USS GAMBLE DD-123

Gamble actively participated in numerous training and maneuver exercises through much of 1921. During January and February, she participated in rehearsals for short range battle practice with the destroyers of Division 12. In April, they participated in frequent maneuvers to prepare for long range day battle practice, and in May, the division’s training emphasis switched to night battle practice. Beginning in late May, Destroyer Division 12 joined with other destroyer divisions and later with battleship squadrons for tactical exercises. Beginning on 22 June, Gamble toured ports along the California coast with the Pacific Fleet, visiting Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Monterey. After spending the first two weeks of July at San Francisco, Gamble returned to San Diego on the 18th for a month of machinery upkeep.

On 15 August 1921, Gamble arrived at Mare Island for overhaul, with drydocking from 1-9 September. Joined by Radford (DD-120), Breese, and Montgomery, Gamble departed the Bay Area on 20 September and returned to San Diego late the following day, where she continued her upkeep routine for the rest of the year.

Gamble returned to Mare Island on 16 January 1922 for additional repairs. On 23 February, the destroyer moored off of Sausalito, Calif., and then moved to Man of War Wharf in San Francisco on the 27th, where she remained until 15 March. She returned to San Diego on the 17th and commenced inactivation procedures. Gamble was decommissioned on 17 June 1922 and was held in reserve at San Diego.

On 24 May 1930, the Navy reactivated and recommissioned Gamble, Cmdr. Alexander Sharp in command. After completing a shakedown cruise on 7 June, the destroyer departed San Diego on the 9th with the tug Sonoma (AT-12), which took the recently decommissioned destroyer Ludlow (DD-112) in tow. The trio arrived at Mare Island on 12 June, and the next day, Gamble began conversion to a light minelayer. The ship was reclassified and given the new identification number DM-15 on 13 June 1930.

With her conversion completed, Gamble steamed from Mare Island on 25 June 1930 with Ramsay (DM-16), also newly converted to a light minelayer, as well as the minesweeper Tanager (AM-5). Upon her 4 July arrival at her new home port of Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, Gamble became flagship of Mine Squadron 2. From 12–26 July, Gamble cruised around the Hawaiian Islands with embarked naval reservists receiving instruction in mine warfare. The ship underwent an overhaul and repair availability period from August through November 1930. As of 24 November, Gamble served as flagship of Mine Division 1, Mine Squadron 1. From 5–11 December, she conducted experimental operations with seaplanes and on the 16th carried out battle mining practice.

Effective 1 January 1931, Gamble became the flagship of Mine Division 1, Minecraft, Battle Force, U.S. Fleet. On 22 January, Gamble stood out for San Diego in company with Ramsay, Tanager, and Whippoorwill (AM-35) to join the ships participating in Fleet Problem XII held off the coast of Balboa, Panama Canal Zone, during much of February and March 1931. After exercising with various units of the Pacific Fleet and with the Mine Craft Battle Force, Gamble returned to San Diego on 4 April and got underway for the return trip to Pearl Harbor on the 7th, arriving home on 16 April.

For the next several years, Gamble operated in the Hawaiian Islands, following a routine training regimen with the ships in her division that culminated with the annual fleet problems. At this time, the minelayers drilled in short- and long-range gunnery, battle tactics, and mine warfare; served as target or screen ship for submarine battle torpedo firing exercises; acted as plane guard and radio tracker station for seaplanes; participated in joint exercises with the Army; and occasionally conducted special assignments such as Navy Reserve training ship duty or search and rescue operations. During the first week of August 1931, for example, Gamble sped to the assistance of Lanikai, ex-Hermes, a schooner-rigged, diesel-powered yacht registered with the Hawaiian Sea Products Company and operated as a fishing boat, which lay disabled in the vicinity of Fanning Island. At the end of the month while on plane guard duty, the ship recovered the splashed plane 4-P-10 and towed it back to Pearl Harbor. The Douglas PD-1 flying boat (BuNo A-7998), manned by Lt. W.L. Reese, ACMM H. Wagner, AP1c P.C. Diez, and EM1c J.E. Schneider of Patrol Squadron 4B, flew a routine search when its starboard engine backfired. The crew could not maintain the plane’s flight and it splashed hard about 60 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. The flying boat sustained some damage, but the four men escaped without major injuries. On 10–11 September 1931, Gamble transported Governor Lawrence M. Judd of the Territory of Hawaii from Honolulu to Hilo.

