The second USS Willoughby (AGP-9) was a motor torpedo boat tender that served in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, seeing service in the later stages of World War II. Transferred to the United States Coast Guard in 1946, she was in commission as the cutter USCGC Gresham (WAVP-387), later WHEC-387 and WAGW-387, from 1947 to 1969 and from 1970 to 1973, seeing service in the Vietnam War during her Coast Guard career.
Construction and commissioning
Willoughby was laid down as a Barnegat-class small seaplane tender designated AVP-57 on 15 March 1943 at Houghton, Washington, by Lake Washington Shipyards. She was reclassified as a motor torpedo boat tender and redesignated AGP-9 on 11 May 1943. Launched on 21 August 1943, sponsored by Mrs. D. R. Lee, she was commissioned on 18 June 1944.
United States Navy service
World War II After fitting out and undergoing sea trials, Willoughby conducted her shakedown out of San Diego, California, from 9 July 1944 to 4 August 1944, exercising in antisubmarine warfare operations and antiaircraft and gunnery drills and running further speed trials. Following a post-shakedown periods in the shipyard at Terminal Island, California, from 5 August 1944 to 11 August 1944, Willoughby shifted to San Francisco, California, where she loaded stores before getting underway on 15 August 1944, bound for Funafuti in the Ellice Islands.
While she was en route, her destination was changed to Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands. Willoughby fueled and took on stores at Tulagi in the Solomon Islands on 1 September 1944 before she reached her destination, Seeadler Harbor, Manus, on 6 September 1944. Her stay there proved brief, however, for she got underway that day, bound for the Padaido Islands.
The voyage to Mios Woendi proved eventful, as Willoughby picked up a sound contact on sonar at 1335 hours on 7 September 1944, distance . Going to general quarters, the ship commenced a run on what, after the executive officer had reported seeing a torpedo wake pass the ship, she believed to be a submarine. At 1342 hours, Willoughby dropped four depth charges and, although she lost contact with the submarine, continued her search of the area. Regaining a slight sound contact at 1512 hours, Willoughby made another run but did not drop depth charges. The ship secured from general quarters at 1632 hours, resumed her voyage, and arrived at Mios Woendi on 8 September 1944.
New Guinea campaign
Willoughby tended patrol torpedo boats (PT boats) at Mios Woendi from 9 September 1944 to 12 October 1944. During that time, the New Guinea campaign was gradually coming to an end; PT boats operating from Mios Woendi were finding slimmer pickings to choose from in regard to Japanese barge traffic. All combat patrols from Mios Woendi finally ceased on 16 November 1944 when the Japanese evacuation from New Guinea had been completed.
Philippines campaign
The Leyte campaign begins
Willoughby was part of the burgeoning force of PT boats and their tenders that had grown as the World War II in the Southwest Pacific had progressed. So significant had been the role of PT boats in the island-hopping campaigns that they were slated to take part in supporting the initial landings in the Philippine Islands. Moving the motor torpedo boats from New Guinea to the Philippines, however, presented a problem.
Commander Selman S. Bowling, commanding Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron (MTBRon) 21, considered the voyage too long to be made "in one hop, even if escorted by tenders." The margin of safety for the ships to operate with, once they arrived in the objective area after the long voyage, was deemed unacceptable. Fuel was critical.
Ultimately, the decision was made to route the boats via the recently secured Palau Islands, sending them along with their tenders. Willoughby made up part of this significant movement—described as "the largest and longest mass movement of PT's under their own power during the war"This quote, from the Dictionary of American Naval Fightings Ships at http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/w/willoughby-ii.html is unattributed—that began on 13 October 1944, at Mios Woendi.
On that day, Willoughby, in company with motor torpedo boat tenders USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6) (Commander Bowling's flagship) and USS Wachapreague (AGP-8), seaplane tender USS Half Moon (AVP-26), two United States Army craft, and 45 PT boats, sailed for the Palaus on the first leg of their monumental voyage of 1,200 nautical miles (2,222 kilometers). At Naval Base Kossol Roads, the PT boats fueled from the tenders, while the tenders in turn fueled from accompanying oilers. On the second leg of the trip, the PT boats fueled at sea from the tenders, a difficult task but a necessary one if the PT boats were to arrive off Leyte with their fuel tanks full and ready to go.
