USS ''Cliffrose'' (AN-42/YN-61) was an which served with the U.S. Navy in the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

theatre of operations during

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 opposin ...

. Her career was without major incident, and she returned home safely after the war with two battle stars to her credit.

Launched in Washington

''Cliffrose'' (YN-61) was launched 27 November 1943 by

Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company was established in 1942 to build ships needed for World War II. Yard construction began on 1 March 1942. As part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program the US Navy provided some of the capital to star ...

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

; sponsored by Miss S. Morgan; reclassified ''AN-42'', 20 January 1944; and commissioned 30 April 1944.

World War II service

Cliffrose sailed from

San Pedro, California San Pedro ( ; Spanish: " St. Peter") is a neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909. The Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located wi ...

, 21 June 1944 for

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, arriving 4 July for local duty. She departed 8 August for the

Florida Islands The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a sovereign state (since 1978) in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The chain is composed of four larger islands and about ...

and the invasion of Peleliu on 15 September. She carried out surveys for the installation of moorings, and then laid an anti-

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

net across the western entrance of

Kossol Passage Kossol Roads is a large body of reef-enclosed water north of Babeldaob in northern Palau at .Kossol Roads
a ...

, remaining in the Palau Islands until 8 December, when she sailed for

Ulithi Ulithi ( yap, Wulthiy, , or ) is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about east of Yap. Overview Ulithi consists of 40 islets totaling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest i ...

. Arriving 10 December, she was briefly overhauled and had duty repairing nets. ''Cliffrose'' put out from Ulithi 25 March 1945 for the

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 ...

invasion, arriving on 1 April, the day of the first landings, for duty installing and repairing nets until 5 August. After upkeep at

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

, she returned to

20 September, loaded supplies, and cleared 25 October for

Bungo Suido The is a strait separating the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku. It connects the Pacific Ocean and the Seto Inland Sea on the western end of Shikoku. The narrowest part of this channel is the Hōyo Strait. In the English-speaking world, t ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, arriving 29 October. Here she laid navigational aids until the end of the year, sailing then for

and

, where she arrived 1 January 1946. ''Cliffrose'' cleared San Pedro, after local operations, 3 July 1946 for Pearl Harbor, where she operated from 16 July to 16 August;

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

and Subic Bay, arriving 14 September. She served in

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

waters until 25 December, when she cleared Subic Bay for

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, arriving 31 December.

Post-war decommissioning

''Cliffrose'' was decommissioned 7 January 1947 and turned over to the

Republic of China 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 northeast ...

through the

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

Honors and awards

''Cliffrose'' received two battle stars for World War II service.

References

*
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - YN-61 / AN-42 Cliffrose
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cliffrose Ailanthus-class net laying ships of the United States Navy Ships built by Everett-Pacific Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company 1943 ships World War II net laying ships of the United States