After relatively routine years in 1932 and 1933, Gamble began 1934 by participating in Hawaiian Tactical Exercise No. 2, a variation on the Fleet Problem that included advanced base operations and a simulated bombardment of Kahului, Maui. During this exercise (29 January–9 February), the ship practiced antisubmarine tactics and simulated laying a mine field across the entrance to Hilo Harbor. Late on 6 June, Gamble got underway to assist steamer President Lincoln, which was on fire north of Maui. Early the next day, she reached the disabled ship’s position and escorted her to Honolulu. Two weeks later, the minelayer began a three-month upkeep and repair availability period at Pearl Harbor. From 22–26 October, Gamble took part in Hawaiian Tactical Exercise No. 3, which included a simulated night bombardment of Pearl Harbor and several simulated attacks on the harbor defenses of Honolulu.

The minelayer rounded out 1934 (4–11 December) by joining the search for the missing aircraft Stella Australis, flown by noted Australian aviator Charles T. P. Ulm with a crew of two men. Attempting to fly from Oakland, Calif., to Australia via Hawaii in preparation for commercial airline service, Stella Australis ran out of fuel and went down on 3 December in an unknown position thought to be off of Honolulu, and despite a massive air and sea search effort that included nearly two dozen U.S. Navy ships and numerous private vessels, no trace of the airplane or its crew was ever found.

Gamble commenced another extensive overhaul period on 29 April 1936. Upon completion of her upkeep on 6 August, the minelayer returned to her regular routine save for a three-day call at Palmyra Atoll in late August. From 4–8 May 1937, Gamble and the ships of Mine Division One participated in Fleet Problem XVIII in Hawaiian waters. After duty as antisubmarine patrol for the sortie of the U.S. Fleet (19–20 May), Gamble’s crew prepared the ship for her second decommissioning. Departing Pearl Harbor in company with Breese and Ramsay on 19 June, Gamble returned to San Diego and was decommissioned there on 22 December 1937.

As Europe plunged into World War II, Gamble was once again recommissioned at San Diego on 25 September 1939, with Cmdr. Allan E. Smith serving as Gamble’s commanding officer and as Commander, Mine Division Five, as well. After satisfactory dock trials, the minelayer departed San Diego on 18 October and headed for Mare Island, where she completed a drydocking from 26–31 October. Upon leaving Mare Island on 8 November, Gamble sideswiped her sister ship Montgomery (DM-17) in San Pablo Bay, causing a large leak in the forward engine room that sent the ship right back to dry dock. After leaving dry dock for a second time and successfully completing dock trials on 16 November, Gamble joined Mine Division 5 in patrol duties out of San Francisco through mid-December 1939 before a holiday stand down period.

Gamble resumed local patrol operations on 2 January 1940. On 15 January, the minelayer got underway in company with Montgomery to participate in joint Army-Navy exercises. On the 18th, the ship then independently simulated laying a minefield. From 14–29 February, again in company with Montgomery, Gamble traveled south to conduct day battle practice gunnery exercises off the coast of San Diego and Los Angeles. From mid-March to early April, she provided surface escort service for submarines and in May conducted numerous tests of underwater sound equipment. On 6 June, the ship took part in joint exercises with the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. On 6 July, Gamble embarked reservists from the Bay Area for a two week training cruise, exercising off of San Clemente Island, and cruised with a second group of reservists from the San Diego area from 17–30 August.

