USS Laffey (DD-724)

History of USS Lafite (DD-724)

USS Laffey (DD-724) is an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer of the United States Navy, named after Sailor Bartlett Laffey, who was assigned to the 12-pounder howitzer Crew Marmora aboard the tail-wheel gunship USS. During the 1864 Confederate offensive, he was awarded the Medal of Honor (MOH) (the only Confederate Medal at the time was the MOH) for his persistence in the use of weapons during the continuing onslaught.

Soon after, the War Office began creating the order structure still in use today to preserve the Department of Health's operations "over and over." Lafite's award is a tribute to his exploits, which were held on March 5, 1864 in Yazoo, Mississippi.

USS Lafite was laid on June 28, 1943 at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, and commissioned after completion on February 8, 1944. Often referred to simply as the "Sumner Class", this class is notable for its dual 5" turrets (each guided by a Mark 37 fire control system), dual rudders, additional anti-aircraft weapons and many other advancements incorporated into the previous Fletcher class , eg Gyro Mlk6 8,500rpm. Additional armament includes 10 x 21" (530mm) torpedo tubes, 6 x depth charge launchers and 2 x depth charge tracers.

Her 3,316-ton displacement didn't stop her from making cat-like turns, thanks to her 34 knots speed and the aforementioned twin rudder arrangement.

The ship received her crew in the Caribbean and completed her inspection for the next 20 days before returning to Washington Naval Shipyard to receive her sailing orders. She was ordered to serve as a training ship in Norfolk, and in mid-May a convoy was formed in New York Harbor - Rafy called for an escort mission to England. The ferry was uneventful, but gave Lafite's crew time to rehearse and take on the anti-submarine (ASW) role of destroyer escort. After being escorted to England, the Rafite received new orders to prepare for the invasion of continental Europe. Additional supplies and ammunition are loaded into all available spaces and are expected to expand firepower and anti-submarine warfare requirements.

On June 3, 1944, she sailed to the beaches of Normandy, escorted by a convoy of slow tugboats, two Dutch gunboats, and some large landing craft. At dawn on June 6, D-Day, Lafite and her crew arrived on the beaches of Utah, France, along with more than 5,000 other ships of various types.

Between June 6 and June 12, Rafi was ordered to search for and bomb the gun emplacements ashore. Rafi was also sent on an anti-submarine warfare mission, in pursuit of the enemy submarine that sank the destroyer USS Nelson. She was assigned to the battleship Nevada and the 2nd Bomb Group to bombard German bases in France.

She arrived in Belfast on July 1, 1944 and sailed home, arriving in Boston on July 9. She spent a month at the repair dock and received new electronics. She returned to Norfolk on 25 August. There, she received supplies and some crew changes, and was sailing through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, within 24 hours.

On October 23, after training, she traveled to the Pacific theater, arriving in Ulrich on November 5. There, Rafi joined Task Force 38, which attacked Japanese ships and airfields in the Philippines.

Lafite returned to Ulrich on 22 November and set up a new route for Leyte Gulf with the 60th Destroyer Squadron. Working with the 7th Fleet, the destroyer protects the battleships from enemy submarine and air attack and covers the amphibious landings in Ormoc Bay.

She docked at San Pedro Bay in Leyte in early December for overhaul and joined the 77.3 Close Support Group, which departed for Mindoro in early December to support further landings. After the bridgehead was established, Rafi escorted the empty landing craft back to Leyte Island and arrived in San Pedro Bay in mid-December.

In February, the ship supported TF 58, while the carrier conducted airstrikes on Tokyo and provided air support for Marines operating on Iwo Jima. In March 1945, she was transferred to TF 54 at Ulithi and trained her crew for the Okinawa invasion.

On April 14, 1945, Rafi was assigned to a radar post about 30 miles (48 km) north of Okinawa, Japan. Its purpose was to repel all airstrikes against Task Force 54, which was now on a support mission for the Okinawa invasion force. On his first day of duty, Rafite, along with other destroyers, repelled Japanese airstrikes. As a result, 13 enemy planes were shot down.

On April 16, Rafi and her support ships - LCS 56 and LCS 151 - were ordered to the new picket post 50 miles from Okinawa.

Landing craft support ships are designed to provide firepower during amphibious landings. Nicknamed "Mighty Gnomes", they are small boats with 71 officers and men.

The ship is equipped with heavy armament; one 3" gun in the forward, two 40mm bow guns plus two 40mm deck guns - one forward and one aft - and four 20mm guns - two on port side, Two on starboard. In addition, there are four more. 50 caliber heavy machine guns and 10 MK7 rocket launchers. After supporting the landing, the radar-deficient littoral combat ships moved to offshore support for picketing destroyers.[/p ]

The new tactical display became the destroyer's "radar screen", encircling the invading force as an early warning system for enemy aircraft, submarines and surface ships. That day, Rafi and her support ship worked at Radar Outpost 1, the closest to mainland Japan. The last four destroyers assigned to the station were attacked by kamikaze planes.

At 7:45am, their radar spotted a lone plane 6 miles from the waterfront. Rafi's 5" radar cannon fires. Three miles away, the Japanese "Wall" plane dropped a bomb, turning its tail toward Japan.

Shortly thereafter, at 8:39 a.m., fifty Japanese planes appeared on radar. The flight included "Val" and "Judy" dive bombers and "Kate" torpedo planes. These are older Japanese military aircraft, now downgraded for suicide bombing missions and loaded with high explosives. The first attack began with four vals; there were two attacking from the bow, so Captain Beckman ordered a 30-degree left turn to allow Lafite to broadside the oncoming aircraft.

