USS Lovelace: Difference between revisions

''Lovelace'' was laid down on [[22 May]] [[1943]]; launched on [[4 July]] 1943 by [[Norfolk Navy Yard]], [[Portsmouth, Virginia|Portsmouth]], [[Virginia]]; [[Sponsor (military)|sponsored]] by Mrs. Donald A. Lovelace, [[widow]]; and commissioned on [[7 November]] [[1943]], with [[Lt. Comdr.]] R. D. de Kay, Jr., in command.

Escort and screening duties in the [[Solomon Islands]] preceded her departure on [[19 April]] for the [[New Guinea]] battle zone. Arriving off [[Jayapura|Hollandia]] (now [[Jayapura]], [[Indonesia]]) without incident on [[24 April]], she screened the debarking of the second wave of relief troops. Later ''Lovelace'' interrupted her New Guinea coastal patrol and escort missions on [[8 July]] to bombard beach targets at [[Toem]] and on [[22 July]] entered a floating [[drydock]] at [[Milne Bay]]. A more important cessation from an almost continuous sailing schedule occurred a month later at New Caledonia, where new 20  mm guns were installed.

''Lovelace'' left the [[MelanesianMelanesia]]n groups on [[15 October]] sailing northwest to the [[Kossol Straits]], [[Palau Islands]], and then westward to [[Leyte Gulf]]. She arrived on [[25 October]] just as a major naval battle was beginning some sixty miles away. While protecting [[7th Fleet]] replenishment units, she [[Catastrophic kill|splashed]] her first enemy plane on [[26 October]]. Six days later en route to Kossol Straits the screen was heavily attacked by [[kamikaze|suicide planes]], but the convoy fought through. On [[21 November]] ''Lovelace'' was credited with an assist in [[Catastrophic kill|downing]] an enemy bomber attacking its Hollandia‑boundHollandia-bound convoy.

After a period of refresher [[Anti-submarine warfare|antisubmarine]] training off [[Sansapoor]], [[New Guinea]], the destroyer escort joined [[TF 78]] en route to the [[Philippines]]. ''Lovelace'' continued to operate primarily as an intra‑Philippineintra-Philippine escort vessel from [[8 January]] [[1945]] until mid‑Julymid-July. However, during this period her [[antiaircraftanti-aircraft]] capabilities were increased by the installation of air‑searchair-search [[radar]] at [[Manus Island|Manus]] in the [[Admiralties]]. In July her zone of operations expanded to include [[Ulithi]], and on [[9 August]], in the lull between air attacks, she first closed [[Okinawa]]. When she returned in September, it was the weather rather than the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] that posed the threat. Only slightly damaged herself on [[19 September]], she went to the assistance of the ''[[{{USS Coulter (|Colbert|APA-145)|USS Coulter]]''3}}, an [[attack transport]] loaded with liberated U.S. [[war prisoners]], after the ship had hit a drifting [[Naval mine|mine]]. After seeing the troopship safely back to [[Buckner Bay]], ''Lovelace'' returned to the Philippines; and on [[1 October]] the ship departed [[Subic Bay]] for the [[United States]] in company with the ships of Escort Division 37.

Arriving in [[San Diego]], [[California]] on [[23 October]], ''Lovelace'' reached the end of twenty-one active months of naval service. [[Ship decommissioning|Decommissioned]] on [[22 May]] [[1946]], she was [[berthBerth (moorings)|berthed]] at [[Bremerton]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], and [[Struck off|struck]] on [[1 July]] [[1967]]. ''Lovelace'' performed her last duty for the Navy by acting as a target for destruction on [[25 April]] [[1968]].

*[http {{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/l8l/lovelace.htm USS Lovelace entry] at [[Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]]html}}

==External See also links==

[[Category:Buckley -class destroyer escorts|Lovelace]]

[[Category:Ships built in Portsmouth, Virginia|Lovelace]]