|
USS Haynsworth DD700
''Her Time in History'' |
|
|
|
Written by: Martin Irons Author of: Phalanx Against the Devine Wind The USS Allen M. Sumner DD 690 was the first of 58 destroyers built in this class. Just 15 inches wider and 15 inches deeper in draft than the previous Fletcher class, the new destroyers mounted the same propulsion systems and so shipyards were easily able to convert to building the new warships. Compared to their older siblings, the Sumners of DesRon 62 carried an additional 5” gun. All 5” guns were mounted in twin mounts. Post launching, DesRon 62’s cans had two additional twin 40mm mounts added aft of the bridge and forward of the mast. All carried twelve 40mm guns, eleven 20mm Oerlikon cannons, two quintuple torpedo mounts, six K gun depth charger launchers, and two depth charge racks. The Sumners could turn 34 knots but were handicapped by a relatively low 3300 mile cruising range. At sea UnRep every third day became the norm during combat operations. DesRon 62 DD 696 USS English DD 697 USS Charles S. Sperry DD 698 USS Ault DD 699 USS Waldron DD 700 USS Haynsworth DD 701 USS John W. Weeks DD 702 USS Hank DD 703 USS Wallace L. Lind DD 704 USS Borie Destroyer Squadron 62 was composed of nine consecutively numbered Allen M. Sumner class destroyers, DDs 696-704. All nine tin cans were built at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. yards in Kearny, New Jersey and put in commission in 1944. During the summer and early fall of ’44, the destroyers had their shakedown cruises in the waters off Long Island and Bermuda. Included were sub chases against captured Italian submarines. The Haynsworth escorted the RMS Queen Mary with Prime Minister Winston Churchill aboard her in mid-September to Nova Scotia. In small task units, the cans made the trek west to Hawaii, each passing through the Panama Canal. By early December, ships of Destroyer Squadron 62 were widely separated. DesDiv 123 (DDs 696-700) were in the Hawaiian area engaged in training exercises and in local escort missions with carrier units while DesDiv 124 was enroute from New York to Pearl Harbor. All ships had completed primary training during the shakedown period and were assembling in the Hawaiian area for further training prior to moving forward to more active areas. Initially assigned to under the operation control of the Commander Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, the Sperry and the Haynsworth were to be employed as Fighter Director Ships and so had additional radio and radar equipment installed. Plans were modified and the squadron was reassigned to the Third Fleet. Sperry and Haynsworth sortied from Pearl on December 16th while English, Ault, Waldron, Hank, and Weeks sortied the next day. Lind stayed behind as additional radio equipment was being installed while Borie was still enroute to Hawaii. By the 29th of December, DDs 696-702 were moored at Ulithi. Task Force 38, the Fast Carrier Task Force, sortied the next day from Ulithi. Service with the Fast Carrier Task Force Commanded by Captain John Martin Higgins USN, DesRon 62 was the third Sumner class destroyer squadron to serve with the Pacific 3rd and 5th Fleets, following in the wake of 60 and 61. After arriving at Ulithi in late December, 1944, they entered the fight with the Fast Carrier Task Force. Under the Third Fleet command of Admiral Halsey, the armada was designated TF 38 with Vice Admiral John S. McCain as the commander. In February, TF 38 became TF 58 when Admiral Spruance relieved Halsey. The force would alternately become TF 38 for the final phase of the war starting in June, 1945. DesRon 62 came on station just nine weeks after the first organized kamikaze attacks in October of ’44. The Sumners were the first destroyers to have purpose built combat information centers and carried the latest in radar. Fighter director teams were assigned to the task force. They served on picket destroyers and controlled their own fighter combat air patrol. These teams rotated from ship to ship as necessary. Battle Formation The Fast Carrier Task Force was usually divided into four task groups, each with 3 or 4 carriers. Typically 2 or 3 battleships and several cruisers along with two squadrons of destroyers completed the armada. The ships sailed in a formation of concentric circles. The inner ring was composed of the carriers. Further out at 3000 yards, a ring of battleships and cruisers steamed in a circular formation. At 6000 yards, the destroyer screen steamed in its circular formation. Usually two to four destroyers were on picket duty approximately