USS Lovelace: Difference between revisions

After [[Shakedown (testing)|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 [[Noumea]], [[New Caledonia]], arriving on 8 February.

''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.