USS Alden
.jpg) USS Alden (DD-211), in Chefoo, China
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USS Alden |
| Namesake | James Alden, Jr. |
| Builder | William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia |
| Yard number | 477 |
| Laid down | 24 October 1918 |
| Launched | 14 May 1919 |
| Commissioned | 24 November 1919 |
| Decommissioned | 24 January 1923 |
| Recommissioned | 8 May 1930 |
| Decommissioned | 15 July 1945 |
| Stricken | 13 August 1945 |
| Fate | Sold for scrapping 30 November 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Clemson-class destroyer |
| Displacement | 1,215 tons |
| Length | 314 ft 5 in (95.83 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft 8 in (9.65 m) |
| Draft | 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h) |
| Range | 4,900 nautical miles (9,100 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Complement | 106 officers and enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USS Alden (DD-211) was a
Construction
Alden was laid down on 24 October 1918 and
Service history
Inter War-Period
1920–23
Following shakedown training and post-shakedown repairs and alterations, Alden, subsequently her classification changed from "Destroyer No 211" to DD-211 during the fleet-wide assignment of
Alden visited
Released from duty with the United States Naval Detachment in the Adriatic soon afterwards, Alden sailed for the
Alden arrived at Cavite on 12 October, sailed to Manila two days later for a three-day liberty and recreation port visit. The ship then spent two months operating out of
Winding up her deployment in the Asiatic Fleet that summer, Alden sailed for the United States, and ultimately reached
1930–1937
Alden remained inactive through the rest of the 1920s, but was recommissioned at San Diego on 8 May 1930 and assigned to Destroyer Squadrons,
The training for each year culminated in the annual large-scale exercise, or fleet problems. Over the next few years, Alden participated in six of these. However, she did not participate in
Over the next six years, Alden, assigned initially to DesDiv 13, steamed north to China in the spring, spent the summer operating out of Chefoo, and returned to the Philippines in the fall for further exercises and upkeep at Cavite over the winter. She carried out this routine against a backdrop of rising Sino-Japanese tension. Hostility between these two Asiatic powers had flared and abated during the 1930s, and open warfare broke out in July 1937.
Since the
After hostilities broke out at Shanghai in mid-August, the ships of the Asiatic Fleet carried out a curtailed training schedule for the remainder of the summer and into the fall, chiefly standing by to assist Americans who might be affected. Alden eventually returned to the Philippines for the winter for upkeep and training..
SS President Hoover
Early on the morning of 11 December 1937, Dollar Steamship Lines' ocean liner SS President Hoover ran aground in a typhoon on Kasho-to, east of Formosa.[1] Alden and Barker, then at Manila and Olongapo Naval Station respectively, were ordered to proceed immediately to assist.[1] Due to the urgency of the situation, Alden sailed without her captain, Lieutenant Commander Stanley M. Haight, and several officers and men. A Grumman J2F Duck amphibious aircraft from the Asiatic Fleet's utility unit brought Haight out to Alden, rendezvoused with the ship and landed nearby. Sea conditions, however, precluded a boat's coming alongside the aircraft, for fear of damaging the plane's main float. Commander Haight seized the initiative and swam to one of his ship's 26-foot (7.9 m) motor whaleboats to be brought aboard his ship to resume command.
Alden resumed her voyage, struggling through heavy seas at only 12 knots (22 km/h).[1] She eventually sighted Kasho-to at 1245 on 12 December and immediately requested permission from the captain of the Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser Ashigara to enter Japanese territorial waters. Barker arrived soon afterwards, then an officer from Ashigara came aboard Alden to give his government's permission for the two destroyers to enter and assist President Hoover. By this time Hoover's 330 crew were most of the way through getting their 503 passengers and themselves ashore safely.[1] However, a few of Hoover's crew had plundered the liner's liquor store, got drunk, and once ashore started pursuing some of the women passengers.[1] Commander Haight, Ensign John H. Parker and 15 men boarded Hoover to protect valuables. Meanwhile, landing parties from both Alden and Barker went ashore to restore order.[1]
On the forenoon watch on 14 December due to the tension after the sinking of
Anchoring west of Kasho-to, Alden remained to guard President Hoover's wreck until 23 December 1937, when Japanese authorities relieved her.[1]
1938–41
The next summer, Alden, in company with her sister ships and Black Hawk, visited Haiphong, French Indochina, from 21 to 28 June 1938 before continuing up to Chefoo. With the start of World War II in September 1939, concern over the Japanese taking advantage of the preoccupation of the British and French with European affairs to extend her own sphere of influence prompted increased American vigilance to protect the lives and property of Americans in the Far East. To this end, some of the ships of the Asiatic Fleet's destroyers were rotated to duty with units such as the South China Patrol. Alden operated with this command between September and November 1939, before she returned to the Philippines.
