|
DE 262
JDS Asahi
(ex USS
Amick / DE 168)
|
builder:
Federal
Shipbuilding, Port Newark, New Jersey, USA
laid
down: January
7, 1943 (as USS Amick / DE 168)
launched:
May 27, 1943
commissioned:
July 26, 1943
decommissioned:
May 16, 1947
transferred
to Japan: June
14, 1955 - renamed JDS Asahi (DE 262)
decommissioned
from Japanese service in 1975
reverted
back to US Navy in 1975
fate:
to
Philippines - September 13, 1976 (renamed BRP Datu Sikatuna / PF-5)
finally
stricken and scrapped in 1989
|
|
DE 263
JDS Hatsuhi
(ex USS
Atherton/ DE 169)
|
builder:
Federal
Shipbuilding, Port Newark, New Jersey, USA
laid
down: January
14, 1943 (as USS Atherton / DE 169)
launched:
May 27, 1943
commissioned:
August 29,
1943
decommissioned:
December 10,
1945
transferred
to Japan: June
14, 1955 - renamed JDS Hatsuhi (DE 263)
decommissioned
from Japanese service in 1975
reverted
back to US Navy in 1975
fate:
to
Philippines - September 1976 (renamed BRP Rajah Humabon / PS-78)
reclassified/renumbered
PF-6 in 1980 / renumbered PF-11 in 1996.
> as
of April 2012 the ship is still in service with the Philippine Navy
|
|
USS Amick (DE 168) - in USN service
USS Amick (DE-168):
Namesake:
Eugene Earle Amick - born on 26 January 1919
at Boonville, Missouri - studied at the University of Kansas City and
Rockhurst College before entering William Jewell College in 1937. After
graduating from the latter in 1941, Amick enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 19
September 1941. Following preliminary training, he was appointed a midshipman
on 13 February 1942 and entered the United States Naval Reserve Midshipman's
School at Northwestern University. Upon his successful completion of the
officers' candidate course there, he was commissioned ensign on 14 May 1942
and assigned to Astoria (CA-34).
Amick served in that cruiser during the early summer of 1942 as she prepared
to participate in the first Allied thrust in the Pacific, the invasion of the
Solomon Islands at Guadalcanal. He was killed on the second night after the
original landings as Allied warships attempted to protect American beachheads
in the Battle of Savo Island in the small hours of 9 August.
-
History (USN service):
USS Amick (DE-168) was laid down on 30 November 1942 by the Federal
Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newark, N.J.; launched on 27 May 1943;
sponsored by Mrs. Mary R. Amick, widow of Ens. Amick; and commissioned at the
New York Navy Yard on 26 July 1943, Lt. Comdr. Francis C. B. McCune in
command.
Amick left the east coast early in September for shakedown training out of
Bermuda. During this cruise, the ship was also engaged in operations testing
defensive devices - then under development - which it was hoped would protect
American ships against acoustic torpedoes.
In early November, Amick became a member of Task Force 62 and began duty as
an escort for transatlantic convoys. The ship also acted as flagship for
Escort Division (CortDiv) 15. From November 1943 through May 1945, she
completed nine round-trip voyages across the Atlantic. These terminated in
several different ports: Casablanca, Morocco; Gibraltar; Bizerte, Tunisia;
Palermo, Sicily; and Oran, Algeria. Only one of her convoys was ever harassed
by enemy forces. On 1 August 1944, German planes attacked the convoy while it
was sailing in the Mediterranean off Cape Bengut, Algeria, but failed to
damage any ship.
During her 18 months of wartime operations in the Atlantic, Amick entered
either the New York or the Boston Navy Yard for short availabilities at the
completion of each westward crossing. As a rule, she then proceeded to Casco
Bay, Maine, or Montauk Point, N.Y., for training exercises before joining
another convoy.
On 28 May 1945, Amick sailed from Boston with CortDiv 15, bound for the
Pacific. They paused at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for one week of training and
then proceeded to the Canal Zone. The destroyer escorts transited the Panama
Canal on 10 June and sailed on to San Diego, Calif. From that port, Amick and
her sister ships headed for the Hawaiian Islands and moored at Pearl Harbor
on the 29th.
After a fortnight of exercises out of Pearl Harbor, CortDiv 15 got underway
for Eniwetok. Amick sailed for the Mariana Islands and, at Saipan, reported
to Task Unit (TU) 94.7.2 for duty. The destroyer escort completed one voyage
to Okinawa and back before sailing for the Western Caroline Islands. On 15
August, while en route to Ulithi, she received word of Japan's capitulation.