In late September and early October 1940, the ship conducted mine laying training school, and following a two-day call at Pittsburg, Calif., Gamble returned to Mare Island for maintenance and upkeep on 14 October. The minelayer completed a drydocking (25–31 October), including a Board of Inspection and Survey on the 28th and 29th. Repairs continued into November, and the ship passed her post-repair trials on the 23rd.

After completing her upkeep availability, Gamble prepared to get underway to transfer to her new home port of Pearl Harbor. In company with the other units of Mine Division Five, which also included Breese (DM-18), Ramsay, and Montgomery, Gamble steamed for Hawaii on 3 December 1940. The transit to Pearl Harbor took one week, and after arriving on the 10th, Gamble remained in port for the rest of the month for holiday leave and upkeep.

On 14 January 1941, Gamble commenced routine operations out of Pearl Harbor with Mine Division Five, which became Mine Division Two on 28 January. The division frequently conducted Short and Long Range Battle Practice runs and Battle Mining Practice exercises to maintain war readiness. Gamble spent most of the month of March engaged in exercises with the Pacific Fleet, providing antisubmarine screens for various cruisers and battleships and practicing battle tactics, including a simulation of laying a drifting mine field ahead of the enemy battle line.

In September 1941, Gamble entered a repair availability at Pearl Harbor. The minelayer was in dry dock (16–22 October) and continued repairs into November. Post-repair trials conducted on 13 November evidently did not go as planned as Gamble was towed back to Pearl Harbor by the tug Sunnadin (AT-28). However, by 28 November, the ship was underway off of Lahaina for exercises with Mine Division Two and Battleship Division One. Over the next eight days, Gamble provided antisubmarine screens for Arizona (BB-39) and Nevada (BB-36) and conducted tactical exercises with Mine Division Two. While underway on the morning of 2 December, Gamble picked up a sound contact at 2,800 yards. The ship investigated for more than an hour but did not locate the source of the echo. She returned to port at Pearl Harbor for the weekend on 5 December.

On the morning of 7 December 1941, Gamble lay moored starboard side next to Montgomery, nested with the other ships of Mine Division Two at berth D-3 at Pearl Harbor. The sound of explosions on Ford Island broke the minelayer’s peaceful Sunday morning routine at 0754, followed shortly thereafter by the first of the Japanese carrier-based planes attacking the Pacific Fleet’s ships in the harbor. Gamble’s gunners quickly joined the fire of other warships and had the satisfaction of seeing one enemy plane fall into the water on her port beam.

After the attack, Gamble got underway at 0930 and commenced an antisubmarine patrol. Shortly before noon, the ship picked up a sound contact believed to be a submarine and dropped three depth charges in the contact area with no results. Gamble resumed patrol of the channel approach area, and at 1632, she opened fire on a surfacing submarine. Her initial shot fell short and to the left of the target, while a second shot failed to fire. Sending up an emergency recognition red smoke bomb to identify herself as friendly, Thresher (SS-200), with a critically injured sailor on board, re-submerged immediately, and Gamble ceased firing. An hour later, the minelayer assumed station as antisubmarine screen and plane guard for the carrier Enterprise (CV-6), en route to Pearl Harbor from Wake Island.

The next morning, Gamble detached from Enterprise and began offshore patrol of the Pearl Harbor entrance area. In the following days, the ship investigated several sound contacts and reports of submarines and also escorted naval and merchant ships in the waters surrounding Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. Gamble encountered a floating mine while on patrol on 21 December 1941. However, the mine did not explode when it was sunk by rifle fire, leading to the conclusion that the object was an errant U.S. Navy training mine.

The next afternoon, the minelayer made an underwater sound contact and dropped six depth charges. Twenty minutes later, the ship sighted an object believed to be a periscope at 200 yards on the port beam. While maneuvering to investigate the sighting, Gamble hit an object in the water and dropped six more depth charges at the site, but the ship found no further evidence of a submarine in the area. On the 29th, Gamble pursued another possible periscope sighting and dropped four depth charges but again observed no evidence of a strike.

