USS Nicholas (DD-449)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Nicholas.

USS Nicholas (DD-449)
History
United States
NameNicholas
NamesakeMajor Samuel Nicholas
Ordered28 June 1940
BuilderBath Iron Works
Laid down3 March 1941
Launched19 February 1942
Commissioned4 June 1942
Decommissioned30 January 1970
Stricken30 January 1970
Honors and
awards
FateSold for scrap, October 1970
NotesNicholas holds the United States Navy record for battle stars with 16 from World War II, 5 from the Korean War and 9 from the Vietnam War.
General characteristics
Class and typeFletcher-class destroyer
Displacement2,050 tons
Length376 ft 6 in (114.7 m)
Beam39 ft 8 in (12.1 m)
Draft17 ft 9 in (5.4 m)
Propulsion60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers
Speed35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range6500 nmi. (12,000 km) at 15 kt
Complement336
Armament
  • June 1942-November 1943
    • 5 x
      5"/38 caliber guns
      (5x1)
    • 1 x
      1.1"/75 caliber gun
      (1x4)
    • 10 x 21-inch torpedo tubes for Mark 15 torpedoes (2x5)
  • February 1944-

USS Nicholas (DD/DDE-449) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy, serving for a total of 27 years, including through most of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. She was the second Navy ship to be named for Major Samuel Nicholas.

Nicholas was laid down 3 March 1941 by the

launched 19 February 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Edward B. Tryon, descendant of Major Nicholas; and commissioned
4 June 1942.

1942

Destined to serve in the Pacific through three armed conflicts, Nicholas, assigned to

Destroyer Squadron 21 (DesRon 21), departed New York City 23 August 1942, sailing in the screen of Washington (BB-56), transited the Panama Canal, and continued on to the Central Pacific, arriving at Espiritu Santo 27 September. Three days later she began escorting Guadalcanal-bound troop and supply convoys. Into 1943 she screened the convoys assembled at Espiritu Santo and Nouméa to "Cactus" area (Guadalcanal and Tulagi), guarded them as they off-loaded and then returned the vessels to their departure point. Periodically assigned to offensive duties she also conducted antisubmarine hunter-killer missions off Allied harbors, sweeps of "the Slot", bombarded shore targets and performed gunfire support missions for Marine and Army units as they pushed toward the Tenamba River
and total control of the long embattled island.

January 1943

In January 1943, Nicholas was one of the Tulagi-based "Cactus Striking Force" (

Munda (4–5 January); shelling their Kokumbona-Cape Esperance escape route (19 January), and blasting their Munda resupply area at Vila on Kolombangara (23–24 January). On 26 January, the executive officer
, Lt.Comdr. Andrew J. Hill took command of Nicholas.

On 1 February, as the Japanese began

Operation KE—the evacuation of Guadalcanal, Nicholas covered the 2nd Battalion, 132nd Infantry, landing at Verahue and supported them as they began their trek inland to seal off the Cape Esperance area to Japanese reinforcements. En route back to Tulagi Nicholas, in company with De Haven (DD-469) and 3 LCTs, was attacked by a formation of 14 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers. Three bombs hit De Haven and a fourth, a near miss, holed the hull. As her sister destroyer settled in the waters of Ironbottom Sound
, Nicholas fought off eight planes, receiving only near misses which killed two of her crew and damaged the steering gear.

Following repairs, Nicholas resumed her varied duties. Escort assignments and two bombardments of the Munda-Kolombangara area of New Georgia took up March. In April, she joined Task Force 18 (TF18) for "Slot" patrol and on the 19th turned her bow toward Australia for an availability at Sydney. By 11 May she was once again with TF18 en route to Kolombangara. On the 13th, while firing on enemy positions there, her #3 gun jammed and exploded, with no casualties. After repairs at Nouméa, she took up antisubmarine patrol duties and at the end of the month resumed escort duties in the Solomons-New Hebrides area.

