crossed the Atlantic, these tactics were designed to meet mass aerial attacks by German aircraft carrying a variety of weapons ranging from bombs, to torpedoes, to radio-controlled glider bombs. Off Gibraltar the British anti-aircraft cruiser , the escorts and together with a British salvage tug and two American minesweepers carrying special apparatus to jam radar transmissions and thus confuse the German glider bombs joined the convoy. Shadowed by German Air Observation Aircraft On 9 May, the convoy passed through the Strait of Gibraltar without incident but,