World War II North Atlantic Operations
Following shakedown training in waters off Bermuda, J. Richard Ward reached Charleston, South Carolina, 1 September 1943 where she joined Atlantic convoy escort forces. Steaming between Norfolk, Virginia, and Gibraltar in the months that followed, the ship made three complete convoy voyages in support of the Allied effort in Europe. After training in March 1944, the ship was assigned to a hunter-killer group built around USS Tripoli (CVE-64). Departing New York 15 March, the ships patrolled the Atlantic between the Brazilian coast and the Cape Verde Islands. No German submarines were encountered; and they returned to New York 18 June 1944.
J. Richard Ward was assigned school ship duties at Norfolk during July 1944, and in August was assigned to another hunter-killer group. This unit, headed by USS Core (CVE-13), a veteran of the Battle of the Atlantic, sailed 8 August. After a short training period off Bermuda, the ships began scouring the Atlantic for submarines, making attacks on several sound contacts during August. After replenishing at Argentia, Newfoundland, the task group continued operations against German submarines, now greatly reduced in numbers, before returning to New York 9 October. American antisubmarine tactics and skill had once again made the sea-lanes safe.
From October 1944 to January 1945, J. Richard Ward performed her tactical mission during pilot qualifications. She sailed again 24 January for antisubmarine patrol in the heavy weather of the north Atlantic, returning 28 March. She was at sea on her final Atlantic cruise when the German surrender came, and returned to New York 11 May 1945.
Read more about this topic: USS J. Richard Ward (DE-243)
Famous quotes containing the words world, war, north, atlantic and/or operations:
“Everything in the world can be changed, my dear Florestan, but the human being.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The peace conference must not adjourn without the establishment of some ordered system of international government, backed by power enough to give authority to its decrees. ... Unless a league something like this results at our peace conference, we shall merely drop back into armed hostility and international anarchy. The war will have been fought in vain ...”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)
“Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.”
—Philip Guedalla (1889–1944)
“Tell [the next Miss America] she is taking on a great responsibility. A responsibility to herself, to her people, to the Miss American Pageant, the people of Atlantic City, her state and her nation. Tell her the country and the world will judge America by her.”
—Colleen Kay Hutchins (b. c. 1932)
“You can’t have operations without screams. Pain and the knife—they’re inseparable.”
—Jean Scott Rogers. Robert Day. Mr. Blount (Frank Pettingell)