July 1943

Battle of Kula Gulf

On 5 July she participated in another bombardment of Kolombangara. In the early morning hours of the 6th she made contact with enemy surface vessels in Kula Gulf. The battle initially went well, the light cruisers Honolulu, Saint Louis, and Helena combined fire to sink the destroyer Niizuki, before Honolulu alone wrecked the destroyer Nagatsuki. However, three torpedoes from the destroyers Suzukaze and Tanikaze hit Helena, who promptly capsized and sank.[1] Nicholas, while rescuing 291 survivors, engaged in a gunnery duel with the destroyer Amagiri, hitting her with five 5-inch (127 mm) shells, killing ten crewmen and forcing Amagiri to disengage.[2]

Nicholas and

Chester Nimitz
told the crew, of "the respect and esteem which this ship, her officers and men have well earned throughout the Navy."

Subsequent battles

Survivors of the Japanese light cruiser Jintsu aboard Nicholas after the battle of Kolombangara

On the 12th and 13th, Nicholas participated in the

subchasers (Cha-5 and Cha-12), two motor torpedo boats
, and a Daihatsu.

Nicholas returned to Vella LaVella on 19 and 20 August to conduct barge hunts and on the 24th and 25th to cover

APDs at Barakoma. Then, 22 October, she steamed to Efate
to resume escort duties.

On 11 November Nicholas departed

Wotje, after which she headed east, arriving at San Francisco
15 December for overhaul. Comdr. Robert T. S. Keith took command on 10 December.

1944

On 12 February 1944 she resumed Central and South Pacific escort duties. On 5 April she proceeded, with DesRon 21, to

3rd Fleet shelling Medina Plantation, New Ireland, on the 29th. Spending the first part of June on antisubmarine patrol, she again joined the 7th Fleet on the 14th, serving with TG70.8 in the northern Solomons. On 15 August she sailed to Manus Island to join TF74 and until the 27th operated along the New Guinea coast. She then returned to Seeadler Harbor whence she supported the Morotai
operation 15–30 September.

On 18 October, the destroyer, now in TG 78.7 escorted reinforcements to

Leyte, arriving on the 24th. On the 25th and 26th, she patrolled off Dinagat Island and on the 27th set out again for Manus. On 8 November she sailed for Ulithi, whence she headed for Kossol Roads. En route to the latter, her three-ship formation, Taylor and St. Louis (CL-49), was closed by a submarine, 12 November. Leaving the formation. Nicholas pressed home two depth charge attacks, sinking I-38
.

Four days later, Nicholas joined TG77.1 on continuous patrol of the southern end of Leyte Gulf. There until 6 December she survived 4 attacks by kamikaze suicide-plane formations, 27 and 29 November and 2 and 5 December. On 6 December she assisted in a sweep of the Camotes Sea, bombarded Japanese Naval facilities on Ormoc Bay and then covered Allied landings there. On the 10th she sailed for Manus, returning to Leyte on the 28th for further escort work.

1945

On the first day of the new year, 1945, the destroyer joined TG77.3, the Close Support Group for the

escort carrier group. On the 24th, she captured a motor boat being used by three Japanese to escape from the island and on the 29th provided close cover for the landings in Zambales
Province.

During the first part of February she escorted vessels between Leyte and

Sakishima, she joined TG30.8 at Ulithi and screened that group as it refueled and resupplied the fast aircraft carriers at sea. On 11 August she reported to CTG38.4, a fast carrier task group, and on the 13th screened the carriers during strikes against the Tokyo
area. On the 15th hostilities ceased.

Approaching Japan in August 1945, Admiral

San Pedro
, arriving 1 November to begin inactivation.

1946 – 1959

Decommissioned 12 June 1946, Nicholas remained in the

ASW exercises between Yokosuka and Okinawa; and patrolled the Taiwan Strait. On 3 May 1952 she departed Pearl Harbor again for Korea. A temporary replacement vessel in DesDiv 112, she served first with TF77 and then swung around the peninsula to the gun line off the Korean east coast and operated there, under CTF95
, until sailing for home in July. She returned to Korea with CortDesDiv 12 in November and remained in the Far East until 20 May 1953 performing missions similar to her 1951 deployment.

