 USSSouthard (DD-207) underway on 20 April 1932. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Namesake | Samuel L. Southard |
| Builder | William Cramp & Sons,Philadelphia |
| Yard number | 473 |
| Laid down | 18 August 1918 |
| Launched | 31 March 1919 |
| Commissioned | 24 September 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 7 February 1922 |
| Recommissioned | 6 January 1930 |
| Reclassified | Destroyer minesweeper, DMS-10, 19 October 1940 |
| Decommissioned | 5 December 1945 |
| Stricken | 8 January 1946 |
| Honors & awards |  10 ×battle stars |
| Fate |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Clemson-classdestroyer |
| Displacement | 1,215 tons |
| Length | 314 ft4+1⁄2 in (95.82 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft11+1⁄2 in (9.741 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 4 in (2.84 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 35 kn (65 km/h) |
| Range | 4,900nm @ 15 kn (9,100 km at 28 km/h) |
| Complement | 122 officers and enlisted |
| Armament | 4 ×4 in (100 mm) guns, 1 ×3 in (76 mm) gun, 12 ×21-inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes |
USSSouthard (DD-207/DMS-10) was aClemson-classdestroyer in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II. She was the second Navy ship named forSecretary of the NavySamuel L. Southard (1787–1842).
Southard waslaid down on 18 August 1918 atPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania, byWilliam Cramp & Sons;launched on 31 March 1919, sponsored by Miss Francesca Lewis Steward; and wascommissioned on 24 September 1919.
During the early fall of 1919,Southard completedfitting-out and steamed for theFlorida coast forshakedown. She next headed forNew York City to join six other destroyers in escorting the BritishbattlecruiserRenown out to sea as that warship departed carryingEdward, thePrince of Wales, after his visit to theUnited States. On 19 November 1919,Southard departedNewport, Rhode Island, for duty with U.S. naval forces in the easternMediterranean. For about a year, she operated in theAdriatic Sea. She then departed theDalmatian coast, transited theSuez Canal, and, after calling at ports inEgypt,Arabia,India, andChina, put in atCavite in thePhilippines on 16 February 1921.Southard underwent repairs atCavite Navy Yard until 21 March 1921, when she resumed operations. On 27 August 1922, she departed for the United States, and she arrived inSan Francisco,California, on 2 October 1921. From there, she moved on toSan Diego, California, where she wasdecommissioned on 7 February 1922.
After almost seven years in reserve,Southard was recommissioned on 6 January 1930. She operated off theUnited States West Coast throughout 1930 and in the vicinity of thePanama Canal during the first months of 1931. For the next nine years,Southard continued operations in thePacific Ocean with theBattle Force. The only exceptions to this schedule came in 1934 and 1939, when she made short cruises in theAtlantic Ocean. In 1940, she was converted to adestroyer minesweeper, and accordingly on 19 October 1940 she was reclassifiedDMS-10.
Stationed atPearl Harbor,Hawaii,Southard departed that base on 5 December 1941 to participate in exercises in the vicinity ofJohnston Island.Southard was still at sea whenWorld War II broke out in the Pacific on 7 December 1941 with theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 9 December 1941, and thereafter patrolled the approaches to Pearl Harbor until 23 January 1942.
After escorting aconvoy to San Francisco and back,Southard resumed patrols in Hawaiian waters on 15 February 1942. On 20 May 1942, she again left Pearl Harbor in the screen of an eastbound convoy. The ships reached San Francisco on the 31 May 1942, andSouthard spent the next 10 days undergoing limited repairs in theMare Island Navy Yard. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 1 July 1942. On 10 July 1942, she stood out for theSouth Pacific.
Stopping along the way at bothBritish Samoa andAmerican Samoa,Southard arrived atTongatapu,Tonga, on 22 July 1942. She departed on 25 July 1942, stopped atEfate Island in theNew Hebrides, and madeGuadalcanal by 7 August 1942, the first day of theGuadalcanal campaign.Southard participated in the opening bombardment ofFlorida Island, then joined theminesweeping force in a sweep to the south ofGavutu Island and throughLengo Channel. On 8 August, about 20 Japanese high-altitudebombers attacked thetransport area, andSouthard succeeded in shooting down at least one Japanese plane.
When the beachhead on Guadalcanal had been successfully established,Southard settled down to a routine of screening convoys fromNew Caledonia and the New Hebrides to theSolomon Islands. For almost eight months, she steamed back and forth betweenEspiritu Santo, Efate,Nouméa,Tulagi,Purvis Bay, and Guadalcanal. There were frequent Japanese air attacks, and Japanesesubmarines prowled the sea lanes.
