_off_the_Mare_Island_Naval_Shipyard_on_15_May_1945_(19-N-86023).jpg) | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSWilliam C. Miller |
| Builder | Boston Navy Yard |
| Laid down | 10 January 1943 |
| Launched | 22 February 1943 |
| Commissioned | 2 July 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 17 December 1945 |
| Stricken | 8 January 1946 |
| Honors and awards | 7battle stars (World War II) |
| Fate | Sold for scrapping, 10 April 1947 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Evarts-classdestroyer escort |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | |
| Beam | 35 ft 2 in (10.72 m) |
| Draft | 11 ft (3.4 m) (max) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 19knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
| Range | 4,150 nmi (7,690 km) |
| Complement | 15 officers and 183 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USSWilliam C. Miller (DE-259) was anEvarts-classdestroyer escort constructed for theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II. She was sent off into thePacific Ocean to protectconvoys and other ships fromJapanesesubmarines and fighteraircraft. She performed escort andanti-submarine operations in dangerous battle areas and returned home with sevenbattle stars, a very high number for a ship of her type.
William Cicero Miller was born on 18 July 1919 inThomasville, North Carolina. He enlisted in the Navy as an apprentice seaman atRaleigh, North Carolina, on 20 October 1937. After instruction at the Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Va., Miller was advanced to the rate of seaman 2d class on 21 February 1938 and joined Scouting Squadron 6, attached to the aircraft carrierUSS Enterprise, on 30 September of that year. He remained with VS-6 into 1941 and became the rear-seat man for Lt. Clarence E. Dickinson, Jr., around April of that year. On the morning of 7 December 1941, they both boarded their aircraft, aDouglas SBD Dauntless, for what was to be a routine scouting flight. They were under orders to proceed toFord Island and land there to refuel.Enterprise, together with the rest of Task Force 8, would return later that day.
Dickinson and Miller arrived overOahu to discover theJapaneseAttack on Pearl Harbor underway. After one of the sections had been shot down by a Japanese fighter, the commander of VS-6, Lt. Comdr. Halstead Hopping, broadcast the word that Pearl Harbor was being attacked. AttackingMitsubishi A6M Zero fighters riddled Dickinson's plane, but Miller, already wounded once, downed one and ultimately exhausted his ammunition in the defense of the aircraft until it had been set afire. Dickinson called for Miller to bail out but received no answer. Dickinson managed to get out of the falling plane; but Miller, either dead or so severely wounded that he was unable to free himself from the aircraft-remained with it until it crashed into a cane field. Miller was awarded a posthumous commendation by theCommander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet.
She was laid down on 10 January 1943 atBoston, Massachusetts, by theBoston Navy Yard; launched on 22 February 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Melvin B. Miller, the mother of the lateRadioman 3rd Class Miller; and commissioned on 2 July 1943.
William C. Miller got underway on 19 July, bound forBermuda. There, she conducted hershakedown before returning to Boston for post-shakedown availability and remained in the navy yard until 27 August, when she sailed forPanama. After transiting thePanama Canal between 1 and 3 September, the destroyer escort arrived atSan Diego, California, on the 12th and shifted toSan Francisco,California, on the 15th, before sailing forHawaii nine days later in the screen for Convoy 4796. She returned to thewest coast early in the fall but departed San Francisco on 19 October, bound for theGilbert Islands and "Operation Galvanic".
As a unit ofTask Group (TG) 54.9,5th Fleet,William C. Miller screened the ships of theTarawa garrison group and patrolled in area "Longsuit" off the invasion beaches into early December. She then guarded the entrance to thelagoon at Tarawa through the middle of the month before departing the Gilberts onChristmas Eve, bound for theHawaiian Islands.
Reaching Pearl Harbor on 30 December 1943,William C. Miller underwent upkeep alongside thedestroyer tenderBlack Hawk (AD-9) and remained in Hawaiian waters into February 1944. That year was to prove a busy one for the destroyer escort. She earned the other six of her seven battle stars in the next year and one-half operating on screening, escorting, andhunter-killer duties with convoys for the remainder of 1944. During that period,William C. Miller supported the occupation ofKwajalein andMajuro from 29 January to 8 February 1944; the capture ofEniwetok from 17 February to 2 March; the capture and occupation ofSaipan from 26 June to 10 August; and the capture and occupation ofTinian from 24 July to 10 August. It was during the Saipan screening operations, however, that the ship avenged the loss of her namesake.
