Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Relieved by Tulsa on station on 30 November, Whippoorwill returned to Canacao Bay before she got underway on 3 December for sweeping operations out of Cavite.
At 0415 on the 8th, Whippoorwill received the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The ship's commanding officer, soon called his crew to quarters and announced the news. Within hours, Whippoorwill was underway, commencing her first wartime sweeping operations in Manila Bay.
Under air attack in the Philippines
At 1230 on 10 December, the air raid alert was broadcast at Cavite. At 1250, Whippoorwill weighed anchor and stood out to maneuver in Manila Bay, away from the confining waters near Cavite itself. Soon the enemy's high-level bombers were droning overhead, above the effective range of the navy yard's 3-inch batteries; every ship in the harbor opened up with their antiaircraft batteries. In the ensuing action, Whippoorwill claimed assists in splashing two bombers and sending another one crashing on shore nearby.
Peary struck by Japanese bombs
Peary (DD-226) alongside Central Wharf for an overhaul was hit by a bomb that struck the foremast, snapping it off above the searchlight platform and sending shards of metal down onto the bridge and fire-control platform, killing or wounding nearly every man there—including the commander and his executive officer. Meanwhile, bombs blasted and set afire the torpedo warehouse across the wharf; warheads exploded and burned.
Comdr. Ferriter saw Peary's predicament and moved his ship through the burning navy yard and eased Whippoorwill near the destroyer's stern and passed a towline. Braving the burning firebrands from the blazing warehouse, the destroyermen made fast the line, and the minesweeper commenced backing. The towline stretched taut—only to part! Twice more Ferriter's command closed the immobile destroyer, both ships endangered by warheads detonating nearby. Finally, on the third try, the line held; and, with debris showering upon the minesweeper and her crippled charge, Whippoorwill pulled Peary free.
Whippoorwill pulls Peary out of danger
Soon thereafter, Whippoorwill moored Peary to a buoy in Manila Bay and took the destroyer's wounded to the hospital at Sangley Point in her motor launch. Later that evening, the minesweeper unmoored from the destroyer and stood out, anchoring for the night farther out in Manila Bay.
Whippoorwill escapes to Borneo
With Philippine waters vulnerable for surface ships, those ships of the Asiatic Fleet that could do so sailed for points south. Whippoorwill headed for Borneo on 12 December and arrived at Balikpapan on the 15th. Four days later, the minecraft—in company with Tulsa, Asheville, and Lark (AM-21)—joined Task Force (TF) 7 and withdrew further south to the Celebes, arriving the next day. Later, Whippoorwill screened Tulsa as the two ships proceeded for Java.
Arriving at Surabaya, three days before Christmas of 1941, Comdr. Ferriter went ashore and reported for orders to the Dutch naval commander there. Three days later, the minesweeper commenced local patrols and sweeps out of Surabaya and continued that duty into February 1942, often operating in company with Dutch units, before she received orders to move to Tjilatjap, a port on Java's south coast.
Searching for Langley’s survivors
Arriving early on 26 February, Whippoorwill and Lark put to sea at 1400 the next day to search for survivors of the seaplane tender Langley (AV-3), reportedly sunk south of Java. Three hours out of Tjilatjap, the minesweeper's lookouts sighted a strange vessel and altered course to close and identify her. The mysterious ship turned out to be Tulsa, also searching for Langley survivors.
The trio of ships continued their search, the minesweepers steaming independently of the gunboat. At 2229, Whippoorwill and Lark arrived in the area in which Langley had been reported lost, passed a large oil slick, and smelled a strong odor of gasoline and oil—mute testimony to the tragedy that had gone before.