Amick touched at Ulithi on the 16th; and, three days later, she reached
Peleliu in the Palau Islands and joined TU 94.6.1. On 23 August, several Navy
and Marine Corps officials embarked in Amick for passage to the northern
Palau Islands. There, they held a series of conferences with Japanese
officers which culminated on 1 September in the unconditional surrender of
all Japanese forces in the northern Palaus, which was received by the
Americans in the wardroom on board Amick.
On 3 November, Amick departed Peleliu, bound for the United States. She made
brief stops at Saipan and Pearl Harbor before arriving back at San Diego on
22 November.
The destroyer escort was reassigned to the Atlantic Fleet on 1 December and,
shortly thereafter, got underway for the east coast. She reached Jacksonville,
Fla., on 3 January 1946 and entered a shipyard there for repairs. After this
work was completed, she was assigned to CortDiv 12 and berthed at Green Cove
Springs, Fla., to undergo preservation work prior to deactivation.
The warship remained semiactive at Green Cove Springs, serving as a receiving
ship for sailors from other ships completing the inactivation process, until
herself decommissioned on 16 May 1947. After eight years in reserve, Amick
was loaned to Japan on 14 June 1955 under the terms of the Mutual Defense
Assistance Program. She served in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force as
Asahi (DE-262) until returned to the Navy early in 1975. On 6 January 1975,
she was reclassified a frigate and redesignated FF-168. Not long thereafter,
she was determined to be unfit for further service, and her name was struck
from the Navy list on 15 June 1975. She was sold to the Republic of the
Philippines in September of 1976.
|
|
USS Atherton (DE 169) - in USN service
(1943-45)
USS Atherton (DE-169):
Namesake:
John McDougal Atherton - born in Harrods
Creek, Kentucky, on 3 August 1918 - graduated from Harvard in 1940 and
enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 28 June 1940. He served on board Wyoming
(BB-32), where he received his initial training, until August. His enlistment
was terminated on 15 September so that he could accept an appointment the
next day as a midshipman at the Naval Reserve Midshipman School located at
Northwestern University in Evanston, 111. On 12 December 1940, Atherton took
the oath of office as an ensign in the Naval Reserve. He was released from
active duty on the 13th.
On 3 February 1941, Ens. Atherton reported for duty in conjunction with the
outfitting of the destroyer Meredith (DD-434) at the Boston Navy Yard. He
served in that warship for the remainder of his brief naval career. Meredith
went into commission on 1 March, and Atherton served in her while she carried
out patrols in the Atlantic Ocean. Even after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor on 7 December, Atherton's ship continued to operate in the Atlantic,
escorting convoys and prosecuting the war against U-boats. On 18 February
1942, however, his destroyer departed Boston in company with Washington (BB-56)
and shaped a course for Norfolk. There, the two warships joined a task force
built around carrier Hornet (CV-8).
The force, designated TF 18, stood out of Chesapeake Bay on 4 March and
embarked upon a long and famous voyage. Steaming by way of the Panama Canal
and San Diego, TF 18 entered the Golden Gate on 20 March and moored at San
Francisco, where Hornet loaded 16 Army B-25 medium bombers and embarked 70
officers and 64 enlisted men under the command of Lt. Col. James H.
Doolittle. Ens. Atherton sailed with his ship in the screen of TF 18 on 2
April. The Hornet force rendezvoused with Enterprise near Midway Island 11
days later, and the combined force, TF 16, headed toward Japan. Discovery by
a Japanese surveillance trawler on the morning of 18 April, about 600 miles
from Japan and some 200 miles short of the intended launch point, forced the
Tokyo raiders to take off from Hornet earlier than planned and execute the
raid from extreme range. Though it accomplished little from a military
standpoint, the raid provided the Americans with an enormous morale boost
during their darkest period of the war.
Atherton returned to Pearl Harbor in Meredith on 25 April, but he and his
ship put to sea five days later in the Enterprise task force in the attempt
to reinforce Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher's TF 17 before it engaged
Japanese carriers in the Battle of the Coral Sea, an effort that was both
unsuccessful and, mercifully, not absolutely necessary. Not only did
Atherton's task force miss the battle, but his ship was detached from the
force on 13 May to escort Cimarron (AO-22) and Sabine (AO-25) to New
Caledonia. After seeing the two oilers safely into Noumea, Atherton's
destroyer patrolled off the entrance to the harbor, Bulari Passage. On 15
June 1942 while serving on patrol duty at Noumea, he was promoted to
lieutenant (junior grade). The Bulari Passage assignment lasted until 21 June
when Meredith departed New Caledonia in the screen of Tangier (AV-8) and
shaped a course for Hawaii. After stops at Fiji and Samoa, his ship arrived
back at Oahu on Independence Day 1942.