The international climate making it dangerous to keep the Asiatic Fleet deployed to Chinese waters, Admiral Thomas C. Hart (who had relieved Admiral Yarnell as CINCAF in July 1939) withdrew it, with the exception of the river gunboats on the Yangtze and South China Patrols, to the Philippines in late 1940. There, in the waters of that archipelago, the fleet prepared for war. Alden took part in this training, interspersing it with periods of upkeep at Cavite, into the tense autumn of 1941.
Due to the continued "tense and unpredictable" situation in the Far East at that time, Admiral Hart desired to "obtain additional security from surprise attack" and reduce the possibility of the Japanese cutting off "certain of his surface forces" from British and
Alden got underway on 25 November 1941, bound for Borneo, accompanying Black Hawk, and arrived at Balikpapan on the morning of the 30th. While she lay in that port, the British Admiral
Consequently, Alden and three sister ships, as well as Black Hawk, were soon directed to proceed to
World War II
1941
Alden was en route to her destination when, at 0300 on 8 December 1941, she received word that "war has been started by Japan." At Singapore, reports of a Japanese invasion convoy standing toward British Malaya compelled Admiral Phillips to act before his reinforcements could arrive, and he cleared Singapore on the evening of 8 December with Prince of Wales and Repulse, screened by four destroyers, to seek out the enemy.
Reaching Singapore on the morning of 10 December, Alden moored at 1113, and embarked a liaison party consisting of a Royal Navy lieutenant and four signalmen at 1130. She and her sister ships were still preparing for sea as Japanese high-level and torpedo bombers, flying from bases in
Alden and her division mates subsequently entered the waters in which the battle had taken place earlier that day, looking for survivors, but only sighted pieces of wreckage, eventually winding up the search effort during the mid-watch. En route back to Singapore, Alden noted a "probable submarine attack," at 0630 on 11 December, and Edsall left the formation to investigate the source of "torpedo wakes" but found nothing. Alden and her sister ships reached port later that morning; Alden mooring alongside RFA Francol at 1041 to replenish her fuel bunkers. While in port, she lowered her flag to half-mast in tribute to the men lost in Prince of Wales and Repulse. Alden remained at Singapore until the morning of the 14th when, after disembarking the Royal Navy liaison party, she got underway with the rest of the division for Surabaya, Java. She reached that Dutch port late on the afternoon of 15 December.
Underway on the 20th for Australian waters, Alden sailed for Port Darwin in the screen of Houston, breaking up the routine of the voyage by sending boarding parties to investigate and establish the friendly character of various small craft and ships sighted en route. She fell in with another formation of American ships moving to Australian waters, Pecos, Otus, and Gold Star, two days before Christmas, and fueled at sea from Pecos the same day. The destroyer ultimately saw her charges safely to Darwin, dropping anchor in that north Australian port at 13:05 on 28 December.
1942
Alden, soon reassigned to DesDiv 58, spent the next several weeks escorting troop and supply convoys in support of efforts to defend the
"Mindful of leaving (the) convoy unprotected" if she continued to seek out the submarine, Alden returned to her screening station and arrived at Port Darwin without further incident. At 1620 that afternoon, though, while she was taking on fuel from the tanker British Sailor, Alden received orders to accompany Edsall to the scene of the above attack. Underway at 1641, leaving a third of her crew behind to break out stores on board Black Hawk, Alden rushed to the scene, finding Deloraine already dropping depth charges.
Alden and Edsall patrolled one area in proximity of the submarine contact, while two Australian ships patrolled another. Alden developed a good contact early the following morning (21 January) and dropped six charges, with no result. A plane from Langley reported carrying out an attack on a submarine a short time later, and Alden steamed to the scene. Seeing oil still rising, she attacked, expending the rest of her depth charges in the tracks. Bringing up more charges from below, the destroyer carried out another attack soon afterward. Then, having expended her last charge, Alden returned to Port Darwin.
