History:
The third AARON WARD (DM-34)
destroyer minelayer converted from an Allen M. Sumner-class
destroyer hull-was laid down as DD-773 on 12 December 1943 at
San Pedro, Calif., by the Bethlehem Steel Corp.; launched on 5
May 1944, sponsored by Mrs. G. H. Ratliff, redesignated a
destroyer minelayer, DM-34 on 19 July 1944, and placed in
commission on 28 October 1944 Comdr. William H. Sanders, Jr., in
command.
Between commissioning and the
end of January 1945, AARON WARD completed fitting out and
conducted her shakedown cruise off the California coast. On 9
February, she departed San Pedro bound for Pearl Harbor where
she arrived on 15 February. The warship conducted additional
training in Hawaiian waters before loading supplies and
ammunition and getting underway on 5 March to join the 5th Fleet
at Ulithi. She entered the lagoon of that atoll in the Western
Carolines on 16 March but put to sea again on the 19th with Task
Force (TF) 52 bound for the Ryukyu Islands.
The Mine Flotilla, of which
AARON WARD was a unit, arrived off Okinawa late on the 22d. The
following day, the destroyer minelayer got her first glimpse of
the enemy when some of his planes approached the sweep group but
did not attack. More came in later, but the combined gunfire of
the group dissuaded them from approaching close enough to harm
the American ships. The first actual air raid occurred on the
26th, and ADAMS (DM-27) knocked the intruder out of the sky.
AARON WARD supported
minesweeping operations around Kerama Retto and Okinawa until
the time of the first landings. During that period, she
accounted for three enemy aircraft. On 1 April, the day of the
initial assault on Okinawa, the destroyer minelayer began
screening the heavy warships providing gunfire support for the
troops ashore. That duty lasted until 4 April when she departed
the Ryukyus and headed for the Marianas. She arrived at Saipan
on the 10th but shifted to Guam later that day. After several
days of minor repairs, AARON WARD headed back to Okinawa to
patrol in the area around Kerama Retto. During that patrol
period, she came under frequent air attack. On the 27th, she
splashed one enemy plane and, the next day accounted for one
more and claimed a probable kill in addition. She returned to
Kerama Retto to replenish her provisions and fuel. While she was
there, a kamikaze scored a hit on PINKNEY (APH-2). AARON WARD
moved alongside the stricken evacuation transport to help fight
the inferno blazing amidships. While so engaged, she also
rescued 12 survivors from PINKNEY.
On 30 April, the destroyer
minelayer returned to sea to take up position on radar picket
station number 10. That night, she helped repulse several air
attacks, but, for the most part, weather kept enemy airpower
away until the afternoon of 3 May. When the weather began to
clear, the probability of air attacks rose. At about dusk, AARON
WARD's radar picked up bogies at 27 miles distance, and her crew
went to general quarters. Two of the planes in the formation
broke away and began runs on AARON WARD. The warship opened fire
on the first from about 7,000 yards and began scoring hits when
he had closed range to 4,000 yards. At that point, he dipped
over into his suicide dive but splashed about 100 yards off the
destroyer minelayer's starboard quarter. The second of the pair
began his approach immediately thereafter. AARON WARD opened
fire on him at about 8,000 yards and, once again, began scoring
hits to good effect-so much so that her antiaircraft battery
destroyed him while he was still 1,200 yards away.
At that point, a third and
more determined intruder appeared and dove in on AARON WARD's
stern. Though repeatedly struck by antiaircraft fire, the plane
pressed home the attack with grim determination. Just before
crashing into AARON WARD's superstructure, he released a bomb
which smashed through her hull below the waterline and exploded
in the after engine room. The bomb explosion flooded the after
engine and fire rooms, ruptured fuel tanks, set the leaking oil
ablaze, and severed steering control connections to the bridge.
The rudder jammed at hard left, and AARON WARD turned in a tight
circle while slowing to about 20 knots. Topside, the lane itself
spread fire and destruction through the area around the after
deckhouse and deprived mount 53 of all power and communication.
Worse yet, many sailors were killed or injured in the crash.
For about 20 minutes, no
attacking plane succeeded in penetrating her air defenses.
Damage control parties worked feverishly to put out fires, to
repair what damage they could, to jettison ammunition in danger
of exploding, and to attend to the wounded. Though steering
control was moved aft to the rudder itself, the ship was unable
to maneuver properly throughout the remainder of the engagement.
Then, at about 1840, the ships on her station came under a
particularly ferocious air attack. While LITTLE (DD-803) was hit
by the five successive crashes that sank her, LSMR-195 took the
crash that sent her to the bottom, and LCSL-25 lost her mast to
a suicider. AARON WARD also suffered her share of added woe.
Just before 1900, one plane from the group of attackers selected
her as a target and began his approach from about 8,000 yards.
Fortunately, the destroyer minelayer began scoring hits early
and managed to splash the attacker when he was still 2,000 yards
away. Another enemy then attempted to crash into her, but he,
too, succumbed to her antiaircraft fire.
Her troubles, however, were
not over. Soon after the two successes just mentioned, two more
Japanese planes came in on her port bow. Though chased by
American fighters, one of these succeeded in breaking away and
starting a run on AARON WARD. He came in at a steep dive
apparently aiming at the bridge. Heavy fire from the destroyer
minelayer, however, forced him to veer toward the after portion
of the ship. Passing over the signal bridge, he carried away
halyards and antennae assemblies smashed into the stack and then
splashed down close aboard to starboard.
Quickly on the heels of that
attack, still another intruder swooped in toward AARON WARD.
Coming in just forward of her port beam, he met a hail of
antiaircraft fire but pressed home his attack resolutely and
released a bomb just before he crashed into her main deck. The
bomb exploded a few feet close aboard her port side, and its
fragments showered the ship and blew a large hole through the
shell plating near her forward fireroom. As a result, the ship
lost all power and gradually lost headway. At that point, a
previously unobserved enemy crashed into the ship's deckhouse
bulkhead causing numerous fires and injuring and killing many
more crewmen.
As if that were not enough,
AARON WARD had to endure two more devastating crashes before the
action ended. At about 1921 a plane glided in steeply on her
port quarter. The loss of power prevented any of her 5-inch
mounts from bearing on him, and he crashed into her port side
superstructure. Burning gasoline engulfed the deck in flames,
40- millimeter ammunition began exploding, and still more heavy
casualties resulted. The warship went dead in the water, her
after superstructure deck demolished, and she was still on fire.
While damage control crews fought the fires and flooding, AARON
WARD began to settle in the water and took on a decided list to
port.
She still had one ordeal,
however, to suffer. Just after 1920, a final bomb-laden
tormentor made a high-speed, low-level approach and crashed into
the base of her number 2 stack. The explosion blew the plane,
the stack, searchlight, and two gun mounts into the air, and
they all came to rest strewn across the deck aft of stack number
1. Through the night, her crew fought to save the ship. At 2106,
SHANNON (DM-25) arrived and took AARON WARD in tow. Fairly on
the morning of 4 May, she arrived at Kerama Retto where she
began temporary repairs. She remained there until 11 June when
she got underway for the United States. Steaming via Ulithi,
Guam, Eniwetok, Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal, AARON WARD
arrived in New York in mid-August. On 28 September 1945, she was
decommissioned and her name was struck from the Navy list, 11
October 1945. In July 1946, she was sold for scrapping.
AARON WARD (DM-34) earned one
battle star and the Presidential Unit Citation for World War II
service.
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