1945
After local maneuvers out of Pearl Harbor—during which she rescued three aviators from the water on 2 January 1945—Wadsworth set course via Ulithi for the Kossol Passage, Palau Islands.
Reaching the Palaus on the 16th, Wadsworth relieved Lansdowne as tender for four minesweepers and two subchasers (SCs) engaged in patrols between Peleliu and Angaur Islands. In the early morning darkness two days later, she illuminated a target heading for the transport area and received information that there were no friendly small craft in the vicinity. Wadsworth's searchlight continued to illuminate the small boat—a barge—as it beached, where Army searchlights ashore soon fixed their beams upon it. Men began to debark from the craft, just as small arms fire began to crackle. Some 50 Japanese troops had attempted a daring raid to damage American aircraft on the ground and destroy ammunition, only to be foiled by Wadsworth and the Army troops ashore. The Japanese landing party was exterminated.
During the night of the 19th, Wadsworth provided illuminating gunfire support for troops on "Amber" beach, Peleliu, before she sailed on the 25th for Ulithi. There, she joined the screen of TG 51.1, a transport group slated to take part in the invasion of Iwo Jima.
Touching at Apra Harbor, Guam, between 8 and 16 February, Wadsworth arrived off Iwo Jima on the morning of the 19th. The destroyer then conducted antisubmarine patrols off the southern tip of the island until nightfall, when she joined a bombardment group. The next morning, Wadsworth took station in the fire support sector off Iwo Jima and blasted enemy tanks and mortar and rocket positions. She continued that action in support of the ground troops ashore until the afternoon of the 21st, when she resumed screening duty for transports carrying the occupation force which ultimately landed on 2 March.
Clearing Iwo Jima on 5 March, Wadsworth headed for the Philippines, arriving at Dulag anchorage, in Leyte Gulf, on the 9th. For most of the rest of March, Wadsworth operated locally in Philippine waters, conducting bombardment and fire support exercises in San Pedro Bay, off Leyte, until 27 March. On that day, the destroyer got underway, screening the sortie of a transport group bound for the Ryūkyūs.
Wadsworth arrived off Okinawa on the morning of 1 April 1945—Easter Sunday, April Fools' Day, and D day for that operation. At 04:15, the destroyer completed an advance sweep ahead of the transports off the invasion beaches and then took a fire support station off the southern end of the island. For the next 15 days, Wadsworth's guns blasted Japanese troop concentrations and gun emplacements, as well as caves where the fantical defenders had holed-up.
On 17 April, Wadsworth took on board a fighter-director team at Kerama Retto; and technicians from Estes assisted the destroyer's ship's force in installing fighter-director equipment. She sailed later that day on her first radar picket assignment, part of the early warning network to provide the alarm of incoming Japanese aircraft. From 17 April to 24 June, Wadsworth carried out nine assignments on station, repelling 22 attacks by enemy aircraft, shooting down six, and assisting in the destruction of seven others. In addition, the combat air patrol fighters that she directed splashed 28 enemy aircraft.
During one day of that duty, on 28 April 1945, Wadsworth repelled six determined attacks by 12 enemy aircraft. The raids—which came from all points of the compass—commenced at sunset and continued for over three hours. One enemy torpedo plane closed fast on her port beam as Wadsworth skillfully maneuvered to keep the enemy on the beam to allow a heavy concentration of antiaircraft fire. Frustrated in his first attempt, the enemy pilot then brought the plane around a second time, circling to the right to commence an attack from directly astern, strafing as he came.
Wadsworth maneuvered to port as the plane went into a power dive that took him within 30 feet of the waves before he passed the destroyer to starboard at a distance of about 100 yards. The Japanese then zoomed sharply and turned to cross in front of Wadsworth. He then opened the range before boring in low and fast on the third attack.
Wadsworth's determined adversary then dropped a torpedo at 1,200 yards. The destroyer turned "left full" and the "fish" passed harmlessly by her starboard side. Meanwhile, under constant fire from every gun in Wadsworth that could be brought to bear, the enemy plane came on, attempting to crash into the ship.
The Japanese bore in through the flak-peppered skies. His wing struck the forward port 40-millimeter gun, and the main body of the plane spun into the gig rigged outboard, carried away a life raft, and then smashed a 26-foot motor whaleboat before falling into the sea. Providentially, the enemy did not explode; the ship did, however, receive a shower of debris and gasoline. That had been the ship's second narrow escape. Only six days previously, on 22 April, Wadsworth's gunners had shot down a suicider that exploded in the sea only 20 feet from the ship, showering the ship with fragments. Fortunately, only minor hull damage resulted, and only one sailor was wounded.
At Hagushi anchorage on the morning of 24 June, Wadsworth, relieved of radar picket duty, put her fighter-director team ashore. Since her first arrival off Okinawa, she had sounded general quarters 203 times, detected and reported the approach of hundreds of enemy aircraft, and successfully fought off all that attacked her. Her exploits during that time earned her the Presidential Unit Citation (US).
Departing Okinawa on 24 June, Wadsworth anchored in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on the 27th. She spent a fortnight in Philippine waters before getting underway with a group of heavy cruisers. The force touched at Okinawa on 16 July and then headed for the East China Sea for antishipping sweeps off the coast of China between the ports of Foochow and Wenchow. Returning to Okinawa on 29 July, that force made a similar sweep during the first week of August.
After "V-J Day" in mid-August, Wadsworth remained in the Far Eastern area, clearing Okinawa on 12 September, bound for Nagasaki, Japan, as escort for two LSTs. Reaching that atomic bomb-devastated port two days later, Wadsworth assisted in the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war from that port. On the 18th, she received on board a total of 125 liberated men, American, British, Dutch, and Australian, and transported them to Okinawa, reaching Buckner Bay on 20 September.
Clearing Buckner Bay on 25 September, Wadsworth arrived at Sasebo, Japan, the next day. Soon thereafter, she commenced transport and occupation duties, carrying troops and escorting their vital supply ships between Sasebo, Wakayama, and Yokosuka—duties in which she remained engaged through mid-November.
Departing Sasebo on 17 November 1945, Wadsworth headed for the United States, her occupation service completed. Sailing via the Hawaiian Islands, the destroyer reached San Diego between 6 and 10 December and disembarked returning veterans at that port before she headed on for Panama. Transiting the Panama Canal soon thereafter, Wadsworth arrived at the Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina two days before Christmas 1945 and reported for inactivation.
Decommissioned on 18 April 1946, Wadsworth was assigned to the Charleston Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. The destroyer remained inactive until selected for transfer to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1959 under the Military Assistance Program.
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