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Named for Aaron Ward,
who distinguished himself at the Battle of Santiago during the
Spanish-American War and served as the Supervisor of New York Harbor
until he retired in 1913, the DM-34 was the third ship to bear the
admiral's name. Launched as the DD-773 on 5 May 1944, she was
reclassified DM-34 on 19 July. The WARD was commissioned 28 October 1944
as a unit of Division 9, Mine Squadron 3.
She arrived at Pearl
Harbor on 15 February 1945. With a month of additional training behind
her, she entered the lagoon at Ulithi on 16 March to prepare for the
invasion of Okinawa. On the 19th, she put to sea bound for the Ryukyus.
The mine force arrived late on 22 March and the next day began sweeping
operations off Kerama Retto. While supporting minesweeping operations
around Kerama Retto and Okinawa, the WARD's gun crews shot down three
enemy aircraft.
Finally, on the day of
the initial landings, the DM moved in to screen the heavy warships
covering the troops ashore. She continued that duty until 4 April when
she left Okinawan waters for minor repairs at Guam. Returning to take up
picket duty in the Kerama Retto area, the WARD's gun crews shot down two
enemy planes and drove off countless others. She was in port at Kerama
Retto for provisions and fuel when a kamikaze scored a hit on the
PINKNEY (APH-2). Her crew helped fight the fire blazing aboard the
stricken transport and, in the process of bringing the fire under
control, rescued twelve survivors.
Back at sea on 30
April, the DM took up her position on radar picket station. She fought
off several air attacks before foul weather closed in, keeping enemy
raids at a minimum for the next three days. By the afternoon of 3 May,
however, the weather began to clear. At 1822, general quarters sounded.
The WARD's radar had picked up bogies at twenty-seven miles distance.
Two of the planes broke out of the formation and made a run on the WARD.
Her gunners opened fire on the first and began scoring hits when he'd
closed the range to 4,000 yards. That was when the pilot began his
suicide dive. His calculations were off and trailing smoke, the plane
plunged into the water 100 yards off the ship's starboard quarter. The
impact carried the plane's engine, propeller, and part of one wing into
the DM's after deck house, but with little damage and no casualties.
The WARD's crew had no
time to cheer because the second of the kamikazes was right behind the
first. Her gunners destroyed the plane at a distance of 1,200 yards. At
that point, a Zeke appeared off the WARD's stern. Struck repeatedly by
antiaircraft fire, the plane continued on its deadly course. Just before
plowing into the ship's superstructure, the pilot released his bomb,
which penetrated her hull below the water line and exploded in the after
engine room. The ensuing explosion flooded the after engine and fire
rooms, ruptured fuel tanks, set the leaking oil ablaze, and severed
steering control connections to the bridge. The rudder jammed at hard
left, and the WARD turned in a tight circle while slowing to about
twenty knots. Meanwhile the plane itself had spread destruction around
the after deck house, killing and injuring many of the ship's crew. Her
Number 3, five-inch mount lost power but continued under local control.
For the next twenty
minutes, the ship's air defense kept the enemy at a safe distance while
her damage control parties worked feverishly to put out the fires,
repair what damage they could, jettison ammunition in danger of
exploding, and attend to the wounded. The ship still could not maneuver
properly and was particularly vulnerable when she and the other ships on
station number ten came under furious attack at about 1859. Nearby, the
LITTLE (DD-803) was sent to the bottom by five kamikaze hits, and a
suicide plane also sank the LSMR-195. The WARD, herself, was the target
of two enemy planes. Her gunners splashed one and exploded the other in
the air with a direct hit. Almost immediately thereafter, two Vals dove
on the crippled ship. One began his run on the WARD, apparently aiming
for the bridge. Heavy fire from her guns forced the plane to veer toward
the after portion of the ship. As he passed over the signal bridge, the
attacker carried away halyards and antennae assemblies, smashed into the
stack, and then hit the water just off the starboard side.
With not a second to
spare, the WARD's gunners had to swing quickly to face another attacker
coming in just forward of the ship's port beam. Continuing through a
rain of antiaircraft fire, the attacking pilot released a bomb just
before he crashed into the WARD's main deck. The bomb exploded in the
forward fire room causing the ship to lose propulsion. Now unable to
maneuver at all, she lay in the path of a fifth enemy plane. The raider
came out of the smoke and crashed into her deck house bulkhead starting
fires and injuring and killing many more crewmen. It was now forty
minutes after the attack began, and the action hadn't ended for the WARD
and her crew.
At about 1921, another
suicide plane dove in on the ship's port quarter crashing into her
superstructure. Burning gasoline engulfed the deck in flames, and the
ship's 40-mm ammunition began exploding. Still more men died or were
wounded. By now, the ship was ablaze, dead in the water, her
superstructure deck demolished. Her damage control crews fought
valiantly to contain the fire and flooding, but the WARD was beginning
to settle in the water. And the enemy had not yet finished with her.
A final bomb-laden
attacker made a high-speed, low-level approach and crashed into the base
of the DM's number two stack. The explosion blew the plane, the stack,
searchlight, and two 20-mm gun mounts into the air. The debris was
strewn across the deck aft of stack Number 1. Lying low in the water,
the WARD was listing eight degrees to starboard, her main deck just five
inches above the water. With the help of two LCSs, her crew, joined by
gunners and sailors from the Black Gang who no longer had stations to
tend, fought through the night in the midst of flames and exploding
ammunition to save their ship. Damage control parties bravely wet down
the magazines by hand, knowing that the ammunition could explode at any
minute. The ship's doctor and a handful of corpsmen treated fifty-five
major and twenty lesser injuries during the night. Finally at 2106, the
SHANNON (DM-25) took the WARD in tow. In "fifty-two minutes of hell,"
forty-five of her crew were either killed, missing, or died of wounds
and forty-nine others were wounded. According to one later report, the
WARD had been the victim of "one of the most intense and carefully
coordinated mass suicide attacks on record." She arrived at Kerama Retto
on 4 May and was greeted by a message from Admiral Nimitz. "We all
admire a ship that can't be licked," read the message. "Congratulations
on your magnificent performance."
After six weeks of repairs, and with one engine to power her, the WARD
headed for home on 11 June. Her fighting days had come to an end, and
the ship limped eastward, arriving in New York in mid-August 1945. The
AARON WARD was decommissioned on 28 September 1945 and was stricken from
the navy's lists 11 October 1945. She was finally sold for scrap on 1
July 1946. |
