USS ''Ellyson'' (DD-454/DMS-19), a , is the only ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to be named for

Theodore Gordon Ellyson Theodore Gordon Ellyson, USN (27 February 1885 – 27 February 1928), nicknamed "Spuds", was the first United States Navy officer designated as an aviator ("Naval Aviator No. 1"). Ellyson served in the experimental development of aviation i ...

, a submariner who became the first officer of the U.S. Navy to be designated a naval aviator.

Service history

''Ellyson'' was laid down by Federal Shipbuilding of

Kearny, New Jersey Kearny ( ) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2010 United States Census, the town's population was 40,684,launched on 26 July 1941 sponsored by Miss Gordon Ellyson, daughter of Commander Ellyson, and commissioned on 28 November 1941.

1942

Still outfitting when the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, ''Ellyson'' was quickly readied for sea and patrolled in the Atlantic, protecting Allied shipping from Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

and

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. On 14 January 1942 she rescued 24 survivors from the sunken

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

SS ''Norness''. On 15 June she broke the pennant of Commander, Destroyer Squadron 10, which she was to carry proudly through the war, through the squadron's redesignation to Mine Division 20 and the subsequent conversion of its destroyers to high-speed

minesweeper A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping. History The earliest known usage of ...

s. In August 1942 ''Ellyson'' began operating with the aircraft carrier , and remained with her through the landings at Fedhala, French Morocco, on 8 November. After two months of escort duty along the east coast, she rejoined ''Ranger'' on two voyages to Casablanca to ferry

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

planes to

north Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

1943

On 5 April 1943 ''Ellyson'' arrived at NS Argentia, Dominion of Newfoundland, to prepare for operations with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

. She sailed for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 12 May in the screen of the battleships and , and operated with the

British Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...

out of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands screening

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

s, giving distant support to Allied shipping to

Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

, and attempting to lure

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

battleship and other German surface ships from the safety of Norwegian bases to battle on the open seas. In July she took part in a feint invasion of southern Norway to distract German attention from the real assault on Sicily. Returning to Norfolk, Virginia, on 9 August 1943, ''Ellyson'' screened during the battleship's shakedown cruise off Argentina, then returned to Norfolk with her on 24 October. On 3 November ''Ellyson'' sailed in the scouting line for ''Iowa'' who was carrying

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

to the Teheran Conference. Later, moving into the battleship's screen, ''Ellyson'' touched

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

;

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from :wo:daqaar, daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Senegal, largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar ...

, and

Port Royal, South Carolina Port Royal is a town on Port Royal Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 14,220 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Beaufort metropolitan area. Port Royal is home to Marine Cor ...

; before returning to Boston, Massachusetts, on 19 December.

1944

On 6 January 1944 ''Ellyson'' once again joined ''Ranger'' for screen and plane guard duty in

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

. She sailed for north Africa 19 April and arrived at Oran on 1 May. On the 16th while hunting submarines ''Ellyson'' made contact on , touching off an intensive coordinated air-sea hunt. The submarine surfaced at 23:58, and soon dived after a brief duel with . ''Ellyson'' and continued the attack with depth charges, forcing ''U-616'' to surface again. ''Ellyson'' sank her with gunfire on the morning of the 17th, then rescued 30 survivors. ''Ellyson'' arrived at Plymouth, on 22 May 1944 for last-minute preparations for the

invasion of France France has been invaded on numerous occasions, by foreign powers or rival French governments; there have also been unimplemented invasion plans. * the 1746 War of the Austrian Succession, Austria-Italian forces supported by the British navy attemp ...

