USS Beale (DD-471)

USS "Beale" (DD/DDE-471), a . On the 22d, another kamikaze crossed her sights, but again her efforts to thwart him succeeded only partially. Though diverted from "Beale", he struck "LCI-105" in nearby waters.

At that point, danger loomed from a different quarter. By midday on the 23d, vague fears of a surface threat to the amphibious units assembled in Leyte Gulf began to take more tangible form as contact reports from submarines and aircraft confirmed the approach of at least three separate Japanese naval forces. The following afternoon, Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid organized his warships in the gulf to bar entry to the enemy. "Beale"'s unit headed south to await the forces of Vice Admiral Shoji Nishimura and Vice Admiral Kiyohide Shima in Surigao Strait, the passage between Leyte and Dinagat Islands. Posted on the right flank forward of the battle line, she participated in the second torpedo attack by destroyers on Nisihimura's advancing warships just before 03:30 in the morning of 25 October. Though her own torpedoes failed to score on the enemy, several of those from her colleagues achieved their purpose. One hit battleship , did not last long for the Japanese sank her later in the day after she suffered further pounding from both surface gunfire and aerial attacks.

Vice Admiral Shima's foray into Surigao Strait was a very desultory affair, and "Beale" and her colleagues, having already yielded the field to the heavy units after launching torpedoes at Nishimura's approach, never came in contact with the enemy's second, halfhearted attempt to force the strait. Upon confirming to his own satisfaction that Nishimura's force was effectively destroyed, Shima displayed surprising prudence for a Japanese commander by retreating with his own vastly inferior force.

The magnitude of the American victory increased as word of the successes won in the actions fought farther north off Samar and off Cape Engaño filtered into the gulf during the few days that "Beale" remained there guarding the amphibious force against submarine and air attack. On 29 October, the destroyer embarked upon a voyage that soon brought even more joy to her crewmen when they learned that their destination was the United States. Steaming by way of Ulithi Atoll and Pearl Harbor, she ended her transpacific journey at Seattle, Washington, on 27 November. From there, the warship headed south to San Francisco, where she began an extended repair period. She completed those repairs on 17 January 1945 and departed San Francisco the next day, bound for San Diego and two weeks of post-overhaul refresher training. On the last of day January, "Beale" stood out of San Diego on her way to rejoin the Pacific Fleet in prosecuting the final stages of the war against Japan.

1945

"Beale" arrived in Hawaii on 8 February and, the following day, commenced gunnery and antisubmarine warfare training in the local operating area. She remained so engaged for nearly a month and, as a consequence, missed out on the assault on Iwo Jima carried out on 19 February; but she put to sea for the western Pacific in plenty of time to be on hand for the invasion of Okinawa. The destroyer sailed from Pearl Harbor on 5 March and, after a voyage that took her back via Ulithi Atoll, arrived at Leyte once again on St. Patrick's Day 1945 to be incorporated into the fleet gathering there for the assault on the Ryukyu Islands.

After 10 days of preparations, she stood out of Leyte Gulf on 27 March in the screen of a fast echelon of TF 55, the Southern Attack Force, and set a course for Okinawa. "Beale" and her companions caught up with the slower echelons of the task force along the way, and together they arrived off the objective early in the morning of 1 April — Easter Sunday, April Fool's Day, and L-Day for Okinawa all rolled into one. Later that morning, 5th Fleet staged its own version of an Easter parade when the vast amphibious force there assembled landed soldiers of the XXIV Army Corps and Marines of the III Amphibious Corps on the island's western coast at beaches to either side of the mouth of the Bisha River. At that point, the destroyers in the screen received other assignments, and "Beale" joined TF 54, the Gunfire and Covering Force, to serve as a seaborne artillery battery for the Army and Marine Corps while they consolidated their beachheads and started their advance inland.

Both the troops ashore and their brethren supporting them in the warships afloat marveled at the enemy's feeble responses to the initial assault. The relative ease of that first thrust, however, only masked the gathering storm; and the calm lasted but a few days. On shore, the soldiers began to run into stiffer opposition as the first week drew to a close; and, by the opening of the second week, so had the marines. The land campaign became a ponderous slugfest that dragged on until early July. At sea, the "Divine Wind" blew on the fleet surrounding Okinawa for the first time on 6 and 7 April. During that first of eight major aerial assaults that the Japanese launched upon the ships at Okinawa, "Beale"'s guns contributed to the antiaircraft barrage with which those ships tried to defend themselves. In spite of that collective effort, some of the intruders succeeded in their missions.

