USS Sage (AM-111) - World War II Pacific Operations

World War II Pacific Operations

Following shakedown off the California coast, Sage moved west to Pearl Harbor. Arriving on 20 October, she departed again on the 28th; proceeded to Midway Island, whence she provided escort services to the Ellice and Phoenix Islands; then returned to Hawaii. Through December 1943 and into January 1944, she conducted minesweeping exercises and experiments and was altered to carry a small support landing craft. On 22 January, she embarked a hydrographic party; and, on the 23rd, she sortied with Task Force 51, the Marshall Islands assault force.

On the 31st, Sage commenced minesweeping and hydrographic survey operations at Majuro; and, four days later, shifted to Kwajalein. For the next week, she alternated antisubmarine patrols with sonar watch duty at the entrance to the lagoon. On 11 February, she and three other AM's tracked and attacked a possible submarine one mile off Gea, but the depth charges they dropped seemingly inflicted little or no damage. On the 15th, however, she sailed with Task Group 51.11 for Eniwetok; and, the same day, joined the destroyers Phelps (DD-360) and Macdonough (DD-351) in sinking the Japanese submarine RO-40.

Two days later, Sage, with Oracle (AM-103), YMS-262, and YMS-383, was detached from the formation. Proceeding to Wide Pass, they commenced sweeping operations at 0617; and, at 0726, entered the lagoon. An hour and one half later, they sighted personnel on board a beached Japanese ship. After shelling the ship, they resumed sweeping operations and added patrol duties which continued until mid-March.

Reassigned to task force TF 51, Sage departed Eniwetok and returned to Kwajalein, whence her task group moved to occupy the outer islands of the Marshall group: Ailinglapalap, Namu, and others to the southeast; Bikini Atoll, Rongelap, and Utirik to the north.

Read more about this topic:  USS Sage (AM-111)

Famous quotes containing the words world, war, pacific and/or operations:

    The world of the egotist is, inevitably, a narrow world, and the boundaries of self are limited to the close horizon of personality.... But, within this horizon, there is room for many attributes that are excellent....
    Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)

    What would you do in my position? Would you drop the war where it is? Or, would you prosecute it in future, with elderstalk squirts, charged with rose water?
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.
    Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)

    It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)