USS ADAMS DD-739

USS ADAMS DD-739 Ship History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, September 2016

The third Adams (DD-739) was laid down on 20 March 1944 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works; redesignated a light minelayer, DM-27, on 20 July 1944; launched on 23 July 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Maude Ryan Adams, the widow of Lt. Samuel Adams; and commissioned at Boston, Mass., on 10 October 1944, Cmdr. Henry J. Armstrong in command.

After fitting out there, she embarked upon her shakedown voyage on 1 November 1944. That cruise, which took her to Bermuda waters, lasted for the entire month. On the 29th, she headed back toward the United States and arrived at Norfolk, Va., on 3 December. Following post-shakedown availability in the navy yard there, she put to sea on 11 December with sistership Shea (DM-30), bound for New York and a rendezvous with Bennington (CV-20). The two destroyer minelayers departed New York with the aircraft carrier on 15 December and set a course for the Panama Canal. The three warships transited the canal on 20 December and, on the 22nd, headed for the California coast. They arrived at San Diego on the 29th and remained there two days undergoing repairs. On New Year’s Day 1945, they got underway again, headed for Oahu, and they arrived in Pearl Harbor six days later.

For almost two months, Adams remained in the Hawaiian operating area. During that time, she acted as plane guard for Bataan (CVL-29) while the small carrier conducted landing qualifications for naval aviators. She also carried out gunnery exercises and shore bombardment practice. The warship spent two periods in the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, once for the installation of VF radar equipment and again to have her main deck plating strengthened. Early in February, she laid mines and tested mine detection equipment on them. Later, the warship conducted mine laying exercises. She finished out her tour of duty in the Hawaii area late in February with another plane guard mission with Bataan.

The light minelayer stood out of Pearl Harbor on 2 March 1945, bound for the western Pacific. She arrived in Ulithi Atoll on 14 March and remained until the 19th, when she put to sea with a task group of the Okinawa invasion force. The warship saw her first combat on 23 March, the day before she arrived off Okinawa. That evening, enemy aircraft attacked her task group. Adams sustained her first casualties when a projectile fired from the after five-inch mount exploded prematurely killing two sailors and injuring another 13. At dawn the following day, she began minesweeping operations off Okinawa. The light minelayer provided gunfire support and mine destruction services to the wooden-hulled minesweepers doing the actual sweeping.

Those operations continued over the next few days in spite of Japanese air resistance. During that time, she was attacked by at least twelve different planes. She knocked six of her tormentors out of the air and claimed probable kills of two others. On the 28th, one of those attackers splashed about 25 feet from her port bow showering her with debris and gasoline. The damage she sustained in a collision with a salvage vessel forced her into the anchorage at Kerama Retto for emergency repairs. On 1 April, while she was operating to the southeast of Kerama Retto, a badly damaged Japanese plane splashed close aboard her stern; and what must have been two bombs exploded under her fantail causing severe damage and jamming her rudders at hard right. While she steamed in righthand circles, two more suicide planes swooped in at her. Adams destroyed one while the other succumbed to the antiaircraft battery of Mullany (DD-528), the ship dispatched to assist Adams. Later, Adams was towed into Kerama Retto to begin temporary repairs alongside the landing craft repair ship Endymion (ARL-9).

Adams departed Kerama Retto on 7 April 1945, bound, ultimately, for the United States and permanent repairs. She made stops at Guam and at Pearl Harbor before arriving at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vall;ejo, Calif., on 7 May. She completed repairs and post-repair trials and calibrations during the first week in July. On 6 July, she put to sea for exercises off Santa Catalina and entered port at San Diego on the 10th. After brief post-repair shakedown training and inspections, the destroyer minelayer stood out of San Diego on 17 July on her way back to Hawaii. She arrived at Oahu on the 23rd and spent the next 11 days in gunnery exercises–both antiaircraft and shore bombardment–in the Hawaiian operating area.

