USS Gwin (DD-433)

USS Gwin underway in 1941
History
United States
Name	Gwin
Namesake	William Gwin
Builder	Boston Navy Yard
Laid down	1 June 1939
Launched	25 May 1940
Commissioned	15 January 1941
Honours and awards	battle stars
Fate	Sunk at Battle of Kolombangara, 13 July 1943
General characteristics
Class and type	Gleaves-class destroyer
Displacement	1,630 tons
Length	348 ft 3 in (106.15 m)
Beam	36 ft 1 in (11.00 m)
Draft	11 ft 10 in (3.61 m)
Propulsion	50,000 shp (37,000 kW); 4 boilers; 2 propellers
Speed	37.4 knots (69 km/h)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	16 officers, 260 enlisted
Armament	5 × DP guns, 6 × 20 mm AA guns, 6 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) guns, 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 2 × depth charge tracks

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USS Gwin (DD-433), a

On 3 April 1942 Gwin stood out of

Gwin departed Pearl Harbor 23 May 1942 with Marine reinforcements for Midway and returned to port 1 June. Two days later she raced to join the Fast Carrier Task Force searching for the approaching Japanese fleet off Midway. The battle was all but concluded by the time she arrived on the scene on 5 June 1942. Four large Japanese aircraft carriers and a cruiser rested on the bottom of the sea along with some 250 enemy planes and their crews. Gwin sent a salvage party to assist in attempts to save carrier Yorktown, heavily damaged by two bomb and two torpedo hits in the Battle of Midway. As attempts continued 6 June 1942, a Japanese submarine rocked Yorktown with torpedo hits and sank the destroyer Hammann which was secured alongside the carrier. The salvage party had to abandon Yorktown and surviving men were rescued from the sea, The carrier capsized and sank the morning of 7 June 1942. Gwin carried 102 survivors of the two ships to Pearl Harbor, arriving 10 June 1942.

Guadalcanal

Gwin departed Pearl Harbor 15 July 1942 to operate in the screen of fast carriers who pounded Japanese installations, troop concentrations and supply dumps as Marines invaded Guadalcanal in the Solomons on 7 August 1942. In the following months Gwin convoyed supply and troop reinforcements to Guadalcanal. Joining a cruiser–destroyer task force, she patrolled "the Slot" of water between the chain of Solomon Islands to intercept the "Tokyo Express" runs of supply, troop and warships supporting Japanese bases in the Solomons.

On 13 November 1942, Gwin and three other destroyers formed with battleships South Dakota and Washington to intercept an enemy bombardment–transport force approaching the Solomons. The following night the task group found the enemy off Savo Island: the battleship Kirishima, four cruisers, 11 destroyers, and four transports, The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was intensely fought. Gwin found herself in a gun duel between the light cruiser Nagara and two Japanese destroyers (Ayanami and Uranami), versus the four American destroyers. She took a shell hit in her engine room. Another shell struck her fantail and enemy torpedoes began to boil around the destroyers.

Though shaken by exploding

Later action in the Solomons

Having been overhauled, Gwin returned to the Southwest Pacific on 7 April 1943 to escort troop reinforcements and supplies throughout the Solomons. On 30 June she served with the massive amphibious assault force converging on

Gwin escorted a reinforcement echelon from Guadalcanal to Rendova, then raced to the "Slot" 7 July to rescue 87 survivors of cruiser Helena, lost in the Battle of Kula Gulf. She then joined a cruiser–destroyer task force under Rear Admiral Walden L. Ainsworth to head off a formidable "Tokyo Express" force headed through the Solomon Islands to land troops at Vila. The Battle of Kolombangara was joined in the early hours of 13 July and Japanese light cruiser Jintsu quickly slid to the bottom, the victim of smothering gunfire and torpedo hits. However, four Japanese destroyers, waiting for a calculated moment when Ainsworth's formation would turn, launched 31 torpedoes at the American formation. His flagship, Honolulu, cruiser St. Louis and Gwin, maneuvering to bring their main batteries to bear on the enemy, turned right into the path of the "long lance" torpedoes.^[1] Both cruisers received damaging hits but survived. Gwin received a torpedo hit amidships in her engine room and exploded. The destroyer Ralph Talbot took off Gwin's crew after their damage control efforts failed and she had to be scuttled. Two officers and 59 men perished with the destroyer.

Gwin received five

Bibliography

• Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armour, London, 1990.
  ISBN 0-85368-802-8
  .
• Lundgren, Robert (2008). "Question 39/43: Loss of HIJMS Kirishima". Warship International. XLV (4): 291–296.
  ISSN 0043-0374
  .

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• USS Gwin website at Destroyer History Foundation
• Naval History and Heritage Command: USS Gwin
• navsource.org: USS Gwin
• hazegray.org: USS Gwin
• Roll of Honor

7°41′S 157°27′E / 7.683°S 157.450°E / -7.683; 157.450