In one such instance on the afternoon of the 6th, her sister ship USS|Newcomb|DD-586|2 suffered crashes by four kamikazes in the space of an hour while on station some 10 miles (18 km) north of Zampa Misaki. Another sister, nearby USS|Leutze|DD-481|2, went to "Newcomb"'s aid immediately while more distant "Beale" rushed to offer her help as well. When the fourth suicide plane to hit Newcomb slid across to "Leutze"'s fantail before exploding, the damage he caused forced her to pull away from "Newcomb"'s side and leave "Beale" to succor Newcomb alone. As a result of the prompt assistance "Beale" and "Leutze" rendered, "Newcomb"'s crew quelled the raging inferno on board their ship within half an hour, and busy USS|Tekesta|ATF-93|2 towed her into the anchorage at Kerama Retto the following day.

After seeing "Newcomb" and "Tekesta" safely into Kerama Retto, "Beale" resumed duty with TF 54 providing gunfire support for the troops on Okinawa. Though call fire remained one of the warship's primary missions during her 12 weeks of service in the Ryūkyūs, the frequency and intensity of the Japanese aerial counterstrokes diverted her attention incessantly from that assignment to air defense. Antiair warfare also intruded upon her other major role at Okinawa, service in the ubiquitous antisubmarine screen. In providing protection from both submarines and aircraft, "Beale" divided her time between the gunfire support units and the ships that retired each night to safer waters some distance from the shores of Okinawa.

The desperate, aerial tactics that the Japanese relied upon as their response to the Okinawa invasion, however, made antiair warfare the predominate form of combat carried out by Navy units in the campaign. "Beale", therefore, continued to cross swords with enemy aviators throughout her participation in the island's subjugation. On 16 April, while she screened the fire support ships of TG 51.5 near Ie Shima, three enemy planes attempted attacks on "Beale". Her gunfire damaged the first intruder — misidentified as a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 — when he tried a suicide dive, and he splashed into the sea well clear of the ship. Almost immediately, though, two "Val" dive bombers pushed over into conventional bombing attacks, coming in on "Beale"'s starboard side abeam. Her guns opened up on them at a distance of about convert|8000|yd and continued to fire until a Marine Corps F4U "Corsair" flew into her field of fire in his attempt to intercept the two "Vals." The destroyer ceased fire quickly, but all three planes, the two enemies and one friend, splashed into the ocean at some distance from "Beale". Fortunately, the "Corsair" pilot managed to bail out, and a destroyer escort rescued him.

During the month of May, the warship experienced two more close calls with Japan's airborne fanatics. After dark on the 4th, a single engine plane, unrecognizable in the darkness, tried to crash "Beale"; but again her gunners rose to the challenge and sent the interloper tumbling into the sea a scant convert|100|yd away on the port beam. On 28 May, another "Val" sought to make "Beale" his funeral pyre; but he, too, succumbed to her antiaircraft barrage and fell into the sea close aboard.

By the beginning of June, enemy resistance at Okinawa was on the ebb, both in the air and on the ground. Few planes penetrated the cordon of radar pickets stationed around the island with any regularity or frequency, and the land defense found itself bottled up in several relatively isolated pockets. On 3 June, "Beale" helped to eradicate of one of those pockets when she supported the landings on Iheya Retto, one of Okinawa's satellite island groups located about 11 miles (20 km) north of the Motobu Peninsula. Organized resistance in the Ryūkyūs ended at the start of the last week in June, and the campaign for Okinawa closed officially on 2 July.

In the meantime on 24 June, "Beale" shaped a course for Leyte in the Philippines, where she conducted some minor repairs and took on supplies. The destroyer returned to Okinawa on 16 July and joined TF 95, the unit with which she spent the next three weeks of carrying out antishipping sweeps along the China coast, in the Yellow Sea, and in the Sea of Japan. She returned to Okinawa on 8 August, and the war ended during the four weeks that she remained there. Japan agreed to capitulate on 15 August, and her representatives signed the surrender document on 2 September. "Beale" departed Buckner Bay on 6 September and laid in a course for Japan. She arrived in Nagasaki on the 15th and began duty in support of the Allied occupation. During the next two months, she visited several Japanese ports while engaged in courier duty, demilitarization inspections, and escort missions.

