USS Sicard

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
USS Sicard (DD-346)
USS Sicard, probably during the 1930s.
History
United States
NameUSS Sicard (DD-346)
NamesakeRear Admiral Montgomery Sicard (1836–1900)
BuilderBath Iron Works, Bath, Maine
Laid down18 June 1919
Launched20 April 1920
Sponsored byMrs. M. H. Sicard
Commissioned9 June 1920
Reclassified
  • Light minelayer (DM-21) 20 June 1937
  • Miscellaneous auxiliary
    (AG-100) 5 June 1945
Decommissioned21 November 1945
Stricken19 December 1945
Fate
  • Sold 22 June 1946
  • Scrapped
General characteristics
Class and type
Clemson-class destroyer
Displacement1,215 tons
Length314 feet 4+1⁄2 inches (95.822 m)
Beam30 feet 8 inches (9.35 m)
Draft9 feet 10 inches (3.00 m)
Propulsion26,500 
geared turbines, 2 screws
Speed35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range
  • 4,900 nmi (9,100 km; 5,600 mi)
  •   at 15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h)
Complement122 officers and enlisted
Armament4 ×
21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Sicard (DD-346/DM-21/AG-100) was a United States Navy Clemson-class destroyer in commission from 1920 to 1945. She was service during World War II. She was named for Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicard.[1]

Construction and commissioning

Sicard was

laid down on 18 June 1919 by the Bath Iron Works at Bath, Maine. She was launched on 20 April 1920, sponsored by Mrs. M. H. Sicard, daughter-in-law of Rear Admiral Sicard, and commissioned on 9 June 1920.[1]

Service history

1920–1929

On 26 June 1920, Sicard joined Destroyer

New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York until 1922. In an excursion from her routine duties, she transited the Panama Canal on 20 January 1921, and participated in combined U.S. Atlantic Fleet and United States Pacific Fleet war games and maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean, cruising to Callao, Peru, before returning to the Atlantic Ocean on 24 February 1921.[1]

Arriving at the

Yangtze River during periods of unrest.[1]

On 30 and 31 August 1923, when the violent

Edwin Anderson, Jr., dispatched all available vessels to that area with emergency supplies to render assistance. Sicard arrived in Yokohama harbor on 11 September 1923 and acted as dispatch boat to Tokyo and transported refugees from the city. From 25 September to 3 October 1923, she was stationed in Nagasaki harbor as radio relay ship, since all radio communications to Yokohama and Tokyo were out of commission. The prompt action of Sicard and other units of the Asiatic Fleet helped save thousands of lives and earned the thanks of the Japanese government.[1]

Between 26 April and 30 June 1924, Sicard again saw special duty, in connection with the flight of four

Calcutta, India
, guarding the flight and maintaining radio communications.

During the next few years, Sicard's patrols in Chinese waters became more frequent due to the fighting which accompanied Chiang Kai-shek′s and the Kuomintang′s Northern Expedition against Chinese warlords. Her service in the Yangtze Patrol included stints in October 1926, from March to May 1927, in June 1927, and from July to August 1927.[2]

On 22 July 1929, having been relieved by another squadron, Sicard and her squadron sailed from Yokohama, Japan, for the United States. The squadron arrived at San Diego, California, on 17 August 1929.[1]

1929–1941

In October 1929, Sicard joined Destroyer Squadrons, United States

Fleet Problem XII in Hawaiian waters from 1 February to 22 March 1932. From 24 March to 1 October 1934, she was attached to Rotating Reserve Squadron 20 at San Diego. On 1 October 1934, she joined Destroyer Squadron 4 and continued operations with the Battle Force in the Pacific.[1]

On 12 May 1935, while engaging in

Pearl Harbor Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where she received extensive repairs before resuming operations with her squadron in August 1935.[1]

In May 1937, Sicard entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for conversion to a light minelayer, and on 20 June 1937 she was reclassified DM-21 in accordance with her new role. Except for a trip to the U.S. West Coast for repairs and training from 20 September to 20 December 1937, Sicard operated in the Hawaiian area through 1941, engaging in division tactics and training exercises, fleet problems, and maneuvers, joint United States Army and U.S. Navy exercises, battle, torpedo and mining practice, and reconnaissance missions around Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and outlying islands. She entered the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard on 21 November 1941 for an overhaul.[1]