Rescuing survivors of the SS City of Manchester
On the following day, the last day of February, the minesweepers abandoned their search and were about to put about to return to Tjilatjap. At 0507, however, lookouts noted a pulsating fire on the horizon; and the minesweepers closed cautiously. The burning vessel turned out to be the British merchantman City of Manchester—of the Ellerman Line—that had been torpedoed and gunned by the Japanese submarine I-153. Whippoorwill lowered a boat at 0550 and rescued the British sailors from their rafts and life boats. Ten injured men were transferred to Tulsa, which had also arrived on the scene of the rescue—the gunboat having a well-equipped sick bay that the minesweepers lacked.
Following that rescue mission, Whippoorwill returned to Tjilatjap, arriving on 1 March, only to stand out later that day as Java, too, was becoming more untenable with each passing hour. Subsequently Whippoorwill crept southward towards Australia.
Whippoorwill makes it to Australia
Whippoorwill dropped anchor at Fremantle on 9 March and operated out of Fremantle into May before she shifted to Albany. The minesweeper conducted local patrols and guardship operations in the shipping channels and harbors there from mid-May to late August when she returned to Fremantle. For the remainder of 1942, Whippoorwill operated alternatively at Exmouth Bay, Albany, or Fremantle, patrolling locally and towing targets. On occasion, she acted as reference vessel for submarines of the Southwest Pacific forces on their training cruises. The beginning of 1943 found Whippoorwill engaged in local patrol operations out of Exmouth Gulf, and she continued that duty until February, when she made another brief visit to Fremantle. On 18 and 19 February 1943, she engaged in night exercises with American submarines on maneuvers. Six days later, while underway off the coast, she encountered a cyclone which wrenched two 300-pound depth charges from their tracks.
Antisubmarine action
After returning to Exmouth Gulf, she remained there through March 1943 before sailing for Fremantle and a six-day drydocking period. Upon completion of this brief refit, she returned to Exmouth Gulf on 24 April and conducted minesweeping operations in the area. On 15 May, while en route to Fremantle, she picked up an echo with her sonar gear and came to general quarters. She dropped depth charges but lost the contact. Arriving at Fremantle two days later, 17 May, she commenced a series of antisubmarine patrols which lasted into November.
Reclassified as an ocean-going tug
On 1 December, she began an extensive refit. During the yard work, she was reclassified an ocean-going tug and redesignated AT-169 on 1 March 1944. The long overhaul was completed on 5 March, and the ship proceeded to Brisbane.
Coming under the operational control of Commander, Service Force, 7th Fleet, Whippoorwill arrived at Brisbane on 20 March. For the next 10 days, 21 to 31 March 1944, she underwent final conversion to an ocean-going tug. This involved the removal of her minesweeping gear and the addition of a heavy-duty towing engine which had once been fitted on board Dobbin (AD-3).
New Guinea operations
On 8 April, the newly refitted Whippoorwill with LST-385 under tow, got underway for New Guinea, and arrived at Milne Bay with her charge on 15 April. The tug then served Hollandia and at Mios Woendi; also receiving orders to Seeadler Harbor, in the Admiralty Islands, to serve on "battle-damage standby" duty—prepared to take any battle-damaged ships under tow and out of the front lines.
Philippine Islands operations
Whippoorwill was reclassified an ocean-going tug, old, on 15 May 1944 and designated ATO-169. She then continued operations off New Guinea and in the backwater areas of the war in the Pacific until receiving orders to head north for Leyte in February 1945. Later operating at Hollandia and Ulithi, Whippoorwill resumed operations in the Philippine Islands on 15 June 1945 and served as a harbor tug in the Manila Bay area through the end of the war.
Touching at Leyte Gulf, Manila Bay, Zamboanga, and Samar, Whippoorwill finally rounded out her tour in the Philippine Islands on 20 December, when she departed Samar, bound for the Marshall Islands. Arriving at Eniwetok in company with Vireo (ATO-144) and Rail (ATO-139), she departed that island on 4 January 1946, bound for Pearl Harbor, arriving at the Pacific base that had once long served as her home port on the 15th. After a 10-day stay, Whippoorwill in company with Rail, got underway again on 25 January, and headed for San Francisco, California.
United States
