USS Whipple (DD-217) World War II Service, 1941-1945

USS Whipple (DD-217) World War II Service, 1941-1945

On 25 November 1941—two days in advance of the "war warning" which predicted that hostile Japanese action in the Pacific was imminent—Admiral Hart dispatched Whipple's Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 58, along with the tender Black Hawk (AD-9), to Balikpapan, Borneo, to disperse the surface ships of his fleet from their vulnerable position within the confines of Manila Bay. There, Whipple awaited the outbreak of war which came on 8 December 1941 (7 December east of the date line) with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Originally slated to join a British force based around the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle-cruiser HMS Repulse, Whipple's mission was aborted when Japanese land-based torpedo planes and high-level bombers sank both of these capital ships in the South China Sea off Kuantan, Malaya, on 10 December. Whipple arrived at Singapore on 11 December and departed on the 14th, bound for the Netherlands East Indies.

Fighting a desperate rearguard action in the face of a swift-moving and well-organized enemy, the multinational Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) force faced formidable obstacles as they withdrew to the "Malay Barrier." During this time, Whipple conducted important escort and patrol duties into February 1942. On 12 February, the destroyer got underway from Prigi Bay, Java, in a dense fog. As she headed for Tjilatjap, on the south coast of Java, she was struck a glancing blow by the Dutch light cruiser De Ruyter. As the Dutch ship materialized out of the murk, Whipple alertly swung left to avoid a collision, a wise move that undoubtedly averted more serious damage. Drydocked at Tjilatjap on the 13th, Whipple ascertained the damage to be minor and rejoined the fleet for active service.

At 1640 on 26 February, Whipple and sistership Edsall (DD-219) departed Tjilatjap to rendezvous with Langley (AV-3) off the south coast of Java. Making contact at 0629, the destroyers took up screening, positions to escort the vulnerable auxiliary—carrying a load of aircraft to bolster the sagging defenses of Java—into Tjilatjap. At 1150, lookouts spotted nine high-level bombers approaching from the east. Four minutes later, a stick of bombs splashed around Langley —clearly the object of Japanese attention. During a second attack shortly after noon, all three ships put up brisk antiaircraft fire.

At 1212, the Japanese, undaunted by Langley's evasive maneuvers, struck hard. A stick of bombs fell on or near the former aircraft carrier and set her afire.

Whipple broke off firing at 1224 as the attackers veered away in a northeasterly direction. She changed course and closed Langley to evaluate that vessel's damage. Shortly thereafter, four Japanese fighter planes dove on the three-ship convoy, but one soon limped off to the east, hit by antiaircraft fire.

Langley was abandoned at 1325, and Whipple proceeded close aboard to rescue survivors; using two of the destroyer's life rafts, a cargo net slung over the side, and a number of lines trailed over the side. Staying some 25 yards off the sinking seaplane tender, Whipple picked up some 308 men from Langley's crew and embarked Army personnel for the vital P-40 fighters carried on the doomed ship's abbreviated flight deck. At 1358, the task at hand completed, Whipple backed off and stood out to destroy the derelict, opening fire at 1429 with her 4-inch main battery. After nine rounds of 4-inch and two torpedoes, Langley settled lower and lower but refused stubbornly to sink. Soon, orders arrived directing Whipple and her sister ship to clear the area prior to any more bombing attacks.

Whipple accordingly vacated the vicinity and subsequently rendezvoused with Pecos (AO-6) in the lee of Christmas Island to transfer the Army pilots to the oiler. At 1020 on 27 February, three Japanese twin-engined bombers attacked Christmas Island. One later singled out Whipple and dropped a stick of bombs which missed the rapidly dodging destroyer.

On 28 February, Whipple began transferring Langley crew members to Pecos, completing the task by 0800. While one destroyer transferred personnel, the other circled and maintained an antisubmarine screen. When the job of transferring survivors from the lost seaplane tender had been completed, the two destroyers parted company with the oiler. Changing course in anticipation of orders to retire from Java, Whipple prepared to send a message relative to these orders when the destroyer's chief radioman heard a cell for help over the radio—from Pecos, then under attack by Japanese bombers near Christmas Island.

