World War II Service
As newer and more modern destroyers began joining the fleet some of the old ships were assigned to other duties such as tending seaplanes, laying or sweeping mines, or for a newer innovation in modern warfare, carrying fully equipped troops for assault landings as fast transports.
In the Guadalcanal Campaign, neither side enjoyed the overwhelming local naval and air supremacy which ensured victory in every other amphibious operation of the war. This necessitated an increase in the number of high-speed transports, hybrid warships which combined the functions of transports and destroyers. The concept of the high-speed transport embodied sufficient armament for the ship to defend herself against smaller warships and to support the troops she carried with sufficient speed to enable her to outrun more heavily armed ships.
APDs performed arduous service. They transported troops to beachheads, served as escorts for transports and supply vessels, conducted anti-submarine patrols and survey duties, operated with Underwater Demolition Teams and commando units, performed messenger and transport duties, conveyed passengers and mail to and from forward units, and were involved in mine sweeping operations. They were attacked by submarines, surface ships and aircraft (including kamikazes), and many were damaged or sunk.
Read more about this topic: High Speed Transport
Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or service:
“I have lived in both worlds. And I think I prefer, to the indifferent, haphazard, money- mad hurry of the Outside World, that of my world; that sympathy and understanding grown shadowy since I have been away from it so long, still is more real to me than the world I am in now. Not only the spangles and the gay trappings made it colorful; there was an inner color that warmed the soul. And that I miss.”
—Josephine Demott Robinson (1865–1948)
“You went to meet the shell’s embrace of fire
On Vimy Ridge; and when you fell that day
The war seemed over more for you than me,
But now for me than you the other way.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The more the specific feelings of being under obligation range themselves under a supreme principle of human dependence the clearer and more fertile will be the realization of the concept, indispensable to all true culture, of service; from the service of God down to the simple social relationship as between employer and employee.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)