By early 1942, Gamble had established a routine of conducting antisubmarine patrols, investigating sound contacts for potential enemy submarines, escorting convoys and ships, and occasionally investigating plane crashes at sea. In mid-February, Gamble headed south escorting a three-ship convoy to Pago Pago, Samoa, with Ramsay (DM-16). Then (4–27 March) Gamble joined Ramsay in laying a protective mine field off Tutuila, Samoa. The two minelayers stopped at Apia, at the New Zealand-governed Western Samoa Trust Territory, and returned briefly to Pago Pago before departing on 31 March en route to Suva, Fiji Islands. The ships arrived on 3 April and laid a minefield in Nandi waters (7–14 April).

While rehearsing mine laying with Ramsay and the minesweeper Kingfisher (AM-25) as the operation began on 7 April 1942, however, Gamble hit an uncharted coral pinnacle with her port propeller, which could then no longer operate over five knots. Gamble secured the propeller and continued the mine laying mission with only her starboard engine. On the 10th, two officers and six sailors took the ship’s whaleboat into the minefield to fire at and sink a mine that was floating on the surface, which could reveal the location of the field to the enemy. The men were commended “for courageous and intrepid conduct” at mast two days later.

On 15 April 1942, Gamble proceeded independently to Pago Pago to meet the oiler Cuyama (AO-3) to escort her to Pearl Harbor. While en route to Hawaii on 25 April, the two ships searched unsuccessfully for a downed plane. The search was called off on the morning of the 26th and the ships arrived at Pearl Harbor the next afternoon. At Pearl Harbor, Gamble underwent a 12–day availability period including three days in dry dock to replace the damaged port propeller. At this time, Gamble also switched out her .50 caliber machine guns with 20 millimeter guns.

After completing repair work, Gamble resumed off-shore patrol out of Pearl Harbor and inter-island escort duty on 13 May 1942. From 12–17 June, Gamble escorted the cargo ships Sirius (AK-15) and Midway (AG-41) from Pearl Harbor to Midway Island. On 23 June, Gamble embarked Japanese Cmdr. Kunizo Aiso as a prisoner of war. Cmdr. Aiso served as the chief engineer on board the aircraft carrier Hiryū, which sank on the morning of 5 June during the Battle of Midway. Aiso and 34 crewmen survived afloat at sea for nine days in a cutter until they were rescued by the destroyer seaplane tender Ballard (AVD-10) on the 14th. With Sirius transporting the remaining Hiryū survivors, the original convoy plus the gasoline tanker Kaloli (AOG-13) and seven motor torpedo (PT) boats departed for Pearl Harbor. Armed guards met Gamble upon her return on 1 July to transfer Aiso from the ship.

Following a brief upkeep period with destroyer tender Black Hawk (AD-9) (3–7 July), Gamble returned to her shore patrol and escort duties. On 19 July 1942, the ship engaged in a search and rescue mission after observing a U.S. Navy dive bomber, most likely a Douglas SBD Dauntless, crash but only recovered minor wreckage as the plane sank immediately. Gamble stopped at the Naval Ammunition Depot at West Loch at Pearl Harbor on 22 July to load 85 Mark VI mines and then joined with Breese and Tracy (DM-19) to begin transit to Espíritu Santo Island in the New Hebrides [Vanuatu]. The convoy stopped for fuel at Palmyra on the 25th and Suva, Fiji, on the 31st and arrived at Segond Channel, Espíritu Santo, on 2 August.

