Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer (2f/1m).
L/B/D:
376.5 × 41.1 × 12.5 (114.8m × 12.5m × 3.8m). Tons:
2,220 disp. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
336. Arm.:
6 × 5 (3 × 2), 11 × 20mm, 4 × 40mm; 6 × 21TT; 6 dcp, 2 dct. Mach.:
geared turbines, 60,000 shp, 2 screws; 36.5 kts. Built:
Bath Iron Works, Bath, Me.; 1943.
Named for Bartlett Laffey, who was awarded a Medal of Honor for his help in repulsing a Confederate assault near Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1864, USS Laffey was the second destroyer of the name to see action in World War II. The first, a Bristol-class destroyer (DD-459), was a veteran of the Solomons campaign and was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on November 13-14, 1942.
Commissioned in February 1944, the second Laffey escorted a transatlantic convoy in May and covered the Allied landings on D-day (June 6), where she pounded German shore positions at Utah Beach, Baie de la Seine, near Cherbourg, France. At the end of June, she sailed for the United States and then for the Pacific, where she joined Task Force 38 in November. She took part in the invasion of the Philippines, screening aircraft carriers and covering landings at Ormoc Bay and Mindoro in December, and Lingayen Gulf in January. As part of Task Force 54, in March she took part in the invasion of Okinawa. On April 14, Laffey was assigned to radar picket duty about 30 miles north of Okinawa, together with two landing craft support ships, LCS-51 and LCS-116. Radar picket ships were responsible for detecting and engaging enemy aircraft as far as possible from ground troops, and they came under intense attack from kamikazes and other aviators throughout the Okinawa campaign. Laffey's first two days on the picket line were relatively quiet, but at 0744, on April 16, the first Japanese plane appeared, only to be driven off by Laffey's guns and sunk by a U.S. fighter from combat air patrol. The next contact was made at 0829, when four Japanese dive-bombers were splashed by Laffey's gunners. Over the course of the next 62 minutes, Laffey came under direct attack from 18 more Japanese planes. Ten were shot down, but Laffey was hit by 5 kamikazes, and took bomb hits and near misses from 8 more before the attack was over. With 32 crew dead and 71 wounded, Laffey limped back to Okinawa and eventually made her way back to Puget Sound for rebuilding.
"The ship that would not die" returned to duty in the Pacific in October 1945. Put in reserve from 1947 to 1951, she joined Task Force 77 in the Korean War through 1952. Transferred to Norfolk, she spent the remainder of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean until decommissioned in 1975. Six years later, she was opened to the public as a museum ship at the Patriots Point Maritime Museum in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.
Becton, Ship That Would Not Die. U.S. Navy, DANFS.
