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History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6) |
Namesake | Oyster Bay, New York |
Builder | Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton, Washington |
Laid down | 17 April 1942 |
Launched | 17 September 1942 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. William K. Harrill |
Reclassified | AGP-6, 1 May 1943 |
Commissioned | 17 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | 26 March 1946 |
Stricken | 12 April 1946 |
Reinstated | 4 January 1949 |
Reclassified | AVP-28, 16 March 1949 |
Stricken | unknown |
Fate | Transferred to Marina Militare , 23 October 1957 |
History | |
Italy | |
Name | Pietro Cavezzale (A 5301) |
Namesake | Pietro Cavezzale, a Silver Medal of Military Valor recipient |
Acquired | 23 October 1957 |
Decommissioned | October 1993 |
Stricken | 31 March 1994 |
Fate | Sold for scrapping, February 1996 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Barnegat-class small seaplane tender, converted during construction into motor torpedo boat tender |
Displacement | 1,766 tons (light); 2,750 tons (full load) |
Length | 311 ft 8 in (95.00 m) |
Beam | 41 ft 1 in (12.52 m) |
Draught | 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m) |
Installed power | 6,000 horsepower (4.48 megawatts) |
Propulsion | Diesel engine, two shafts |
Speed | 18.6 knots |
Complement |
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Sensors and processing systems | Radar; sonar |
Armament |
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USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6), originally and later AVP-28, was a United States Navy motor torpedo boat tender in commission from 1943 to 1946. She saw service in World War II.
From 1957 to 1993, the former Oyster Bay served in the Italian Navy as the special forces tender Pietro Cavezzale (A 5301) .
Oyster Bay was laid down as a Barnegat-class small seaplane tender designated AVP-28 at Lake Washington Shipyard, Houghton Washington, on 17 April 1942, and was launched on 7 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. William K. Harrill. On 1 May 1943, she was reclassified as a motor torpedo tender and redesignated AGP–6 and, accordingly, completed to a modified design to allow her to fulfill this new role. She was commissioned on 17 November 1943.
Oyster Bay departed Seattle, Washington, on 7 December 1943, for shakedown at San Diego, California, which lasted for the remainder of 1943.
Oyster Bay got underway from San Diego on 2 January 1944, steaming to Brisbane, Australia, en route Milne Bay, New Guinea, for motor torpedo boat tender operations in support of the New Guinea campaign. She serviced two squadrons of motor torpedo boats beginning on 28 February 1944, and, on 9 March 1944, got underway escorting 15 patrol torpedo boats (PT boats) to Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands.
The spring of 1944 was an active one for Oyster Bay. On 14 March 1944, she bombarded the Japanese shore installations on Pityilu Island in support of the United States Army. On 20 March 1944, she was underway for Langemak, New Guinea, with 42 wounded soldiers for evacuation to Base Hospital, Finschhafen, New Guinea. After returning to Seeadler Harbor on 31 March 1944, she bombarded Ndrilo Island to the east of Seeadler Harbor preparatory to the landing there by U.S. Army ground forces.
Oyster Bay shifted to Dreger Harbor on 19 April 1944. Allied forces moved on Aitape on 22 April 1944, and on 24 April 1944, two days after the landings at Aitape, Oyster Bay departed for the area with 15 PT boats. Japanese planes attacked the convoy on 27 April 1944, but, while one PT boat was hit, Oyster Bay escaped damage.
In May 1944, Oyster Bay proceeded to Hollandia, an area of heated Allied action. Air raid alerts were frequent, but no Japanese attacks ensued. Oyster Bay got underway to Wakde Island on 5 June 1944, with two squadrons of PT boats. After Allied forces had invaded Wakde Island on 17 May 1944, to capture a major Japanese air base there, the Japanese continued to hammer away at the newly acquired airstrip. Later in June 1944, Oyster Bay bombarded shore installations on the Wicki River and at Samar Village, preparatory to U.S. Army attacks.
Leaving Mios Woendi Island on 12 July 1944, Oyster Bay reported to Brisbane for shipyard availability. A British Royal Air Force plane struck the top of the ship's mast, carried away her antennae and damaged her navigation lights on 22 July 1944, but hasty repairs permitted Oyster Bay to depart for Mios Woendi on 16 August 1944.
