USS Relief (AH-1) - World War II

World War II

Arriving Norfolk 20 June 1941, Relief thereafter served as a base hospital for the Atlantic Fleet in waters from Charleston, South Carolina, to Newfoundland. She was in port at NS Argentia, Newfoundland, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The following day she got underway via Boston for Norfolk. Returning north, she arrived Casco Bay, Maine, 28 April and provided for the health needs of men training to man the navy's new fighting ships. She also cared for victims of the war in the Atlantic.

Relief departed Casco Bay 8 February 1943 and put into the Boston Navy Yard to prepare for duty in the Pacific. By the 23d she was bound via the Panama Canal to the South Pacific Advanced Fleet Base at Nouméa, New Caledonia. The bitter struggle to drive the Japanese from the Solomon Islands was still in progress when she reached her destination 2 April. Marine, Navy, and Army patients brought out of the combat zones of the Solomons awaited in the New Hebrides for transport to better hospital facilities at Auckland, New Zealand. This evacuation duty kept Relief occupied until 15 November, when she departed Auckland to evacuate battle casualties of the amphibious assaults on the Gilbert Islands.