On 15 November, the destroyer stood out of Sasebo for the voyage back to the United States. "Beale" steamed by way of Pearl Harbor and arrived in San Diego on 6 December. Four days later, she returned to sea bound for the East Coast. The warship transited the Panama Canal on the 18th and entered port at Charleston, South Carolina, two days before Christmas 1945. Following a three-month inactivation overhaul, "Beale" was decommissioned at the Charleston Navy Yard on 11 April 1946. She remained in reserve for almost six years.

1951 – 1962

While still part of the inactive fleet, the warship was moved to the Boston Naval Shipyard for conversion to an escort destroyer. Redesignated an escort destroyer, DDE-471, "Beale" was recommissioned at Boston on 1 November 1951, Comdr. Frank H. Price, Jr., in command. She remained at Boston finishing her conversion until the second week of 1952. On 8 January, she embarked upon her shakedown cruise which, after a short visit to Norfolk, Virginia, she conducted in the West Indies. After post-shakedown availability at Boston between late March and early May, she reported for duty with the Atlantic Fleet at Norfolk on 5 May. Near the end of the month, the destroyer headed for the Gulf of Mexico where she spent the month of June operating as planeguard for USS|Cabot|CVL-28|2 during training operations out of Pensacola, Florida She returned to Norfolk on Independence Day 1952 and resumed normal operations from that port. Training duty in the Virginia Capes operating area and upkeep at Norfolk occupied her time for the remainder of 1952. Late in January 1953, "Beale" moved south on her way to the large annual fleet exercise called "Springboard." After preliminary drills with USS|Midway|CVA-41|2 off the Florida coast near Mayport, she continued on to the vicinity of Puerto Rico where the maneuvers were carried out in late February and early March. The warship arrived back in Norfolk on 13 March and stayed there for a little more than a month. On 17 April, she stood out of Chesapeake Bay bound for exercises in the waters around the British Isles, followed by a short cruise in the Mediterranean. During that deployment, she visited Londonderry in Northern Ireland and Plymouth, England, before transiting the Strait of Gibraltar to call at Golfe Juan, France, and Naples, Italy. The destroyer departed Naples on 13 June, shaped a course back to the United States, and reentered Norfolk on the 26th.

She conducted local operations during July and the first part of August and then sailed north to the coast of Nova Scotia where she spent the rest of August serving as planeguard for USS|Valley Forge|CVA-45|2. "Beale" arrived back at Norfolk on 4 September and took up the usual routine of local operations and upkeep until the beginning of October. On 2 and 3 October, she made the short voyage to New York where she began a three-month overhaul, her first since rejoining the active fleet. After refresher training off the Cuban coast near Guantanamo Bay early in 1954, the destroyer returned to Norfolk in March to prepare for an assignment overseas. On 11 May, she embarked on a tour of duty in the Mediterranean Sea. Service with the 6th Fleet kept her busy until early that fall when she headed back to the United States. "Beale" reached Norfolk again on 10 October 1954. The warship spent the rest of the year in port.

In January 1955, she took up East Coast operations once again, ranging from Newport, Rhode Island in the north to Puerto Rico and Key West in the south. "Beale" remained so engaged until late May when she began six weeks of upkeep at Norfolk. At the end of the first week in July, she departed Norfolk and headed back to Newport whence she conducted exercises with carriers briefly before proceeding to the vicinity of Bermuda where she carried out operations with recently commissioned USS|Nautilus|SSN-571|2. After assisting in the evaluation of the capabilities of the first nuclear-powered submarine, "Beale" stood into Norfolk once more on 6 August. A month later, she returned to sea for an abbreviated deployment overseas to participate in two NATO exercises, Operation "Centerboard" and Operation "New Broom IV", both of which were carried out in the Atlantic off Portugal. Leaving Lisbon on 10 October, the destroyer reentered Norfolk on the 23d.

