Wreck of USS William D. Porter (DD-579)

 Second World War 1939-1945, shipwreck, destroyer (ship), draw only border

Laid down in May 1942 as a Fletcher Class Destroyer, USS William D. Porter commissioned into US Navy service in July 1943 and joined the US Atlantic Fleet. After a period of shakedown and training, the Porter and her crew were given the presigious duty of escorting the brand-new Fast Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) as far as Casablanca in November 1943. Embarked aboard Iowa was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was heading for the Middle East to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin at the Tehran Conferences, and the brand-new William D. Porter was intended mirror the Iowa and other ships of the Task Force to showcase the advanced naval technology being implemented by the United States.

Departing Norfolk on November 12th, the trans-Atlantic voyage began auspiciously for the Porter, as she had barely slipped her mooring lines and gotten underway when her Starboard bow anchor got caught in the railing of a sister Destroyer moored alongside as she backed off her slip. Damage to the Porter was minor, but her sistership lost most of her Port railing and the davits for one of her lifeboats. Trouble continued the next day when the Porters crew inadvertently released a live depth charge off her Stern, which caused a detonation that prompted the entire task force into evasive anti-submarine maneuvers. The following day at the request of the President, the entire formation conducted anti-aircraft drills on target balloons before the Porter and other Destroyers carried out a simulated torpedo attack on the Iowa, intended to showcase the maneuverability of the massive ship. The simulated attack became a real one when a green torpedoman aboard the Porter fired a live torpedo, which had been left armed, at the Iowa's Starboard side prompting frantic signaling and eventually the breaking of a strictly imposed radio silence by the Porter to alert the Flagship to the danger. Another round of frantic evasive maneuvering by Iowa followed and the suddenly dangerous situation elicted Roosevelt's famous statement "Wheel me over to the other side. I want to watch the torpedo" before the torpedo exploded harmlessly in her wake. Iowa's nine 16-inch gun battery was quickly trained onto the Porter in the event that the trigger happy Destroyer was involved in some kind of assination plot, and by sundown on November 14th the Porter had been ordered to Bermuda under escort where she and her crew were placed under arrest while an official inquiry was conducted.

Absolved of blame and cleared to return to duty, though with a new Captain, the William D. Porter and her crew were ordered to join the US Pacific Fleet and departed Norfolk on December 4th, 1943 for Panama. Clearing the canal and steaming into Alaskan waters, the Porter joined Task Force 94 (TF 94) at Dutch Harbor in late December and began her operations against the Empire of Japan. Conducting anti-submarine patrols, on-call fire support and shore bombardment missions along the Aleutian Island chain and as far West as the Kuriles through August 1944, the Porter returned to San Francisco for much needed voyage repairs and refit from her eight months of operations in North Pacific waters. After a month at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the Porter stood out for Hawaii on September 27th and spent two weeks conducting training in Hawaiian waters. Attached to a supply convoy bound for Manaus, the Porter departed Pearl Harbor on October 18th and screened her charges across the Pacific safely, dropping anchor at Seeadler Harbor in early November.

Departing Manaus for Leyte, the Porter began operations around the Philippine Islands in support of US and Allied forces fighting against the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy for control of the Archipelago. Origianlly serving as a convoy escort between Leyte, Hollandia, Manus, Bougainville, and Mindoro, 1945 saw the Porter pulled off Escort Duty for duty in the Battle of Luzon with Fire Support Group (TG 77.2) on January 2nd. In the month of near-constant air attack and shore bombardment, the Porter and her crew were exposed for the first time to the Kamikaze, and though their ship emerged undamaged and with several aircraft downed to their credit, several other ships of her Task Force were not as lucky and suffered heavy casualties and damage. Pulled from the front lines off Luzon in February 1945, the Porter underwent a brief refit at Guam before returning to the Philippines and joining the large US Navy armada massing in Leyte Gulf for the Invasion of Okinawa and stood out of Philippine waters on March 21st, 1945 as part of the Western Islands Attack Group.

Beginning her offensive operations in the Invasion of Okinawa on March 25th off the Kerama Retto islands, which were taken with little resistance. Reassigned to Task Force 54 for the Invasion on April 1st, the Porter began what turned into a month of constant fire support, anti-aircraft and screening duty in support of both US forces on shore and the US Naval force offshore. Expending over 8500 rounds of her 5-inch battery alone during that time period, the Porter and her crew like the rest of the Naval force endured near-daily mass kamikaze attack from the Japanese mainland, with Porter claiming a further three Japanese planes in the melee.

Pulled from fire-support duty on May 5th for reassignment to the string of radar picket stations set up by the US Navy to give early warning of inbound Japanese formations, the Porter operated in the dangerous role for over a month, cycling through the various picket stations with fellow Destroyers. Assigned to Picket Station #14, a station which had already seen one Destroyer and several smaller craft sunk in action, the Porter and her crew took up their duty, aided in their anti-aircraft firepower by several US Landing Craft Support Ships (LCS(L)). While several airborne contacts were picked during her few days on Station #14, the Porter's crew had seen no action up to the 10th of June, when intermittent radar contacts and the mysterious sound of propellors sent the crew to General Quarters. With no confirmed contact on radar, lookouts scanned the skies for the source of the clearly audible drone of an aircraft, and at 0815hrs the source materialized as the Aichi D3A 'Val' divebomber came streaking out of the clouds toward the Porter's hull.

The Japanese pilot had succeeded in gaining total surprise on the Porter's crew, but the Veteran Destroyer was quickly engaged in evasive maneuvering which sent the 'Val' harmlessly crashing into the sea off her Port bow, where it quickly flooded and sank. Closing near the crash location only minutes after the plane hit, the Porter had inadvertently steamed directly over the sinking plane and through a chance series of events, the 551lb bomb carried aboard the Japanese aircraft detonated causing an underwater shockwave similar to a depth charge or naval mine. The 2000+ ton William D. Porter was lifted clear out of the water by the force of the blast, which cracked her keel, severed steam lines and heavily warped her hull plating before slamming the ship back onto the surface where she quickly went dead in the water. Fires quickly broke out onboard as shellshocked crew moved to quickly effect damage control measures, aided by the ship being in General Quarters and having all compartments sealed. For three hours Porter's crew fought valiantly to save their ship against the progressive flooding caused by the blast, but by 1115hrs her list had increased to 20+ degrees to Starboard and was beginning to increase rapidly, prompting the order to abandon ship. Both of her screening LCS(L)'s closed and began removing her crew as the Porter began to settle by the Stern, and within 12 minutes of the order to abandon being passed the Veteran ship rolled onto her Starboard side and sank Stern-first at this location at 1127hrs on July 10th, 1945.

For her actions during the Second World War, USS William D. Porter was awarded four Battle Stars.

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