USS Neuendorf (DE-200) - Service History

Service History

Following shakedown off Bermuda and availability at the Charleston Navy Yard, Neuendorf, a unit of CortDiv 37, proceeded to New Orleans where she joined troop transports en route to Panama. Transiting the Canal, the destroyer escort headed west, arriving at Nouméa on 28 January 1944. Through March she escorted supply and transport vessels in the Solomons and the New Hebrides and guarded fleet oilers as they rendezvoused with ships operating against Truk and the Palaus.

Next assigned to the 7th Fleet, she reported for duty at Milne Bay, New Guinea, on 7 April. From there, she completed an escort run to Lae and then shepherded resupply echelons to the newly seized beaches at Hollandia, Aitape, and Tanahmerah Bay. By 18 May, she stood off Wakde Island with an LST echelon which unloaded quickly and sailed for Hollandia the same day. Escort assignments to Aitape, Hollandia and Wakde followed until June when Saidor, Manus and Biak were added to her destinations. Between 25 June and 7 July, she conducted ASW patrol off the latter, then off Aitape and at the end of the month resumed escort work.

In mid-August, she returned to Purvis Bay to resume escort work in the Solomons until 13 October when she sailed for Manus and another tour with the 7th Fleet. After escorting an ammunition supply group to Kossol Roads and an oiler group to Hollandia, she bombarded enemy shore installations in the Maffin Bay area and then departed Wakde to guard an LST echelon to Leyte, arriving on 15 November. Getting under way for Hollandia again the same day, she underwent intensive training in preparation for the upcoming Luzon offensive.

On 2 January 1945, she headed for the Philippines with a small oiler group. Rendezvousing with the Lingayen Minesweeping Group, the force headed through Surigao Strait and into Leyte Gulf. Enemy aircraft plagued the force as it steamed north toward Mindoro where the oilers anchored in Mangarin Bay under the protective watch of Neuendorf and sister ship Manning (DE-199). Between 5 January and 21 February, Neuendorf conducted ASW and HUK patrols, served radar picket duty, and escorted the tankers on refueling missions.

On the 22nd, the destroyer escort returned to Leyte for tender availability, after which she resumed escort work between New Guinea and the Philippines. On 15 April, she was designated flagship for Commander, Local Naval Defense Forces, Iloilo, Panay. There for the next four months, she returned to Leyte after the cessation of hostilities, made an escort run to Okinawa and on 1 October departed the Philippines and headed home. Arriving at San Diego on 23 October, Neuendorf underwent inactivation overhaul and on 14 May 1946 decommissioned and entered the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She remained a unit of that fleet until authorized for use as a target and struck from the Navy List on 1 July 1967.