USS Charles Ausburne, a 2050-ton Fletcher class destroyer built at Orange, Texas, was commissioned in November 1942. In April and May 1943 she escorted convoys from the U.S. East Coast to North Africa and back, then went to the south Pacific to undertake escort and patrol duty in the Solomon Islands area. Beginning in late August 1943 she began missions into the waters between New Georgia and Bougainville, part of an effort to interdict Japanese supply and evacuation routes. This led to the sinking of two enemy barges off Vella Lavella on the night of 27-28 September 1943.

From late October 1943 into March 1944 Charles Ausburne was flagship of Captain Arleigh A. Burke, Commander Destroyer Squadron 23. Under his leadership, she participated in several successful actions, beginning with bombardments of Japanese airfields and gun batteries leading to the 1 November invasion of Bougainville. When the enemy responded to that operation by sending a force of cruisers and destroyers south to do battle, Charles Ausburne and the other members of DesRon 23 played a vital role in the resulting Battle of Empress Augusta Bay. Constantly engaged in shelling shore positions and fighting off air attacks in the following weeks, the squadron fought another surface action in the early morning darkness of 25 November 1943. This Battle of Cape St. George, which cost the enemy three destroyers of the five present, was termed "An almost perfect action" by the President of the Naval War College.

For the next three months, Charles Ausburne continued to operate in the waters around and north of Bougainville. In February 1944 she covered the Green Islands landings, bombarded Kavieng, New Ireland, and raided Japanese shipping. Becoming part of Task Force 58 in late March, she began a spring and early summer of escorting the fast carriers as they hit Japanese-held islands throughout the central Pacific before, during and after the invasion of the Marianas. She also screened carriers during the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June.

Following shipyard overhaul, Charles Ausburne arrived back in the war zone in November 1944 to begin supporting the reconquest of the Philippines. She escorted convoys to Mindoro in December, helped sink the Japanese destroyer Hinoki in early January, and then took part in the Lingayen landings. Following several months of additional operations in the Philippines, in May 1945 Charles Ausburne went north to Okinawa, where she was employed for the rest of the war on radar picket and other patrol duties. After returning to the United States, she was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation at Washington, D.C., in October, then went to Charleston, South Carolina, where she was decommissioned in April 1946. USS Charles Ausburne was transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany in April 1960 and renamed Z-6. She was served in the West German Navy until December 1967 and was scrapped in the following year.