After Korea Nicholas rotated duty in WestPac with

1st Fleet assignments. Her 7th Fleet deployments took her from Japan to Sumatra, while EastPac assignments ranged primarily from Hawaii to the west coast. On occasion 1st Fleet duty sent her to the Central Pacific as in 1954 when she assisted in Operation Castle
, an atomic test series.

1960 – 1970

Nicholas underwent a Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) update between December 1959 and July 1960, emerging from the shipyard in time for her annual rotation to WestPac, which, that year, sent her, for the first time since World War II, to the South China Sea for extensive operations. Reclassified DD-449 on 1 July 1962, she returned to the South China Sea in March 1965. There she became one of the first ships engaged in Operation Market Time—patrol of the jagged South Vietnamese coastline to prohibit smuggling of men, weapons, and supplies into South Vietnam by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese junks and sampans.

Nicholas after her FRAM II-conversion.

Relieved of duty 15 April, Nicholas returned to Pearl Harbor only to depart again for Viet Nam in mid-September. Off the embattled coast by 1 October, she carried out surveillance assignments and gunfire support duties until 3 December, when she proceeded to Taiwan for patrol duty in Taiwan Strait. Early in 1966 she returned to Viet Nam for duty on "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin, followed by another tour on "Market Time" patrol. Homeward bound at the end of February, she proceeded to Australia, thence to Hawaii, arriving 17 March.

Each WestPac tour since that time has followed a similar employment schedule. Her gunfire support missions during her November 1966–May 1967 tour included participation in Operation Deckhouse Five in the Mekong Delta area, as well as missions close to the DMZ. Most of her 1968 tour was again spent in Vietnamese waters, this time, however, with a greater portion spent on "Yankee Station" and on gunfire support missions.

On her return to EastPac in 1968, Nicholas was assigned to support

Apollo Program. From 8 to 23 October and again between 19 and 22 December she operated in the Pacific space capsule recovery areas; first for the Apollo 7 mission,[dubious – discuss] then for Apollo 8
. After each of these assignments she returned to Pearl Harbor for training exercises in Hawaiian waters in preparation for a return to the Western Pacific.

On 30 January 1970, having become the navy's oldest active destroyer eight years earlier, the "Nick" was decommissioned in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor (again side by side with O'Bannon), stricken from the

Navy List, towed to Portland, Oregon
, and then broken up in 1972. At the time she was retired, only seven other Fletchers remained in service with the US Navy.

As of 2023, the ship's mast was at the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, Washington[6] and the ship's bell was at Center House, Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C.[7]

Awards

Nicholas was awarded a

most decorated US ships of World War II, a total surpassed among destroyers only by her sister ship, USS O'Bannon. She earned five more in the Korean War and nine in the Vietnam War for a total of 30, a number unmatched by any other U.S. Navy ship in the twentieth century.[8]

References

  1. ISBN 978-1597978392
    .
  2. ^ "Long Lancers". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
  3. ^ a b "USS Nicholas (DD-449) Presidential Unit Citation". destroyerhistory.org. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  4. ^ O'Hara, Vincent P. "Battle off Horaniu: August 18, 1943, 0040-0121 hours". The Thunder of the Guns: Battles of the Pacific War.
  5. Department of the Army
    . p. 182.
  6. ^ Fitzgerald, Celene (28 September 2020). "Veterans' Museum to Receive Historic Navy Ship's Mast". The Chronicle. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Marine Barracks, Washington Tour Guide - Officer's Walk" (PDF). DVIDS Hub. 4 December 2014. p. 29. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  8. ^ "USS Nicholas (DD-449, DDE-449), Fletcher-class destroyer home page". destroyerhistory.org. Retrieved 19 July 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Nicholas (DD-449).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Nicholas_(DD-449)&oldid=1219266376"