USS ''Monaghan'' (DD-354) was the last ship built of the ''Farragut''-class destroyer design. She was named for

Ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

John R. Monaghan Ensign (rank)#United States, Ensign John R. Monaghan (26 March 1873 – 1 April 1899) was an officer in the United States Navy. Biography Born in Chewelah, Washington, Chewelah, Washington Territory Monaghan was a part of the first graduating cla ...

. ''Monaghan'' was laid down on November 21, 1933 at the

Boston Navy Yard The Boston Navy Yard, originally called the Charlestown Navy Yard and later Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities in the United States Navy. It was established in 1801 as part of the recent establishment of t ...

, and launched on January 9, 1935. She was sponsored by Miss Mary F. Monaghan, niece of Ensign Monaghan, and commissioned on 19 April 1935. During the next few years ''Monaghan'' operated primarily in the North Atlantic, training

US 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 ...

personnel who served in

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 ...

. ''Monaghan'' was present during the Pearl Harbor raid on December 7, 1941. She participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the

Battle of Midway The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The U.S. Navy under ...

in 1942. Monaghan was sunk in

Typhoon Cobra Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey), was the United States Navy designation for a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944 ...

east of the

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in 1944.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, ''Monaghan'' was a ready duty destroyer in

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 R ...

, and at 07:51 was ordered to join , who had just sunk an unidentified submarine off the entrance to Pearl Harbor an hour earlier. Four minutes later, before ''Monaghan'' could get underway, the Japanese air attack began. ''Monaghan'' opened fire, and at 08:27 was underway to join ''Ward'' when notified of the presence of a Ko-hyoteki class

midget submarine A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...

in the harbor. ''Monaghan'' headed for the trespasser and the captain, LCdr. Burford, giving the order to ram. The submarine turned and fired its torpedo at the ''Monaghan''. It missed, passing within 50 yards of the destroyer's starboard side. The ''Monaghan'' rammed the submarine glancingly, then sank it with two depth charges. Because of the shallowness of the harbor, when the depth charges detonated, the explosions lifted the ''Monaghans stern out of the water. The destroyer then went out of control and smashed into a barge. She headed on out of the harbor to patrol offshore for the next week, then joined in the attempt to relieve

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

, but Wake was captured by the Japanese before ''Lexington's'' force could bring aid. Homeward bound, ''Monaghan,'' with and , made repeated attacks on an enemy submarine, causing it to broach and give off a large oil slick. Patrol and scouting operations out of Pearl Harbor with the ''Lexington'' group were followed by

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 ...

duty to the west coast and back before Task Force 11 (TF 11), with ''Monaghan'' screening ''Lexington,'' sortied from Pearl Harbor on April 15, 1942, bound for the South Pacific. With the Japanese threatening

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, sea lines of communication to Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

were in peril, and the Navy moved quickly and decisively to block so critical a threat. First action came 4 May when planes from hit Japanese invasion shipping at

Tulagi Tulagi, less commonly known as Tulaghi, is a small island——in Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Ngella Sule. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1 ...

and Gavutu. The two carrier forces now combined upon word that an enemy carrier group had entered the Coral Sea. The opening action of the victory there came 7 May, when American search planes spotted the Japanese occupation force, several transports guarded by the light carrier . ''Lexington'' and ''Yorktown'' planes sank ''Shōhō''. Next day, before the major engagement by aircraft from both American and Japanese fleet carriers, ''Monaghan'' was ordered away from formation to transmit important messages, thus preserving radio silence in the main body. She was then ordered on to search for survivors of and , sunk on the 7th by the Japanese. Since the position of the sinking had been erroneously reported, ''Monaghan'' was unable to carry out a rescue, and sailed on with messages for Nouméa before rejoining TF 16 in time to return to Pearl Harbor 26 May.

Battle of Midway

Two days later, ''Monaghan'' was underway for the decisive battle of the war, the

. The Japanese sailed for the capture of the Midway Atoll with a complex battle plan, but U.S.

naval intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

revealed the plan to American commanders, who thus knew when and where to find the Carrier Striking Task Force of the Japanese attackers. Although outnumbered, the Americans sank four enemy carriers in air actions beginning on the night of 3 June, along with a

heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...

