USS Lovelace: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Buckley-class destroyer escort in the United States Navy}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=FebruaryJanuary 20132022}}

|Ship class= {{sclass-|Buckley|destroyer escort}}

'''USS ''Lovelace'' (DE-198)''' was a {{sclass-|Buckley|destroyer escort}} in the [[United States Navy]]. She was named for naval aviator [[Donald Lovelace|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, with [[Lt. Comdr.]] R. D. de Kay, Jr., in command.

After [[Shakedownshakedown (testing)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 [[NoumeaNouméa]], [[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 [[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-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 (U.S. 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.

{{CommonscatCommons category|USS Lovelace (DE-198)}}