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Launched in Seattle on
5 April 1942, the ENDICOTT (DD-495) was commissioned on 25 February
1943. Ordered to the Atlantic Fleet, she escorted convoys to Africa,
Ireland, Panama, and Trinidad until 24 May 1944. That morning, the
ENDICOTT collided with the freighter SS EXHIBITOR and as a result missed
the Normandy invasion while undergoing repairs in England.
She rejoined the fleet
in July 1944 and soon was busy convoying landing craft to the
Mediterranean for the invasion of Southern France. Assigned a
diversionary action with the British gunboats SCARAB and APHIS and
seventeen PT boats, the ENDICOTT attacked La Ciotat, successfully luring
enemy troops away from St. Tropez, the actual landing site. During the
action, the ENDICOTT sank a German merchantman and then rushed to aid
the SCARAB and APHIS, which were under attack by two German corvettes.
The destroyer closed to 1,500 yards, and in a battle of less than an
hour her guns sank the two corvettes, with a single injury to only one
ENDICOTT crewmember. She went on to rescue 169 survivors from the German
vessels.
After Christmas, she
escorted the cruiser QUINCY (CA-71), which carried President Roosevelt
to the Yalta Conference. Following several more convoys, she entered the
Charleston Navy Yard in May 1945 and emerged a high speed minesweeper.
At war’s end, she was in the Pacific working with the minesweeping force
in the Yellow Sea. The ENDICOTT accounted for sixty-four of the 350
Japanese mines they removed. Early in 1946 she led her task group on a
sweep of the Inland Sea and then headed for home.
September 1948 found
her en route to Tsingtao, China, where the following spring she helped
evacuate Americans during the Communist takeover. With the start of the
Korean War in June 1950, she was on duty screening the carriers BADOENG
STRAIT (CVE-116) and SICILY (CVE-118) as their planes attacked the enemy
along Korea’s southern coast. She then moved on to support UN troops
fighting at Chin Hae Man, west of Pusan. Her guns targeted enemy tanks,
trucks, ammunition dumps, troop concentrations, roads and rail lines,
and command posts. On 15 September she escorted a Korean LST carrying
700 guerilla troops in a commando raid on Chang Sa Dong. On the beach,
the LST met heavy tank and gun fire, which the ENDICOTT’s guns soon
silenced. Five hours later, the LST’s load of troops and equipment was
ashore, but she had broached and lay helpless. The ENDICOTT stood guard
until the cruiser HELENA (CA-75) and minesweeper DOYLE (DMS-34,
ex-DD-494) relieved her.
After the Inchon
landings, she shelled enemy positions along the east coast and covered
the mine force clearing the channels into Wonsan. During the operation,
the minesweepers PIRATE (AM-275) and PLEDGE (AM-277) struck contact
mines and quickly sank. For the next two hours, the ENDICOTT returned
fire from the shore as her boats wove through the mine field collecting
survivors. Her crew rescued 122 officers and men, who were carried to
the hospital ship REPOSE at Pusan.
With Wonsan Harbor
clear of mines, the ENDICOTT and the minesweeping force moved on in
early December to clear a channel into Hungnam for the evacuation of
60,000 troops. January 1951 brought snow and heavy seas causing a Thai
naval vessel to ground on an enemy held beach. The ENDICOTT rescued
three men washed overboard from a Thai pulling boat and towed the boat
back to her mother ship. The next day when a rescue helicopter crashed
and exploded on the Thai vessel’s bridge the ENDICOTT’s doctor and chief
medic went ashore to care for the casualties until they could be
evacuated.
The mine forces swept
northward, and in early February the ENDICOTT was bound for Wonsan to
cover the landing of ROK marines. She then headed home. Back in November
1951, she bombarded Songjin in North Korea. While covering minesweepers
in Songjin’s harbor, the ENDICOTT helped turn back a North Korean
assault on the island of Yang Do. In the action the ship received minor
damage, but none of her crew were injured. In April 1952 she left
Songjin to bombard industrial, rail, and road targets in the Chuunonjang
area. At 1112 on 19 April, she opened fire on a large warehouse and
immediately found herself the target of nine shore batteries. The
ENDICOTT returned their fire and over the next thirteen minutes managed
to dodge an estimated 150 rounds before one tore a hole in her stern
below the waterline. Just in time, the DOYLE arrived and covered the
ENDICOTT as she moved out of range. Damage control measures kept the
flooding in her stern peak tank under control as the ENDICOTT fought
high winds and rough seas en route to Songjin. A successful patch put
her back in action until her return to Long Beach for overhaul.
Following another tour
in Korea supporting minesweeping operations, she returned to California
where on 17 August 1954 she was decommissioned. Reclassified DD-495 on
15 July 1955, the ENDICOTT was stricken from the navy lists on 1
November 1969 and sold for scrap on 6 October 1970. |
