USS MCCALL DD-400

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS MCCALL DD-400

The Tin Can Sailor, January 1997

Naval hero James Buck served during the Civil War. Despite severe wounds, he remained at the wheel of the steamer BROOKLYN throughout an eight-hour battle on the Mississippi. The destroyer bearing his name was launched on 22 May 1939 and was commissioned on 15 May 1940. Except for brief service with the Pacific Fleet in the spring of 1941, she operated as part of the Atlantic Fleet, serving on convoy escort duty between the U.S. and Iceland and along the eastern seaboard. She continued on escort duty after the U.S. entered the war and steamed between the East Coast and ports in Newfoundland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, North Africa, and the Caribbean.

On 22 August 1942, during one of these crossings, the BUCK was screen flagship for a convoy steaming east out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. At 1730, the sonar on the troopship LETITIA registered a contact. The destroyers SWANSON and INGRAHAM were sent to investigate and could only surmise that the LETITIA=s sonar man had mistaken a school of porpoises for an enemy sub. With the danger past, the three ships headed back to their positions with the convoy. By that time, a dense fog had rolled in reducing visibility to thirty yards. Ordered to escort the LETITIA to her proper station, the BUCK was crossing through the column at 2225, when a ship loomed out of the fog. Before her lookout could shout a warning, the transport AWATEA plowed into the destroyer’s starboard quarter. The impact cut about two thirds through the BUCK’s fantail, broke her keel, and dislodged a 300-pound depth charge, which exploded, further damaging the ship’s fantail and propellers. Seven of the BUCK’s crew died as a result of the collision and ensuing explosion.

The disastrous chain of events had not ended, however. Moments after the BUCK careened away from the AWATEA, her crew was shaken by a tremendous explosion in the general direction of the oiler CHEMUNG. They immediately assumed the oiler had been torpedoed. Not so. Steaming through the blinding fog to investigate the collision of the BUCK and AWATEA, the INGRAHAM had run directly into the path of the CHEMUNG, which tore into the smaller ship. The collision set off her depth charges causing a massive internal explosion. The CHEMUNG backed away, her bow scorched by the blast and several of her crew injured, but any attempt to rescue the crew of the INGRAHAM was out of the question. There was no getting close to the blazing ship. Only ten sailors and one officer escaped.

Meanwhile, the BUCK was floundering with both propellers out of commission. Within a few hours, the port propeller dropped off and eventually, the fantail section, held on only by lines and wires, had to be allowed to sink before it damaged the hull. Taken in tow first by the CHEMUNG and then by the CHEROKEE (AT-66), the BUCK finally reached Boston. Upon completion of repairs in November, she returned to escort duty until June 1943.

Her assignment that month took her to North Africa for patrol duty off Tunisia and Algeria. A month later, as the flagship of Destroyer Squadron 13 with Task Force 86, she participated in the invasion of Sicily. On the morning of 10 July, her squadron, which included the WOOLSEY, LUDLOW, EDISON, BRISTOL, WILKES, NICHOLSON, SWANSON, and ROE, joined the cruisers BROOKLYN and BIRMINGHAM in shelling shore batteries at Licata and fighting off Axis air attacks. The BUCK continued her bombardment, screening, and patrol duties until August. Then, on the evening of 2 August, she and the NICHOLSON were detached to escort a convoy of six liberty ships from Sicily to Algeria. En route, the BUCK’s radar picked up a surface vessel about 5,500 yards distant. When the “pip” suddenly disappeared from the radar screen, her skipper, Lieutenant Commander M. J. Klein, figured they’d surprised a submarine and ordered a search. By 2300, the BUCK had closed to 700 yards, and her sonar confirmed that they did, indeed, have a submarine. During the hunt, Klein called for three depth charge attacks, which finally brought the enemy sub to the bottom, and the BUCK moved in to pick up forty-five survivors from what they learned was the Italian submarine ARGENTO.

After escorting a convoy to the U.S., the BUCK returned to the Mediterranean in late September 1943 for the invasion and occupation of Italy. During the night of 8/9 October 1943, she was on duty patrolling the approaches to Salerno. Shortly after midnight, she made radar contact and all hands prepared to hunt the enemy down. The enemy, however, already had targeted the BUCK. Two torpedoes tore into her bow and the subsequent explosions caused such devastation that the ship had to be abandoned within three minutes after she was hit. She sank a minute later taking some 150 of her crew with her. Among those lost was her captain. Ninety-seven of her crew were pulled from the water by the GLEAVES (DD-423) and the British LCT-170.

USS MCCALL DD-400 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

The second McCall (DD‑400) was laid down 17 March 1936 at the Union Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., San Francisco, Calif.; launched 20 November 1937; sponsored by Miss Eleanor Kempff; and commissioned 22 June 1938, Lt. Comdr. J. H. Whelchel in command.

