USS Welles (DD-628)

History
United States
Name	Welles
Namesake	Gideon Welles
Builder	Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation
Laid down	27 September 1941
Launched	7 September 1942
Commissioned	16 August 1943
Decommissioned	4 February 1946
Stricken	10 February 1968
Fate	Sold for scrapping, 18 July 1969
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	4 × DP guns; 4 × 40 mm (1.6 in) AA guns ; 7 × 20 mm (0.79 in) AA guns,; 5 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (5 Mark 15 torpedoes); 6 × depth charge projectors,; 2 × depth charge tracks;

USS Welles (DD-628), a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Gideon Welles.

Welles was

launched on 7 September 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Suzanne Dudley Welles Brainard. The ship was commissioned

on 16 August 1943.

Service history

Following

task unit stopped briefly at Norfolk where New Jersey's sister battleship, Iowa

, joined it for the voyage to the Pacific. The unit transited the Panama Canal during the first week in January 1944 and continued its voyage west on 8 January.

Southwest Pacific Area

Welles and her traveling companions arrived at

antisubmarine

defense. Periodically, she returned close to shore to provide all fire for American troops fighting ashore.

In March, she returned south to the area around

General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious jump to Biak Island where she provided gunfire support during the landings and consolidation operations from 27 May to 2 June. During that time, she destroyed several Japanese

barges, harassed enemy ground forces, silenced a shore battery or two and helped to repel several air attacks.

Leaving

Noemfoor Island, located just west of Biak, to support the capture of that island. At the end of July, she participated in the last amphibious operation in New Guinea when troops went ashore at Cape Sansapor

on the Vogelkop.

She returned to

Leyte

.

Western Pacific

She moved into

Ulithi Atoll where she joined the screen of the Fast Carrier Task Force

.

For the remainder of her participation in the war Welles cruised with either the fast carriers or with their logistics unit as the flattops launched air strikes on Japan's inner defenses and supported from a distance the invasions at Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa.

In June 1945, she retired to Leyte for rest and upkeep. On the 21st of that month, she received orders to return to the United States for a major overhaul. Steaming via

Eniwetok and Oahu, the destroyer arrived in Bremerton, Washington

on 16 July. She remained there through the end of hostilities in August and until late September.

On 29 September, she got underway for the east coast. After a stop at

Atlantic Reserve Fleet, until 10 February 1968 at which time her name was struck from the Navy list

. On 18 July 1969, she was sold to the Union Minerals and Alloy Co. for scrapping.

Welles earned eight

battle stars during World War II

.