On 4 August 1945, Adams and the escort vesselKoiner (DE-331) departed Pearl Harbor, bound for the western Pacific. The two warships stopped overnight on the 11th and 12th at Eniwetok Atoll where they picked up the attack transport Sitka (APA-113). They escorted her to the Marianas and arrived at Guam on 15 August, the day hostilities ceased. The following day, she got underway for Okinawa, arrived in Buckner Bay on 18 August, and remained there through the 31st. On 1 September, she stood out of Buckner Bay on her way to Japan. She arrived off Kagoshima, Kyushu, on the 3rd and began sweeping a channel into the port. That operation continued until 9 September at which time she headed back toward Okinawa. She reached Buckner Bay on 11 September and remained at anchor until the 16th. On that day, she put to sea to evade a typhoon but returned to port on the 18th.

Adams departed Okinawa again on 24 September 1945; headed for Japan; arrived in Ise Wan, Honshu, on the 26th; and began minesweeping operations in preparation for the landing of Army troops at Nagoya. She anchored in Ise Wan on the 28th and remained there while her commanding officer, double-hatted as task group commander, directed the minesweeping mission. She remained at Ise Wan through the end of October. On 1 November, the destroyer minelayer laid a course for Sasebo where she arrived two days later. She stayed there through most of November provisioning ship from units preparing to return home.

On 25 November 1945, Adams left Sasebo to voyage to Kiirun, Taiwan, where she arrived on the 28th and reported for duty with Task Group (TG) 70.5. She returned to sea with TG 70.5 on 4 December for a 10-day minesweeping assignment in Taiwan Strait. At the conclusion of that mission, she returned to Kiirun on 15 December. Four days later, she put to sea with a convoy bound for Shanghai, China, and entered the Yangtze River on the 21st. Adams remained at Shanghai until 3 January 1946. Between 3 and 6 January, the warship voyaged back to Sasebo where she rejoined the Fifth Fleet.

Adams continued similar duty in Far Eastern waters until early April 1946 when she headed back to the United States. Upon her arrival home, she was assigned to the First Fleet and served in it until decommissioned in December. The light minelayer was berthed with the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, and remained in reserve for almost 23 years. On 7 February 1955, while still in reserve, she was redesignated a fast minelayer MMD-27.

Adams was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1970, and she was sold to Chow’s Iron & Steel Co., of Taiwan, on 16 December 1971, to be broken up.

Adams (DM-27) earned one battle star for her World War II service.

A Tin Can Sailors Destroyer History

USS ADAMS DD-739

The Tin Can Sailor, April 1999

The ADAMS was named for a naval aviator, Lieutenant Samuel Adams, killed on 6 June 1942 at the Battle of Midway. Reclassified DM-27 on 19 July 1944, the ADAMS was converted to a high-speed minelayer during construction. She was launched 23 July and was commissioned 10 October 1944 as a unit of Division 8, Mine Squadron 3.

Following shakedown and training, the ADAMS joined the SHEA (DM-30) for their voyage to the Pacific via the Panama Canal. She spent two months operating in Hawaiian waters, with time out for installation of VF radar equipment and other yard work. On 2 March, she steamed out of Pearl Harbor bound for the war zone and the invasion of Okinawa.

Over the coming months, she and the rest of the ships in Admiral Sharp’s minesweeping force proved time and again “No Sweep, No Invasion.” On her arrival southwest of the island on 23 March, the ADAMS’s crew received a painful introduction to combat. That evening, during an enemy raid on their task group, a projectile fired from the after 5-inch mount exploded prematurely. Shrapnel tore into the crews manning the after quadruple 40-mm mount. Two sailors died within minutes of the explosion. Thirteen suffered injuries of varying severity.