The 5" guns opened first, then the 40mm guns. The 20mm flashed one after the other, and the action fired 50 calibers in one. Both Vals were shot down, but two other bandits attacked from the stern - however, Both attack planes were "splashed" and missed the ship. One Judy attacked from starboard but was also shot down - a total of five enemy planes were shot down in this single operation.

From port, another A Judy attacked the ship and opened fire on it, but was eventually shot down very close to the Lafite.

Kamikaze schools teach their pilots to use one of two proven attack methods. The first is a high-angle attack, starting at 20,000 feet and landing directly on a target at 5,000 feet in a vertical dive. Low-angle attacks start at 40 feet to avoid radar.

When approaching the target ship, the pilot would rise sharply to 1,500 feet before hitting the ship for a vertical dive.

At 8:43am, a Val aircraft engaged the stern, Laffey's anti-aircraft defenses destroyed the attacker's fuel tanks, and as Val crossed the stern, hot gas splashed onto the ship's deck. In the ninth kamikaze attack from port, the plane used a low attack but failed to climb as expected.

The low targets, which were below the range of the 5" guns, provided Kate with a clear path to the Rafite - the plane crashed into the midship's 20mm gun mounts, killing 3 crew members. The smoke from the resulting attack was heavy over the stern, and Vaal, using the smoke as cover, attacked the stern. The plane hit the ship and exploded, throwing fuel and bomb fragments below deck.

When support ship LCS 51 opened fire on the aircraft nearby, it saw people on fire on Lafite's deck jump off the ship. At 8:56, the rear 5-inch gun mount 53 was hit directly, and 6 of the 14 people on the battery were killed.

A Val flew over the Lafite and took aim at the LCS 51 emerging from the Lafite. In response, the LCS 51 aimed and shot down the enemy aircraft, but the falling engine hit the ship, damaging it and injuring some of the crew.

Laffey's stern continued to burn, forcing the captain to slow down to prevent the flames from spreading and contributing to their spread. Seizing the opportunity, Val launched a bombardment, dropping a 500-pound high-explosive (HE) bomb that hit the stern section directly and jammed the rudder 27 degrees. Unexpectedly, four FM 2 Grumman Wildcats from VC94 Squadron were assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Clover Bay to help rescue the Rafe. The remaining 40 Japanese aircraft were still attacking the destroyers, while the Wildcats intervened at will.

Two Japanese planes passed the Wildcat defense, both hitting Lafite. The Wildcats shot down six kamikazes, and when they ran out of fuel, they were forced to abort and return to their carriers. By this time, five kamikazes had hit Rafi, and three more dropped bombs but like a seemingly failed professional boxer looking for new fighting spirit from within, she remained afloat.

Fire at the enemy.

Soon, 12 F4U Corsair fighters from the Air Combat Patrol appeared overhead and attacked the remaining 30 Japanese aircraft. One of the F4s was following the "Oscar" suicide attempt and saw the Japanese plane hit Rah's arm, throwing the plane into the water.

The Corsair followed, hitting the ship's radar antenna, damaging the plane and forcing the pilot to eject from the water. An F4U shot down the 22nd and final attacking Japanese aircraft.

After 80 minutes of fighting, Rafi was hit by no fewer than 6 kamikazes and 4 bombs, losing 32 crew members and wounding 71 others. Many on the ship felt the ship should be abandoned, but it was surprising when the captain defiantly said: "As long as the gun can fire, I will never abandon the ship."

Laffey's crews extinguished the fire and buried her body before she was towed to Okinawa for temporary repairs. After completing these repairs, the destroyer sailed to the west coast of the United States, passing Saipan, Eniwetok, and finally Hawaii, finally arriving in Tacoma, Washington, on May 24, 1945. There he went into dry dock with the Todd Shipyard Company. Repairs were completed in September, after which she sailed to San Diego, but collided with PC-815 in heavy fog.

After further restoration, she officially sailed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Rafi then operated in Hawaiian waters until May 21, 1946 (the war ended in September 1945). She was assigned to take part in Operation Crossroads, the atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll, to gather scientific data on the explosion.

To participate in the blast, Rafi had to be radioactively decontaminated by sandblasting and painting all underwater surfaces and partially replacing brine pipes and vaporizers. After purification, she sailed to the West Coast of the United States via Pearl Harbor, arriving in San Diego in late August 1946.

On June 30, 1947, she was decommissioned and joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Rafi was recommissioned in late January 1951 and sailed to the Korean peninsula in mid-January 1952 to participate in the Korean War operation. She came to the theater in March. The ship operated as TF 77 and inspected the US aircraft carriers USS Antietam and USS Valley Forge.

Rafi was also used several times to bombard Communist coastal bases. After engaging with South Korea, she sailed to the east coast of the United States and worked until February 1954 as part of a hunter-killer group in the Caribbean.

In June of the same year, she toured South Korea again, returning to Norfolk in August 1954. In October 1956, Rafi left Norfolk for the Mediterranean during the Suez Crisis (29 October-7 November), which involved Israel, Britain and France against Egypt, involving the Palestinian army and Soviet support in.

Once there, she joined the Sixth Fleet, patrolling near the Israel-Egypt border.

After returning to Norfolk in February 1957, the ship patrolled the Atlantic coast. Then, on September 3, 1958, she was called to a NATO operation off the coast of Scotland. From there she joined the 6th Fleet in Mediterranean waters until returning to Norfolk in December of the same year. The following June, she cruised the Caribbean and deployed again to the Mediterranean in August 1959. In December, she visited Massana in Eritrea and Rastanura in Saudi Arabia.

The destroyer remained in the Persian Gulf until late January 1960, before returning to Norfolk in February. Lafite then set up operations in Norfolk and visited Antwerp in Belgium in October. She returned to Norfolk in October before being recalled to the Mediterranean in January 1961.