Following an upkeep and repair period that lasted through the end of the year, "Beale" resumed local operations off the Virginia Capes early in January 1956. In mid-February, the warship headed south to participate in the annual "Springboard" fleet exercise carried out in the waters between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Back in Norfolk on 22 March, she conducted type training and similar evolutions in the immediate vicinity through the end of May. On the 31st, "Beale" left Hampton Roads bound for the Gulf of Mexico where she engaged in further training missions punctuated by visits to Pensacola, New Orleans, and Galveston. The destroyer departed the latter port on 5 July and headed home, arriving back in Norfolk on the 9th. Regular overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard occupied her time from the middle of July until early November. On 10 November, "Beale" put to sea for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a month of post-overhaul refresher training. Back in Norfolk a week before Christmas, she drilled in the local operating area through the first 11 weeks of 1957.

On 18 March, she embarked upon a voyage in the course of which she circumnavigated the African continent. Unable to use the Suez Canal, closed as a result of the hostilities between Israel and Egypt that followed in the wake of Nasser's nationalization of the canal the preceding summer, the warship deployed to the Indian Ocean via the long route around southern Africa. Steaming by way of the Azores, "Beale" reached the African coast at Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 30 March. She visited Simonstown, Union of South Africa, from 10 to 12 April before rounding Cape Agulhas, Africa's southernmost point, on her way to Mombassa, Kenya. After leaving Mombassa, the destroyer sailed to the Persian Gulf where she called at Qeshm, Iran, and Bahrain. From the Persian Gulf, she headed for the reopened Suez Canal via Massawa, Eritrea (now a province of Ethiopia). "Beale" transited the canal at the beginning of June and arrived at Piraeus, Greece, on the 4th. Between 5 and 14 June, she crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Spain where she spent the ensuing four weeks making calls at the ports of Valencia, Cartagena, and Barcelona. Following a two-day stop at Gibraltar, she embarked upon the voyage across the Atlantic on 14 July and stood into Norfolk again on 26 July.

"Beale"'s homecoming lasted less than six weeks, however, for she put to sea again on 3 September bound for the British Isles. She arrived in Plymouth, England, on the 14th and spent the rest of the month engaged in NATO Exercise "Stand Firm." At the conclusion of the exercise, the destroyer paid a 10-day visit to Cherbourg. On 10 October, she left the French port to return to the United States. "Beale" entered Chesapeake Bay once more on 22 October and resumed normal operations along the East Coast.

Near the end of March 1958, "Beale" received word of the cancellation of her scheduled deployment to the Mediterranean in favor of an assignment with Task Group Alfa, an experimental group formed to develop and teach new and advanced antisubmarine defense techniques and procedures. For more than five years, her work with the ASW developmental group kept her tied fairly closely to the East Coast and precluded any tours of duty farther away from the United States than the West Indies.

1962 – 1968

That extended assignment did not prevent her from participating in internationally significant events, however, for, after Fidel Castro's insurgents succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959, ships of the Navy performed almost constant patrols off that troubled island. "Beale" carried out her first such mission between 13 and 26 April 1961, and her second tour of duty in Cuban waters lasted from the end of June until mid-August 1962. On 30 June 1962, she resumed her former destroyer classification and the designation, DD-471. Later that year, after reconnaissance flights over the island revealed the presence of offensive nuclear missiles, President John F. Kennedy declared a "quarantine" of Cuba to prevent the importation of additional missiles and to secure the removal of those already in place. "Beale" served on the Cuban missile crisis "blockade" from 25 October to 5 November 1962.

After an additional year of service along the East Coast and in the West Indies, "Beale" completed preparations in November 1963 to embark upon her first major overseas deployment in more than half a decade. On the 29th, she stood out of Norfolk on her way across the Atlantic Ocean. The warship arrived in Pollensa Bay, Majorca, on 11 December and relieved "McCaffrey" (DD-860) the following afternoon. During her first eight weeks with the 6th Fleet, normal activities such as exercises and port visits occupied her time. Early in February 1964, however, orders sent her to the eastern Mediterranean where she joined a contingency force brought together in response to trouble on the island of Cyprus. Service with the contingency force received her undivided attention until the first week in March. Afterwards, "Beale" made a six-day liberty call at Istanbul, Turkey, and then returned to sea for further duty in the eastern Mediterranean, an assignment that included NATO exercises in the Ionian Sea. Late in March, she returned to the western portion of the "middle sea", where she spent the remaining six weeks of her deployment. Completing turnover formalities at Pollensa Bay near the end of the second week in May, "Beale" transited the Strait of Gibraltar on the 14th and shaped a course for Hampton Roads.