The next day, the ships planted mine fields at the entrances to the channel. On the morning of 4 August 1942, the three minelayers got underway to rendezvous with the seaplane tender Curtiss (AV-4) and destroyer seaplane tender McFarland (AVD-14) to safely lead the ships into the eastern entrance of Segond Channel. At the same time, Tucker (DD-374) was leading the cargo ship Nira Luckenbach toward the channel’s western entrance. At 1215, the destroyer struck one of the newly-laid mines as she entered Segond Channel. Three men in the forward fireroom died, and Tucker eventually sank. Later investigation revealed that Tucker had not been told about the new minefield.

Gamble spent the next several weeks patrolling near Espiritu Santo and piloting friendly ships into Segond Channel. During this time, on 7 August 1942, fighting began at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. On 27 August, Gamble joined Task Unit (TU) 62.2.4 to proceed to the Guadalcanal – Tulagi area.

On the morning of 29 August 1942, her lookouts sighted a large enemy submarine that immediately submerged. Gamble made several runs at the submarine, dropping a total of 11 depth charges before losing contact with the enemy ship. After more than an hour of searching, Gamble passed through an oil slick which led them to a large and growing pool of oil. The ship soon reestablished contact with the submarine and dropped ten more depth charges. In this area, Gamble observed “considerable submarine deck planking and other debris” as well as a large air bubble and smaller bubbles of air and oil coming to the surface. Later her victim was identified as Japanese submarine I-123 (Lt. Cmdr. Nakai Makoto, commanding), which signaled “under heavy enemy attack” before she made her final plunge.

At 1330 that afternoon, Gamble proceeded at full speed to Nura Island where she rescued four aviators of Torpedo Squadron (VT) 8 flying from Saratoga (CV-3) who had ditched their damaged TBF-1 Avenger (Bu. No. 00396) [EMN1] five days earlier during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. The minelayer then rejoined her task unit en route to Tulagi Harbor. Continuing to aid in the bitter struggle for Guadalcanal, on 31 August she transported 158 marines to the island. Gamble then returned to Tulagi on 1 September to assist her task unit guide transport William Ward Burrows (AP-6), which ran aground on Sylvia Reef while entering the harbor on 29 August. Gamble succeeded in freeing the troop transport on 2 September, but early the next day, William Ward Burrows grounded again on a shoal and Gamble once more provided towing support. After freeing the transport ship for a second time, Gamble then escorted her to Guadalcanal to unload. The ships went back to Tulagi on the 4th and then proceeded on to Lunga Roads the next day. From there, Gamble escorted William Ward Burrows to Espíritu Santo, where they arrived on 8 September.

Gamble resumed patrol and escort duty in the area around Segond Channel and save for a brief run to Mele Bay, Efate Island, in the New Hebrides (14–16 September), continued with this tasking through the fall of 1942. On 12 September, the ship rescued two aviators whose plane had crashed off Palikulo Bay. One month later, the ship towed plane 11-P-4 to Segond Channel after spotting the Consolidated PBY Catalina having engine trouble and landing in the water off the east coast of Malo Island. Gamble conducted another aircraft search and rescue on 11 November, but the plane’s crew evidently had been rescued by a patrol aircraft before Gamble arrived on the scene. Later that same day, the minelayer was sent to investigate a report of a man adrift on a raft near Malakula Island, but an overnight search yielded no results.

In December 1942, Gamble was assigned off-shore patrol duty and operated off the coasts of Espíritu Santo and Malekula in New Hebrides, and Nouméa in New Caledonia for the next several months. On 21 December, Gamble reinforced the minefield at the eastern entrance of Segond Channel with 42 new mines. The ship also served as convoy escort and antisubmarine screener, making trips to Viti Levu, Fiji; Brisbane, Australia; and Guadalcanal in the early months of 1943. On one such run to Lunga Point, Guadalcanal, a Japanese bomber attacked Gamble’s convoy on 20 March 1943. Three Navy escort ships fired at the plane, but it did not come within range of Gamble’s guns and she did not open fire.

