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{{Short description|Buckley-class destroyer escort}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=USS Lovelace (DE-198) at Nouméa, New Caledonia, in February 1944 (19-LCM-DE198-1).jpg
|Ship caption=
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag= {{USN flag|1946}}
|Ship name=USS ''Lovelace''
|Ship namesake= Lovelace
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=[[Norfolk Navy Yard]], [[Portsmouth, Virginia]]
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|Ship launched= 4 July 1943
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned= 7 November 1943
|Ship decommissioned= 22 May 1946
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck= 1 July 1967
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=3 [[battle star]]s (World War II)
|Ship fate= Sunk as target off California, 25 April 1968
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class= {{sclass|Buckley|destroyer escort}}
|Ship displacement={{convert|1400|LT|t|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship length= {{convert|306|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam= {{convert|26|ft|9|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft= {{convert|13|ft|6|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship speed= {{convert|24|kn|lk=in}}
|Ship range={{convert|4940|nmi|km|abbr=on}}
|Ship complement=213 officers and enlisted
|Ship armament=*3 × single Mk.22 [[3"/50 caliber gun]]s
*1 × quad Mk.2 [[1.1"/75 caliber gun]]
*8 × single [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|20 mm Mk.4 AA guns]]
*1 × triple {{convert|21|in|mm|0|abbr=on}} Mk.15 [[torpedo tube]]s
*1 × [[Hedgehog (weapon)|Hedgehog]] Mk.10 [[anti-submarine mortar]] (144 rounds)
*8 × Mk.6 [[Depth charge#Delivery mechanisms|K-gun]] depth charge projectors
*2 × Mk.9 depth charge tracks
|Ship armor=
|Ship notes=
}}
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'''USS ''Lovelace'' (DE-198)''' was a {{sclass|Buckley|destroyer escort}} in the [[United States Navy]]. She was named for naval aviator Donald Alexander Lovelace (1906–1942).
''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.
==Service history==
After [[shakedown cruise|shakedown]], Lovelace departed Norfolk on 2 January 1944 never to return to the east coast of the United States. This [[flagship]] of Destroyer Escort Division 37 picked up convoys at [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|Guantanamo]], the [[Panama Canal Zone]], and the [[Society Islands]] as she steamed across the southern [[Pacific]] to [[Nouméa]], [[New Caledonia]], arriving on 8 February.
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 [[Melanesia]]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-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-Philippine escort vessel from 8 January 1945 until mid-July. However, during this period her [[anti-aircraft]] capabilities were increased by the installation of air-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|Colbert|APA-145|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 [[Berth (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.
==Awards==
Lovelace was awarded three [[battle stars]] for [[World War II]] service.
==References==
*
==External
{{Commons category|USS Lovelace (DE-198)}}
* {{navsource|06/198|USS Lovelace}}
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{{Buckley class destroyer escort}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelace (DE-198)}}
[[Category:Buckley
[[Category:Ships built in Portsmouth, Virginia]]
[[Category:World War II frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States]]
[[Category:1943 ships]]
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