At 2120 on the evening of 13 July, a patrol plane sighted a Japanesesubmarine submerging some 78 miles from Rorpgattan Point, Saipan, and reported the enemy's position. Accordingly,William C. Miller and the other members of a hunter-killer group –Gilmer (APD-11) carrying the officer in tactical command (OTC) – altered course and departed the screen for the transport area to track the submersible. At 0022 on the following day, the destroyer escort and her sisters arrived on the scene and commenced searching.
Seven hours later,William C. Miller obtainedsound contact at a range of 1,700 yards (1,600 m). The destroyer escort approached at 15 knots and dropped a 13-charge pattern at 0726. Opening the range after observing no damage, the escort vessel attacked for the second time, dropping a second pattern at 0752, once again, of 13 charges.
That pattern appears to have proved devastating toI-6. At 0804,William C. Miller noted pieces of wood popping to the surface about 500 yards (460 m) ahead, one point on thestarboard bow. One minute later, a "heavy and prolonged underwater explosion" – estimated to be about three times the shock of adepth charge explosion – shook the ship.
Shortly thereafter, observers inWilliam C. Miller noted a large "boil" in the water some 50 yards (46 m) in diameter. At 0806, the destroyer escort laid a third 13-charge pattern that apparently landed atop the submarine, completing whatever devastation had been wreaked by the second salvo.William C. Miller closed the oil slick and debris and lowered a boat to investigate. The ship soon recovered small pieces of cork insulating material; fractured wooden decking; and a fur-lined, Japanese seaman's cap. The depth charge barrage had literally torn the submarine apart. A postwar accounting creditedWilliam C. Miller with the destruction of the Japanese submarineI-6.
The Navy, in what seems to be in error gave credit to William C. Miller for sinking the I-6, but due to recent research information presented by "combinedfleet.com", it seems to have been the I-55. I-6 was sunk in a collision with the freighter TOYOKAWA MARU on 16 June 1944
After the completion of the Tinian campaign,William C. Miller departed that island on 21 August in company withIndianapolis (CA-35). The destroyer escort paused briefly at Eniwetok, in theMarshalls, on the 24th before she pushed on for the Hawaiian Islands, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 2 September.William C. Miller returned to Eniwetok at the end of October and then shifted toUlithi, in theCarolines, where she picked up Ulithi-to-Eniwetok Convoy Number 19 on 5 November. After bringing that convoy safely into port five days later,William C. Miller departed the Marshall Islands on 13 November with Eniwetok-to-Pearl Harbor Convoy Number 21. Making port at Pearl Harbor on 24 November, the destroyer escort underwent ordnance repairs at thePearl Harbor Navy Yard into the following year.
William, C. Miller sortied from Pearl Harbor on 6 February 1945, as part ofTask Unit (TU) 51.6.2 to participate in the assault and occupation ofIwo Jima between 23 February and 16 March. She returned to Pearl Harbor in early April, viaGuam and Eniwetok. The destroyer escort subsequently steamed back to the west coast and remained there, first at San Francisco and then at San Diego, until 13 June when she sailed for the Hawaiian Islands in company withCabana (DE-260).
After arriving at Pearl Harbor on 19 June,William C. Miller escorted a convoy to Eniwetok which she reached on 6 July. She soon put to sea to operate in the screen of3rd Fleet units in their operations against the Japanese home islands. She performed those duties into mid-August when hostilities with Japan ceased.
William C. Miller arrived at Ulithi on 19 August but soon sailed forTokyo Bay as part of the initial occupation forces. She arrived at Tokyo Bay on 26 August and was there at the time of the formal Japanese surrender on 2 September.
Later that month, the destroyer escort headed home, via Ulithi, Eniwetok, and Pearl Harbor, and reached San Francisco, California, on 17 October.William C. Miller was decommissioned at theMare Island Naval Shipyard on 21 December and stripped of all usable equipment. On 8 January 1946,William C. Miller was struck from theNavy List. Sold to Mr. Fred Perry ofNew York City on 10 April 1947, her hulk was subsequently scrapped on 19 November 1947.
William C. Miller received seven battle stars for her World War II service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