Edsall and the Australian ships, accompanied by a
Clearing Darwin on 3 February, Alden sailed with a convoy, bound for Java. Fueling from Trinity en route, the destroyer reached
As the Japanese neared Java, the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) forces began gathering for a show-down. As part of this movement, Alden cleared Tjilatjap on the morning of 22 February for Surabaya and, along with Paul Jones, screened Houston during the passage. The three ships arrived at their destination on the afternoon of the 24th.
Intelligence information indicating the possibility of a Japanese landing attempt in the vicinity, a mixed Dutch and American force (Houston, De Ruyter and Java), two Dutch and five American destroyers (including Alden), sortied after dark on 25 February and conducted a sweep off the northern coast of Madura Island. Not making any contact, the Allied force returned to Surabaya early the following morning.
Later that same day, 26 February, the commander of the striking force, Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman, called a meeting of his commanders, and promulgated his plans to meet the Japanese. At 1922 on 26 February, the striking force, reinforced by the arrival of Perth, Exeter, and three British destroyers, got underway and stood out of Surabaya.
Doorman's force again swept along the north coast of Madura, but then, after having found the waters clear of enemy shipping, at 2212 on 26 February reversed course. During the early morning, the ABDA force continued past Surabaya, and shaped a course toward the entrance to the minefields at 1300 on 27 February. Fresh contact reports, however, indicated the presence of a Japanese force heading south from the vicinity of
At 1617, Alden observed gun flashes as the Japanese ships opened fire, answered shortly afterward by Houston, De Ruyter and Exeter. The American destroyers, Alden steaming second in column, took up their position on the disengaged side of the column of Allied cruisers, to Java's starboard quarter. "Straining every rivet" to keep up with the cruisers, Alden and her sister ships made all possible speed. At 1714, observers on board Alden noted Kortenaer take a torpedo which broke her in two. Soon afterward the Allied fleet changed course twice, in disarray due to the accurate enemy gunfire and the threat posed by his superior torpedoes. The shell-damaged Exeter veered out of the Allied battle line; to cover her retirement, Alden and her sister ships laid smoke.
After he had made one order to counterattack with torpedoes and canceled it, Rear Admiral Doorman again ordered the destroyers to counterattack. On Alden’s bridge, a man remarked: "I always knew these old four pipers would have to go in and save the day...". All within earshot laughed, and the comment broke the tension as the American destroyers, the oldest ships in the ABDA line, steered a course toward the Japanese and launched torpedoes from their starboard tubes at 1822. Then, following the movements of John D. Edwards ahead, Alden reversed course and loosed her port "fish" at 1827. Alden's captain, Lieutenant Commander L. E. Coley, firmly believed that the American destroyers' attack saved Exeter from destruction at that time.
Poor visibility and the increasing range soon ended that phase of the battle, and the Allied force retired, Japanese scoutplanes occasionally dropping flares above the Allied ships. At 1958, the cruiser column turned to westward where, before the night was over, De Ruyter and Java would be sunk, and Houston and Perth forced to flee. Alden and her sisters turned eastward, to retire independently toward Surabaya, their torpedo stocks exhausted. Entering the minefields at 2230, the American destroyermen anchored their ships at 0210 on 28 February.
Alden remained there throughout the daylight hours. She fueled at Holland Pier and anchored in the harbor, where she observed two waves of enemy high-altitude bombers carry out raids that afternoon. That afternoon, Commander Coley noted carrier-type aircraft overhead, indicating that "enemy air activity" would soon be on the increase.
"It seemed that our best chance of getting through to an allied base," Coley wrote later, "was to evade the enemy and trust to the reduced visibility of night to get out of range of enemy aircraft." Given permission to clear out as the noose around Java tightened, and to proceed to Exmouth Gulf, Australia, the four destroyers of DesDiv 58 sortied that night, clearing the minefield an hour before midnight on 28 February, their crews at general quarters. Alden and the others steamed as close to the Javan shore as they dared, hugging the coast, and turned, undetected, into Bali Strait. There, however, they soon encountered the Bali Attack Unit consisting of Hatsuharu, Nenohi, Wakaba, and Hatsushimo.
