Blue (DD 744) - Naval Cruise Book

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Okino Daito Shima and Minami Daito Shima and shot down several Jap planes. The aircraft were all suicide planes, the type which sank or damaged over two hun- dred ships of the fleet. The Okinawa Campaign ended for the Blue on june S. a day in which the task force had retired southeast of Okinawa to refuel from tankers. It was during that day that twenty-one of the ships were damaged in a devastat- ing typhoon. The Blue was one of the ships damaged. An- other was the cruiser Pittsburghg she lost her entire bow. The Blue was ordered to escort the tug which towed the Pittsburghis bow to Guam. After a week with the Suburb of Pittsburgh, towed at a speed of only three knots, the Blue was relieved by another destroyer so that she could proceed to Leyte Gulf for repairs. A destroyer tender in Leyte Gulf repaired the storm damage to the ship in time for her to get underway with the Third Fleet on july 1 for the final naval operation of the war. The men aboard the ship did not realize then that the next port which they were to enter would be Tokyo Bay. During july and August the carrier groups launched continual strikes against the home islands of the japanese Empire, particularly Honshu and Hokkaido. For these operations T. li. 38 was joined by carriers, battle- ships, cruisers, and destroyers of the British Pacific lileet. On july 22, by orders of Admiral Halsey, Di.sitos. 61 was temporarily detached from its duty of screening the carriers. The squadron was directed to make a high speed anti-shipping sweep into Sagami Wgiti, the entrance to Tokyo Bay. Wliile entering the W.1n in column at thirty knots, the ships spotted a ,lap convoy shortly be- fore midnight and immediately opened fire with torpedoes and five-inch guns. The Blue was credited with assisting in the sinking of three Llap ships in this engagement. HDIESRON 61 was the first group of surface vessels to penetrate the mouth of the dragon. Other units followed to bombard lslonshu with sixteen- inch guns, the B-29's and carrier planes continued to rain death on the homeland night and dayg Russia declared war on japan: the atomic bombs were dropped: and as a result the enemy sued for peace on August IS. At that time the Third Fleet was operating about one hundred miles from Tokyo, off the coast of Honshu. ,lap armies, and ships, and planes began surrendering to the forces of the United States. On August 27, the largest submarine in the world, the japanese l-400, surrendered to the Blue south of Hokkaido. The prile crew from the ship which went aboard the sub to take it into port found that the l-400 carried three seaplanes in addition to her full com- plement of torpedoes and anti-aircraft guns. The ship was proud that one of her last acts in the war was the capture of the enemy's largest underseas monster. The following week she steamed into Tokyo Bay on V-J Day. September 2, 1945, after being at sea for sixty-three consecutive days. The ship was anchored only a thousand yards from the battleship Missouri aboard which the surrender was signed. During the ceremony, an armada of army and navy planes, in a spectacular display of air power, flew over the mass of Allied ships anchored in the bay. -A After V-I Day, the ship moved into the large Jap naval base at Yokosuka. Two weeks there gave the crew . . y 7 d time to visit Yokohama, Hokosuka, and Tokyo, an pro- cure many ,lapanese souvenirs for themselves. Then the long awaited trip back home began with the carrier Ticonderoga, the cruiser Tucson, and the destroyer Mad- dox. On October S. 1945, the group steamed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The ship stayed in San Francisco until after Navy Day. October 27, when she moved to Bremerton, Washingtoii, the overhaul that this book was compiled. lt was published in Seattle, in january, 1946, when the ship was twenty-two months for overhaul in the navy yard. It was during old. During those months she has had two commanding officers, Captain Lot Ensey, USN Qpictured on the leftj , who was skipper from commissioning until May, 1945, ictured on the and Commander Louis A. Bryan, USN fp rightj , who relieved Captain Ensey and was still in com- mand at the time of the publication of this book. ln january, the ship was under orders to return to the Wiestern Pacific for peacetime patrol duty, presumably on the China Station based in Shanghai. She returned to foreign duty with a great war record. She is credited with sinking three enemy ships, shooting down four enemy planes, capturing an enemy submarine, participating in two shore bombardments, sinking eleven enemy mines, and rescuing eighteen carrier pilots and air crewmen from the sea. She has earned the American Theater Ribbon, the Pacific Theater Ribbon with six battle stars, the Philip- pine Liberation Ribbon with one star, and the World War ll Victory Ribbon. Thus, these two pages of narrative have told the his- tory of the ship in wordsg the other pages of the book tell the story in pictures. Five pages, however, contain neither a narrative nor pictures, but they tell far more than either. Those pages contain the names of all the offi- cers and men who have served aboard the ship from the time of her commissioning in 1944 to the publishing of this book in 1946. On the Blue, as on any other ship, it is the men who sail the ship that make her what she is. lt is not the steel and iron which make the ship, but the men's thoughts, and sweat, and ideals, and courage, and pride. They make the ship, they are the ship. t. L. , USN Capt. L. A. Bryan, USN Cap Ensey

