USS Monaghan (DD-354)
USS Monaghan (DD-354)
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Monaghan (DD-354) |
Namesake | John R. Monaghan |
Builder | Boston Navy Yard |
Laid down | 21 November 1933 |
Launched | 9 January 1935 |
Commissioned | 19 April 1935 |
Honours and awards | 12 × battle stars |
Fate | Foundered in Typhoon Cobra, 18 December 1944 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Farragut-class destroyer |
Displacement | 1,500 tons |
Length | 341 ft 3 in (104.01 m) |
Beam | 34 ft 3 in (10.44 m) |
Draft | 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m) |
Speed | 36.5 kts (68 km/h) |
Complement | 100 officers and enlisted |
Armament |
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USS Monaghan (DD-354) was the last ship built of the
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Monaghan was a ready duty destroyer in
She headed on out of the harbor to patrol offshore for the next week, then joined
, made repeated attacks on an enemy submarine, causing it to broach and give off a large oil slick.Patrol and scouting operations out of Pearl Harbor with the Lexington group were followed by convoy duty to the west coast and back before Task Force 11 (TF 11), with Monaghan screening Lexington, sortied from Pearl Harbor on April 15, 1942, bound for the South Pacific. With the Japanese threatening Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, sea lines of communication to Australia and New Zealand were in peril, and the Navy moved quickly and decisively to block so critical a threat. First action came 4 May when planes from Yorktown hit Japanese invasion shipping at Tulagi and Gavutu. The two carrier forces now combined upon word that an enemy carrier group had entered the Coral Sea. The opening action of the victory there came 7 May, when American search planes spotted the Japanese occupation force, several transports guarded by the light carrier Shōhō. Lexington and Yorktown planes sank Shōhō. Next day, before the major engagement by aircraft from both American and Japanese fleet carriers, Monaghan was ordered away from formation to transmit important messages, thus preserving radio silence in the main body. She was then ordered on to search for survivors of Neosho and Sims, sunk on the 7th by the Japanese. Since the position of the sinking had been erroneously reported, Monaghan was unable to carry out a rescue, and sailed on with messages for Nouméa before rejoining TF 16 in time to return to Pearl Harbor 26 May.
Battle of Midway
Two days later, Monaghan was underway for the decisive battle of the war, the
Other Pacific operations
After the victory, the force returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 June. Monaghan was sent north to aid in countering the Japanese threat in the
Once more in the Aleutians, Monaghan joined TG 16.69 a scouting force built around cruisers Richmond and Salt Lake City. On 26 March this group engaged the Japanese in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Although outnumbered, the Americans fired guns and torpedoes so effectively that the Japanese were driven away. Patrol and occasional shore bombardment missions throughout the Aleutians, along with escort missions, continued through the summer. Highlights were a radar-directed surface engagement with an unidentified target 20 June, and a chase of a Japanese submarine two days later that resulted with the submarine being driven up on rocks and abandoned. She was later identified as Japanese submarine I-7, engaged in evacuating troops from Kiska.
After escort duty to Pearl Harbor and
Returning to the west coast on escort duty, Monaghan rejoined the escort carriers after extensive exercises out of
On 22 March Monaghan put to sea in the antisubmarine screen for the fast carriers, bound for strikes on
Loss in a typhoon
After training off
Monaghan received 12
See also
- Typhoon Cobra (1944)
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- USS Monaghan, Report of Pearl Harbor Attack Archived 2019-07-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Typhoons and Hurricanes: Pacific Typhoon, 18 December 1944