Wreck of USS YMS-50

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, United States Navy, minehunter / minesweeper (ship)

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Laid down in July 1941 at the Wheeler Shipbuilding Yard in Queens, New York the YMS-50 was commissioned into US Navy service in August 1942 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

Making the long transit from New York to South West Pacific Theatre through the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor, the YMS-30 and her crew arrived off Honaria, Guadalcanal in early 1943 and began minesweeping, patrol, transport and anti-submarine duty in the Solomon Islands area. Assigned to the advance force clearing the approaches to Arawe, New Britain before the Allied Invasion there, the YMS-50 and her crew had their first direct combat action with Japanese Forces when the assembled Allied force came under concentrated air attack by dive bombers. Though her crew assisted in downing several of the attacking planes, the YMS-50 was damaged by a near-miss explosion in the fight and had to be towed out of harm’s way, eventually returning to Tulagi harbor for repairs.

Returning to her Minesweeping, patrol and transport duties after her repair period, the YMS-50 continued operations in the Solomon Islands before joining Allied forces operating off the Eastern Coast of New Guinea into 1944. Calling at Darwin for a much needed overhaul and repair period, the ship and her crew stood out for the West Indies and began mine clearance and patrol operations around the island of Borneo in June 1945. Again in the vanguard of the Allied invasion force, the YMS-50 and her crew were sweeping the sea lanes and landing craft approaches off Balikpapan on the morning of June 18th, 1945 when the Veteran Minesweeper struck a tethered contact mine with her Starboard bow.

The detonation opened up a large hole and split the seams of YMS-50's wooden hull for several yards along her Starboard side, allowing copious amounts of seawater to flood into the ship. Alert crew, already at general quarters, effected rapid damage control onboard which prevented catastrophic flooding from claiming the wounded ship but within half an hour it was clear that pumps on YMS-50 were not keeping up. Risk of hostile shore battery fire onto the immobile warship and her ever-increasing list to Starboard prompted the order to abandon ship roughly an hour after the initial blast, and a fellow minesweeper quickly removed YMS-50's compliment and left the ship to her fate.

Though she eventually rolled onto her Starboard side the YMS-50 remained defiantly afloat throughout the day as Allied forces continued operations off Balikpapan. Declared a hazard to navigation as sundown approached, the still-floating YMS-50 was taken under fire by the USS Denver (CL-58) and sunk with several 5-inch rounds at this location on June 18th, 1945.

For her actions in the Second World War, the USS YMS-50 received two Battle Stars.

www.navsource.org/archives/11/19050.htm