Oyster Bay then steamed on to Morotai, needed as a staging area for the Philippines campaign. As the Allies assaulted the beaches of Leyte Island in the Philippines in October 1944, Oyster Bay set out for Leyte Gulf. Japanese planes counterattacked, but U.S. Navy planes and anti-aircraft fire took a heavy toll of them. In November 1944, Oyster Bay went to general quarters 221 times, but was not attacked. She shifted to San Juanico Strait on 21 November 1944, and on 24 November 1944, while taking on gasoline, she was attacked by two Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers that were driven off by heavy antiaircraft fire. Two Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters dived on Oyster Bay on the 26 November 1944, but intense antiaircraft fire shot them both down.
In January 1945, Oyster Bay got underway for Hollandia, then returned to Leyte Gulf for motor torpedo boat tender operations on 8 February 1945. Departing for the invasion of Zamboanga on 6 March 1945, she arrived two days before the invasion and remained with the bombardment group until the landings. Oyster Bay next rendezvoused with PT boats in Sarangani Bay at Mindoro on 24 April 1945, and supported them during night raids against the Japanese positions in Davao Gulf. In May 1945, Oyster Bay reported to Leyte Gulf, thence steaming to Samar. She departed on 18 May 1945, for Tawi Tawi, where she continued motor torpedo boat tender operations until she returned to Guinan Harbor on 6 August 1945.
Oyster Bay received five battle stars for World War II service.
World War II ended with the cessation of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945. Oyster Bay turned toward the United States on 10 November 1945, and steamed into San Francisco Bay, California, on 29 November 1945.
Decommissioned on 26 March 1946, Oyster Bay was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 12 April 1946, and transferred to the Maritime Commission on 12 August 1946.
Transferred back to the U.S. Navy on 3 January 1949, Oyster Bay was reclassified as a small seaplane tender and redesignated AVP–28 on 16 March 1949. She was berthed at Stockton, California, where she remained in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until 1957, seeing no active service as a seaplane tender.
Oyster Bay was transferred to the Government of Italy on 23 October 1957. She then served in the Italian Navy as the special forces tender Pietro Cavezzale (A 5301).
The Italian Navy decommissioned Pietro Cavezzale in October 1993 and she was stricken by the Italian Navy on 31 March 1994. She was sold for scrapping in February 1996. [1]
Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II. In German, "Seeadler" means sea eagle, pointing to German colonial activity between 1884 and 1919 in that area. The bay was named in 1900 after the German cruiser SMS Seeadler.
USS Hutchins (DD-476), was a Fletcher-class destroyer, of the United States Navy named after Naval aviator Lieutenant Carlton B. Hutchins (1904–1938), who though mortally injured, was able to remain at the controls of his aircraft and allow his surviving crew to parachute to safety and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
USS San Pablo (AVP-30) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender which was in commission as such from 1943 to 1947 and then served as a commissioned hydrographic survey ship, redesignated AGS-30, from 1948 to 1969. Thus far, she has been the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for San Pablo Bay, a shallow northern extension of San Francisco Bay in California.
The third USS Casco (AVP-12) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender in commission from 1941 to 1947. She saw service in World War II. After her decommissioning, the U.S. Navy loaned her to the United States Coast Guard, in which she served as the cutter USCGC Casco (WAVP-370), later WHEC-370, from 1949 to 1969.
USS Hilo (AGP-2) was a converted yacht that saw service as a motor torpedo boat tender in the United States Navy during World War II. It was originally the yacht Caroline built for Eldridge R. Johnson and launched 18 July 1931. Caroline was at the time the second largest yacht and largest American built Diesel yacht. It was built with a laboratory as well as palatial quarters and was loaned and equipped by Johnson for the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea Expedition of 1933 that explored the Puerto Rico Trench. The yacht was sold in 1938 to William B. Leeds and renamed Moana replacing an earlier Leeds yacht of the same name.
USS Jamestown (PG-55) was a patrol gunboat and after 13 January 1943 a Jamestown-class motor torpedo boat tender acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her task in her final classification was to provide a "home base" for torpedo boats in remote parts of the ocean during the war, and to provide them with necessary services, such as fuel, food, and repairs.
USS Portunus (AGP-4) was an LST-1-class tank landing ship acquired by the U.S. Navy for use during World War II as a motor torpedo boat (MTB) tender. She was named after a Roman god of the sea, who had jurisdiction over ports and the shores.
