USS Ward (DD-139)

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USS Ward (DD-139).jpg
History
US flag 48 stars.svgUnited States
Name:Ward
Namesake: James H. Ward
Builder: Mare Island Navy Yard
Laid down: 15 May 1918
Launched: 1 June 1918
Commissioned: 24 July 1918
Decommissioned: 21 July 1921
Recommissioned: 15 January 1941
Reclassified: High-speed transport, APD-16, 6 February 1943
Fate: Sunk by kamikaze [1] 7 December 1944
General characteristics
Class and type: Wickes-class destroyer
Displacement: 1,247 long tons (1,267  t)
Length: 314 ft 4 in (95.8 m)
Beam: 30 ft 11 in (9.4 m)
Draft: 9 ft 10 in (3.0 m)
Propulsion:
Speed: 35 knots (65  km/h; 40  mph)
Complement: 231 officers and enlisted
Armament:

USS Ward (DD-139) was a 1,247-long-ton (1,267 t) Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, later APD-16 (see High speed transport) in World War II. She caused the first American-caused casualties in World War II, when she engaged a Japanese submarine before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and successfully sank her, killing the two crew on board.

<i>Wickes</i>-class destroyer ship class

The Wickes-class destroyers were a class of 111 destroyers built by the United States Navy in 1917–19. Along with the 6 preceding Caldwell-class and 156 subsequent Clemson-class destroyers, they formed the "flush-deck" or "four-stack" type. Only a few were completed in time to serve in World War I, including USS Wickes, the lead ship of the class.

Destroyer Type of warship

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in the late 19th century by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.

United States Navy Naval warfare branch of US Armed Forces

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of June 2019, making it the third-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force and the United States Army.

Contents

Design and construction

Ward was named in honor of Commander James Harmon Ward, USN, (1806–1861), the first U.S. Navy officer to be killed in action during the American Civil War. [2] Ward was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California in a record of 17½ days. [3] Under the pressure of urgent World War I needs for destroyers, her construction was pushed rapidly from keel laying on 15 May 1918 to launching on 1 June and commissioning on 24 July 1918.

Commander is a common naval and air force officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organisations, including several police forces.

American Civil War Internal war in the U.S. over slavery

The American Civil War, one of the most studied and written about episodes in U.S. history, was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

California U.S. state in the United States

California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents across a total area of about 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.

Service history

Ward transferred to the Atlantic late in the year and helped support the trans-Atlantic flight of the NC flying boats in May 1919. She came back to the Pacific a few months later, and remained there until she was decommissioned in July 1921. She had received the hull number DD-139 in July 1920. The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought Ward back into active service. She was recommissioned in January 1941. Sent to Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter, the destroyer operated on local patrol duties in Hawaiian waters over the next year.

Curtiss NC flying boat model built by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company

The Curtiss NC was a flying boat built by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and used by the United States Navy from 1918 through the early 1920s. Ten of these aircraft were built, the most famous of which is the NC-4, the first airplane to make a transatlantic flight. The NC-4 is preserved in the National Museum of Naval Aviation, at NAS Pensacola, Florida.

Pearl Harbor Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii

Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It has been long visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is now a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, was the immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War II.

Pearl Harbor

On the morning of 7 December 1941, under the command of LCDR William W. Outerbridge, Ward was conducting a precautionary patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor when she was informed at 03:57 by visual signals from the coastal minesweeper Condor of a periscope sighting, whereupon Ward began searching for the contact. [4] At about 06:37, she sighted a periscope apparently tailing the cargo ship Antares whereupon she attacked the target. [4] The target sunk was a Japanese Ko-hyoteki-class, two-man midget submarine, thus Ward caused the first American-caused casualties of World War II a few hours before Japanese carrier aircraft bombed in or near targets in Honolulu. The submarine was attempting to enter the harbor by following Antares through the antisubmarine nets at the harbor entrance. By entering territorial waters of a neutral country without signalling any intent to stop, the submarine was not entitled to "innocent passage" protections and the neutral party had a right to use whatever means to protect its territory. Ward fired several rounds from its main guns, hitting the conning tower of the submarine, and also dropped several depth charges during the attack.

