A Tale of the Day of Infamy
The story of USS Ward, which fired the first shot of the Pacific War
The outbreak of World War I and the increasing likelihood that the United States would become involved in it led to congressional passage of the Navy Act of 1916: a massive three-year construction program intended to create “a Navy second to none.” In addition to new battleships, battlecruisers and cruisers, the Act provided for 50 new fleet destroyers. This was the genesis of the Navy’s enormous wartime destroyer construction program that ultimately produced 267 ships: the famous four-pipers of the 'Wickes" and "Clemson" classes—so called because of their four funnels.
Though generally similar to their immediate predecessors, the six ships of the "Caldwell" class, the four-pipers were faster and mounted a heavier torpedo armament: 12 x 21in tubes ( 4 x triple mounts, two on each broadside). Gun armament, however, was the same as the “Caldwells”: 4 x 4in guns in single mounts plus 2 x 1-pounder AA guns. Visually, they were distinguished from earlier classes by their flush deck (no forecastle break) and their more extensive bridgework.
The mass-produced four-pipers were several hundred tons larger than the “Caldwells,” this to accommodate more powerful machinery for a design speed of 35 knots, versus 30 knots for their predecessors. In service, practical sea speed was 32-33 knots. Otherwise, they were far from uniform in performance, having been constructed by several shipbuilders with variations in boilers and machinery.
Only a handful of the four-pipers were commissioned in time for service in World War I and many were relegated to reserve status immediately after completion. Some were scrapped under the terms of the London Naval Treaty (1930), which restricted total tonnages in most classes of warship. Others were disposed of because of the rapid deterioration of their Yarrow boilers. Even so, sufficient four-pipers remained to more than meet the needs of the peacetime fleet, and it was not until 1933 that Congress was willing to authorize new destroyers.
By 1940, 93 four-pipers had been discarded with an additional twelve lost in accidents, and 169 remained in service or in reserve. Under the terms of the destroyers-for-bases deal of 1940, fifty were transferred to Britain’s Royal Navy (RN) in exchange for 99-year leases on naval and air bases in British Atlantic and Caribbean colonies. Some were never commissioned in the RN, being cannibalized to keep others operational. Those commissioned received names of towns and cities common to both the US and the UK and were known as the “Town” class.
Though they were old by 1941 and far less capable than the latest USN destroyers, the four-pipers gave good and sometimes valiant service in a multiplicity of roles. One, USS Reuben James (DD-245), was the US Navy’s first World War II casualty. She was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Iceland on 23 October 1941 while serving on convoy escort duty. Of her crew of 143, only 44 enlisted sailors survived.
At the beginning of World War II, many four-pipers were still serving in the US Navy as fleet destroyers. For example, seventeen were with Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 29 in the Asiatic Fleet, based at Manila Bay, the Philippines. DESRON 29 had four destroyer divisions (DESDIV), each with four destroyers, plus a squadron flagship. These ships participated in the Battle of the Java Sea; four were sunk in action and a fifth was damaged then captured by the Japanese while in drydock. The survivors of DESRON 29 returned to the US for conversion to escort destroyers, afterwards serving in the Atlantic. Subsequently almost all of the remaining four-pipers underwent conversion into escorts, fast minelayers or minesweepers, light seaplane tenders, or fast troop transports.
But top honors among the four-pipers undoubtedly go to USS Ward (DD-139), Lieutenant Commander William W. Outerbridge commanding, which had the distinction of firing the first shot of the war with Japan—and met her end three years later in the most ironic of circumstances.
After twenty years in reserve, USS Ward was refitted and recommissioned for service in February 1941. On 7 December 1941, she was assigned to DESDIV 80, Hawaiian Coastal Sea Frontier, 14th Naval District. On the morning of that day of infamy, Ward was on routine patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor. At about 0400, she received word of a periscope sighting from the minesweeper USS Condor. The destroyer immediately went to general quarters and commenced a search. At 0637 lookouts spotted the periscope of a submarine that appeared to be tailing the cargo ship USS Antares, which was inbound to Pearl Harbor. Ward opened fire with her 4in guns, scoring at least one hit, then ran in and dropped depth charges, sinking what proved to be a Japanese midget submarine. It was the first small victory of the United States Navy’s epic Pacific campaign.
Ward was later sent back to the United States for conversion into a fast troop transport. She was recommissioned in February 1943 as ADP-16 and returned to the Pacific. There she saw arduous service in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea areas, and in late 1944 she took part in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines. In October and November Ward was busily engaged as usual, transporting troops, patrolling, and escorting ships to and from the invasion area.
In early December Ward was tasked to land troops at Ormac Bay. On 7 December 1944, while patrolling off the invasion area, she was attacked by several Japanese kamikazes. One of them struck her amidships, bringing the ship to a dead stop and starting a fire that soon became uncontrollable. The senior officer present ordered the Ward to be abandoned and after the crew was taken off, she was sunk by gunfire from USS O'Brien (DD-725), a brand-new “Allen M. Sumner”-class fleet destroyer. The O’Brien’s captain was William Outerbridge, now a full commander, who had been the captain of the Ward at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
Lest we forget those great and terrible years…