World War II

Sicard was still under overhaul at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on 7 December 1941, bringing the United States into World War II and beginning the war's Pacific campaign. Sicard had ammunition only for her .30-caliber machine guns but aided in the defense of the base by sending men to help operate the guns of the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) and the destroyer USS Cummings (DD-365).[1]

On completion of her overhaul on 28 January 1942, Sicard left Pearl Harbor for an

antisubmarine patrol station southwest of Oahu, where she escorted ships within her area and searched for Imperial Japanese Navy submarines. Between 1 and 9 April 1942, she helped lay a large defensive minefield at the French Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, some 500 nautical miles (930 km; 580 mi) northwest of Oahu, and between 10 and 18 April 1942 she set up a United States Marine Corps radio and surveillance station on Eastern Island at Midway Atoll.[1]

On 19 June 1942, Sicard departed Pearl Harbor with other light minelayers, picked up naval mines at Seattle, Washington, and, in July 1942, laid a defensive minefield off Kodiak, Alaska. On her return to Hawaii on 27 July 1942, she resumed her local patrol assignment. She departed Hawaii on 16 September 1942 for the Aleutian Islands to lay another minefield and conduct more patrols. She then proceeded on 22 November 1942 to San Francisco, California, for overhaul.[1]

Sicard after her collision with USS Macdonough (DD-351), 19 May 1943.

After completion of repairs on 22 December 1942, Sicard participated in amphibious landing exercises off San Diego. She then departed San Francisco on 24 April 1943 with a convoy of troop transports for the assault on Attu in the Aleutian Islands, scheduled for 11 May 1943. Sicard was to have acted as a landing craft control vessel for the operation, but on 10 Ma 1943, on the night before the landing, she collided with the destroyer USS Macdonough (DD-351) in a dense fog. Sicard towed Macdonough into Adak on Adak Island, and then proceeded to San Francisco for repairs, which lasted until 29 July 1942. She was more fortunate during Operation Cottage, the landings on Kiska in the Aleutians, and successfully guided the waves of assault boats to the beach there between 15 and 18 August 1943. She performed local patrol and escort duties in the Aleutians, and then escorted a convoy to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 15 September 1943.[1]

Sicard in 1944.

Sicard left Pearl Harbor on 24 September 1943 for a new area of operations, the

parachute flares from Japanese aircraft. Soon a U.S. cruiser force steamed by at high speed in the opposite direction and opened fire on Japanese ships invisible to the minelayers. Sicard's group had unknowingly helped bring the opposing forces together for the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay.[1]

Sicard, with four other destroyer-minelayers, laid another minefield off Bougainville on 8 November 1943 and, after brief convoy duty, Sicard laid a third minefield off the

Kwajalein. On 1 May 1944, she resumed her minelaying role and laid a minefield off Buka Island in two trips on 2 and 10 May 1944. After additional convoy duty, she arrived at Alameda, California, on 11 July 1944 for overhaul.[1]

Sicard completed repairs on 20 September 1944 and, after refresher training, departed for Pearl Harbor on 4 October 1944. Following another period of upkeep from 10 October to 16 November 1944, she commenced duty training submarines. She conducted daily exercises with submarines off Oahu until 9 January 1945, and then performed similar duties at Midway Atoll. While operating from Midway, she was reclassified a "

miscellaneous auxiliary," AG-100, on 5 June 1945. Sicardcompleted her training duties at Midway on 2 September 1945,[1] the day Japan surrendered
, bringing World War II to an end.

Decommissioning and disposal

Sicard arrived at the

decommissioned on 21 November 1945 and struck from the Navy list on 19 December 1945. She was sold for scrap on 22 June 1946 to Hugo Neu of New York City.[1]

Honors and awards

Sicard received the Yangtze Service Medal for operations on the Yangtze Patrol from 20 to 26 October 1926, from 2 March to 2 May 1927, from 9 to 10 June 1927, and from 4 July to 22 August 1927.[2]

Sicard received two battle stars during World War II

Battle of Bougainville.[2][3]

References
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r DANFS.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual [Rev. 1953] » Pt. 4 - Campaign and Service Medals". history.navy.mil. Naval History and Heritage Command. 1953. Retrieved 20 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Navy and Marine Corps Awards Manual, Department of the Navy, NAVPERS 15,790 (Rev. 1953), (16) Area Campaign Medals and Operation and Engagement Stars, World War II". ibiblio.org. Hyperwar. 1953. Retrieved 20 December 2023.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Sicard&oldid=1191150307"