Whipple sped to the scene to render assistance if possible. Throughout the afternoon, as the destroyer closed the oiler, all hands on board prepared knotted lines and cargo nets for use in picking up survivors. Whipple went to general quarters at 1922 when she sighted several small lights off both bows.

Whipple slowly closed and began picking up survivors of Pecos. After interrupting the proceedings to conduct an unsuccessful attack on a submarine lurking in the area, she returned to the task and continued the search until she had received 231 men from the oiler. Whipple soon cleared the area, believing that a Japanese aircraft carrier was near. Within a few days, Java fell to the onrushing Japanese who were gradually consolidating their expanding "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." Whipple joined the battered remnants of the Asiatic Fleet in Australian waters.

Subsequently sailing to Melbourne, Australia, and arriving on 23 March, Whipple operated with Australian and New Zealand Navy warships on convoy escort duties along the Great Barrier Reef until 2 May. She departed Sydney on that day, bound for the New Hebrides Islands, and from there pushed on via American Samoa to Hawaii, arriving at Pearl Harbor on 6 June. Together with sister ship Alden, Whipple departed Pearl Harbor on 8 June for San Francisco, escorting an eastward-bound convoy to the west coast, arriving off the Golden Gate Bridge on the 18th.

During a yard availability at Mare Island, the destroyer's topside weight was cut down as 20-millimeter antiaircraft guns replaced two banks of her torpedo tubes. Thus modified for convoy escort work, Whipple put to sea to commence the first of seven round-trip convoy escort missions from the west coast to Hawaii which lasted into the spring of 1943.

Standing out of San Francisco Bay on 11 May 1943, Whipple sailed for the Caribbean with a convoy routed through the Panama Canal for Santa Ana Bay, Curacao, Netherlands West Indies. After the cargo ships loaded a petroleum cargo, the convoy pushed on for Cuba and arrived at Guantanamo Bay on 29 May. From Guantanamo, the destroyer escorted a convoy to Trinidad but returned to the Cuban base on 19 June before heading north to the New York Navy Yard for voyage repairs.

Later departing New York on 10 July, Whipple escorted a group of ships which rendezvoused with a convoy bound for Casablanca, French Morocco, and Gibraltar. Returning to Charleston, South Carolina, on 27 August, the destroyer put to sea on 7 September as a unit in a slow tow convoy bound via the Caribbean to Recife, Brazil. Whipple headed north soon thereafter, guarding a convoy to Trinidad, and then up the eastern seaboard to Charleston, making port on 19 November.

After another convoy escort run from Norfolk to Guantanamo Bay and the Panama Canal Zone, Whipple joined three other destroyers in completing the "hunter-killer" task group based around Guadalcanal (CVE-60). Departing Norfolk on 5 January 1944, the group went to sea to hunt German U-boats active in the Atlantic.

On 16 January, aircraft from Guadalcanal sighted three U-boats on the surface, fueling, some 300 miles off Flores. Carrier-based Avengers attacked the group and sank 7-5-44 in the ensuing attack. After replenishing at Casablanca, the group returned to the high seas and searched convoy lanes for signs of German submarines until arriving at Norfolk on 16 February. Detached from the "hunter-killer" group soon thereafter, Whipple underwent voyage repairs at the Boston Navy Yard. On 13 March, the destroyer departed the east coast in company with Convoy UGS-36, bound for the Mediterranean.

In the early morning darkness of 1 April, German planes—Dornier Do 217's and Junkers Ju 88's—came in low and fast to attack the convoy. Keeping up a heavy fire with her 20-millimeter batteries, Whipple sent up a substantial part of the tremendous barrage which drove off the 30 German planes and saved the convoy. Arriving at Bizerte, Tunisia, on 3 April, the destroyer subsequently returned to Norfolk on the 30th.

For the remainder of 1944 and into the spring of 1945, Whipple performed convoy escort duties off the east coast, across the Atlantic to Casablanca, and occasionally into the Caribbean.

See USS Whipple for other ships of this name.