Mios Woendi island is an island in the Schouten Islands of Papua province, eastern Indonesia. It lies in Cenderawasih Bay 50 kilometres off the northwestern coast of the island nation of Papua New Guinea.
USS San Carlos (AVP-51) was a Barnegat-class seaplane tender built for the United States Navy during World War II. San Carlos, named after San Carlos Bay, Florida, was in commissioned from 1944 to 1947 and earned three battle stars for service in the Pacific during World War II. After eleven years in reserve, San Carlos was converted to oceanographic research ship USNS Josiah Willard Gibbs (T-AGOR-1)—named after American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs—and placed in service as a non-commissioned ship of the Military Sea Transportation Service from 1958 to 1971. In December 1971, the ship was transferred to the Hellenic Navy as Hephaistos (A413), a motor torpedo boat tender. Hephaistos was struck from the rolls of the Hellenic Navy in April 1976.
USS Wachapreague (AGP-8) was a motor torpedo boat tender in commission in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing service in the latter part of World War II. After her Navy decommissioning, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard from 1946 to 1972 as the cutter USCGC McCulloch (WAVP-386), later WHEC-386, the fourth ship of the U.S. Coast Guard or its predecessor, the United States Revenue Cutter Service, to bear the name. In 1972 she was transferred to South Vietnam and served in the Republic of Vietnam Navy as the frigate RVNS Ngô Quyền (HQ-17). Upon the collapse of South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, she fled to the Philippines, and she served in the Philippine Navy from 1977 to 1985 as the frigate RPSGregorio del Pilar (PF-8) and from 1987 to 1990 as BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-12).
The second USS Willoughby (AGP-9) was a motor torpedo boat tender that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing service in the later stages of World War II. Transferred to the United States Coast Guard in 1946, she was in commission as the cutter USCGC Gresham (WAVP-387), later WHEC-387 and WAGW-387, from 1947 to 1969 and from 1970 to 1973, seeing service in the Vietnam War during her Coast Guard career.
USS Half Moon (AVP-26) was a seaplane tender that in commission in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 that saw service in the latter half of World War II. After the war, she was in commission in the United States Coast Guard as the cutter USCGC Half Moon (WAVP-378), later WHEC-378, from 1948 to 1969, seeing service in the Vietnam War during her Coast Guard career.
USS Orestes (AGP-10) was a motor torpedo boat tender that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946.
The second USS Barataria (AVP-33) was a United States Navy Barnegat-class seaplane tender in commission from 1944 to 1946. She saw service in the later stages of World War II and was decommissioned postwar. She then was transferred to the United States Coast Guard and was in commission as the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Barataria (WAVP-381), later WHEC-381 from 1949 to 1969, serving in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War during her lengthy Coast Guard career.
The Barnegat class was a large class of United States Navy small seaplane tenders (AVP) built during World War II. Thirty were completed as seaplane tenders, four as motor torpedo boat tenders, and one as a catapult training ship.
USS Varuna (AGP-5) was a Portunus-class motor torpedo boat tender of the United States Navy during World War II.
USS Acontius (AGP-12) was a motor torpedo boat tender in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1965.
PT-143 was a PT-103-class motor torpedo boat of the United States Navy that served during World War II.
Manus Naval Base was a number of bases built after the World War II Battle of Manus by United States Navy on the Manus Island and a smaller island just east, Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands chain. The major naval base construction started with the Los Negros landings on February 28, 1944. The Navy repaired and did the expansion of the airfields on the Admiralty Islands. United States Navy Seabee built or repaired the facilities on the islands. The large Manus Naval Base, also called the Admiralty Island base, supported United States Seventh Fleet, Southwest Pacific command, and part of the Pacific Fleet. The base was abandoned by the US Navy after the war.
Naval Base Kossol Roads also called Naval Base Kossol Passage was a major United States Navy base at Kossol Roads in northern Palau in the western Caroline Islands in the western Pacific Ocean during World War II. Kossol Roads lagoon is surrounded by fringing coral reef. The base was built to support the island hopping Pacific War efforts of the allied nations fighting the Empire of Japan. In terms of the number of ships at one base, Naval Base Kossol Roads was one of the largest Naval Base in the world in 1944 and 1945. Naval Base Kossol Roads was unique, as it was the only large US Naval base to have no shore facilities. Kossol Roads was part of US Naval Base Carolines.