USS Gatling (DD-671)
_underway_in_1943_(BuAer_81056).jpg) Gatling , 1943 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Order | 1943 |
| Keel laying | March 3, 1943 |
| Launch | June 20, 1943 |
| 1. Period of service |
|
| Commissioning | August 19, 1943 |
| Decommissioning | May 2, 1960 |
| Whereabouts | Sold for scrapping on February 22, 1977 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2,050 ts |
| length |
114.73 m |
| width |
12.07 m |
| Draft |
5.41 m |
| crew |
329 |
| drive |
2 steam turbines, 60,000 shp (45 MW) |
| speed |
35 knots |
The USS Gatling (DD-671) was a destroyer of Fletcher class of United States Navy .
It was named after the American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling .
history
The Gatling was launched on June 20, 1943 and entered service on August 19, 1943.
Second World War
After the test drives off Bermuda and a detour to New York in November , the Gatling was assigned to the Norfolk Naval Base in order to undertake training trips with the future crews of the destroyers still under construction.
On November 19, 1943, she ran out to Trinidad , from there to escort the light aircraft carrier USS Langley back to Norfolk. On December 3, she sailed with the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid towards the Panama Canal and escorted it to San Francisco , where both ships arrived on December 22. The very next day she left for Pearl Harbor .
1944
On January 19, 1944, the Gatling was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force and supported them with the upcoming landing on the Marshall Islands . She was then involved in the task force's attacks on Japanese outposts.
When the first air raids on Truk began in February 1944 , the Gatling gave fire support. Just a few days later, she was serving as an escort for the escort aircraft carriers during attacks on the Mariana Islands . In March it participated in the attacks on Emirau and in early April it supported air strikes on the Palau Islands . During the landing on Hollandia ( Operation Reckless ) and Aitape ( Operation Persecution ) from April 21 to 27, the Gatling served as a radar outpost and guided the fighter planes to their attacks or back to their carriers. After renewed attacks on Truk, the Gatling supported the conquest of the Mariana Islands from June 10 to July 5, 1944. In the battle in the Philippine Sea , the Gatling was awarded for shooting down six enemy aircraft.
In the same month she belonged to a carrier combat group that undertook air strikes against the Palau Islands and destroyed the Japanese positions on Yap and Ulithi . In early August the Gatling carried out coastal bombardments in the Bonin Islands and in September escorted the porters to repeated attacks on Japanese targets in the Philippines.
Attacks followed on Okinawa on October 10th and on Formosa , Luzon and Visayas from October 11th to 23rd. On October 24th, the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton was sunk by bombs in the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea . The Gatling saved over 300 of the survivors. Six crew members were awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and 16 others the bronze star for their heroic efforts in the rescue .
The Gatling dropped the survivors on Ulithi and rejoined the porter combat group that carried out attacks on the Philippines from November to December. After Typhoon Cobra , in which three destroyers capsized, the Gatling was looking for survivors and was able to save more than 100 men from the sea.
1945
At Christmas 1944 the Gatling returned to Ulithi. The task force ran out again on December 29, 1945 to attack targets on Formosa and Luzon in January 1945. Hoping to track down and destroy the Japanese fleet in this area of the sea, Admiral William Halsey dispatched the formation to the South China Sea on January 10 , from where attacks on targets in Indochina and the Chinese coast were flown.
In mid-February, the porters began attacking Honshu, with Tokyo as their main target. As part of an outpost line, the Gatling approached it up to 40 miles (75 km) from the island of Honshu. On February 19 and 20, she escorted the battleship USS North Carolina the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis to Iwojima as part of DESDIV99 . After returning to her carrier combat group, the Gatling took part in the attacks against Honshu and Okinawa again in early March. She then drove back to Iwo Jima alone and destroyed Japanese coastal batteries in March. During this mission, she took the crew of a Boeing B-29 that had been thrown into the ground after an attack on Nagoya .
On March 29, 1945 she left Iwo Jima to accompany the return transport of the troops deployed after the successful capture of the island of Guam . The destroyer then left the combat area and returned to San Francisco for crew repair and recovery, where it arrived on April 18.
After repairs and a short training voyage, the Gatlig escorted the battleship USS New Jersey and the light cruiser USS Biloxi to Eniwetok . On the way they shot at the Japanese garrison on the island of Wake . When they arrived in Guam on August 9th, news was received that Japan had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and was ready to surrender. The Gatling led a convoy of troop carriers that met with the 3rd Fleet off Japan and entered Tokyo Bay on September 3, 1945 as part of the Allied Naval Occupation Forces.
The Gatling had covered 175,000 miles (320,000 km) and fired 77 tons of ammunition during its war effort . It sank two enemy ships and shot down eight Japanese planes. In addition to her two rescue missions, 37 passengers of crashed aircraft were rescued from the sea. Despite the dangers, there were no deaths among the crew during the two years of operation.
On July 16, 1946, the Gatling was decommissioned and assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Charleston, South Carolina .
1951-1960
After the beginning of communist aggression in Korea , the destroyer was put back into service in Charleston on June 4, 1951. Until August 1952, the Gatling was used off the Atlantic coast of the USA and in the West Indies , before it was moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for modernization .
On June 3, 1953, she arrived in Tokyo, where she joined Task Force 77, which supported the United Nation Forces in Korea.
On May 2, 1960, the Gatling was decommissioned again and reassigned to the Atlantic reserve fleet. On December 1, 1974, the ship was removed from the Naval Vessel Register and transferred to Union Minerals & Alloys Corp. on February 22, 1977 . sold for scrapping.
Awards
The Gatling received eight Battle Stars for its service in World War II and one Battle Star for its service in the Korean War .
Remarks
- ↑ Destroyer Division 99 (Destroyer Division 99)
Web links
- History of the Gatling in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- Images and data on navsource.org