. On 6 June she covered the Army Ranger assault on Pointe du Hoc to knock out the heavy gun emplacements reported there. On 25 June she saw action off Cherbourg, blasting gun installations, destroying

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...

s, and laying a

smoke screen A smoke screen is smoke released to mask the movement or location of military units such as infantry, tanks, aircraft, or ships. Smoke screens are commonly deployed either by a canister (such as a grenade) or generated by a vehicle (such as ...

for larger fleet units. ''Ellyson'' sailed from Portland Harbour on 29 June 1944, to invade southern France on 15 August. She led the destroyer fires support group in directly behind the minesweepers and knocked out defenses for the incoming troops. On patrol on 27 August she illuminated a suspicious fishing vessel and captured it, finding 50 German submariners trying to escape. ''Ellyson'' remained on patrol to cover the landing of reinforcements and support the invasion until October, then sailed for Boston, arriving 8 November to begin conversion to a high-speed minesweeper. She was reclassified to

hull classification symbol The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ind ...

DMS-19 on 15 November 1944.

1945

After training in

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...

, ''Ellyson'' sailed from Norfolk, on 3 January 1945 for the Pacific. On 24 March she arrived off

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

with the rest of her squadron to sweep in advance of the invasion. After thus making possible the pre-assault bombardment, she supported smaller minesweepers clearing approaches to the beaches and inner harbors. After the landings of 1 April ''Ellyson'' joined the

radar picket A radar picket is a radar-equipped station, ship, submarine, aircraft, or vehicle used to increase the radar detection range around a nation or military (including naval) force to protect it from surprise attack, typically air attack, or from cr ...

line. The varied and dangerous duties assigned her squadron in the Okinawa operation took a heavy toll, only three of the 12 ships with whom she sailed in the next three months survived undamaged. ''Ellyson'' went to the aid of her sister ship on 6 April, attempting to tow the abandoned ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

'' victim. Flames and the threat of a magazine explosion forced ''Ellyson'' to sink the stricken destroyer early on 7 April to prevent her drifting on to Japanese-held

Ie Shima , previously romanized in English as Ie Shima, is an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, lying a few kilometers off the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island. The island measures in circumference and covers . As of December 2012 the island had ...

. ''Ellyson'' herself was attacked several times and accounted for a number of Japanese planes. In July 1945 ''Ellyson'' became flagship for the task group sweeping the East China Sea. Upon the ceasefire, she joined

Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

off

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous ...

and cleared it for the incoming occupation fleet units. In September she returned to Okinawa, and from her base at

Buckner Bay is a bay on the southern coast of Okinawa Island on the Pacific Ocean in Japan. The bay covers and ranges between to deep. The bay is surrounded by the municipalities of Uruma, Kitanakagusuku, Nakagusuku, Nishihara, Yonabaru, Nanjō, a ...

, served as command ship for clearing the Inland Sea. She sailed from Japan on 5 December for Norfolk, arriving 5 January 1946.

Post war

Japanese destroyer Asakaze (DD-181) underway in 1959

''Ellyson'' remained in the Atlantic, based at Charleston, South Carolina, primarily, for training as far as the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. In 1948 she was immobilized at Charleston, resumed operations that November when she sailed to Argentia to sweep for an amphibious exercise. Attached to Mine Force, Atlantic Fleet, ''Ellyson'' continued to operate from Charleston on training duty along the east coast and in the Caribbean. She served in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

with the Sixth Fleet in 1949, 1951, and 1953. On 4 May 1954 her hull classification symbol reverted to DD-454.

Japanese service

She was decommissioned 19 October 1954, and transferred to the Japanese Government on 20 October 1954 under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. She served in the

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force , abbreviated , also simply known as the Japanese Navy, is the maritime warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, tasked with the naval defense of Japan. The JMSDF was formed following the dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) ...

as ''Asakaze''. In 1970 the ship was returned to the United States, and was sold to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, where she was cannibalized for spare parts.

Awards

''Ellyson'' received seven

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

s for World War II service.

References

External links

USS ''Ellyson'' page
a
Destroyer History Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellyson (DD-454) Gleaves-class destroyers of the United States Navy Ships built in Kearny, New Jersey 1941 ships World War II destroyers of the United States Cold War destroyers of the United States Gleaves-class destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Gleaves-class destroyers of the Republic of China Navy Cold War destroyers of the Republic of China