twelve miles from the formation center. An additional two destroyers could be deployed as plane guards during flight operations. Occasionally a division of destroyers would be deployed 25 miles ahead of the group to serve as a radar picket line during combat missions. When the group was faced with possible aerial attack, the outer ring of destroyers would collapse into the second ring of battleships and cruisers thus decreasing the area of the phalanx by 75% and narrowing the fields of fire. Task Groups could work in coordination with each other or function independently. The composition of the various groups changed frequently based on ship availability. By 1945, many of the warships with the fast carrier group had already earned multiple battle stars. Campaigns DesRon 62 protected the Fast Carrier Force through four campaigns. Throughout the battles they would be called on to provide anti-aircraft fire, hunt enemy submarines, provide shore bombardment, sink enemy mines, and rescue sailors, pilots, and aircrew lost on the seas. OPERATIONS MIKE I & GRATITUDE: 30 Dec 44 to 26 Jan 45 as TU 38.1.3. The invasion of Luzon and Indochina strikes. The Indochina strikes were especially notable because McCain brought his large battle group into the South China Sea on 10 Jan. It was the furthest west American warships had ventured during the war. They were surrounded on all sides by enemy airfields. For the young crews of the DesRon 62, they faced a period of dangerous winter seas, fighting in conditions so severe, the decks were awash in vomit while the thin skin of the destroyers were wounded by the green seas. McCain’s forces escaped from the cauldron having achieved spectacular results against enemy airfields and targets with no war damage inflicted on his warships. DesDiv 123 was the spearhead on 20 Jan when the force exited the South China Sea. Lind joined Task Group 38.2 on 5 January while Borie joined the squadron at Ulithi on 26 January. OPERATION JAMBOREE: 10 Feb 45 to 12 Mar 45. TG 58.3 On 16 Feb, the first air attacks were sent against the home islands since the Doolittle Raid three years later. The carriers had many new, very young pilots flying their first combat missions during the attacks. The raids served as a feint just days ahead of the Battle of Iwo Jima. During the run up to Tokyo on the 16th, the Haynsworth engaged and sank three enemy picket ships. In a rare turn, enemy prisoners were taken on the high seas. During the night of the 17th-18th, the USS Dortch DD 670 was taken under fire by an enemy picket ship’s 3” guns. Too close to use its own guns, the Waldron instead rammed the enemy boat, splitting it in half. The destroyer’s bow was damaged and its allotment of beer, stored in a foreword compartment, was shattered. The battle continued when the English was alerted by the Sperry that a picket ship was between the English and the Porterfield DD 682. The Americans held fire until the picket ship cleared the Porterfield. Fire from the Porterfield and the Callaghan DD 792 ended the threat. After support of the landings, Admiral Mitscher turned his carriers back towards the Japanese home islands for another series of raids before steaming to Okinawa for the initial air assaults ahead of the invasion of Okinawa. OPERATION ICEBERG: 14 Mar 45 to 28 May 45 TG 58.3, 29 May 45 to 13 Jun 45 TG 38.3. Prior to the Okinawa invasion, the Fast Carriers returned to attack the Japanese homeland again on March 18-19. The Japanese brought the battle back to the fleet on the 19th. The carrier Franklin turned into an apocalyptic scene when enemy bombs caught fueled and prepped planes on the deck. CV 13 was wracked by explosions and fire. Dead in the water, she was taken under tow. The balance of the TF maneuvered to protect the carrier but their slow withdrawal from the area allowed the Japanese to track the force. On the night of the 20th, an eight plane torpedo attack group hurtled towards groups 58.1 and 58.3. In a convincing combination of radar controlled firing and 5” shells with proximity fuses, the destroyers of DesRon 62 claimed five kills in three minutes. Hunters were the Ault, Sperry, Waldron, English, and Weeks. The Battle of Okinawa began with carrier attacks on 23 March. ‘Lucky Day’ or invasion day was 1 April. The amphibious assault was the largest in World War II. Resistance was so fierce that the Fast Carriers TF remained off the eastern shores of Okinawa for nearly three months while the western shores were dominated by the invasion forces. On March 28th, DesRon 62 and Cruiser Division 17 joined together to form TU 