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'Ilflli U. Se S. llllllf N NOVEMBEIK 30, 1943, the AGL destroyer Blue was launched in ' ,' the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard, Staten Island, New York. She went into commission on March 20, 1944, in the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, with nineteen officers and 335 enlisted men aboard. QQQ The Blue was one of the first 2,200 ton super-destroyers to be commissioned in the navy, and was named after the 1,500 ton U. S. S. Blue fDD387j , which was sunk in the Solomon Islands Campaign in 1943. The first Blue was named in honor of the late Admiral Victor Blue and his son, Lieutenant-Commander john Stuart Blue, who was killed in action in the South Pacific. In April, the Blue went to Bermuda for a month shake- down cruise, after which she returned to New York for alterations. On july 6, she left New York for Norfolk, Virginia. There she joined another destroyer, a destroyer- escort, and the aircraft carrier Ranger, with whom she steamed to Pearl Harbor, by way of the Panama Canal. The ship was in the Canal Zone two days. Upon leaving Panama, during the morning of july 16, she entered Pacific waters and steered a course for San Diego. After three days in port at San Diego, she departed from the United States bound for the combat areas of the Wfestern Pacific. The date was july 28, 1944. The first stop out of the states was Pearl Harbor. There the Blue left the Ranger 1nd proceeded in company w ith three other carriers the Intrepid Enterprise ind Inde pendence to Eniw etok Atoll which w is the fleet anchor age at that time At Enrw etok the Blue joined the h heing umts of the fleet in the powerful eurier Task Force 58 with whom she Operated during the rem rinin., tw elye months of the war Task Force SS Qand rlternitely T F 35 when Ad miral Halsey w as present is Comm inder Third Fleetj w as composed of the new est and fistest ships in the United Hornet YVasp Intrepid Bunker Hill Essex Iexington Franklin Randolph and Treonderoga the battleships New ersey Iow 1 Missouri Wfrsconsin Massachusetts Alabama, Wasliinvton md South Dakota plus dozens of cruisers, and more than one hundred destroy ers Three days after Task Force 58 sor tied from Eniw etok rt crossed the equator Neptunus Rex and his trusty shellbacks initiated many lowly pollyw ogs w hile the ships were in his roy al domain of Latitude 00 00 degrees 1 IDI, 744 e Thus, it was a salty group which turned northward the next day to launch the initial assaults on Palau and the Philippines. The opening of the Philippine Campaign in September, 1944, was the beginning of combat experi- ence for the Blue. After a month of striking the Japs in the Philippine Sea, the ship was temporarily detached from the task force for special duty trips to Guam, Eniwetok, Saipan, and Ulithi. Ulithi, in the West Caroline Island, became the fleet anchorage and was used as such for seven months. There, in October, the Blue joined the eight other de- stroyers of her squadron, UDESRON 61. Destroyer Squadron Sixty-One was assigned to Task Force 38lf58 for duty in November, 1944. That month, and the month following, the task force launched re- peated air strikes against Luzon and Formosa in support of the Philippine invasions. On December 19, off Luzon, the ships were caught in a violent typhoon in which three destroyers, the I-Iull, Spence, and Monaghan were sunk. The Blue was so badly damaged that she had to return to Ulithi for repairs. The ship was ready for sea early in January, in time for the Third Fleet's daring thrust into the South china Sea. The fleet steamed through the Bashi Channel, be- tween Luzon and Formosa, and turned southward to strike shipping and military installations along the French Indo-China Coast. These strikes were followed by air attacks on I-Iong Kong and Canton but further air opera tions w ere halted by adverse weather conditions In the center of the South China Sea the fleet w as caught again in a ty phoon In this storm the Blue was damaged worse than before so she limped through the Mindoro Surrgao Straits in the Philippines back to Ulithi for more re pairs After tw o w eeks alongside a destroyer render rn Ulithi, the ship was ready for action again She got underway with Task Force 58 in February to conduct the First and strikes for the my asion of Iwo Jima The task force pro y ided air coy er for the marines on Iwo until the beginning of March at which time the ships returned to Ulithi to prepare themselves for one of the most difficult battles in which the nay y has ey er fought 1 e the Okinawa Cam paign The Blue participated in the Okmaw a Campaign from Nfarch 15 to June 5 In support of the invasion and cap ture of Okinaw a the Blue fired shore bombardments on ' . 1 K ' L '3 i r 1' 'I . s ' I ' n K . 1 -X . . I. Q 1 - 7 f 0 a i I v Q I i 'L . '- i a I i s 1 1 . M 1 - 7 0 7 'Q --In t ' - n Q ri r 3 3 ' .' A. . I 1. . O Y Y I L K. . . . K 4 . - . Q y 7 y -. - 1 1 ' ' i S A rc 1 A a ' an is i V 7 . I . 1' , , , . ' . . Y 1 L 1 1 1 Y 'J ' 7 States Navy, a few of which were the fighting Ladies' Second Carrier Attacks on Japan, which were supporting v 3 1 I i 5 -'w -1 -I. S w I Y V ' - . , . , . a ' g. g ' ' 5 J a V ,,,, j 7 . . . . . 7 4 7 5 3 I 7 S . . . g , 1 . ' 1 g . 1 -3 7 'E' Y i 7 7 7 , l. ', i - I A C T 3 I F - Y T' . i ' i t 7 r 1 V7 r r ' ' I li l l . - . . V . 1 . - . 7 . . . D . ,

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Action port Nlght shorc bombardment The Blue in !lCti0Il