#uss ward

[carbone14]

Le destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) touché par un kamikaze – Bataille navale de la baie d'Ormoc – Bataille de Leyte – Campagne des Philippines (1944-1945) – Baie d'Ormoc – Leyte – Philippines – 7 décembre 1944

©Naval History and Heritage Command – 80-G-270773

Le destroyer coula le jour même, 3 ans après après tiré le premier coup de feu américain de la guerre du Pacifique lors d'une patrouille au large de Pearl Harbor le 7 décembre 1941.

[redarmyscreaming]

USS Ward (Destroyer #139) was quickly built at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, for World War I. Following her service in the Atlantic, she supported the trans-Atlantic flight of the NC flying boats in May 1919. In July 1920, Ward received the hull number DD-139. Decommissioned in 1921, she was recommissioned after twenty years after the outbreak of World War II and was sent to Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, in 1941. On December 7, Ward was patrolling off the entrance to Pearl Harbor when she encountered, attacked, and sank a Japanese Midget Submarine, which were the first shots of the Pacific War. Converted to a high-speed transport, she was redesignated APD-16 in February 1943 and was sent for war service again in the Pacific. During the landings at Ormoc Bay on December 7, 1944, Japanese aircraft, along with a suicide bomber, attacked Ward, damaging her to the point of abandoning ship. She was sunk by gunfire by USS O'Brien (DD-725), commanded by Commander William W. Outerbridge, who had commanded Ward during the attack on Pearl Harbor three years prior.

[lex-for-lexington]

“USS Ward (APD-16) crewmen pose with their ship's battle scoreboard, soon after the Biak Invasion, circa June 1944. Nearly all of these men had served in Ward since the beginning of the War, and were present when she sank a Japanese midget submarine just outside Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941.”

(NHHC: NH 95582)

[redarmyscreaming]

While patrolling Pearl Harbor Entrance on Sunday, December 7, 1941, the U.S.S. Ward attacked an unidentified submarine in the Restricted Area off the Harbor. A dispatch by voice transmission was sent to Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District at 0645 which stated:

"We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine operating in defensive sea areas."

[redarmyscreaming]

USS Ward DD 139, Dazzle.

[lex-for-lexington]

“USS Ward (APD-16) burning in Ormoc Bay, Leyte, after being struck by a Kamikaze, 7 December 1944. During the landings there.”

(NHHC: 80-G-270774)

[lex-for-lexington]

“USS Ward (APD-16) burning in Ormoc Bay, Leyte, after being struck by a Kamikaze, 7 December 1944.”

(NHHC: 80-G-270774)

[ranger-chris61]

Going to be looking at a destroyer kit of the USS Ward, the ship that fired the first American shots of WWII, in 1/700th scale.