Dashiell (DD 659) - Naval Cruise Book

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the fury of America's carrier-based air power. Then the unexpected, the incredible, the impossible happened. On the night of the 10th word was received that Japan was prepared to accept the surrender terms of the Potsdam Conference. It's hard to celebrate on a small destroyer steam- ing under a wartime condition of readiness. There are no chorus girls, no ticker tape, no champagne. But even on a destroyer you can feel your heart swell up with joy and thankfulness till you think it's going to burst. And right then, on the night of 10 August, that was all the cele- bration that three hundred men on the U. S. S. DASHIELL wanted to ask for. - On 13 August, while the negotiations were still going on, there was another strike on the Tokyo plains area - just to let the Japanese know we meant business. It was not unopposed, either, for during the day twenty enemy planes were shot down by the Force's combat air patrol. There was a further strike on the 15th, but just as the planes had the enemy coast in sight news was received that the surrender had been consummated, and all were recalled. During the next weeks the 3659 cruised off the homeland with her task group. A landing force and a prize crew were organized but neither was used. On the 27th the DASHIELL and the Murray were detached to accept the surrender of an enemy submarine which was re- ported surfaced and flying a black flag. With the 3659 standing by to cover her, the Murray placed a prize crew on the sub which mustered the Japanese on deck and replaced the black flag with the U. S. colors. The DASHIELL then rejoined her group, and the Murray escorted the underseas craft to port. The climax to the U. S. S. DASHIELUS wartime career came on 6 September when the ship sailed proudly past graceful Fujiyama, past the unmanned shore batteries, past Yokosuka Naval Base, and anchored off Yokohoma in Tokyo Bay itself. H That evening she was again under- way. The war was over. The DASHIELL was going home. Gun watch- es were secured, and at night the running lights were turned onhand the ship's company saw movies on deck. Yes, the war was over. After a stop in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, where she took ab r ninety sailors eligible for discharge, the '6659 , streaming her 245-foot home- ward-bound pennant, reached Pearl Harbor on 20 September. Here her last change of command took place when Commander Cordiner was relieved by Lieutenant-Commander John E. Wicks, Jr., USN. The new 6 A f'

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G all X ,-5 1 sweep along the coast of northern Japan. At 2300 the vessels formed in column and commenced the sweep on a northerly course from a point seven miles off Honshu at Latitude 390 N. Fires left by earlier battle- ship bombardments were still plainly visible. No enemy contacts were made during the run, and at 0145 after passing Latitude 400 N. the Task Group proceeded to rejoin Task Force 38. Q Strikes against the Kure-Kobe area were launched on 24, 25, and 28 July. The month was brought to a spectacular close by Destroyer-Squad- ron 25. On the night of 30-31 .luly these ships made the deepest and most daring penetration of the Japanese homeland effected by surface vessels during the war. At 2200 on the 30th the seven destroyers en- tered Suruga Wan with the task of destroying shipping and bomharding the city of Shimizu. There was a full moon that night which intermitt- ently played its beam from behind the scattered clouds like a giant search- light. An eerie green phosphorescence streamed aft from the bows of the trim, swift-maneuvering ships. Surely they would be spotted by the enemy. Where were the shore batteries? The planes? The suicide craft? On the way in, a small picket boat was contacted but was left un- molested. DesRon 25 had more grandiose plans for announcing its presence. Deep into the bay the destroyers went, following the shore past Shimizu, where they were only 6000 yards from land. At three minutes past midnight they began an intense four-minute rapid Ere bombardment of the city's aluminum, plants and railroad yards. Simul- taneously a ship was picked up within a half mile of the reported posi- tion of a 2000-ton cargo vessel. Her guns still blazing, the DASH- IELL fired two torpedoes at the new target. At the time and place it was computed the torpedoes would hit, three men in main battery con- trol reported ilashes followed by a red glow. Meanwhile 150 rounds of 5 ammunition had been expended without casualty and been observ- ed to cause large fires. During the Squadron's flank speed retirement the flagship disposed of the picket boat that had been contacted earlier. At 0100 the destroy- ers stood out of Suruga Wan - safe, intact, and making thirty-two knots. It was a glorious feeling. Owing to heavy weather, further air strikes were postponed until 9 and 10 August, when Hokkaido and Northern Honshu once again felt iv-KN. f

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Captain, who had previously commanded another iighting'PaciIic destroyf er, would take the DASHIELI. on her triumphant return to the States. In company with her Division and three carriers the 659 left Pearl on 1 October and passed through the Canal on the 14th. Two hec4 tic days were spent in the incredible city of Colon. Then came the last leg of the voyage, and on 21 October the DASHIELI.. moored in Char- leston, S. C. Her Navy Day port was Wilmington, N. C., where she af- forded great interest to thousands of visitors and was honored by the presence of her gracious sponsor, Mrs. Robert B. Dashiell, who was ac- companied by her daughter, Mrs. Thomas Catch, for the festivities on the 27th. Shortly afterwards, her complement already cut to peacetime size, the ship returned to Charleston for honorable retirement to the fleet reserve. Each of the hundreds who have served aboard the 659 has at some time wished he might be reassigned to the Atlantic or to a shore station. But now that the guns are silenced and the smoke of battle has cleared there is not a man of her company who is not glad and proud to have served on this gallant vessel under the most trying conditions and through the bitterest fighting of the war. The DASHIELIIS crew have stood together for a common cause againts common danger-against suicide planes, coastal batteries, ty- phoons. They have been to sea for months at a time, months of scorch- ing heat, numbing routine, and ever impending threat of attack. And what respite was there from the confining decks and bulkheads of a small steel ship? Two cans of warm beer per man on a sun-baked, Cod- forsaken atoll. These are the things that breed an association which is deeper, more lasting even than friendship. The DASHIELI.. may crumble away in 'cRed Lead Rowv. We prayerfully hope that her guns will never again be called upon to bring order to a world gone mad. It is not in steel and rivets that the 659 will be perpetuated. It is in the hearts of the men who have sailed her and fought her. And in the hearts of their sons. And of the sons of their sons. ' Now the log of the UNITED STATES SHIP DASHIELL is written. Her tale is told. End of cruzse. Dashzell passes River Bridge, approaching