Tin Can Sailors - The National Association of Destroyer Veterans

The USS CHARRETTE (DD‑581) was launched on 3 June 1942 by the Boston Navy Yard and commissioned on 18 May 1943. She cleared New York for the Pacific on 20 September 1943 and operated out of Pearl Harbor until 10 November. The new destroyer, then, put to sea with Task Force 50 for air raids on Japanese bases in the Marshalls. On 26 November 1943, the CHARRETTE joined operation “Galvanic” as one of 60 destroyers and destroyer escorts with the fast carrier task forces supporting the landings of the Marines on Makin and Tarawa. Twelve days later, the she screened battleships bombarding Nauru Island, then rejoined the carriers headed for Efate and strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland, for three days preceding the assault on Cape Gloucester on 26 December.

The new year found her north of the Gilberts, at Funafuti, where the carrier forces were preparing for operation “Flintlock” against the Marshall Islands. From 23 January to 5 February 1944, the CHARRETTE was with Task Group 58.3, screening the carriers BUNKER HILL (CV-17), MONTEREY (CV-26), and COWPENS (CVL-25) in a series of strikes on Kwajalein and Eniwetok. Also with the task group were the HUNT (DD-674), IZARD (DD-589), CONNER (DD-582), BELL (DD-587), BURNS (DD-588), BRADFORD (DD-545), BROWN (DD-546), COWELL (DD-547), and WILSON (DD-408).

At 2203 on the night of 4 February, the CHARRETTE left her screening station to investigate a radar contact reported by the battleship NEW JERSEY. By 0003, she’d located her target and at 3,200 yards, launched depth charges. The submarine dove and the destroyer lost contact, but her captain reported his certainty that they had damaged the elusive boat. For the continued search, the destroyer escort FAIR (DE-35) joined the CHARRETTE, which used her radar to coach the DE into a position to launch a hedgehog attack. At 0040 the FAIR made her attack, achieving four detonations, which were followed by several thunderous explosions. The two U.S. ships had sunk the I‑21, one of the submarines in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the probable culprit in the sinking of the destroyer PORTER at Santa Cruz.

A week later, the CHARRETTE sailed with the carriers for the first of the series of massive air raids that ended the usefulness of the Japanese stronghold at Truk. She subsequently joined TG 50.9, which included the battleships NEW JERSEY (BB-62) and IOWA (BB-61), the cruisers MINNEAPOLIS (CA-36) and NEW ORLEANS (CL/CA-32), and the destroyers IZARD, BRADFORD, and BURNS. On 17 February, they made a sweep around the island of Truk to catch Japanese shipping fleeing the air attacks on their base. In addition to a freighter, they sent the cruiser KATORI, destroyer MAIKAZE, and the submarine chaser SC-24 to the bottom. Their work done, TG 50.9 rejoined the carriers the next day.

The CHARRETTE saw action again on 15 March as carrier planes attacked enemy ships at Palau, continuing into Japanese‑held waters. She and her task group fought off an enemy air attack on the 28^th, and kept up their vigil through the strikes of 30 March and 1 April. With the carrier force, she moved on to strike airfields and defenses on New Guinea, to support the landings at Humboldt Bay on 22 April, to hit Truk on 29 April, and guard the battleships as they bombarded Ponape 1 May.

The CHARRETTE's next contribution came during the Marianas campaign, for which

she sailed 6 June 1944. She supported the carriers in their strikes on Guam, Saipan, and Rota from 11 through 14 June, then turned north for strikes against enemy aircraft massed on Iwo Jima for attacks against the American landings on Saipan. As the carriers came into position on 15 June, scouting aircraft spotted a 1,900‑ton freighter, the TAGAWA MARU. Around noon, the CHARRETTE and task-group flagship BOYD (DD‑544) shelled the enemy ship, sinking it in less than seven minutes. The CHARRETTE recovered 112 survivors.

From Saipan, her group turned south to meet a Japanese naval force racing toward the Marianas. During the ensuing Battle of the Philippine Sea, the CHARRETTE continued her screening, antiaircraft, and plane guard duties. On the night of 20 June, she participated in the recovery of aviators forced to ditch when their fuel ran out on their return from their last strikes. The next day, the carrier force covered the invasion forces in the Marianas, hurling strike after strike at Guam, Rota, the Pagan Islands, and Chichi Jima. The CHARRETTE shelled Chichi Jima on 6 August, and then returned to Eniwetok.

She was back with the carriers for the air strikes in early September against targets in the Palaus and the Philippines and, on 4 October, for strikes against Japanese airfields on Okinawa, Northern Luzon, and Formosa. On 12 October strikes against Formosa provoked return attacks on the carriers by Japanese aircraft. The CHARRETTE aided in splashing attackers and driving off the raids during which the cruisers CANBERRA (CA‑70) and HOUSTON (CL‑81) were hit. She helped escort the ships out of the area, then returned to her carrier group, racing to intercept an approaching enemy force. The confrontation resulted in the epic Battle for Leyte Gulf which put an end to the Japanese Navy as an effective fighting force.

On 26 October 1944, she screened the carriers as their aircraft struck the enemy’s northern force off Cape Engano, sinking four Japanese carriers and a destroyer. By early November, she was with the fast carriers during air strikes against Luzon airfields and from 4 to 18 January 1945, screened the group supporting the landings in the Lingayen Gulf. Following six months for an overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, the CHARRETTE was back in action in June covering minesweepers and underwater demolition teams clearing the way through Brunei Bay for the invading Allied forces. She was flagship for the covering group that consisted of the CONNER, BELL, BURNS, KILLEN (DD-593), ALBERT W. GRANT (DD-649), and HMAS ARUNTA. The landings at Balikpapan were next on her schedule. For this operation, she went in with eight cruisers and the destroyers CONWAY (DD-507), EATON (DD-510), STEVENSON (DD-645), CONY (DD-508), ARUNTA, HART (DD-594), METCALF (DD-595), KILLEN, ALBERT W. GRANT, BELL, CONNER, and BURNS. They bombarded enemy installations, moving in close to silence their shore batteries and putting an end to the threat they had posed to ships and troops involved in the invasion.

Early on the morning of 2 August 1945, the CHARRETTE’s and CONNER’s radar picked up a ship, which they discovered was the hospital ship TACHIBANA MARU. A search party from CHARRETTE found ordnance and other contraband as well as able‑bodied troops, who they took prisoner. The destroyers escorted their prize to Morotai on 6 August and turned it over to the authorities.

The CHARRETTE cleared Morotai two days before Japan’s surrender and went on to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, to escort transports with occupation troops, equipment, and supplies bound for Chinese ports. She finally sailed from Shanghai for San Francisco on12 December and there, was placed out of commission in reserve on 15 January 1947. On 16 June 1959, she was transferred to Greece, becoming HHMS VELOS.