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USS Callaghan overtakes the
aircraft carrier USS Wasp
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The first four months of Callaghan's service in the
Pacific War turned out to be routine with no battle action, as described in
Chapter 3, "Much Ado About Nothing." On June 17, 1944, to the east of
Saipan, Callaghan gunners shot down the first three planes of a total of
12 aircraft they would shoot down during the war. Two more Japanese planes were
destroyed by Callaghan guns on October 14 as Task Force 38 ships fought
enemy aircraft off Formosa. From October 1944 to March 1945, Callaghan
participated in battles and other operations in support of air strikes on the
Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Indochina, and Formosa.
The crewmen of Callaghan witnessed several successful kamikaze
attacks and shot down or hit several kamikaze planes. On January 21, 1945, they
witnessed two kamikaze planes dive into the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga
off the coast of Formosa. On April 6, they saw another successful kamikaze
attack when a plane hit the destroyer escort Witter and damaged it so
extensively that it was later scrapped. The next day another kamikaze plane hit
the battleship Maryland near the Callaghan. During May 1945,
the destroyer's crew viewed three more kamikaze hits on close-by warships.
Callaghan had several close calls while off Okinawa. In the early
morning of March 27, 1945, three Val dive-bombers attacked Callaghan, but
gunners shot down all of them. The second plane splashed just 100 yards off the
port side, and the last plane snapped the main wire antenna as it went over the
ship and hit the water just next to the ship. Later that morning a crewman
spotted the periscope of a midget submarine. Captain Bertholf ordered depth
charges dropped to destroy the submarine, and the subsequent oil slick and
debris from the submarine provided proof of the sinking. On March 31, a Judy dive-bomber
headed toward Callaghan, but the ship's anti-aircraft fire persuaded the
plane to withdraw. On the next day, Callaghan gunners helped shoot down
two more attacking planes.
On May 25, 1945, two twin-engined planes suddenly appeared out of the clouds and headed
toward Callaghan. The gunners hit the lead plane, which crashed into the sea
after passing less than 100 feet over the ship, but the smoking second plane
flew away. Two men climbed out of the crashed plane, and a rescue party from Callaghan
picked them up. The pilot died aboard the destroyer, but the plane's navigator
regained consciousness and was transferred to the battleship New Mexico.
The navigator, Kaoru Hasegawa, contacted Callaghan survivors and met with
them at the ship's 1995 and 1999 reunions in order to express his gratitude to the
ship's crew for saving his life.
The Callaghan crew rejoiced when they found out on the morning of July
28, 1945, that they would return to the U.S. after one final night of radar
picket duty. However, a slow floatplane carrying a bomb hit the destroyer on the
starboard side of the superstructure after 12:30 a.m. on July 29. The ship sunk
two hours later. Other destroyers and small LCS (Landing Craft Support) ships at the same picket
station picked up survivors from the sinking destroyer and from the water
covered with fuel oil. Callaghan lost 47 men in the attack and became the
last ship and the 14th destroyer sunk by kamikaze planes during WWII.
Even though The Last Destroyer contains few eyewitness accounts and
personal stories, the author effectively uses official Navy records to tell Callaghan's remarkable history.
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