Around 0215, Alden spotted one destroyer almost due east of her, followed by two or more a short time later. Emerging from the coastal waters to clear a reef, the Americans apparently came into the enemy's sight soon afterwards, since gunfire erupted from the Japanese ships within 15 minutes' time. A five-minute running gun duel ensued between the two groups of destroyers before Alden and her sister ships checked fire and laid smoke. At a range of about 12 miles (19 km), the Japanese opened up again at 0250. The Americans, however, held their fire, reasoning that the enemy sought to force them into revealing their position by firing back.
Continuing on at 28 knots (52 km/h), the four "four-pipers" emerged from the encounter unscathed. As they neared their destination, Commander Thomas H. Binford, Commander, DesDiv 58, paired his ships, the ones with Australian charts (Alden and Paul Jones), with those which did not (
Reporting to Commander, Australia-New Zealand area, on 28 March, Alden operated in the waters of the Southwest Pacific until sailing for Pearl Harbor, reaching her destination on 7 June en route to the
1943
Over the next eight months, Alden carried out prosaic escort duty until she departed Mare Island on 9 April 1943 for the Caribbean. Transiting the Panama Canal on 16 April and reporting that day to Commander, Caribbean Sea Frontier, she continued on to Trinidad, arriving there on 25 April.
The destroyer spent the next two months shuttling convoys between Trinidad and
Underway for the Caribbean on 4 November, Alden reached Trinidad ten days later, and sailed on 26 November as escort for the Army transport George Washington. Seeing that ship safely to her destination,
1944
Alden sailed for North African waters on 5 January 1944, in an antisubmarine group formed around Guadalcanal. On 16 January, a pair of Grumman TBF Avengers from Guadalcanal's Composite Squadron 13 (VC-13) caught a pair of U-boats on the surface, rendezvousing near the Azores, and attacked, sinking U-544 before she could transfer radar detection gear to U-129. Reaching Casablanca on 26 January, the task unit sailed for the United States three days later, and reached Norfolk on 16 February. Shifting to the Boston Navy Yard for repairs and alterations soon afterwards, Alden returned to Norfolk on 12 March.
The destroyer sailed the following day for Tunisia as one of the 16 escort vessels shepherding convoy UGS-36, 72 merchantmen and 18 tank landing ships. Escort vessels drove off what was believed to be a U-boat late on 31 March, and six hours later, early on 1 April, 22 German aircraft attacked UGS-36. Alden, in the rear guard, aided the defense of the convoy, as the escorts shot down two enemy aircraft and probably damaged two others. Ultimately, UGS-36 reached its destination, Bizerte, on 3 April. Nine days later, Alden sailed for the United States, reaching Hampton Roads on 1 May.
Following a brief availability at the Boston Navy Yard, Alden departed
Following emergency repairs to a damaged propeller, Alden resumed escort operations, this time with
Undergoing routine maintenance at the
1945
After she had suffered damage in a collision with Hayter on 31 January 1945, Alden underwent repairs in the Norfolk Navy Yard. These ended on 28 February, Alden emerged from the yard soon afterwards and joined the escort of a Mediterranean-bound convoy, UGF-21, on 1 March. Subsequently, returning to the United States with convoy GUF-21, the warship escorted Mattaponi between Bermuda and Guantanamo, and Chiwawa between Guantanamo and Bermuda before the destroyer returned to Norfolk. Then, following tender availability at Tompkinsville, Alden sailed for Mayport, Florida, on 2 June, where, upon her arrival, she was assigned plane guard duty with Guadalcanal, the ship assigned to conduct carrier qualifications for fledgling pilots out of the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida. Completing this tour on 13 June, she proceeded thence to the Delaware capes.
Decommissioning and fate
Alden reached the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 15 June 1945 and was decommissioned there on 15 July. Her name was struck from the
Awards
Alden was awarded three
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tully, Anthony; Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2012). "Stranding of S.S. PRESIDENT HOOVER - December 1937". Rising Storm – The Imperial Japanese Navy and China 1931–1941. Imperial Japanese Navy Page. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
- ^ a b c d Hackett, Bob; Kingsepp, Sander (2015). "IJN Submarine I-123: Tabular Record of Movement". combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
- ^ "USS Alden". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Navy Department, Naval History and Heritage Command.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- Willshaw, Fred. "USS Alden (DD-211)". Destroyer Photo Archive. Paul R. Yarnall & NavSource Naval History.