Early on the morning of 10 November 1942, while passing betweenSan Cristobal and Guadalcanal en route toAola Bay on Guadalcanal,Southard encountered the JapanesesubmarineI-172 operating on the surface. She immediately slowed to 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and opened fire.I-172 submerged, andSouthard commenced her firstdepth-charge attack.Southard lost contact withI-172 and did not regain it again until 06:07, almost three and one-half hours later. Over the next three hoursSouthard made five more depth-charge runs. After the last barrage, she sighted oil on the surface. She moved in to investigate. Upon reaching the oil slick,Southard's crew could find no further evidence of damage, and she steamed on through the slick. When she reached a point about 2,000 yards (1,830 m) on the other side of the slick, the submarine surfaced almost vertically, exposing her wholeconning tower, herhull forward of the tower, and part of herkeel. Then the bow dropped about 10 degrees, and the submarine sank rapidly by the stern. Though absolute confirmation of a kill was never received, all evidence strongly indicated that the submarine had indeed sunk.
Following a liberty and recreation excursion toBrisbane,Australia, and six days indrydock atSydney, Australia,Southard returned to patrol and convoy duty in early January 1943. On 20 March 1943, she stood out of Nouméa in company with the destroyersHovey andStringham and thefleet tugSonoma, which wastowing the destroyerAulick. This task unit stopped atSuva Harbor inFiji on 25 March 1943 and departed the next day to continue on toPago Pago, Pearl Harbor, and ultimately San Francisco.Southard entered the Mare Island Navy Yard on 19 April 1943 and remained there until 8 June 1943. By 15 June 1943, she was in Pearl Harbor again, and on 24 June 1943 she headed back toward the South Pacific. She reachedDumbéa Bay, New Caledonia, on 6 July 1943.
Her return to theSouthwest Pacific meant a resumption of patrol and convoy escort duty to support the continuingSolomon Islands campaign. which by this time had progressed farther north. On 30 October 1943, she joined a convoy offTetere Point, Guadalcanal, and steamed forBougainville. The convoy arrived offCape Torokina on 31 October 1943, andSouthard joined other elements of the fleet in bombarding Bougainville. On 1 November 1943, U.S. troops landed on the island, beginning theBougainville campaign. After minesweeping operations inEmpress Augusta Bay, she made forFlorida Island, enteringPurvis Bay on 3 November 1943. On 7 November 1943, she returned to Bougainville to investigate theshoals along the approaches to Empress Augusta Bay. Then she resumed patrols off Guadalcanal.
These patrols and cruises with convoys occupiedSouthard's time until 21 November 1943, when she passed through Lengo Channel bound for Nouméa. From 25 November to 16 December 1943,Southard stayed in the vicinity of New Caledonia, participating in drills and screening ships coming into and out of Nouméa. On 17 December 1943, she entered Suva Harbor with a convoy. On 19 December 1943, she got underway for Guadalcanal.
Upon her return to the Solomons, she took up the familiar routine of patrols and screening supply ships. On 22 January 1944, while she en route from Florida Island to Espiritu Santo escorting theoilerCache, a Japanese submarine torpedoed theCache.Cache was damaged andSouthard covered her retirement to Espiritu Santo.
In late February 1944,Southard visitedAuckland,New Zealand. She returned to the Solomons in March 1944, patrolled the Guadalcanal area, and conducted exercises in theRussell Islands. Her field of operations was expanded in April and May 1944 to include parts of theBismarck Archipelago as she began escorting convoys toBorgen Bay onNew Britain. By 10 May 1944, she was back in Espiritu Santo. On 17 May 1944, she departed for the United States and an overhaul. She took on fuel atFunafuti on 19 May 1944, provisioned and fueled at Pearl Harbor on the 24 and 25 May 1944, and enteredSan Francisco Bay on 31 May 1944.Southard commenced overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 1 June 1944.
After the completion of her overhaul,Southard arrived at Pearl Harbor on 5 August 1944. On 12 August 1944, she sortied as part of atask group which also included sixescort aircraft carriers and five other destroyer-type ships, bound for the Solomons. On 24 August 1944, the task group entered Purvis Bay.Southard stood out again on 25 August 1944 for exercises in the Russell Islands.
