USS Lovelace: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

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.