Shortly after midnight on 6 May 1943 in rainy weather and poor visibility, Gamble, Preble (DM-20), and Breese planted more than 250 mines across Blackett Strait in 17 minutes. The narrow western entrance to Kula Gulf between Kolombangara and Kohinggo Islands in the Solomons was a favorite route of the fast and stealthy transport ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s “Tokyo Express.” Just two nights later, very early on 8 May, three Japanese destroyers entered the mined waters, and all three struck the hidden explosives. Kuroshio, the last ship to hit the mines, exploded and sank instantly. Oyashio and Kagerō, both dead in the water and badly damaged by the mine strikes, became targets for American dive bombers after sunrise, and both ships sank later that evening.

On 2 June 1943, Gamble got underway from Dumbea Bay in New Caledonia with Preble, bound for Sydney, Australia, where the crew enjoyed some rest and relaxation (5–15 June). On the morning of the 16th, the ship departed Sydney and headed for Nouméa. Gamble caught up with Preble later in the day, and the two minelayers arrived at Nouméa Harbor on 19 June. The next day, Gamble briefly entered the floating dry dock ARD-2. After steaming into Havannah Harbor at Efate the 24th, three days later Gamble stood out as part of TU 36.2.2 with Pringle (DD-477), Preble, and Breese. The ship refueled at Tulagi on the 29th, and then very early on 30 June during the invasion of New Georgia, Gamble laid a string of mines off the beachhead before returning to Tulagi.

In July 1943, welcome orders sent Gamble back to the continental United States. On 11 July, the minelayer arrived at Viti Levu Island to rendezvous with Curtiss. The ships stopped at Funafuti for fuel on the 13th and departed together the next day. Gamble was detached from Curtiss on the morning of 15 July and continued the voyage to the West Coast independently. After refueling again at Palmyra on the 17th and Pearl Harbor on the 20th, Gamble arrived at San Francisco Bay on 29 July for overhaul at Hunter’s Point Navy Yard. Following dry dock (17–27 August) and post-repair trials on 17 September, Gamble departed the mainland to return to Pearl Harbor on 20 September. Arriving there on the 26th, Gamble spent the next several days engaged in gunnery and submarine exercises and a practice mining run.

Gamble returned to convoy escort and antisubmarine screen duty in the southern Pacific islands on 2 October 1943 when she stood down the channel to escort the attack cargo ship Thuban (AKA-19) on a six-day voyage to Funafuti. In November 1943, Gamble also participated in several mining runs off of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands in support of the Allied offensive there. Early on the morning of 2 November, Gamble, Breese and Sicard (DM-21) laid a minefield in Empress Augusta Bay off Cape Moltke. During this run, Gamble had difficulties with her port mine track, and the last 16 of 85 mines she deployed were launched at irregular intervals. Joined by Tracy and Pruitt (DM-22), the minelayers placed another field in Bougainville Strait on 8 November. Finally, just after midnight on 24 November, Gamble deployed 85 additional mines off Bougainville in company with Tracy, Sicard, and Pruitt. Gamble’s starboard track gear jammed during the last three minutes of this run, and the crew launched her remaining starboard mines by hand.

Through late 1943 and much of 1944, Gamble generally served as convoy escort ship screening for enemy submarines while operating between Guadalcanal and Florida Island in the Solomons; Espíritu Santo; and Nouméa, with additional runs to Suva, Fiji; Finschhaven and New Britain Island, New Guinea; Sydney; and Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands [Kiribati]. Working with Sicard and the coastal minelayer Monadnock (CM-9), Gamble did set more mines at Espíritu Santo and Havannah Harbor on 10 and 14 February 1944. In mid-July, Gamble’s sound gear began to fail, and the ship completed an availability with the destroyer tender Dixie (AD-14) at Purvis Bay (1–7 September) to address the issue.