Between early July and the middle of August, Lt. (jg.) Atherton's destroyer
carried out patrols and drills in the Hawaiian Islands. On 15 August, he left
Pearl Harbor in Meredith, escorting a convoy bound for the southwestern
Pacific. After a two-week voyage that took Atherton by way of Suva in the
Fiji Islands and Tongatabu in the Friendly Islands, his ship arrived at Pago
Pago, Samoa, on 30 August. Early in September, he sailed in Meredith when she
escorted a convoy of transports from Samoa to Tongatabu. From there, his ship
steamed to Espi-ritu Santo in the New Hebrides where the destroyer began duty
screening convoys carrying supplies and reinforcements to Guadalcanal in the
southern Solomons.
Lt. (jg.) Atherton and his ship completed one such mission in late September
and embarked upon another on 12 October. Two days out of Espiritu Santo,
Meredith's task unit received orders to return to port because of strong
enemy forces operating in the vicinity of Guadalcanal. The next morning,
planes from Zuikaku jumped Atherton's ship and sank her after a fierce but
unequal struggle. Of the more than 200 on board Meredith, only seven officers
and 56 enlisted men survived the combat and the subsequent ordeal in the
water after the warship sank. Lt. (jg.) Atherton was not among them.
-
History (USN service):
USS Atherton (DE-169) was laid down on 14 January 1943 at Newark, N.J., by
the Federal Drydock & Shipbuilding Co.; launched on27 May 1943; sponsored
by Mrs. Cornelia A. Atherton, the mother of Lt. (jg.) Atherton; completed at
the Norfolk Navy Yard; and commissioned there on 29 August 1943, Lt. Comdr.
Paul L. Mansell, Jr., USNR, in command.
Atherton began shakedown in September. During this time, conducted exercises
in Chesapeake Bay and made two cruises to Bermuda. On 13 November, she got
underway for Puerto Rico. Upon her arrival there, the destroyer escort
assumed antisubmarine warfare (ASW) patrol duties in waters between St.
Croix, Virgin Islands, and the Anegada Passage. On 24 November, she attacked
a submarine contact, but observed no evidence of damage. The ship was
relieved three days later and returned to Norfolk on 30 November. There, she
began making daily cruises in Chesapeake Bay to train prospective crew
members for destroyer escorts. Atherton left Norfolk on 11 December to escort
a convoy bound for the Panama Canal but was back in Hampton Roads on 27
December.
From January 1944 to May 1945, Atherton operated under the control of Task Force
62 on escort duty for transatlantic convoys. She escorted convoys from
Norfolk and New York City to various ports in the Mediterranean. These ports
included Casablanca, Morocco; Bizerte, Tunisia; and Oran, Algeria. Atherton
periodically reported to the Boston Navy Yard for overhaul. On 9 May 1945,
while en route from New York to Boston, Atherton encountered a U-boat. After
four depth charge attacks, pieces of broken wood, cork, mattresses, and an
oil slick broke the surface. Atherton, in conjunction with Moberly (PF-63),
was later credited with destroying the German submarine U-853.
On 28 May, Atherton sailed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She arrived on 1 June
and held a week of exercises with Escort Division 13 before sailing on 6 June
for the Pacific. Proceeding via the Panama Canal and San Diego, Atherton
arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 June. There, the ship underwent a tender
availability and carried out a series of exercises before getting underway on
15 July for the Marianas. She reached Saipan on 26 July and conducted
antisubmarine patrols off Saipan. On 5 August, she got underway for Ulithi,
where she operated on picket station until 18 August. Between 19 August and
16 September, Atherton made two round-trip voyages escorting convoys to
Okinawa. She was then assigned to rescue station duties out of Saipan which
lasted through the end of the war.
On 1 November, Atherton headed back toward the United States. After stops at
Pearl Harbor and San Diego, she transited the Panama Canal and arrived at
Jacksonville, Fla., in December. On 10 December 1945, she was decommissioned
and placed in reserve at Green Cove Springs, Fla. On 14 June 1955, Atherton
was transferred to Japan; and, her name was struck from the Navy list.
Atherton was awarded one battle star for her World War II service.
-
DE 263 JDS Hatsuhi - Japan Maritime Self
defense Force (1955-75)
PF-11 BRP Rajah Humabon - Philippine Navy (1976 - still in service)
|
