Wreck of USS Longshaw (DD-559)

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), invisible, draw only border, United States Navy

Laid down in June 1942 as the 76th Fletcher Class Destroyer, USS Longshaw commissioned into service with the US Navy's Pacific Fleet in December 1943. Following her brief training and shakedown cruises, the Longshaw and her crew sailed for the Marshall Islands for her first war patrols in March 1944.

Operating as a screen for US Fast Carrier Task Forces, the Longshaw protected her carriers during concentrated air strikes on Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai Islands in early April before her Task Force sailed for New Guinea where they supported the Allied Invasion Force fighting Japanese forces along the coastline of the former Dutch Colony.
After a brief period of upkeep at Pearl Harbor, the Longshaw returned to the fray off Saipan in June 1944, where she operated for two months in support of ground forces and carrier forces as the battle to regain the island raged onshore. Again attached to Fast Carrier Task Forces, the Longshaw's crew found no respite through late 1944 as they were in near-constant action first of Palau in August and then off the Philippines beginning in October where she took part in the Battle off Cape Engaño.

1945 found the Longshaw and her Carriers operating in the South China Sea as US aircraft attacked targets on Formosa, Okinawa and in South China through February when she served as a radar picket vessel for airstrikes on Tokyo itself. Screening Light Carriers off Iwo Jima as they conducted nighttime airstrikes on the island, the Longshaw retired to Ulithi Atoll in March 1945 for a period of crew rest and vessel upkeep until March 21st, when she put to sea as part of the massive US Navy armada bound for the island of Okinawa. Arriving with the vanguard of the Invasion force on March 25th, the Longshaw and her crew formed part of the pre-invasion bombardment force which shelled the island to soften up defenses in advance of the troops hitting the beaches. As the fight for Okinawa quickly went from a apparent pushover to one of the most savage battles in the entire Pacific War, the Longshaw and her crew remained on station off the Okinawan coast throughout April and into May, providing on-call fire support and fighting off withering numbers of Kamikaze attacks from the Japanese mainland.

Retiring to Kerama Retto anchorage on May 17th following four days of constant shore fire and illumination fire support while under constant Kamikaze attack, the Longshaw's bone-weary crew received yet another urgent call for fire support from troops operating near the Naha airfield. Being one of the only ships in the area capable of a quick response, the Longshaw came about and was closing in on her target area when she ran aground on a reef ledge at this location while moving at over 20 knots. The Veteran Destroyer's hull rode up onto the ledge and became stuck fast, rendering all efforts of her crew to free her futile. The Longshaw's Captain sent out a distress signal and the Fleet Tug USS Arikara (ATF-98) responded quickly, sending a towline onto the grounded Destroyer and moving into position to haul her off the reef.

With the sight of a non-mobile Destroyer being taken under tow attracting considerable attention of Japanese shore gunners, the Arikara had barely put tension on the tow cable before shells began raining down around the Longshaw, with the two first rounds straddling the hapless ship. Her gunners quickly swung into action and had just sent their first round downrange when a shell from Okinawa struck the Longshaw's bow and penetrated into her forward 5-inch magazine. The subsequent detonation killed most of the men on and in the ship's bow, which was blown off the ship and quickly sank and gave the Japanese gunners a clear indication that they had ranged the ship. The abandon ship order was passed aboard the Longshaw's Captain moments after the explosion had rendered the ship beyond rescue, but moments later the ship was raked with over a dozen rounds of shore battery fire, causing further death and destruction aboard as her men scrambled into the water or aboard the USS Arikara, which was forced to withdraw until the shore battery was silenced by aircraft and fire from other vessels. Returning to pick up the men still aboard or in the water, the Arikara took aboard all the survivors she could before leaving the Longshaw a battered and derelict wreck. With muster rolls showing that 84 of her crew had been lost in her grounding, US Destroyers returned the following morning and after finding no life aboard ship sank the USS Longshaw with gunfire and torpedoes on May 18th, 1945.

USS Longshaw received her ninth and final Battle Star for her actions on the date of her loss.

www.navsource.org/archives/05/559.htm