On 26 September 1944, Gamble departed Purvis Bay, bound for overhaul at San Francisco via Funafuti Harbor in the Ellice Islands [Tuvalu] and Pearl Harbor. Gamble steamed into San Francisco Bay on 12 October and moved the next day to the Bethlehem Steel Repair Yard at Alameda, Calif., to commence a major maintenance and repair availability. Upon completion of overhaul and post-repair trials, Gamble steamed for San Diego on 23 December, arriving the next day. The ship underwent inspection on the 26th and then immediately departed on a shakedown cruise and refresher training through the 31st.

Gamble left San Diego on 7 January 1945 in company with the escort ship French (DE-367), en route to Pearl Harbor. The next day, the large cruiser Alaska (CB-1) joined the pair, and Gamble commenced antisubmarine screening for the convoy until their arrival at Pearl Harbor on 13 January. Gamble set course for Eniwetok in the Marshalls as part of Task Group 51.12 on 27 January but detached from the convoy the next day to screen the attack transport Brule (APA-66), which experienced difficulties with her engines. The two ships reversed course and returned to Pearl Harbor on 31 January.

Getting underway again three days later, Gamble escorted Carteret (APA-70) to Saipan, Marianas Islands. Arriving on 14 February 1945, Gamble then proceeded independently to Iwo Jima in the Kazan Rettō (Volcano Islands), rendezvousing with a convoy en route. Upon her arrival at Iwo Jima on 17 February, Gamble provided fire support, targeting various on-shore positions. During her shelling of the island that afternoon, a direct hit on an ammunition dump exploded an enemy magazine at the foot of Mt. Surabachi, “sending a column of fire, smoke and debris approximately 1,000 feet in the air,” according to her war diarist.

In the early morning hours of 18 February 1945, Gamble provided antisubmarine screening for Task Force 52. She then covered the minelayer Terror (CM-5), which was engaged in fueling operations, and patrolled uneventfully at her assigned station off of Iwo Jima. That evening, Gamble was ordered to join the circular screen for battleship Nevada and assumed her station at 2115. Ten minutes later, a twin-engine plane came straight in on the starboard beam, flying very fast only 15 feet off the water, too low to be picked up by the ship’s radar. Leaving Gamble no time to react with her guns, the aircraft released two 250-pound bombs that struck the minelayer amidships about two feet above the waterline. All of Gamble’s boilers exploded, both firerooms immediately flooded, and the ship stood dead in the water with two holes in her bottom as all hands fought raging fires, jettisoned topside weight, and shored damaged bulkheads. At 0150 on 19 February, Dorsey (DMS-1) took the crippled minelayer in tow to a point about 10 miles northeast of Iwo Jima, and Gamble’s crew spent the rest of the night doing everything they could to stabilize their ship. Fortunately, the sea was calm, and at 0845, everyone except the commanding officer, six officers, and 39 men transferred with their gear to the salvage vessel Clamp (ARS-33).

As a result of the attack, five crewmen died, eight were wounded, and one sailor was missing in action and presumed dead. In his action report for the event written one month later, Lt. Richard J. Peterson, USNR, Gamble’s commanding officer, praised the efforts of his crew on that dreadful night: “It was due to the quick action and quick thinking on the part of several members of this organization that the casualties were kept to a minimum and the ship was kept afloat. The cool headedness and lack of panic on the part of all hands helped the situation appreciably.”

As marines stormed the shores of Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, the salvage party continued to jettison weight and pump water out of Gamble’s ravaged hull. That evening, medium landing ship LSM-126 took her under tow for passage to Saipan. The tug Mataco (AT-86) assumed the tow on the 22nd, and two days later, the ships arrived at Saipan, where Gamble went alongside the destroyer tender Hamul (AD-20) to await a decision on repair and disposition of the ship.

For several months, some hope remained that Gamble would be repaired and would rejoin the Fleet, but on 1 June 1945 the battered minelayer was decommissioned, and her name was stricken from the Navy Register on 22 June. On 16 July 1945, Gamble was towed outside Apra Harbor, Guam, and sunk[EMN2] .

Gamble received seven battle stars for service in World War II.