Wreck of USS Hovey (DD-208/DMS-11)

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

Laid down at Cramp Shipbuilding in Philadelphia in September 1918, USS Hovey commissioned into US Navy service in October 1919 as the 16th member of the Clemson Class of Destroyers. Assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet, she stood out of Norfolk and took up patrol duties in the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black Seas before proceeding Eastward to the Philippines, where she took up duty with the US Asiatic Fleet in early 1921.

Remaining in the Far East patrolling the waters around the Philippines until late 1922, the Hovey fell victim to post-World War I budget cuts and fleet limitations upon her return to San Francisco in October she was ordered decommissioned. Entering the reserve fleet at San Diego in February 1923, the Hovey remained inactive for 10 years before she recommissioned in February 1930 as part of a Fleet-wide expansion. Operating out of San Diego as a training ship for Navy reservists after for the next four years, the Hovey eventually joined the frontline fleet and served as a Fleet Destroyer until the outbreak of war in Europe brought the then-elderly and technologically outdated Destroyer into the yard for conversion into a Destroyer Minesweeper in 1940. Following crew training in their new role, the Hovey stood out of San Diego in February 1941 and began operations out of Pearl Harbor with Mine Squadron 2. At sea escorting the Heavy Cruiser USS Minneapolis (CA-36) on gunnery exercises off Johnston Atoll during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Hovey immediately returned to Pearl and began anti-submarine patrols and escort duty around the Hawaiian Islands.

Continuing this duty through July 1942, the Hovey departed Hawaiian waters as an escort for the USS Argonne (AP-4), Flagship of Rear Adm Richmond K. Turner's South Pacific Amphibious Force. Shaping her course for the soon-to-be embattled island of Guadalcanal, the Hovey began operations clearing mines, screening convoys and providing on-call fire support for US Amphibious operations which began on August 7th, 1942. The Hovey would spend the next eight months engaged in these duties supporting US and Allied forces in the fiercely opposed Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Southern Solomon Island Campaign before she returned to the US in April 1943 for a much-needed overhaul and upgrade to her systems.

Returning to the South Pacific in June 1943, the Hovey participated in the Bougainville Campaign through June 1944 before damage from a grounding sent her back to the US mainland for repairs and overhaul which saw her fitted for duty as the Flagship of Mine Squadron 2. Returning to combat duty at the Invasion of the Palau Islands, the Hovey was attached to an Escort Carrier Force bound for the Philippines in early October 1944 as the vanguard of a massive US armada which would make an Amphibious Invasion of Leyte. Working with her sisterships to clear the beaches off Leyte, the waters around Dinagat Islands and the Dulag-Tacloban channel to aide landing forces, the Hovey remained on station through the end of October before retiring to Manaus Island with the rest of her squadron for a period of refresher training and upkeep.

Departing Manaus in late December escorting a Leyte-bound convoy, the Hovey and the ships of Mine Squadron 2 detached from their charges on January 2nd, 1945 and shaped a course for Lingayen Gulf, where the group was ordered to sweep the approaches to Lingayen in advance of the first American amphibious landing on Luzon. Coming under repeated massed air attack from Japanese Kamikaze aircraft while engaged in their sweeps, the Hovey and her sisters spent the time period from January 2nd onward from at their General Quarters stations, as Japanese forces bent on repelling any American attempt to invade Luzon threw everything they had at the American ships. As they swept the large gulf on January 6th, a large wave of Kamikaze’s launched an attack on the Hovey and her formation, severely damaging the USS Brooks (DD-232/APD-10) and claiming the Hovey’s sistership USS Long (DD-209/DMS-12). After conducting a risky rescue effort alongside her stricken sister while under air attack, the Hovey withdrew with the rest of her Division as darkness fell to open waters outside of Lingayen Gulf.

Returning to Lingayen Gulf at first light the following morning with her load of survivors from both the USS Long and USS Brooks still crammed aboard, the Hovey took the lead of her formation and began sweeping operations shortly after 0400hrs. Less than half an hour later radar reports flashed out that enemy aircraft were inbound, and Hovey’s crew again secured her sweeps and manned their guns. Sighting two inbound torpedo bombers flying just above the water materializing out of the predawn haze at 0450hrs, Hovey’s gunners took both aircraft under fire, missing the first which buzzed the ship from her Starboard Quarter. The second aircraft was set afire from the gunners aboard the USS Chandler (DD-206/DMS-9) as it closed on the Hovey’s Port side, providing a brightly lit target for her gunners. Despite sending a pall of rounds into the onrushing aircraft, the Hovey’s gun crews could not stop the plane from hitting the ship and cartwheeling over her Starboard beam. At the same instant, a torpedo released from the first plane found its mark and slammed into the Hovey’s Starboard side at her aft engine room. The force of the blast buckled the Hovey’s keel and killed most of the men in her after engine room, in addition to knocking out power and communications to most of the ship. Within seconds the midship was exposed to massive flooding that snapped her keel in half and allowed the ship to begin breaking up.

Within two minutes of the torpedo impact, the Hovey’s Bow section was listing 90 degrees as men stationed there scrambled to abandon ship. Moments later, a bulkhead gave way and sent the Bow vertical in the water where it lingered for a few seconds before plunging to the bottom. Hovey’s Stern remained on an even keel as it slowly swamped, allowing most of the crew and rescued sailors there to get off before it too sank at this location at 0455hrs on January 7th, 1945. When the Hovey sank, she took 24 of her crew and 24 men from her sistership USS Long with her to the bottom.

For her actions on the morning of January 7, 1945, USS Hovey was awarded her eighth and final Battle Star for World War II service.

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