USS Ardent (AM-340) - Ship Shoots Down Japanese Planes

Ship Shoots Down Japanese Planes

Upon reaching Saipan on the 25th, the minesweeper embarked 20 marines and loaded 149 sacks of mail for delivery at Iwo Jima. She arrived back at that island on 1 March but shaped a course for Ulithi the next day as escort for Task Unit (TU) 51.29.3. A few weeks later, Ardent got underway with TG 52.4 to take part in the assault on Okinawa. She began minesweeping operations on the 24th and continued them through the 31st, the unit to which she was attached destroying 17 mines during this time period. During frequent enemy air attacks, the minesweeper took several Japanese planes under fire. On 26 March, an enemy plane under fire from the nearby fast minelayer USS Adams (DM-27) started a glide for USS Ardent's stern. The minesweeper opened fire and splashed the plane 300 yards (270 m) away.

On four occasions on 28 March, Japanese aircraft approached Ardent and her consorts. An adjacent formation shot down the first, 5,000 yards (4,600 m) from USS Ardent's port beam. Combined fire from Adams and Ardent, as well as other ships in the formation, splashed the second, 1,200 yards (1,100 m) on the port beam. Ardent opened fire on the third aircraft, and saw it splash, the victim of a barrage put up by a formation of ships on the starboard quarter. USS Adams accounted for the fourth enemy aircraft. Later that same day, the minesweeper USS Skylark (AM-63) struck a mine and sank; Ardent rescued 19 survivors.