USS Sampson (DD-394) - World War II

World War II

With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war, Sampson patrolled, with Warrington (DD-383), off Newport, Rhode Island from 23 December 1941 to 12 January 1942 when the two destroyers set course for the Panama Canal Zone. Sampson arrived at Balboa on 17 January to join the Southeast Pacific Forces based there. She took part in the search, from 25 to 29 January, to locate submarine S-26 (SS-131) which had been sunk in 290 feet of water the night of 24 January by a surface collision with PC-460, 12 miles west of Isla San José in Panama Bay.

On 1 February, she sailed from Balboa in the escort for twelve troopships. On 12 February, she broke off from the convoy to inspect Marquesa Island. She arrived at Bora Bora, Society Islands, on 18 February and patrolled a station off Teavanui Harbor until 9 March when she set course, in company with cruiser Trenton, for Panama, and reached Balboa on 23 March. Sampson spent the next year in a series of coastal patrol sweeps from Balboa to waters off South America, making calls at such ports as Guayaquil, Ecuador; Valparaiso, Chile; and Callao, Peru. She varied this service with infrequent escort voyages from Balboa to the Society and Galapagos Islands.

Sampson returned from her last cruise along the South American coast to Balboa, on 7 May 1943, and cleared port on 23 May as one of the escorts for a troopship convoy which reached Great Roads, Noumea, New Caledonia, on 13 June. The next day, she sailed for Bora Bora, Society Islands, and returned to Nouméa with a convoy of troopships on 8 July. Two days later, she set course for a point of rendezvous off Pago Pago, American Samoa; met destroyer Warrington; thence proceeded to Pearl Harbor where she arrived on the 20th.

On 27 July, the two destroyers cleared Pearl Harbor escorting four Army troopships bound for Australia and reached Sydney on 8 August. She got underway the next day and arrived at Nouméa, New Caledonia, on 12 August 1943. During the following months, Sampson alternately based her operations at Nouméa and Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides Islands, and made frequent escort voyages to Guadalcanal, or Purvis Bay, Florida, Solomon Islands. On the night of 2 and 3 October, while escorting a convoy from Nouméa to Espiritu Santo, she fired at an enemy submarine and, after that vessel submerged, dropped depth charges that produced a heavy oil slick.