GM2c James F. McInnis, ignoring a leg wound, led the fight against fires that threatened to set off ammunition and helped throw the hot projectiles overboard. He also gave a hand with the wounded and supervised remanning the gun. Two other members of the ill-fated gun crew, Chief Gunner’s mate Thomas E. Jackson and Lieutenant (jg) Wilbert M. Healy, who both suffered shoulder wounds, directed and assisted in the removal of casualties and restored the gun to operation. Lieutenant (jg) Kenneth J. Welch, the ship’s medical officer, turned the wardroom into an emergency OR and undertook several life-saving operations. At his side was Lieutenant (jg) Clayton J. Charbonnet, a communications officer, who rendered first aid and filled in as an anesthetist. In the meantime, Lieutenant Charles F. Dufour’s prompt location of damage and supervision of repairs kept the ship in action. Undaunted, the rest of the ADAMS’s crew were at work at daybreak the next morning providing fire support and mine destruction services to the four wooden-hulled minesweepers, or AMs, as they swept the approaches to Okinawa. In the process, they sank ten mines.

The first actual air raid against the sweep group occurred on 26 March. Her gunners fought off at least twelve air attacks on the ship as the crew continued their sweeping operations. The gun crews splashed six of the enemy planes and had two probable kills. At 0618 on the 28th, one of that morning’s attackers plowed into the water off the ADAMS’s port bow, showering her decks with parts of the plane. Oil and gasoline sprayed the open bridge. While steaming in the retirement area the following night, she was attacked by two planes and claimed one that plunged into the sea off her port quarter. Later, she collided with a salvage vessel and was forced to retire to Kerama Retto to have the hole in her bow repaired.

Operating southwest of Kerama Retto near dawn on 1 April, the ADAMS earned the dubious honor of being the first DM of Squadron 3 to be hit by the enemy. That morning, a badly damaged “Tony” crashed directly under her fantail. The plane was probably carrying two bombs, which both exploded causing considerable damage. Her rudders were jammed at hard right limiting her evasive maneuvering to a tight circle. Two more kamikazes seized the opportunity to attack the disabled ship. The damage had not hampered her crew’s ability to fight back. Her gunners brought down one of the attackers, and the other was splashed by the MULLANY (DD-528), which had been dispatched to aid the ADAMS. She was quickly towed out of the area by the ENDYMION (ARL-9) for the temporary repairs that would get her safely to San Francisco’s Mare Island Navy Yard. She made the entire trip to the West Coast from Kerama Retto without rudders, steering with her engines instead. The ship was out of action until July.

She then returned to the western Pacific, arriving at Guam on 15 August, the day hostilities ended. She continued on to Okinawa and by 3 September, was off Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan. There, she joined the minesweeping force of six AMs and three PGMs preparing to clear the channel into that port. After conferring with the pilot from a Japanese pilot vessel, the minesweeping unit went to work clearing the 2,000-yard channel, which the ADAMS marked with radar buoys. On 4 September, the minesweeping force rendezvoused again with a Japanese pilot boat, which led them up the channel to Takasu. For the next three days, she anchored off Takasu while the unit completed sweeping the remainder of Kagoshima Kaiwan. Before returning to Buckner Bay, Okinawa, the ADAMS conducted five LCIs around the minefields in the Van Dieman Straits. Continuing her work with the sweeps, she operated in the waters off Honshu, Japan’s main island, clearing the way for the landing of army troops at Nagoya. On 28 November, she joined Task Group 70.5 for ten days of minesweeping in the Taiwan Strait and then moved on to the China Sea and waters off Korea and the Japanese home islands until December 1945. Over the year, she had steamed approximately 53,400 miles, fired 5,886 rounds of five-inch ammunition and approximately 17,053 rounds of 20-mm and 23,659 rounds of 40-mm ammunition.

Finally in April 1946, the ADAMS returned to the West Coast where she served with the First Fleet until decommissioned in December. She was assigned to the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet on 29 January 1947. While still in reserve, the ADAMS was redesignated a fast minelayer MMD-27 on 7 February 1955. She was finally struck from the navy’s list on 1 December 1970 and sold to Chou’s Iron & Steel Company of Taipei, Taiwan on 16 December 1971.