USS O'Bannon (DD-450)
_off_the_Mare_Island_Navy_Yard_in_1951.jpg) USS O'Bannon (DD-450) in March 1951 |
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | destroyer |
| Shipyard | |
| Keel laying | March 3, 1941 |
| Launch | February 19, 1942 |
| 1. Period of service |
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|
| period of service |
June 26, 1942 - |
| Whereabouts | Sold for demolition June 6, 1970 |
| Technical specifications | |
| displacement |
2,100 ts |
| length |
114.7 meters |
| width |
12.2 meters |
| Draft |
5.4 meters |
| crew |
329 |
| drive |
|
| speed |
35 kn |
| Range |
6,500 nautical miles (11,700 km) at 15 knots |
| Armament |
When commissioning:
|
| Nickname |
Lucky O |
The USS O'Bannon (DD-450) was a destroyer in the US Navy and belonged to the Fletcher class . She and her sister ship USS Nicholas (DD-449) were the first two Fletcher destroyers to be launched. USS O'Bannon was in service from 1942 to 1970. The ship was used in the Second World War , the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She is the second most decorated ship in the history of the US Navy after the USS Enterprise .
Namesake
Presley Neville O'Bannon (1784–1850), the hero of Dena , was an officer in the US Marine Corps (USMC) and was best known for his actions in the First Barbarian War .
As First Lieutenant , he commanded a unit of the Marines in the war against Tripoli . During the joint operation with the US Navy , he led the successful attack in the Battle of Derna , from which the line to the shores of Tripoli in the USMC's anthem was born.
technology
Hull and drive
The hull of the USS O'Bannon was 114.7 m long and 12.2 m wide. The draft was 5.4 m, the displacement was 2,100 tons . The ship was powered by two General Electric steam turbines, and the steam was generated in four Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The power was 60,000 shaft horsepower, the top speed was 35 knots .
Armament and Electronics
The main armament of the USS O'Bannon when it was commissioned was its five 5-inch / 127-mm-Mark-30 single turrets. There were also various anti-aircraft guns , which were reinforced in the course of the war. In 1948/49 the ship was converted into a submarine destroyer and received increased anti-submarine armament, including a Mk. 108 anti-submarine rocket launcher in front of the bridge.
The USS O'Bannon was equipped with radar . An SG and an SC radar were mounted on the mast above the bridge, with which aircraft could be located at distances between 15 and 30 nautical miles and ships between 10 and 22 nautical miles.
history
USS O'Bannon was born at Bath Iron Works Corp. on March 3, 1941 . keeled in Bath , Maine . The launch took place on February 19, 1942. Your godmother was EF Kennedy, descendant of Lieutenant O'Bannon. USS O'Bannon and her sister ship USS Nicholas were the first Fletcher destroyers to be launched. The ship entered service in Boston on June 26, 1942 under the command of Commander Edwin R. Wilkinson
1942
After brief training in the Caribbean, the USS O'Bannon left Boston on August 29, 1942, heading for the Southwest Pacific, where the Battle of Guadalcanal had just begun. She was assigned to the Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 21 and stationed in Nouméa , New Caledonia .
Her first assignment was escort for the aircraft carrier USS Copahee to Guadalcanal. On October 9, launched 20 F4F Wildcat s of US Marines from the deck of the USS Copahee for beleaguered Henderson Field , where they were desperately needed as reinforcement. The rest of the month, the USS O'Bannon was on escort in the New Hebrides and southern Solomon Islands .
On November 7, 1942, she escorted a convoy that was traveling to Guadalcanal with troop reinforcements and replacements, food, ammunition and material for aircraft. In the vicinity of the island, the destroyer sighted an enemy submarine that appeared, fired at it and held it at depth while the convoy was able to safely pass the area. On the afternoon of November 12, the partially charged transporter of 25 enemy were Mitsubishi G4M Hamaki - torpedo bombers attacked. USS O'Bannon fought four attacking aircraft. Eleven attackers were shot down by the escort. No transporter was damaged.
First naval battle of Guadalcanal
Reconnaissance reports revealed that a Japanese naval formation, consisting of two battleships , a light cruiser and 14 destroyers, approached Guadalcanal in order to destroy Henderson Field by shelling, to prevent American reinforcements and to allow landings of their own reinforcements. Together with the other escort ships, two heavy cruisers ( USS Portland , USS San Francisco ), three light cruisers ( USS Helena , USS Atlanta , USS Juneau ) and seven destroyers ( USS Cushing , USS Monssen , USS Sterett , USS Fletcher , USS Laffey , USS Aaron Ward , USS Barton ) USS O'Bannon was heading for Iron Bottom Sound . In bad weather and visibility of less than 2000 m, the associations opened fire on one another on November 13, 1942 at 1:48 a.m. and the First Sea Battle of Guadalcanal began .
Along with USS Laffey , USS Atlanta , USS San Francisco , USS Portland and USS Helena , the USS O'Bannon took the Japanese destroyer Akatsuki under fire. Akatsuki exploded and sank within minutes. In the further course of the USS O'Bannon attacked the Japanese battleship Hiei and came so close to her that the Hiei was not able to aim her heavy artillery deep enough to be able to use it against the destroyer. The guns of the USS O'Bannon and the USS Sterett fired several salvos into the superstructure of the Hiei from close range before the destroyers disappeared into the darkness.
