World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseNamed for pioneering naval aviator Lieutenant Richard Saufley, Fletcher-class destroyer Saufley was laid down on 27 Jan 1942 at the Federal Shipbuilding Yards in Kearny, New Jersey, United States. The ship was launched on 19 Jul 1942 with Richard Saufley's widow, Mrs. Helen Scruggs, as sponsor. On 29 Aug 1942, USS Saufley was commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York with Lieutenant Commander Bert Brown in command. After shakedown exercises in Maine, Newfoundland, and Virginia, Saufley departed Norfolk, Virginia on 9 Nov 1942 bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 13 Nov 1942 and set a direct course for the South Pacific.

ww2dbaseOn 8 Dec 1942, Saufley arrived in the combat area of the Solomon Islands and began operating out of Tulagi Harbor. Her duties included screening supply ships unloading at Guadalcanal, patrolling shipping lanes, and firing her guns at Japanese shore positions in support of troops on Guadalcanal. She also escorted damaged warships to the rear areas for repairs, including the cruiser USS Minneapolis that nearly had her bow blown off in the Battle of Tassafaronga.

ww2dbaseOver the next fifteen months, Saufley took part in each of the principal Allied advances up the Solomon and Bismarck Island chains. On 18 Aug 1943, Saufley was escorting an invasion convoy to Vella Lavella in the Solomon Islands when LST-396 caught fire and sank southeast of Gizo Island. Saufley took aboard 103 survivors, including the LST's commanding officer. Saufley then went on to cover the landings, including firing on attacking Japanese aircraft, with those survivors still on board. On 15 Sep 1943 Saufley was escorting supply ships out of the Solomon Islands bound for Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides when one of the cargo ships reported seeing a torpedo wake. A patrol bomber covering the convoy marked the spot by dropping flares. Saufley steamed up the torpedo track and made an underwater sound contact. After four different depth charge attacks using a total of 26 charges, a Japanese submarine came to the surface. At that point, all of Saufley's guns of all calibers opened fire on the submarine scoring many hits and sinking the submarine. Post-war analysis identified this submarine as the Ro-101 with 50 men aboard.

ww2dbaseOn 1 Oct 1943, Saufley was part of a nighttime destroyer patrol up the New Georgia Sound (the "Slot") when a Japanese bomber approached from dead astern. The airplane dropped three bombs that exploded within 25 feet of Saufley's port side. Bomb fragments penetrated Saufley's hull and superstructure in about 30 places. Thirteen men were injured and two of them, one being the ship's doctor, later died of their wounds. Saufley's gunners fired on the aircraft when it was making its bomb run and they reported the plane spiraled into the water. On 6 Nov 1943 while covering the Marine landings on Bougainville, Saufley's lookouts spotted a life raft floating in Empress Augusta Bay. Saufley closed on the raft and took aboard ten Marines returning from a beach patrol, all in good health. Five days later while covering the next wave at Bougainville, Saufley received instructions to search for a downed Naval aviator who was forced to make a water landing. After a short search, Saufley took aboard the pilot unharmed.

ww2dbaseOn 23 Dec 1943, Saufley returned to Tulagi after a liberty visit to Sydney, Australia and sailed straightaway as an escort for a supply convoy heading for Bougainville. She made her first sortie beyond the Solomon Islands on 13 Feb 1944 when Saufley escorted the invasion convoy to the Green Islands (now Nissan) northeast of the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. Beginning on 1 Mar 1943, Saufley was one of eight destroyers to sail deep into Japanese held-waters where they shelled positions on New Ireland Island. Then, on 20 Mar 1944, she covered the landings on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Islands west of the Green Islands, further closing the lid on Rabaul. While patrolling southwest of Emirau on 7 Apr 1944, Saufley developed an underwater sound contact and dropped 18 depth charges in two attacks. Two large underwater explosions were heard and an oil slick rose to the surface that spread to be 14 miles long. Saufley was later credited with sinking Japanese submarine I-2.

ww2dbaseIn May 1944, Saufley set sail for Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i where she spent three weeks in rehearsals for the invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands. Sailing from Hawai'i with the Saipan invasion fleet on 1 Jun 1944, they arrived two weeks later. Over the following twelve weeks of the Saipan/Tinian campaign, Saufley alternated between escorting replenishment convoys and delivering shore bombardments called by spotter teams ashore.

ww2dbaseOn 12 Aug 1944, Saufley departed the Mariana Islands bound for the California coast by way of Hawai'i. On arrival in San Francisco, Saufley underwent her first complete overhaul since her commissioning two years earlier. Saufley returned to the combat areas on 20 Nov 1944 when she arrived in Leyte Gulf, Philippines. Saufley was assigned to a battleship and cruiser force patrolling Leyte Gulf and its approaches. After a week, that task force was attacked by 20 to 30 Japanese special attack aircraft. All but two of the airplanes dived on the ships, sinking one small escort and damaging one battleship and two cruisers. That night, Saufley and three other destroyers slipped through the Surigao Strait to the other side of Leyte and shelled installations on the beach at Ormoc Bay. During their retirement, air reconnaissance directed the destroyers to a Japanese submarine running on the surface. All the destroyers opened fire and the submarine sank by the stern (some sources suggest this was submarine I-46 but others contend Yu-2 is more likely). The following day while patrolling with the Leyte Gulf task force again, the ships came under another attack from special attack aircraft. As Saufley was fighting off one airplane that crashed close off the starboard bow, another approached unimpeded from the port quarter. This plane crashed into Saufley's hull near the waterline below the port wing of the bridge. Damage to the ship was extensive but did not threaten the ship herself and casualties were light. Battleship USS Maryland and destroyer USS Aulick were also damaged in the attack. Departing the next day, Saufley, Aulick, and Maryland withdrew to Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands for repairs.