Assigned to the Pacific, McCall reported for duty in Destroyers, Battle Force, 16 January 1039. Less than 2 years later, on 7 December 1941, she was steaming with the carrier Enterprise en route to Pearl Harbor from Wake when she received word of the Japanese attack on the former. McCall’s task force (TF 8) immediately commenced a search for the Japanese Fleet. By the time the force returned to Pearl Harbor only one enemy vessel had been sighted, the submarine I‑70 which was sunk by the force-s aircraft on the 10th. For the remainder of 1941 McCall, in the screen of Enterprise, stayed in the Hawaiian Islands area to guard against followup attack by the Asiatic enemy.

As the Japanese advanced south and east through the islands of the southwest Pacific, McCall headed in that direction with Enterprise and Yorktown for raids on Japanese installations in the southern Marshalls and northern Gilberts. Making the strikes on 1 February 1942, the carrier forces and bombardment groups completed their missions in spite of heavy aerial resistence and were back at Oahu 5 February. On the 15th, the force (now designated TF 16) got underway for Wake and Marcus Islands against which they launched surprise attacks, 24 February and 4 March, respectively, and then returned to Pearl Harbor, 10 March.

McCall spent the next 6 weeks on patrol in Hawaiian waters and then did escort duty from Hawaii to Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga Islands. At the end of May she sailed north to the Aleutians as the Japanese stretched toward Alaska. Throughout the summer months she patrolled out of Kodiak and participated in the bombardment of Japanese targets in the western Aleutians. She returned to Pearl Harbor 30 September, underwent overhaul and got underway with TF 11 for the South Pacific, 12 November 1942, to join in the fierce struggle for Guadalcanal. In the Solomons area for the next 10 months, the destroyer operated from Noumea as she cruised on antisubmarine patrols and escorted carriers and convoys. On 19 September 1943 she departed to escort a convoy to San Francisco. There she underwent overhaul and then exercises along the west coast before sailing west again.

Early in 1944 she joined TF 58, the fast carrier force, and put to sea 19 January, to screen the “flattops” as their planes raided Wotje, Taroa, and Eniwetok during February. McCall next screened the carriers as strikes were conducted against the Palaus. In March the force commenced operations from newly won Majuro and from there McCall sailed to guard the carriers as they made heavy strikes on the Palaus, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai, 30 March to 1 April; covered the landings at Hollandia, 22 April; and raided Truk, Satawan, and Ponape, 29 April to 1 May.

After brief repairs at Pearl Harbor, McCall rejoined TF 58 at Majuro 4 June. Two days later the force sortied for operations in the Marianas. First, they directly supported the landings on Guam, Rota, and Saipan, and then raided Iwo and Chici Jima to prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the Marianas through those islands. Then on 18 June they received word of a Japanese force sighted between the Philippines and the Marianas.

On the 19th, the Battle of the Philippine Sea began as enemy carrier based planes attacked the 5th Fleet. By the end of the 2‑day battle, the Japanese had lost three carriers, 92 percent of its carrier planes and 72 percent of its float planes, a disastrous toll in a war based largely on naval airpower. After pursuing the beaten enemy, the carriers, with McCall in the screen, turned their attention to the Bonins and then retired to Eniwetok, arriving 27 June.

By 4 July, the fast carriers were again raiding Iwo Jima. They then steamed back to the Marianas where McCall, with Gridley, took up patrol off Guam, 10 July. At 1820 on the 10th, McCall’s crew observed a heliograph from a cliff south of Uruno Point. Identifying the operator as friendly, a motor whaleboat, manned by a volunteer landing party, was dispatched to effect the rescue of the message sender. In spite of being within range of 6‑inch coastal batteries, the rescue was accomplished and G. R. Tweed, RM1c, USN, having been on Guam since 1939 and in hiding since the Japanese occupation, was brought on board. With him he brought information on Japanese strength, morale, prelanding casualties, and disposition of troops and guns.

During the next 9 weeks, McCall guarded the carriers as they struck again at Iwo Jima and then moved on to support offensive operations against the Palaus, Yap, and Ulithi. By 10 October they were off Okinawa, moving from there to Formosa and Luzon. On the 23d, covering the forces in Leyte Gulf, they turned north again to engage a Japanese carrier force, now bereft of planes because of losses sustained in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and off Formosa. On the 25th, the enemy force was engaged off Cape Engaño. Losses to the Japanese by the 27th included three cruisers in addition to several destroyers.

McCall spent most of November off Leyte in support of land operations there. Then after availability at Manus she sortied 27 December for Lingayen Gulf to support the Luzon invasion. In mid‑January 1945, she was attached to TG 78.12 for transport convoy escort duty and on the 28th resumed fire support duties.

On 19 February, McCall arrived in the transport area off Iwo Jima. Remaining there well into March, she screened the transports and provided shore bombardment, harassing and illumination fire services. On 27 March, she departed the Volcano Islands area for Pearl Harbor and the west coast, arriving at San Diego 22 April. Within the week she got underway for a scheduled overhaul at New York. Her yard work completed by 4 August, she was undergoing refresher training at Casco Bay when Japan surrendered 14 August.

Two months later she entered the Norfolk, Va., Navy Yard where she decommissioned 30 November 1945. Struck from the Naval Register 28 January 1947 and sold to the Hugo Neu Corp., New York, 17 November 1947, McCall was scrapped 20 March 1948.

McCall received nine battle stars for World War II service.