On 4 September 1944,Southard rendezvoused with atask force off Guadalcanal, arrived in thePalau Islands on 12 September 1944, and sweptmines off the coasts ofPeleliu andAngaur in preparation for theinvasion of Peleliu on 15 September 1944 andof Angaur on 17 September 1944. On 24 September 1944, she fueled and replenished atManus in the Admiralty Islands, then returned to the Palaus for patrols and screening duties. She reenteredSeeadler Harbor on 4 October 1944 to prepare for theinvasion of the Philippines atLeyte.
Southard sortied from Manus with theDinagat Attack Force on 10 October 1944 and began sweepingLeyte Gulf on the 18 October 1944. She swept mines in the gulf again on the 19 October and made an exploratory sweep ofSurigao Strait on the 20 October. On 24 October, when theBattle of Leyte Gulf began, she joined the screen of Carrier Task Group 77.4 and remained so employed until the 26 October 1944. Back in Seeadler Harbor by 30 October 1944,Southard spent all of November and most of December 1944 engaged in drills and undergoing repairs at Manus.
On 27 December 1944,Southard rendezvoused with Task Group 77.6 and headed for Leyte Gulf. From there, the task group moved on toLuzon and theLingayen assault.
Southard began minesweeping operations inLingayen Gulf on 6 January 1945. Late that afternoon she was attacked by Japanesekamikaze aircraft, and one of them crashed intoSouthard abaft her stacks. The plane's engine embedded itself in the ship while itsfuselage ricocheted off herstarboard side, tearing a trough 6 feet (1.8 m) wide in her deck as it went.Southard quickly cut loose her sweep gear and retired to make emergency repairs. Within 14 hours, she was back in action sweeping mines. She continued operations for five more days before departing theLingayen area. She returned toSan Pedro Bay between Leyte andSamar on 14 January 1945 for further repairs.
On 4 February 1945,Southard headed east toward Hawaii. She stopped atUlithi Atoll on 6 February 1945 and atGuam on 8 February 1945. She departed theMariana Islands on 13 February 1945 and continued to Pearl Harbor, where she underwent extensive repairs. She did not leave Hawaiian waters until 4 May 1945. She stopped atEniwetok on the 12 May 1945, then, in company with theattack transportsClinton andBuckingham, continued on to the Marianas. On 21 May 1945, she steamed fromGuam toSaipan and, on 23 May 1945, got underway forOkinawa, where theBattle of Okinawa had been raging since 1 April 1945.
On the day of her arrival atNakagusuku Bay (also known as Buckner Bay) at Okinawa,Southard almost suffered another suicide crash as an attackingkamikaze hit the sea about 15 yards (14 m) ahead of her. For the next three months, she swept mines, screened transports, and delivered mail to the fire support units around Okinawa. On 15 August 1945, hostilities between the United States and theJapanese Empire ceased.
Southard remained in theRyukyu Islands for the rest of August 1945, undergoing inspection and survey. By 15 September 1945, the survey team determined that she should be moved to the rear area for further inspection and repair. However, on 17 September 1945, while maneuvering atanchor duringTyphoon Ida, herscrews were fouled by a driftingantisubmarine net, and she grounded on a pinnaclereef offTsuken Shima, an island a few miles east of southern Okinawa. She was floated clear of the reef, and her propellers were cleared by divers on 18 September 1945.
While still waiting to move to the rear area,Southard was wrecked on another reef about 1,000 yards (910 m) southwest of Tsuken Shima on 9 October 1945 duringTyphoon Louise. On 10 October 1945, herofficers and crew, save thecommanding officer and a skeleton crew, were removed.
Southard was declared atotal loss, and on 5 December 1945 she wasdecommissioned. She was struck from theNavy list on 8 January 1946. A demolition crew destroyed her wreck on 14 January 1946.
American Defense Service Medal with "FLEET" clasp
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 10battle stars
World War II Victory MedalDuring the Okinawa campaign, after May 1945,Herman Wouk, author ofThe Caine Mutiny, served aboardSouthard as herexecutive officer. Like the protagonist of his novel, he had been recommended to commandSouthard on her voyage home before she was wrecked on 9 October 1945. He also named a minor character in the novel afterSouthard. Other parts of the novel are loosely based on Wouk's earlier experiences from 1943 to 1945 as alieutenant aboardUSS Zane (DMS-14), anotherClemson-class destroyer minesweeper that had duty in theMarshall Islands and the Mariana Islands like Wouk's fictional ship USSCaine.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in October 1945 | |
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