58.4.9. They steamed east through the night until they approached the island Minami Daito Shima. Home to an enemy airfield that could send attacks against the allied ships near Okinawa, Minami Daito was shelled for 30 minutes. As a follow up to the thousands of 5” and 6” rounds that rained on the airfield, carrier planes bombed and strafed the base. During this period, a series of ten major kamikaze attacks (Kikusuis) were launched. On 6 Apr, the USS Haynsworth was the first ship struck during the largest kamikaze raid of the war. Three hundred fifty five kamikazes were sent against the Fifth Fleet while the battleship Yamato was sortied against the invasion forces. While the Haynsworth was the first DesRon 62 destroyer struck by the Divine Wind, she was not the last. Two days after the Haynsworth departed the waters of Okinawa, the Wallace L. Lind was at its radar picket post when it was attacked by a Zeke fighter. It became a duel between the 40mm men and the enemy pilots, each spraying the other with ordnance. The sailors won as the kamikaze crashed close aboard the tin can. Three sailors were killed. Five days later, April 16th, another Zeke pilot targeted the bridge of the USS Hank. In this case, it was 20mm and 40mm that found the range to the target. The fighter hurtled low over the deck knocking one man overboard, decapitating another, and riddling a third with machine gun fire before crashing into the sea. May 11th found the Lind on the radar picket line with the tin cans of Destroyer Division 96 (Bullard, Kidd, Black, and Chauncey), twenty miles ahead of the task group. During the day, kamikazes bracketed the Fast Carrier Task Force. The USS Bunker Hill was badly damaged. English and the Charles Sperry with the Stembel came alongside to fight the fires while the Ault and the Waldron trailed the carrier, rescuing sailors as they were found in the water. As that attack was going on, a Zeke dove on the Lind. “Our 20’s and 40’s exploded him in mid-air and pieces of plane littered our deck. The plane crashed just past our mast and stack, about 20 yards off our stern,” recalled Fire Controlman 2nd Class Robert Plum. English later transferred Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher and his staff to the USS Enterprise CV 6 while both ships were turning 31 knots. At the end of May, Captain William D. Brown relieved Captain Higgins as ComDesRon 62. Higgins was promoted to ‘Commodore’ and Commander Task Flotilla 3. By late June Okinawa was declared secure. Enemy air attacks from the home islands ceased as the Japanese began to hoard their planes for the American invasion. After 77 days on station, the Fast Carrier Task Force retired to the Philippines for replenishment, rest, and repair. Home Island Raids: 21 Jun 45 to 2 Sep 45. TG 38.3 In mid-July the American carrier force, along with Task Force 37, the British Pacific Fleet, moved their hunting grounds to the waters off Japan. Unlike the raids in February and March, this time the fleets were here to stay. Massive air raids were sent by the allies, now with nearly twenty carriers in attendance. Air resistance was diminished but was not completely snuffed out. Weather was often an obstacle but on mission days, the southern and eastern coasts of Japan encountered crushing attacks by the carrier forces. At the same time, American submarines had strangled the waters around the islands and US Army Air Force bombers were sending massed attacks against the cities of Japan. Despite the Armageddon, Japan refused to surrender until after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 9th, the carrier force launched airstrikes against Northern Honshu and Hokkaido. Earlier that morning DesDiv 124, less the Lind, plus USS Brenner DD 806, steamed fifty miles ahead of the task group. With them was the Borie whose starboard twin 40mm mount had been transplanted from the Haynsworth’s port twin 40mm mount when both were at Ulithi in April. Borie’s had been crushed by a collision with the Essex CV 9 during refueling and the Lucky 700 was on her way home to America for repair. At 1450 the klaxon called out the General Quarters alarm as a kamikaze circled the warships of the picket station. All the destroyers opened fire while at the same time increasing speed to twenty seven knots. As the bandit pulled astern of the Borie, her captain ordered the ship’s speed increase to thirty knots while calling for left full rudder. The Val dive bomber had the ship’s bridge in its crosshairs when he struck DD 704 between the forward stack and the 5” gun director atop the superstructure. The