The fire was stopped at 02:26. In the short but fierce battle on the American side, USS Barton , USS Cushing , USS Laffey and USS Monssen were lost, while USS San Francisco , USS Atlanta , USS Portland , USS Helena and USS Juneau were badly damaged. USS San Francisco and USS Atlanta later had to be abandoned. USS Juneau was sunk by Japanese submarine I-26 on its return march around 11:00 . The Japanese Navy lost the destroyers Akatsuki and Yudachi . Hiei was badly damaged and was attacked by American planes on November 14, 1942 and sunk by the crew themselves.
The commander of the Japanese Union, Kaigun-Shōshō Hiroaki Abe , failed to see the advantage he was gaining, and Henderson Field was saved from destruction. The importance of this was shown the next day when planes from Henderson Field sank eleven enemy troop carriers that were supposed to bring Japanese reinforcements to Guadalcanal.
1943
In the early morning of April 5, 1943, USS O'Bannon and USS Strong discovered the surfaced Japanese submarine RO-34 . USS O'Bannon ran to ram it. Since the submarine could not be clearly identified, the commander decided at the last moment that it could be a mine-layer and a hard rudder angle was ordered to avoid the collision. This maneuver brought the destroyer alongside the submarine. When the Japanese crew wanted to man their gun, the crew of the USS O'Bannon , which had no handguns on the upper deck , grabbed potatoes from a basket and threw them onto the submarine. Assuming they were hand grenades , the Japanese were too busy throwing them overboard to open fire on the destroyer. This gave USS O'Bannon the opportunity to move away and use its guns against the submarine and damage the turret. RO-34 surfaced and the destroyer sank the submarine with depth charges.
On the night of July 5-6 , the O'Bannon was involved in the Battle of the Kula Gulf , in the course of which the light cruiser USS Helena and the Japanese destroyers Niizuki and Nagatsuki were sunk. A week later, on the night of July 12th to 13th, 1943, USS O'Bannon took part in the Battle of Kolombangara in the same sea area in which the Allied ships sank the light cruiser Jintsū . On the Allied side, three light cruisers ( USS Honolulu , USS St. Louis and HMNZS Leander ) were damaged and the destroyer USS Gwin was sunk.
The following months the USS O'Bannon spent in the Vella Gulf assisting landings, fighting Japanese convoys, and repelling air strikes. With the help of her sister ships, she sank several barges, two submarine fighters and a gunboat.
Sea battle at Vella Lavella
The climax of the operations in this area was the naval battle of Vella Lavella on the night of October 6th to 7th, 1943. Nine Japanese destroyers, a few barges and supply ships were supposed to evacuate troops from Vella Lavella. Around 10:30 p.m., USS O'Bannon , USS Selfridge and USS Chevalier spotted the formation. Without waiting for the remaining three destroyers of the second group ( USS Ralph Talbot , USS Taylor and USS La Valette ), Cpt. Frank R. Walker to attack the Japanese Association. The Japanese destroyer Yūgumo was hit by torpedoes from the USS Selfridge and USS Chevalier and was immobilized. One of their torpedoes hit the USS Chevalier , causing their forward ammunition chamber to explode. USS O'Bannon could no longer evade the hit destroyer and rammed its stern. Both ships remain wedged together for a while. Another torpedo hit the USS Selfridge and tore its bow off behind the first turret. The destroyers of the second group were still 15 minutes away and the Japanese ships moved away. The evacuation was successfully completed, but the Japanese lost the Yūgumo by a torpedo hit. USS Chevalier could no longer be saved. The crew disembarked and was taken over by the USS O'Bannon . USS Chevalier was sunk by USS La Valette at around 3:00 a.m. The sea battle at Vella Lavella is considered to be the last Japanese victory in a sea battle of the Second World War.
USS O'Bannon was ordered home for overhaul after makeshift repairs.
1944
On March 18, 1944, the USS O'Bannon returned to the Solomon Islands and took part in operations in New Guinea . Until October 18, she was used in escort service and land target shooting. She then escorted a convoy with reinforcements for the invasion of Leyte . The convoy reached its destination on October 24, 1944. USS O'Bannon patrolled the entrance to the Gulf of Leyte during the sea and air battle in the Gulf of Leyte , during which the Japanese Navy was so weakened that it lost all offensive potential.
1945
USS O'Bannon was mainly used in the Philippines. She escorted warships and transport ships and participated in the landings in Ormoc Bay , Mindoro , the Gulf of Lingayen , Bataan , Corregidor , Palawan , Zamboanga , Cebu and Caraboa . She was able to shoot down several enemy planes. During Operation Mike I , the landing on Luzon on the Gulf of Lingayen, she and three other destroyers attacked a Japanese submarine and sank it. In late April and early May, the USS O'Bannon sailed to Tarakan , Borneo , to provide fire support and protect minesweeping operations there. On June 17, the destroyer met a group of escort aircraft carriers off Okinawa and protected them during the airstrike on Sakashima Gunto . In July she was used to protect the aircraft carriers in the air raids on Honshū and Hokkaidō .
