Posted on 12/07/2017 12:15:11 PM PST by Coronal
FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — Just days before Thursday’s 76th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, marine researchers have found and explored the undersea wreckage of the U.S. ship that was the first to fire upon a Japanese vessel that day.
On Nov. 30, the crew of the research vessel Petrel sent an underwater drone 650 feet below to explore and document the remnants of the USS Ward, according to a statement by the USS Ward Expedition.
The Ward has rested unseen at the bottom of Ormoc Bay — just off the island of Leyte, Philippines — since it was destroyed by kamikaze planes in 1944. It was the end of the line for a ship that played a historic role in the beginning of World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
RIP, sailors.
My dad was stationed with 13th army air corp. He spent some time at Leyti. They converted planes to attack the Japanese fleet and ultimately prepared THE plane! Based on BeAck(sp)
I think the title is a bit misstated?. The link to the article has a photo with “Several crew members from the Ward...to mark the 63rd anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941.”
“A VFW color guard stands near the No. 3 gun from the USS Ward on Dec. 7, 2004, during the observance of Pearl Harbor Day on the state Capitol Mall in St. Paul....After the war ended, the men from the reserve unit formed the First Shot Naval Vets club in St. Paul. They helped get the gun from the Ward brought to St. Paul in 1958.”
From this I gather that the USS Ward was not recently found near the Philippines.
I think that the photo is from an archive. Ironically, the ship was sunk on December 7, 1944.
Another irony: 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.
So the Ward was a four stacker,of WW1 vintage. I see my impression that WW2 destroyers were of the Fletcher class, was wrong.
Most were of the later class. But the Ward was a left-over from the WWI flush deck destroyer series. We didn’t have enough ships, and had to use whatever floated.
The Brit’s got several other four-stacker flush deck destroyers from the US in a trade for part of the (now US) Virgin Islands. They were desperate as well.
She was no longer being used as a destroyer in the usual meaning. She had been coverted to a high speed transport and here hull number at the time she was sunk was APD-16.
The Fletchers, Gearings and Sumners were the back bone of our Destroyer forces WWII.
Fairly or unfairly, Admiral Kimmel and General Short were blamed at the time for their lack of preparedness against the Japanese attack on Pearl. Yet MacArthur, knowing that Pearl Harbor has been attacked, seemed to me to have been much more incompetent in his preparation and response than Kimmel and Short.
Nice looking ships, a pity that none were preserved. My granddad served on one in the '30s.
Better PR.
MacArthur’s actions in the Philippines in 1941-1942 were borderline incompetent.
He failed to implement prewar plans, instead trying to improvise a defense on the fly, then reverting to the prewar plan, minus supplies, when his improvised plan failed.
His indecision in the first hours of the war contributed to the loss of half his Air Force. He commanded from the rear, staying on Corrigedor, leaving the actual defense of Bataan to Jonathan Wainwright.
Had MacArthur been hit by a bus in the Summer of 1941, a Wainwright commanded Bataan, properly prepared for a Siege, could have held out for longer, or forced the Japanese to commit more troops to take it.
Either option would have seriously messed up the Japanese army’s timetable and allowed the allies to hold Rabaul, or keep parts of Burma.
I am guessing that since the gun had historical significance, the Navy preserved it. The former crew members knew this and where the gun was stored.
Now that makes sense. Thanks!!
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