. Through the first two days, ''Monaghan'' screened , then late on the morning of 5 June was ordered out to rescue men of a downed

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

. At 1830 she reached the side of badly damaged ''Yorktown,'' joining the group of destroyers struggling to save the carrier and guard her from further damage. The penetrated the destroyer screen the next day and sank both ''Yorktown'' and , the carrier remaining afloat another 16 hours before she succumbed. ''Monaghan,'' , and attacked and badly damaged the submarine.

Other Pacific operations

After the victory, the force returned to Pearl Harbor on 13 June. ''Monaghan'' was sent north to aid in countering the Japanese threat in the Aleutians. Damaged by collision in the heavy northern fog, ''Monaghan'' repaired at Dutch Harbor and Pearl Harbor, then escorted a convoy to the west coast en route to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, Vallejo, CA for a repair period. ''Monaghan'' returned to the South Pacific at Nandi, Fiji, 17 November. In the harbor of Nouméa she bent her propellers on an underwater obstruction, and had to return to Pearl Harbor on her hastily replaced port screw for permanent repairs, completed 21 February 1943. Once more in the Aleutians, ''Monaghan'' joined TG 16.69 a scouting force built around cruisers and . On 26 March this group engaged the Japanese in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Although outnumbered, the Americans fired guns and torpedoes so effectively that the Japanese were driven away. Patrol and occasional shore bombardment missions throughout the Aleutians, along with escort missions, continued through the summer. Highlights were a radar-directed surface engagement with an unidentified target 20 June, and a chase of a Japanese submarine two days later that resulted with the submarine being driven up on rocks and abandoned. She was later identified as , engaged in evacuating troops from Kiska. After escort duty to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco, ''Monaghan'' sailed to San Pedro, California, to escort three new escort carriers to the Gilbert Islands operation, for which they sailed from Espiritu Santo 13 November. The escort carriers launched their planes against shore targets and protected convoys offshore through the invasion of Battle of Tarawa, Tarawa. Returning to the west coast on escort duty, ''Monaghan'' rejoined the escort carriers after extensive exercises out of San Diego, California, and prepared for the invasion of the Marshall Islands, Marshalls, during which she guarded the carriers northwest of Roi Island, Roi as they flew air support and strikes for the landings there. On 7 February 1944 she entered Majuro, then escorted to Kwajalein, where she joined the transport screen for the capture of Eniwetok. On the night of 21/22 February, she joined in an all-night bombardment on Enewetak Atoll, Parry Island, then spent a month on patrol and escort duty in the Marshalls. On 22 March ''Monaghan'' put to sea in the antisubmarine screen for the fast carriers, bound for strikes on Palau, Woleai, and Yap, returning to Majuro 6 April. The next sortie, 13 April to 4 May, was to cover the Landing at Hollandia, Hollandia landings, and strike at Satawan, Chuuk Lagoon, Truk, and Pohnpei, Ponape. After preparing at Majuro, the force now sailed for the invasion of Saipan, against which the first strikes were flown 11 June. While the fliers of TF 58 soundly defeated the Japanese in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, ''Monaghans group patrolled off Saipan guarding against a possible breakthrough by the enemy. They next steamed to Eniwetok to prepare for the assault on Guam, for which they sailed 14 July, ''Monaghan'' again in the antisubmarine screen protecting the carriers. Assigned to cover the work of underwater demolition teams off Agat, Guam, Agat on the night of 17/18 July, ''Monaghan'' furnished harassing fire until daylight, firing again on the island during the early morning of 19 June. She continued bombardment and screening missions until 25 July when she sailed for Pearl Harbor, and an overhaul at Puget Sound.

Loss in a typhoon

After training off California and Hawaii, ''Monaghan'' sailed for Ulithi 11 November. There she joined the escort for three fleet oilers bound for a rendezvous 17 December with TF 38, whose planes had been striking central Luzon in support of the Mindoro invasion. The ship was expecting to refuel and probably had reduced its ballast in order to take on fuel. Typhoon Cobra (1944), Typhoon "Cobra" hit before the ''Monaghan'' was ready to ride it out. Typhoon Cobra claimed 790 lives in the U.S. 3rd Fleet, 3rd Fleet, and sank , , and ''Monaghan''. Six men survived the ''Monaghan'' sinking, reportedly rescued by and/or . After drifting on a raft for three days, the men reported that ''Monaghan'' took roll after roll to starboard, finally going over. The Typhoon Cobra tragedy, Admiral Chester Nimitz said, "represented a more crippling blow to the Third Fleet than it might be expected to suffer in anything less than a major action". ''Monaghan'' received 12 battle stars for World War II service.

References

External links