ww2dbaseAfter repairs, Saufley made one round trip to New Guinea escorting convoys and then steamed to New Guinea once more to pick up some secret intelligence material at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea (now Jayapura, Indonesia). She took the material out to a rendezvous with the Lingayen Gulf invasion fleet already at sea. Saufley remained with this task force up to and through the landings at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. In Lingayen Gulf, Saufley withstood another attack from special attack aircraft, but this time the airplane crashed into the water a mere fifteen yards off the ship's starboard bow causing no damage. Saufley's duties during the Luzon campaign was to cover the various landings on Luzon, perform call fire on targets ashore when needed, and escort supply convoys sailing to and from Luzon. The landings Saufley covered on Luzon were at Lingayen Gulf, Nasugbu Bay, Mariveles Bay, the Bataan Peninsula, and Corregidor Island. Saufley then screened landings on other Philippine islands including Lubang, Zamboanga on Mindanao, and islands in the Sulu Archipelago.

ww2dbaseDuring the Luzon operations, in addition to special attack aircraft, the Japanese started deploying special attack demolition boats, which the Americans called "Q-boats." On 1 Feb 1945 when Saufley was screening the force flagship at Nasugbu Bay, the flagship was approached by a fast-moving Q-boat that Saufley destroyed with gunfire.

ww2dbaseA period of convoy escorts between Morotai and the Philippines followed. On 3 Jun 1945, Saufley departed Morotai with a supply convoy bound for Brunei Bay in British North Borneo. On 26 Jun 1945, Saufley departed Morotai again but this time with the invasion fleet bound for Balikpapan, Borneo, Dutch East Indies, where Saufley covered the landings.

ww2dbaseBy Aug 1945, Saufley was at the Ulithi anchorage in the Caroline Islands. From there on 9 Aug 1945, Saufley escorted the repaired USS Minneapolis bound for Leyte Gulf, the same cruiser that Saufley escorted away from Guadalcanal after she was so badly damaged in the Battle of Tassafaronga. Saufley was engaged in another cycle of escorts between Leyte Gulf and Ulithi when the war ended.

ww2dbaseNow performing peace-time duties, Saufley arrived in the area off Shanghai, China at the mouth of the Yangtze River on 9 Sep 1945. For the next two months, Saufley supported the minesweeping efforts in the seaward approaches to Shanghai and the river channels passing through Shanghai. She also supported Chinese Naval forces in disarming and repatriating several Japanese garrisons. Saufley departed Shanghai in Nov 1945 and arrived in the United States by the end of the year.

ww2dbaseSaufley arrived on the east coast of the United States in Jan 1946 and during Mar 1946, she arrived in Charleston, South Carolina to begin her deactivation overhaul. USS Saufley was decommissioned on 12 Jun 1946 and placed in the reserve fleet where she stayed for three years.

ww2dbaseSaufley was recommissioned on 15 Dec 1949 with Commander Byron Voegelin in command. Within a year, Saufley had participated in two different search and rescue operations. The first, in Jun 1950, was the rescue of 37 passengers from a downed airliner flying from Puerto Rico to South Carolina. The second, in Oct 1950, was the rescue of a downed Navy TBM Avenger pilot flying from the escort aircraft carrier USS Palau.

ww2dbaseOn 1 Jan 1951, Saufley was assigned to experimental work under the control of the Operational Development Force and was homeported at Naval Station Key West, Florida. For the next twelve years, she was primarily engaged in a variety of testing. In Jul 1962, Saufley participated in the filming of the movie PT 109. In Oct 1962, Saufley patrolled the coast of Florida as part of the Cuban Quarantine. Saufley was decommissioned for the last time on 29 Jan 1965 but the ship was still used in various tests. On 20 Feb 1968, experiments involving successive explosions off Key West, Florida caused Saufley to sink in 400 feet of water.

ww2dbaseDuring World War II, Saufley was credited or partially credited with sinking three Japanese submarines, one demolition boat, and several coastal barges in addition to destroying eleven airplanes and conducting fifteen shore bombardments. For her World War II service, USS Saufley was awarded the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with sixteen battle stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Medal with 'A' clasp (Asia), the China Service Medal (extended), the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, and the Philippine Liberation Medal with one bronze star. In her second commission, she was additionally awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Based on her sixteen battle stars in World War II, the USS Saufley is considered one of the most decorated ships of the war.

Destroyer Saufley (DD-465) Interactive Map

Photographs

Saufley Operational Timeline