USS Sterett (DD-407) - 1942

1942

The Sterett spent the early months of the war patrolling off the eastern seaboard. In mid-January, she steamed to the Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland, to meet Task Force 15 (TF 15) and escort a convoy to Iceland. The convoy was transferred to two British destroyers on 23 January 1942, and she entered Hvalfjörður, Iceland, on the 26th. The Sterett returned to the United States at New York City on 9 February, and she departed on the 15th to meet the passenger liner RMS Queen Mary off the Boston breakwater and escort her into the harbor. After two trips between Boston and Casco Bay, Maine, the Sterett joined the USS Wasp as part of her escort to duty with the British Home Fleet. The task group entered Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, on 4 April.

While the Wasp made her first aerial reinforcement of the embattled Malta, the Sterett operated with the British Fleet out of Scapa Flow. The destroyer was with the Wasp on her second run to Malta, 29 April to 15 May, and after returning to Scapa Flow, she headed for the United States. The task group arrived at Norfolk, Virginia on 27 May 1942. On 5 June, the Sterett steamed for San Diego, where she arrived on 19 June. She steamed out again on 1 July and, as a part of Task Force 18, steamed via Tongatapu to the Fiji Islands. She was assigned to Rear Admiral Richmond K. Turner's South Pacific Amphibious Expeditionary Force and practiced invasion techniques in the Fiji Islands until 1 August 1942.

The Sterett spent the rest of 1942 and all of 1943 supporting the Allied forces as they struggled up the island staircase formed by the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago. The Solomons invasion fleet, guarded by three carrier task groups led by the Saratoga, the Enterprise, and the Wasp, arrived in the Solomons late on 6 August. The 1st Marine Division then landed at Guadalcanal. Meanwhile, the Sterett and the Wasp carrier group zigzagged into a rain squall, successfully dodging an 18-plane raid launched from Rabaul on New Britain Island.

For the next three days, the Wasp unit guarded the supply lines to Tulagi. Next, the Sterett steamed east of San Cristobal to screen the USS Long Island while she launched 31 Marine planes for the defense of Guadalcanal. Rejoining the Wasp immediately, the Sterett remained with her until DesDiv 15 was detached on 10 September 1942.

For the next month, the Sterett escorted convoys and reinforcements to the Solomon Islands. Following duty escorting the Bellatrix and the Betelgeuse to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, and guarding the latter all the way to Nouméa, New Caledonia, she returned to Guadalcanal accompanying two transports, the McCawley and the Zeilin, loaded with troops and equipment. While the transports unloaded, the Sterett fired on enemy bombers and shore batteries harassing Henderson Field (Guadalcanal).

The Sterett returned to the New Hebrides and, after refueling, put to sea on 31 October to protect still more reinforcements to Guadalcanal. The Sterett covered the establishment of the beachhead and later she joined the San Francisco and the Helena in a bombardment of Japanese positions near Koli Point. Two days later, she retired to Espiritu Santo.