William Woodward Outerbridge was a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. He held the distinction of firing the first shots in defense of the United States during World War II.

Coastal minesweeper is a term used by the United States Navy to indicate a minesweeper intended for coastal use as opposed to participating in fleet operations at sea.

USS <i>Condor</i> (AMc-14) Coastal minesweeper

USS Condor (AMc-14) was a coastal minesweeper of the United States Navy. The ship was constructed as the wooden-hulled purse seiner New Example at Tacoma, Washington in 1937. Acquired by the U.S. Navy on 28 October 1940, converted into a coastal minesweeper and placed in service on 18 April 1941.

A Ko-hyoteki-class two-man submarine Japanese Two-Man Submarine - War in the Pacific National Historical Park (T. Stell Newman Visitor Center) - DSC00864.JPG
A Ko-hyoteki-class two-man submarine

A minority of academics doubted whether the Ward had really sunk a Japanese mini-sub rather than some sort of false alarm incident until University of Hawaii scientists found the sunken remains of the Japanese vessel on 28 August 2002. The wreck was found in American waters 1,200 ft (366 m) beneath the sea about 3–4  mi (3–3  nmi ; 5–6  km ) outside Pearl Harbor. [5] The starboard side of the Japanese submarine's conning tower has one shell hole, evidence of damage from Ward's number-three gun. While her depth charges were sufficient to fully lift the 46-long-ton (47 t), 78 ft (24 m) submarine out of the water, they did no apparent structural damage to the submarine, which sank due to water flooding into the vessel from shell holes. [6]

A false alarm, also called a nuisance alarm, is the deceptive or erroneous report of an emergency, causing unnecessary panic and/or bringing resources to a place where they are not needed. False alarms may occur with residential burglary alarms, smoke detectors, industrial alarms, and in signal detection theory. False alarms have the potential to divert emergency responders away from legitimate emergencies, which could ultimately lead to loss of life. In some cases, repeated false alarms in a certain area may cause occupants to develop alarm fatigue and to start ignoring most alarms, knowing that each time it will probably be false.

University of Hawaii college and university system in the US state of Hawaii

The University of Hawaiʻi system is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment training center, three university centers, four education centers and various other research facilities distributed across six islands throughout the state of Hawaii in the United States. All schools of the University of Hawaii system are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The U.H. system's main administrative offices are located on the property of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu CDP.

Mile Unit of length

The mile is an English unit of length of linear measure equal to 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards, and standardised as exactly 1,609.344 metres by international agreement in 1959.

After Pearl Harbor

In 1942, Ward was sent to the West Coast for conversion to a high-speed transport. Redesignated APD-16 in February 1943, she steamed to the South Pacific to operate in the Solomon Islands area. She helped fight off a heavy Japanese air attack off Tulagi on 7 April 1943, and spent most of the rest of that year on escort and transport service. In December, she participated in the Cape Gloucester invasion. During the first nine months of 1944, Ward continued her escort and patrol work and also took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings, among them the assaults on Saidor, Nissan Island, Emirau, Aitape, Biak, Cape Sansapor, and Morotai.

West Coast of the United States Coastline

The West Coast or Pacific Coast is the coastline along which the continental Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. As a region, this term most often refers to the coastal states of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. More specifically, it refers to an area defined on the east by the Alaska Range, Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. The United States Census groups the five states of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii together as the Pacific States division.

High-speed transport converted destroyers used to support US Navy amphibious operations

High-speed transports were converted destroyers and destroyer escorts used in US Navy amphibious operations in World War II and afterward. They received the US Hull classification symbol APD; "AP" for transport and "D" for destroyer.

Solomon Islands Country in Oceania

Solomon Islands is a sovereign state consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania lying to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu and covering a land area of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The country's capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands, but excludes outlying islands, such as Rennell and Bellona, and the Santa Cruz Islands.

