World War II
After shakedown training out of San Diego, California, Heermann joined the 5th Fleet 21 October 1943 for Operation Galvanic, the assault on the Gilbert Islands, the second major offensive thrust in the Navy's conquest of Japan's far-flung Pacific empire. She arrived off Tarawa in Rear Admiral Harry W. Hill's Southern Attack Force 20 November. Her guns sank a small enemy craft inside the lagoon and the next 2 days assisted troops ashore with close-in fire support. With the island secured, she returned to Pearl Harbor for voyage repairs and training which ended 23 January when she sailed in the screen of an attack transport reserve force.
Read more about this topic: USS Heermann (DD-532)
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“I have everything in the world that is necessary to happiness, good faith, good friends and all the work I can possibly do. I think God’s greatest blessing to the human race was when He sent man forth into the world to earn his bread by the sweat of his face. I believe in toil, in the dignity of labor, but I also believe in adequate compensation for that toil.”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)
“In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.”
—Croesus (d. c. 560 B.C.)