Towards the end of the war, she patrolled the coast of Honshū . On August 27, Admiral William Halsey ordered that USS O'Bannon, along with the USS Nicholas and USS Taylor, "because of their valiant struggle during the long journey from the South Pacific to the end", escort the USS Missouri into Tokyo Bay . USS O'Bannon patrolled Japanese waters until September 1 and then drove via San Francisco to San Diego , where it was decommissioned after overhaul on May 21, 1946.
1949-1962
Between 17 January 1949 and 10 February 1950, was O'Bannon in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard for escort destroyer rebuilt and consequently received on 26 March 1949, the new identifier DDE-450 . It was put back into service on February 19, 1951. Her first mission took the ship to Korea on November 19, 1951 , where she spent the next six months as escort for aircraft carriers and convoys, as a flagship during the siege of Wŏnsan and for shelling enemy gun emplacements, supply routes, ammunition depots and troop concentrations.
After her return to Pearl Harbor in June 1952, she took part in the tests of the US Atomic Energy Commission on Eniwetok . In April 1953, the USS O'Banon sailed again to the Far East, where it again protected aircraft carriers. She then patrolled Formosa Street and participated in exercises off Japan and Okinawa.
In the years between the Korean War and the Vietnam War, six months of service in Southeast Asia alternated with a six-month stay in Pearl Harbor, during which she took part in exercises and carried out necessary overhauls. On June 30, 1962, she was reclassified to DD-445 . In the summer and fall of 1962 she was used in the nuclear weapons tests on Johnston Island .
1964-1970
1964 played USS O'Bannon in the feature film First victory (Harm's Way) with.
On December 26, 1964, she ran out of Hong Kong to patrol the Vietnamese coast and conduct hydrographic surveys. During its service in 1966, USS O'Bannon was mainly used as a tarpaulin guard (air traffic control boat ) for the USS Kitty Hawk . For one week each in May and June, they shelled coastal targets, Viet Cong training camps , troop concentrations and smaller vehicles. The destroyer returned to Pearl Harbor on July 30, 1966. The ship was then prepared to serve as a salvage ship during the Apollo program in August 1966 and for Gemini 11 in September.
In the spring of 1967 she visited Guam and returned to Pearl Harbor in early June to prepare for a new assignment in the Far East. On September 28, 1967, the USS O'Bannon ran to Japan and reached Yokosuka on October 7, and drove from there to Subic Bay , where it arrived on October 15. She returned to Vietnam on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation and operated at Yankee Station until November 4th .
After a fourteen-day break in Subic Bay and Hong Kong, the USS O'Bannon ran to Da Nang to combat targets on the coast. She visited Taiwan in early December and returned to the combat area on December 15, 1967 to support the south of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with her artillery. Two days later she was involved in the rescue of two American pilots who had to disembark from their damaged aircraft at sea. During the rescue, the USS O'Bannon was shot at by an enemy battery , but it did not hit.
On January 23, 1968, she was on her way from Yokosika to Vietnam when she received news of the hijacking of the reconnaissance ship USS Pueblo . USS O'Bannon was one of the first US ships to reach the waters off North Korea. It was reinforced a short time later by USS Nicholas and USS Enterprise . The ships were on constant alert and some were in combat readiness. During the next eleven months, the US Navy ships were used in rotation. After the mission off North Korea, it operated mostly in the Gulf of Tonkin .
Whereabouts
On January 30, 1970, USS O'Bannon and her sister ship the USS Nicholas were ceremoniously decommissioned and removed from the fleet list. It was sold for demolition on June 6, 1970 and scrapped two years later.
Quotes
“The story of the Pacific War cannot be written without telling the story of the USS O'Bannon . Again and again, the O'Bannon and her chivalrous sister ships were called in to repel the enemy. You have never let me down. ”
- Admiral William F. Halsey
Awards
USS O'Bannon received a Presidential Unit Citation . She was awarded 17 Battle Stars for her service in World War II, receiving more than any other ship in the US Navy with the exception of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise . For her missions in Korea she received three more Battle Stars . Perhaps the greatest award, however, is that no crew member was killed while the ship was active.
Individual evidence
- ^ William J. Thibodeaux: USS O'Bannon (English)
- ^ Foreword to James D. Horan's Action Tonight (1945) USS O'Bannon (English)
literature
- Stefan Terzibaschitsch : Destroyer of the US Navy . Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-587-8 .
- Jerry Scutts: Fletcher DDs (US Destroyers) in action (Warships No. 8) . Squadron / signal publications, Carrollton (Texas) 1995, ISBN 978-0-89747-336-1
- Alan Raven: Fletcher Class Destroyers . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1986, ISBN 0-87021-193-5 .
Web links
- History of USS O'Bannon (DD-450) in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (English)
- navsource.org: USS O'Bannon (English)
- hazegray.org: USS O'Bannon (English)