Ward, after being hit by a kamikaze USS Ward (DD-139) afire.jpg
Ward, after being hit by a kamikaze

Fate

As the Pacific War moved closer to Japan, Ward was assigned to assist with operations to recover the Philippine Islands. On 17 October 1944, she put troops ashore on Dinagat Island during the opening phase of the Leyte invasion. After spending the rest of October and November escorting ships to and from Leyte, in early December, Ward transported Army personnel during the landings at Ormoc Bay, Leyte. On the morning of 7 December, three years to the day after she fired the opening shot of the US involvement in the war, while patrolling off the invasion area, she came under attack by several Japanese kamikazes . One bomber hit her hull amidships, bringing her to a dead stop. When the resulting fires could not be controlled, Ward's crew was ordered to abandon ship, and she was sunk by gunfire from O'Brien, whose commanding officer, William W. Outerbridge, had been in command of Ward during her action off Pearl Harbor three years before.

In early December 2017, Ward's wreckage was located by RV Petrel in 686 ft (209 m) of water. [7] [8]

In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! , Ward was portrayed by USS Finch. [9]

Awards

Memorial

Ward's 4-inch gun at the Minnesota State Capitol USS Ward 4 inch gun Minnesota Capitol.jpg
Ward's 4-inch gun at the Minnesota State Capitol

Ward's number-three 4"/50 caliber gun was removed when she was converted to a high speed transport. In 1958, the year of the Minnesota Centennial, it was installed as a memorial at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, when the men who fired it on 7 December 1941 were members of the Minnesota Naval Reserve. A plaque containing a listing of the naval reservists from Saint Paul who served aboard Ward is now displayed in the St. Paul City Hall on the third floor between the council and mayoral offices, in an area also containing the ship's bell from the cruiser Saint Paul. The last surviving member of the gun crew from the morning of 7 December, Alan Sanford, died in January 2015. [10]

As of 2012, no other ship in the United States Navy has borne this name, although sometimes confusion occurs with the three destroyers named Aaron Ward.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Brown, p. 133
  2. ↑ Klobuchar, Richard P. (2012). The USS Ward. US: McFarland. p. 21. ISBN   978-0-7864-6429-6. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  3. ↑ Mare Island History. Vallejo Convention & Visitors Bureau website. Accessed 22 August 2007. DANFS states 15 days from keel laying to launch.
  4. 1 2 Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet (February 15, 1942). "Pearl Harbor Attack: 7 December 1941, Online Action Reports: Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, Serial 0479 of 15 February 1942". Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved November 11, 2013.Cite web requires |website= (help)
  5. ↑ Lum, Curtis (August 29, 2002). "1941 Japanese mini sub found off Pearl Harbor". Honolulu Advertiser .
  6. ↑ Wiltshire, John C. (December 20, 2003). "Japanese midget submarine: sunk Dec 7, 1941 – found, Aug 2002: Analysis of Hole in Conning Tower of Midget Sub". Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory.Cite web requires |website= (help)
  7. ↑ Christine Hauser (December 8, 2017). "The First Photos of a Pearl Harbor Warship's Watery Grave". New York Times . Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017. It was midmorning on Dec. 1. The team, which included pilots, researchers, historians and officials from the Philippines, watched as images were beamed back to the vessel from a remotely operated submersible vehicle circling a shipwreck at the bottom of Ormoc Bay, about 650 feet below the surface.
  8. ↑ "Wreckage of USS Ward Found in the Philippines". Marine Link. December 7, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017.Cite web requires |website= (help)
  9. ↑ "USS FINCH (DER 328)" (PDF). USS FINCH Website. USS FINCH Website. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ Phillips, Michael M. (May 21, 2015). "First to Fire: U.S. Gunner at Pearl Harbor Is Laid to Rest" . Wall Street Journal .

Further reading

Coordinates: 10°51′N124°33′E / 10.850°N 124.550°E / 10.850; 124.550

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