USS Sterett (DD-407) - 1944

1944

From 29 January to 7 March 1944, Sterett operated in the Marianas and Marshalls. On the 29th, her carriers' planes struck Roi and Namur islands of Kwajalein Atoll. Next came the 12 February raid on Truk. Five days later, Sterett covered the flattops during raids on Tinian and Saipan. She departed the Marshalls for the New Hebrides, where she joined the Emirau invasion force. Sterett stopped at Purvis Bay, Florida Island, on 4 April and visited Efate on 7 April during her voyage from Emirau Island to the United States.

Sterett stopped at Pearl Harbor on 16 and 17 April and arrived at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on the 29th. She underwent yard work from 24 to 30 April and then moved down the coast on 3 May to San Francisco Bay. Forty-eight hours later, she sailed out for Oahu and reached Pearl Harbor on the 10th. Following 14 days of exercises in the Hawaiian Islands, she sortied with Task Group 12.1 (TG 12.1) for the Marshalls. At Majuro from 30 May, she exited the lagoon with TF 58 on 6 June to screen the support carriers during the invasion of the Marianas. Sterett cruised with the carriers from 11 to 25 June as they launched and recovered wave after wave of planes for strikes on Saipan, Iwo Jima, Guam, and Rota Islands, periodically fending off Japanese aerial retaliation.

From 25 June until 7 July, she patrolled the waters around Guam and Rota and bombarded Guam. After covering the carriers during the sweeps over Yap, Palau, and Ulithi, she sailed for Eniwetok en route to Puget Sound. She stopped at Pearl Harbor from 10 to 14 August and headed on to Bremerton, Washington, entering the Puget Sound Navy Yard on the 20th. Completing overhaul and trials up and down the west coast, she sailed west on 13 October for the Hawaiian Islands. Sterett sortied from Oahu with Task Unit 16.8.5 (TU 16.8.5) on 19 November and, 12 days later, entered Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands. Two weeks before Christmas 1944, she entered Leyte Gulf in the Philippines for patrol and convoy duty.

On the day after Christmas, she started for Mindoro with a supply convoy. Two days later, the Japanese attacked. Early that morning, three kamikazes dove at Sterett's convoy. Antiaircraft fire downed the first, but the second and third succeeded in crashing into merchantmen. Sterett endured the onslaught of the "Divine Wind" until the task unit was dissolved on New Year's Day 1945. On that date, she returned to San Pedro Bay, claiming the destruction of one plane for herself and assists in eliminating two others. During the next three months, Sterett plied the waters of the South and Central Pacific, primarily engaged in patrol and convoy duty in the Solomons.