kamikaze’s bomb passed through the thin skin of the tin can, exploding outside of the ship. The crews of both twin 40mm mounts (including the mount grafted from the Haynsworth), along with the crews of the 20mm guns nearby, were all wounded or killed. Sailors topside along the bridge suffered the same fate while the gun crews in both forward 5” guns were riddled with shrapnel. Thirty five sailors were killed, sixty six wounded, and thirteen were missing. The Hank steaming nearby had five sailors wounded and another missing in action. The attack was the last kamikaze strike against a US warship in World War II. From the invasion of Okinawa in March, over one hundred destroyers and destroyer mine sweepers were struck by kamikazes. Ten destroyers and two destroyer-mine sweepers were lost. No carriers, battleships, or cruisers were sunk during that period. Haynsworth’s Signalman John Vasquez best summed up the role of the destroyers protecting the carriers: “We were bait.” Pilot Rescues Service with the Fast Carrier Task Force 38/58 found the DesRon 62 destroyers assigned to the role of plane guard when the carriers launched and recovered their birds. Sometimes, destroyers on picket duty 12 to 25 miles ahead of the individual task groups, also, served as lifeguards. During the relatively short time the Haynsworth was attached to the fast carriers, just 100 days, it rescued the pilots and crew of a Hellcat, a Helldiver, and 2 Grumman Avengers. During the same period, the pilots and aircrews of 49 planes were saved by the tin cans of 62. After the Haynsworth departure from Okinawa, the rescues continued unabated. The ultimate lifeguard was the Waldron which participated in at least 12 rescues during the period the Haynsworth was with Task Force 38/58. Tokyo Bay, September 2nd, 1945 The bay was full as Allied ships of every description, except one, were moored in the anchorage. From the smallest gunboats to the largest battleships, all types of warships were represented except the fast carriers that stayed at sea. Fifty of the ships were destroyers of American, British, and Australian persuasion. DesRon 62 was represented by the Ault and the Wallace L. Lind. The Lind was moored within shouting distance of the USS Missouri. The Lind transported Vice Admirals John S. McCain and John H. Towers to the ‘Mighty Mo’ for the surrender ceremony while Ault’s guests included Commodore John Higgins, the former Commander of DesRon 62. Epilogue The wounded Borie arrived in San Francisco for repairs on September 8th. DesRon 62 stayed with the carriers steaming in the waters off occupied Japan as they carried out critical missions of aerial supply to the U.S. POW camps. Floating mines were a hazard to navigation so the gunners of the tin cans continued to detonate or sink them. For the first time, nighttime blackout regulations were cancelled. On September 19th, the Commander Fifth Fleet relieved the Commander Third Fleet. DesRon 62 (less the Haynsworth and Borie) was now officially attached as Task Unit 38.4.5, the Screen Unit. On September 24th, most of 62 set course for Eniwetok to aid in the training of new carrier air groups. Through early October, gunnery exercises were run against surface and air targets. Following these drills, DesRon 62 returned to Tokyo Bay while the Haynsworth arrived in the waters off Hawaii in mid-October. On the first of January, ’46, DesRon 62 was numerically changed to DesRon 19 with her divisions renumbered as 191 and 192. It was short lived as twelve days later they were re-designated again as DesRon 12 with divisions 121 and 122. On 20 January ’46, DesRon 12 returned to America after sixteen months away from her shores. The destroyers arrived in Boston on the 26th of April to serve in the Reserve Fleet. At that time, many of her crew were relieved from active duty after their two years of service. Many of the DesRon 62 destroyer captains during 1945 eventually made the grade and were promoted to Admiral. This included the Haynsworth’s Commander Stephen Noel Tackney. Battle Stars During 1945, DesRon 62 destroyers were eligible for Battle Stars for participation in four separate operations: Luzon; Iwo Jima and the February Tokyo raids; the March Tokyo raids and the Okinawa campaign; the Third Fleet attacks against Japan. Seven of the destroyers (696-699, 702-703) earned all four battle stars. The Borie did not join the fleet until February and so earned the latter three stars. The Haynsworth missed the Fast Carrier Task Force 38’s last campaign and so, also, earned three battle stars for its service during WWII |