USS MELVIN DD-680

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS MELVIN DD-680

The Tin Can Sailor, April 2006

By the summer of 1944, the destroyer MELVIN (DD‑680) was part of the island-hopping operations of the Marianas Campaign and was engaged, primarily in hunting down and destroying the enemy’s submarine force that threatened Allied invasion forces. At 2206 on the night of 13 June 1944, the MELVIN’s radar picked up the RO-36 on the surface and her guns quickly scored a hit. The boat dove, but couldn’t escape. By 2239, the destroyer’s sonar found her, and six minutes later she loosed the first of three depth-charge attacks that sent the submarine to the bottom. She was steaming off northern Saipan a few hours later when her guns sent an enemy merchantman to the bottom. 

Continuing through the summer with the Allied advance from Saipan to Tinian, Palau, and Hollandia, the MELVIN arrived at Guadalcanal in mid-September and at month’s end took part in the capture and occupation of the southern Palaus. On 11 October, she screened landing craft during the assault on Dulag. Shortly after midnight on 20 October, she steamed into the Leyte Gulf where she engaged in screening patrols between Dinagat and Hibuson Islands.

In the early hours of the 26th, she joined DesRon 54 in the torpedo attack that opened the Battle of Surigao Strait. With the REMEY (DD‑688) and MCGOWAN (DD‑678) of the Eastern Attack Group, the MELVIN began launching torpedoes soon after 0300. Two of her torpedoes found their mark, tearing into the battleship FUSO, which exploded and sank at about 0338.  Following their attack, the destroyers retired up the Dinagat coast to Hibuson. Within 48 hours, the MELVIN was en route to Hollandia, and duty escorting convoys resupplying the Philippines.

Subsequent escort duties took the MELVIN to the Lingayen Gulf, where on 11 January 1945, she provided illumination and fire support during the assault on Luzon. The following month found her screening the fast carriers of TF 38/58 as they steamed north to launch their planes against Honshu and to provide direct air cover for the Iwo Jima campaign. On the 21st, the MELVIN  aided the damaged SARATOGA (CV‑3) in her fight against fires and enemy planes, splashing three, and, then, escorted her to Eniwetok for repairs.

Her next major action was with the fast carriers for the 1 April invasion of Okinawa. For the next 61 days, the MELVIN remained at sea, guarding the carriers, providing fire support for the troops ashore, and patrolling on picket station. She continued her screening duties in the Ryukyus and during raids on Kyushu through June and was with the carriers on 1 July as they steamed north for their last deployment against Japan. She operated with the carrier force off the enemy’s homeland, as its planes bombed industrial and military centers on Honshu and Hokkaido. The MELVIN left the carriers on 10 August to join TF 92 in an anti‑shipping sweep and bombardment of Paramushiro in the Aleutians. She was in Adak when  she received word of the Japanese surrender, and new orders to return to Japan for occupation duty with minesweepers off Northern Honshu. On 12 October she departed for the United States and decommissioning at San Diego on 31 May 1946.

The MELVIN received 10 battle stars for her World War II service. Admiral Barry Atkins, who was the MELVIN’s commanding officer at the time of the sinking of the FUSO died this past November at his home in Richmond, Virginia. He was 94. Admiral Atkins was a 1932 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and retired from the navy in 1959. He was awarded the Navy Cross for “extraordinary heroism” at the Battle of Surigao Straits.

USS MELVIN DD-680 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, August 2015

The second Melvin (DD‑680) was laid down 6 July 1943 by Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Kearny, N.J.; launched 17 October 1943; sponsored by Miss Gertrude C. Bailey, grandniece of Lt. (jg.) J. T. Melvin; and commissioned 24 November 1943, Comdr. Warner R. Edsall In command.

Following shakedown off Bermuda, Melvin sailed for the Pacific 1 February 1944. Arriving Pearl Harbor 4 March, she got underway for Majuro 5 days later and for the next month conducted antisubmarine patrols and participated in the blockade of enemy‑held atolls in the Marshalls, returning to Pearl Harbor 2 May. There she underwent intensive fire support training and 31 May departed with TG 52.17 for Saipan. Approaching that island on the night of 13 and 14 June, she sank an enemy submarine, RO‑36. A few hours later, while steaming off northern Saipan, she again engaged an enemy vessel, this time a merchantman, which burned brightly for a few hours before sinking. For the next 23 days she provided counter battery fire; conducted antisubmarine patrols, damaging an enemy submarine on the 17th; served as call fire ship for Marines on the beach; escorted ships from Eniwetok; and participated in the bombardment of Tinian.

