Caption | APD Ward burning in Ormoc Bay, Leyte, Philippine Islands, after being struck by special attack aircraft, 7 Dec 1944; the firefighting ship was destroyer O'Brien, and photo was taken from APD Crosby ww2dbase | |||||||||
Photographer | Unknown | |||||||||
Source | ww2dbaseUnited States National Archives | |||||||||
Identification Code | 80-G-335685 | |||||||||
More on... |
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Photos on Same Day | 7 Dec 1944 | |||||||||
Added By | C. Peter Chen | |||||||||
This photograph has been scaled down; full resolution photograph is available here (740 by 600 pixels). | ||||||||||
Licensing | Public Domain. According to the US National Archives, as of 21 Jul 2010: Please contact us regarding any inaccuracies with the above information. Thank you. |
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Colorized By WW2DB |
Colorized with Adobe Photoshop |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
2. Don Mericle says:
18 Dec 2015 11:36:25 AM
I was onboard the USS COFER APD 62, saw twin engine betty hit the Ward on the port side, the air cover (p-38s with Bong covering us) between the ships and air we shot down 85 planes that day, the biggest ship was a DD in the landing force.
18 Dec 2015 11:36:25 AM
I was onboard the USS COFER APD 62, saw twin engine betty hit the Ward on the port side, the air cover (p-38s with Bong covering us) between the ships and air we shot down 85 planes that day, the biggest ship was a DD in the landing force.
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Famous WW2 Quote
"With Germany arming at breakneck speed, England lost in a pacifist dream, France corrupt and torn by dissension, America remote and indifferent... do you not tremble for your children?"Winston Churchill, 1935
8 May 2015 10:37:46 AM
The U.S.S. Ward is the destroyer that fired the first U.S. shot of WWII when it fired on a Japanese midget sub trying to enter Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. She was commanded at the time by LCDR William W. Outerbridge.
The tale gets strange from here.
Reclasified an APD (high speed transport), it was sunk by gunfire from the U.S.S. O'Brien on December 7, 1944 when attmpts at damage control failed after a Japanese kamikaze attack exactly three years to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
And even stranger, the commanding officer of the O'Brien was none other than William W. Outerbridge who had commanded Ward three years before on that fateful day off Hawaii.
The truth is stranger than fiction.