Wreck of USS Noa (DD-343/APD-24) | Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), United States Navy

USS Noa was the 151st member of the Clemson Class of Destroyers built for the US Navy, laid down at the Norfolk Navy Yard in November 1918 and commissioned into service with the US Navy in February 1921. Assigned to the US Asiatic Fleet shortly after completing her shakedown cruise, the Noa and her crew stood out for Chinese waters where she would spend the next 13 years patrolling the Philippine Islands and South China Sea and protecting American Interests as the political climate around the Western Pacific grew more and more hostile.

Getting her first taste of combat in 1927 as she shelled Nationalist Chinese troops attempting to cut off refugees and US Nationals from escaping Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War, the Noa soon returned to her routine of peacetime patrols in Asiatic waters before returning stateside and decommissioning in August 1934 at Philadelphia. Recommissioned in 1940 as the US Navy bolstered its Atlantic Fleet strength in response to the War in Europe, the Noa and her crew spent the next two years alternating between anti-submarine patrols off the US East Coast and conducting midshipmen training cruises before the aging ship was ordered to the Norfolk Navy Yard for conversion into a High Speed Amphibious Transport in August 1943.

Her conversion completed by mid-September, the Noa emerged from the yard with the hull designation APD-24 to reflect her new role and capabilities, and after training and familiarization exercises were conducted en route to the Panama Canal the Noa joined the US Pacific Fleet in November 1943. Immediately dispatched from Pearl Harbor to the New Guinea theatre the Noa became heavily involved with the myriad of amphibious assaults taking place throughout the Bismarck Archipelago through February 1944, after which she took part in operations at Emirau Island and Hollandia amphibious operations. Touching at Pearl Harbor briefly to load a new contingent of Marines, Noa shaped her course for the Marianas Islands in late May 1944 where she once again conducted amphibious operations at Saipan and assisted in the assaults of Guam and Tinian before steaming for Guadalcanal in August to prepare for her next assignment.

Shifting from Guadalcanal to Purvis Bay, the Noa and her crew received orders to report to the Palau Islands to conduct minesweeping duties off designated landing beaches and departed in convoy on September 6th. Six days later Noa and her convoy had arrived off their destination in the early morning hours and were getting into formation to begin their operations when the Destroyer USS Fullam (DD-474) suddenly appeared out of the darkness and slammed into the Noa’s midship. Damage from the open-ocean collision was severe for Noa as her former engine and fire room spaces which had been converted to troop accommodations quickly began to flood. As the two ships separated, damage control teams aboard Noa quickly moved to shore up damaged areas and contain the inrushing water which was already causing their ship to sag amidships, but despite their best efforts and assistance from volunteer damage control parties from the Fullam, Noa’s Captain passed the abandon ship order at 0501hrs as her Stern began to swamp. Still defiantly afloat two hours later, Noa’s Commanding Officer re-boarded the ship with a volunteer salvage party in a final attempt to save the ship, however after a further three hours of work the damage to Noa and the progressive flooding it was causing was still too great to overcome. The second order to abandon ship went out at 1030hrs and with all her crew safely off the ship the Noa was set adrift and sank at this location at 1034hrs on September 12th, 1943.

USS Noa received the Yangtze Service Medal for her service in China in 1927 and five battle stars for World War II service.

www.navsource.org/archives/10/04/04024.htm
www.navsource.org/archives/05/343.htm