USS PHELPS DD-360

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS PHELPS DD-360

The Tin Can Sailor, October 1996

USS PHELPS was the first of the new flotilla leader destroyers to be built at Bethlehem Steel’s Quincy, Massachusetts shipyard. Laid down on January 2, 1934, she was launched nineteen months later, and commissioned by the end of February 1936.

DD-360 was named for Thomas Stowell Phelps, Whose more than forty-year-career in the Navy included service around the world. His courageous leadership while in command of the steam sloop JUNIATA while attacking Fort Fisher during the Civil War was noted in a number of dispatches. The fall of the massive earthwork fortress protecting Wilmington, NC closed the final port available to Confederate blockade-runners and denied supplies to the beleaguered Southern armies in the last year of the war.

USS PHELPS was immediately assigned to the Pacific fleet upon completing her shakedown cruise and she spent the prewar years with the Battle Force, Pacific Fleet, home-ported in San Diego. When the Japanese attacked the base facilities at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, PHELPS was moored with most of DESDIV 1 alongside the destroyer tender DOBBIN (AD-3) in East Loch. Rapidly bringing both 1.1-inch anti-aircraft weapons into action, PHELPS would be one of the few destroyers to be specifically credited with downing a Japanese plane during the attack.

DD-360 was assigned in the-early months of the war to protect the carrier LEXINGTON (CV-2) in the furious air battles around Port Moresby, New Guinea. Later, the destroyer screened the carrier at the battle of the Coral Sea. The American force succeeded in locating only one of the enemy’s carriers; aircraft from the other two penetrated LEXINGTON’s screen and heavily damaged the big carrier. Gasoline fires ignited aboard the big carrier and PHELPS was called in to sink the doomed flattop with two well-placed torpedoes.

DD-360 participated in most of the major fleet actions in the Pacific. She screened the carriers at the battle of Midway in June of 1942, then transferred to Guadalcanal to defend the beachhead. PHELPS was shifted to the confused action around Attu and Kiska west of Alaska to hammer Japanese forces in the summer of 1943, then entered the cauldron of the central Pacific. Her accurate gunnery supported operations in the Marshalls, blasting Kwajalein and Eniwetok. After a brief assignment screening the support tankers for the fleet’s Palau-strike, PHELPS went on to destroy Japanese positions around the landing beaches.

Like many of her sisters, DD-360 returned to Charleston Navy Yard for alterations. Her single-purpose 5-inch weapons would be replaced with dual-purpose mounts, and she would exchange her torpedo tubes for a more extensive anti-aircraft outfit. The plan was for PHELPS to return to the Pacific after serving as an escort for convoys. After four trips to the Mediterranean, PHELPS returned to New York. Her service in the Pacific was no longer needed, the war was drawing to a close.

DD-360 was decommissioned on November 6, 1945 and stricken from the Navy list on January 28, 1947. She was ultimately scrapped at the Northern Metals Company in Philadelphia, PA.

USS PHELPS DD-360 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2019

Phelps (DD-360) was laid down 2 January 1934 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy, Mass.; launched 18 July 1935; sponsored by Mrs. Richard A. Kearny; and commissioned 26 February 1936, Comdr. Albert H. Rooks in command.

Following peacetime duty in the Pacific, Phelps shot down one enemy plane at Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. She aided the carrier Lexington in air battles against the Japanese near Port Moresby, New Guinea, in February and March 1942.

Suffering no casualties in the Battle of the Coral Sea 4 to 8 May, she helped to sink Lexington (CV-2) on 8 May to prevent enemy capture of that carrier.

In June 1942 she protected the American carriers that dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese Navy in the Battle of Midway. In August 1942 she guarded forces invading Guadalcanal. After a visit to the west coast in October, she participated in landings upon Attu, Alaska, in May 1943. After bombarding Kiska, Alaska, she provided gunfire support for landings at Makin Atoll in November 1943. In the Marshall Islands campaign in February 1944, she bombarded Kwajalein and Eniwetok. In March she guarded tankers during a strike on the Palau Islands. In June she bombarded Saipan to protect American forces that had landed there on the 15th.

Following duty at Saipan, she steamed via the Panama Canal to Charleston, S.C., for armament alterations, arriving 2 August. Departing Norfolk Va., in November, she escorted a convoy to Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria. After three more convoy escort voyages to the Mediterranean in 1945, she arrived at New York 10 June.

Decommissioned 6 November 1945, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register 28 January 1947, and scrapped by Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

Phelps received twelve battle stars for World War II service.