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Edwin A. Anderson was a
distinguished commander of U.S. naval vessels during the
Spanish-American War and World War I. The destroyer that bore his name
was launched on 4 February 1939 and was commissioned on 19 May 1939. A
year later, the ANDERSON was in the Pacific as the flagship of Destroyer
Division 3. Returning to the Atlantic in June 1941, she became part of
the Neutrality Patrol convoying vessels between Iceland and Canada. In
early November 1941, she and eight other destroyers of Destroyer
Squadron Two escorted a convoy carrying 22,000 British troops from the
British Isles to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first leg of its voyage to
Basra in the Near East. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, she proceeded
to the Pacific and her first taste of battle as part of the screen for
the carrier YORKTOWN (CV-5). During the Battle of the Coral Sea on 7 May
1942, she helped take survivors off the doomed carrier LEXINGTON (CV-2).
On 3 June 1942, the
ANDERSON was one of thirty-three American ships that faced the Japanese
100-ship fleet advancing on Midway. She and the MORRIS, HUGHES, RUSSELL,
HAMMANN, and GWIN (DD-433) were assigned to the YORKTOWN’s screen.
Screening the carriers HORNET (CV-8) and ENTERPRISE (CV-6) were the
PHELPS (DD-360), DEWEY (DD-349), WORDEN (DD-352), BALCH (DD-363), BENHAM
(DD-397), ELLET (DD-398), MAURY (DD-401), MONSSEN (DD-436), CONYNGHAM
(DD-371), MONAGHAN (DD-354), and AYLWIN (DD-355). On 4 June, two waves
of enemy torpedo planes and dive bombers attacked the YORKTOWN’s group,
meeting heavy antiaircraft fire from the ANDERSON and her fellow
destroyers, but each raid took its toll on the carrier, which was soon
dead in the water. At 1455, the destroyers moved in to pick up survivors
from the disabled flattop.
Following escort
missions during July and August 1942, the ANDERSON was back with a
carrier, this time the HORNET. Operating with the MUSTIN, HUGHES,
RUSSELL, MORRIS, and BARTON (DD-599), she splashed several planes during
the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on 24 August. Later, she battled
enemy aircraft as they attacked the HORNET off Santa Cruz on the morning
of 26 October. By 1615, the effort to save the carrier was abandoned as
Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes made one last devastating
attack. At 1730, the MUSTIN took off the HORNET’s captain and prepared
to sink her. When her torpedoes failed to do the job, the ANDERSON moved
in, firing eight torpedoes, six of which struck with little effect. She
and the MUSTIN then fired more than 400 rounds of 5-inch ammunition,
finally setting the carrier afire. With a Japanese destroyer division
bearing down on them, however, the two destroyers left the burning hulk
to the enemy whose torpedoes finally sent the HORNET to the bottom at
0135 on the 27th. In November, the ANDERSON went on to screen transports
carrying reinforcements to Guadalcanal and then joined the ENTERPRISE’s
screen. From December 1942 to March 1943, she operated out of Espiritu
Santo on antisubmarine patrols and escort duty.
The ANDERSON took part
in the occupation of Kiska in the Aleutians on 15 August and by November
was in the Gilberts screening Tarawa-bound transports and providing
gunfire support. Targeted next were the Marshall Islands and on 30
January 1944, she and the MORRIS headed a task group steaming close
inshore to shell Wotje Atoll. She was off the center of the island at
0630 when shore batteries opened up. A shell hit the ANDERSON’s bridge,
destroying her Combat Information Center and killing six men, including
her captain, Commander J. G. Tennent. Fourteen were wounded. Despite the
death and destruction, the destroyer’s crew soon had the damage under
control and continued their bombardment. The following day, they went on
to screen the battleships and cruisers bombing Kwajalein.
Badly damaged by
grounding on 1 February, the ANDERSON underwent repairs at Pearl Harbor
but was back and ready to cover the landings at Cape Sansapor, New
Guinea, in August; on Morotai in September; and on Leyte beginning on 20
October. While on patrol off Leyte on 1 November 1944, the ANDERSON’s
gunners fought off several air attacks near Panaon Island. At 1812, one
of three enemy fighters made a suicide dive into her port side aft
killing sixteen and wounding twenty. Her crew was forced to jettison
torpedoes as they fought fires and an attacking torpedo plane. The
destroyer BUSH offered medical assistance and stood by to screen the
damaged destroyer, a victim of one of the earliest kamikazes. She went
on to San Pedro Bay under her own power.
Following repairs at San
Francisco, she joined Task Group 92.2 at Attu, Alaska on 11 May 1945,
for attacks against enemy bases and shipping and other operations in the
Kurile Islands through the end of the war. The ANDERSON then
participated in the occupation of northern Honshu until November when
she sailed for San Diego to be prepared for her final mission. She
arrived at Bikini Atoll on 30 May 1946 and on 1 July 1946 was sunk
during atomic Bomb Test Able. |