On 8 July Melvin sailed for Eniwetok, whence on the 18th she sailed in the screen of the transports carrying troops to Guam, off which she screened transports and oilers from 22 July to 7 August. After preparations at Guadalcanal, from 8 to 21 September she took part in the capture and occupation of the southern Palaus, then joined TG 33.19 for the unopposed occupation of Ulithi. After escorting LSTs to Hollandia, she arrived Manus to stage for the invasion of Leyte.

Now with TG 79.11, Melvin sailed 11 October toward the Philippines in the screen of the landing craft to be used in the assault on Dulag. Soon after midnight 20 December she entered Leyte Gulf and took up her assigned screening station between Dinagat and Hibuson Islands, carrying out similar screening patrols for the next 4 days. In the early hours of the 25th, she joined in DesRon 54’s torpedo attack which opened the Battle of Surigao Strait. Assigned with Remey (DD‑688) and McGowan (DD‑678) to the Eastern Attack Group, Melvin began launching torpedoes soon after 0300, scoring on Fuso, which exploded and sank at about 0338. Following their attack, the destroyers retired up the Dinagat coast to Hibuson from where they witnessed the deadly barrage from Admiral Oldendorf-s battleline.

Within 48 hours, Melvin was en route to Hollandia, and duty escorting resupply convoys to the Philippines into December, when she returned to the Solomons to rehearse for the assault on Luzon. She stood out of Purvis Bay, Florida Island, 25 December, escorting transports to Manus and then on to Lingayen Gulf. She arrived with her charges 11 January 1945, and provided illumination and fire support as well as screening services. Continuing to cover the landings until the 15th, she met Japanese suicide attackers, as swimmers, in boats, and in planes, with equal determination.

From Luzon, Melvin sailed south to Leyte, then to the Carolines and a new assignment, screening the fast carriers of TF 38/58. Steaming north with that force 10 February, Melvin guarded the flattops as their planes raided Honshu and then provided direct air cover for the Iwo Jima campaign. On the 21st, she aided damaged Saratoga (CV‑3) in her fight against fires and enemy planes, splashing three, and then escorted her to Eniwetok for repairs.

By mid‑March she had rejoined the fast carriers at Ulithi, sailing northwest with them on the 14th to prepare the way for the Okinawa campaign. For the next 61 days Melvin remained at sea, guarding the carriers, providing fire support for the troops embattled after 1 April, and patrolling on picket station. After a brief respite at Ulithi in mid‑May, she returned to the Ryukyus on the 24th for raids on enemy installations in those islands and on Kyushu. Mid‑June brought another brief respite from the war while the destroyer was docked in San Pedro Bay. She was underway again 1 July as the carriers steamed north for their last deployment against Japan. In the next month and a half, the force operated off the enemy-s homeland, shelling and bombing industrial and military centers on Honshu and Hokkaido.

Melvin remained with the carriers until 10 August when she sailed north to join TF 92 in an antishipping sweep and bombardment of Paramushiro. That mission completed on the 12th, she sailed east to Ada where she received word of the Japanese surrender, and new orders to return to Japan for occupation duty with minesweepers off northern Honshu. On 12 October she departed for the United States, arriving at San Francisco 4 November. At San Diego, 31 May 1946, she decommissioned and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Melvin recommissioned 26 February 1951 and sailed 1 June for Newport to join the Atlantic Fleet-s DesRon 24 and bolster the 2d and 6th Fleets so that they could spare destroyers for the U.N. effort in Korea. For 2 1⁄2 years she cruised off the east coast and in the Caribbean, deploying to the Mediterranean from 22 April to 8 October 1952 and 22 April to 6 June 1953.

On 13 January 1954 she again decommissioned and joined the Reserve Fleet at Charleston, S.C. She remained berthed there until 1960, when she was reassigned to the Philadelphia Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, where she has remained into 1969.

Melvin received 10 battle stars for World War II service.