Ten days later, she arrived at Norfolk and commenced post-deployment standdown. The destroyer remained in port for over a month, getting underway again early in July for an Independence Day visit to Baltimore, Maryland Following the celebration, she embarked upon the familiar routine of training missions along the East Coast and in the West Indies. That employment took up her time for the remainder of 1964, while a regular overhaul at Norfolk occupied her during the first few months of 1965. After refresher training out of Guantanamo Bay in the summer of 1965, "Beale" resumed normal operations from Norfolk.

After nearly a year of training duty out of her home port, she departed Norfolk on 1 June 1966 bound for the Far East and her first combat assignment in more than two decades. On the outward voyage, she traveled by way of the Panama Canal, Hawaii, and Guam before arriving at the 7th Fleet's base at Subic Bay in the Philippines near the end of the second week in July. Following a tour of duty as station ship at Hong Kong, "Beale" entered the combat zone in the waters adjacent to Vietnam on 24 July. The next day, she began service as a gunfire support ship on the "gunline" just off the Vietnamese coast. At the end of two weeks as a floating artillery battery, the warship returned to Subic Bay to replenish and perform maintenance. Late in August, "Beale" resumed duty on the "gunline." In September and October, she served in the screen of the carrier, USS|Intrepid|CVS-11|2. Early in November, the destroyer concluded her final tour in the combat zone and began the voyage home. Steaming via the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean, she completed a circumnavigation of the globe when she pulled into Norfolk on 17 December.

The extended standdown period that "Beale" began upon her return lasted well into 1967. The destroyer did not put to sea again until March, two weeks of which she spent carrying out type training in the Virginia Capes operating area. On 10 April, the warship stood out of Chesapeake Bay for Key West and nearly a month of duty as a school ship for the Fleet Sonar School located there. Back in Norfolk on 8 May, "Beale" remained relatively inactive until June when she participated in Exercise "New Look", a 36-ship ASW training effort that involved units of four NATO navies. In July, a board of inspection and survey looked her over and mandated a restricted availability, which she carried out at Baltimore, Maryland, in August. She resumed normal operations out of Norfolk in September, and those evolutions occupied her until the middle of October when she started preparations for her final deployment overseas.

On 14 November, the warship passed between Capes Henry and Charles and laid in a course for the Mediterranean Sea. Steaming in company with a quartet of DesRon 32 destroyers that included "Beale"'s sister ship and frequent colleague USS|Bache|DD-470|2, she arrived in Pollensa Bay, Majorca, on the 24th. She spent the bulk of her last deployment in the western Mediterranean, sailing east of the Italian "boot" only once when she entered the Adriatc in late January 1968 to call at Split, Yugoslavia. Her activities in the western basin consisted of a mix of exercises — unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral in composition — and visits to a variety of French and Italian ports, as well as one brief call at Malta. After being relieved by USS|Moale|DD-693|2 at Malaga, Spain, "Beale" got underway for Norfolk on Easter Sunday 1968. A note of sadness, however, intruded upon the satisfaction usually associated with a homeward bound voyage. Of the four DesRon 32 ships that had accompanied her to the Mediterranean the previous fall, only three joined her in the return trip. A storm at Rhodes early in February had reduced "Bache", her frequent comrade over the years, to an unsalvageable wreck. "Beale" and her depleted complement of traveling companions arrived back in Hampton Roads on 23 April.

Following post-deployment leave and upkeep, "Beale" commenced her last weeks of operations with the Navy late in May. She steamed north to Newport, Rhode Island, where she served as a training platform for the Destroyer School until the latter part of June. On 25 June, the warship returned to Norfolk and began preparations for another review by a board of inspection and survey. The inspection, carried out at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard early in August, resulted in a recommendation that "Beale" be retired. She was decommissioned at Norfolk, Virginia on 30 September 1968, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1968. The former warship performed her last service to the Navy on 24 June 1969 when she was sunk as a target about 250 miles (460 km) east of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

Awards

"Beale" earned six battle stars for World War II service and one battle star during the Vietnam conflict.

References

*DANFS|http://history.navy.mil/danfs/b4/beale-ii.htm

External links

* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/471.htm navsource.org: USS "Beale"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/destroy/dd471txt.htm hazegray.org: USS "Beale"]