The PT boats arrived at Leyte Gulf on the morning of 20 October 1944, the first day of the landings on the western beaches of Leyte proper, and commenced patrols that evening. Willoughby steamed to San Pedro Bay, off Leyte, arriving there at 1443 hours on 21 October 1944, and tended the PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons (MTBRons) 7 and 21 over the ensuing weeks.
On 23 October 1944, Willoughby took on board a man from USS PT-325 who had been wounded by shrapnel during Japanese air attacks that day. On 24 October 1944, heavy Japanese air attacks upon the American invasion forces commenced at 0750 hours; American combat air patrol (CAP) fighters shot down four Japanese twin-engined Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers, one of them attempting a suicide dive into a transport. A few moments later, a formation of "Sally" light bombers came into the area, and a heavy antiaircraft barrage claimed three of them. CAP fighters and antiaircraft fire combined to down most of another mixed group of Japanese planes —- Kawasaki Ki-45 "Nicks," Aichi D3A "Vals," and a Mitsubishi Ki-46 "Dinah" that attacked subsequently.
Willoughby gunners claimed two planes downed—this was reduced to one the next day—and one of the planes she damaged crashed into and sank a nearby landing craft infantry (LCI). Willoughby brought on board five of the LCI's survivors and saw a kamikaze crash into the ocean-going tug USS Sonoma (ATO-12). During the day, Willoughby stood at general quarters at one point for a stretch of six and one-half hours.
Japanese air attacks enlivened the next day, 25 October 1944, as well. During that 24-hour span, Willoughby was at general quarters for 11 and one-half hours. She also shot down one Japanese plane.
The Battle of Leyte Gulf Meanwhile, major Japanese naval forces were approaching the Philippines from three directions. The Japanese southern force was heading through the Sulu Sea in the direction of Surigao Strait, their central force was crossing the Sibuyan Sea toward the San Bernardino Strait, and a northern force of Japanese aircraft carriers was north of Luzon, hoping to lure the American Fast Carrier Task Force away from Leyte Gulf.
For the first time since the 1942 fighting off Guadalcanal, the opposing sides arrayed battleships against one another. Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf deployed his forces across the northern end of Surigao Strait. Thirty-nine of the 45 PT boats that had come from Mios Woendi and made the long voyage via the Palaus deployed in sections of three boats each, strung out through the straits and along the coasts of Mindanao, Leyte, and Bohol, into the Mindanao Sea, to detect and report on the enemy's approach.
In the Battle of Surigao Strait that followed, the PT boats played a significant role. "The skill, determination, and courage displayed by the personnel of these small boats is worthy of the highest praise," reported Admiral Chester W. Nimitz subsequently. "Their contact reports," he continued, "as well as the firing and illumination they drew from the enemy, gave ample warning to our own main body; and, while the issue of the later main engagement was never in doubt, the PT's action very probably threw the Japanese command off balance and contributed to the completeness of their subsequent defeat."
All boats attached to Willoughby participated in that important encounter, while the tender herself remained at San Pedro Bay. The battle was just one part of the larger Battle of Leyte Gulf of 23 October 1944 – 26 October 1944, in which the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered a crushing defeat.
The Leyte campaign concludes In ensuing days, Willoughby experienced Japanese air attacks at odd intervals during daylight hours. On the morning of 27 October 1944, one of her boats came under attack by Japanese planes, when a Mitsubishi A6M Zero (or "Zeke") dropped a fragmentation bomb off the bow of USS PT-152. Two men died and eight were wounded; the boat subsequently pulled next to Willoughby and transferred the dead and wounded to the tender.
Also while at San Pedro Bay, Willoughby experienced a storm of typhoon intensity on 30 October 1944. During that spell of heavy weather, the storm carried away one of the ship's motor launches, but it was later recovered. The ship herself suffered no damage.
From 31 October 1944 to 12 November 1944, Willoughby experienced daily air raids. On 5 November 1944, Japanese planes scored a direct hit on USS PT-320, moored off the tender's starboard bow, demolishing the boat and killing nearly the entire crew; only one man survived. A week later, on 12 November 1944, a flight of suicide aircraft attacked; while Willoughby herself was not touched, she witnessed kamikazes crash into landing craft repair ships USS Egeria (ARL-8) and USS Achilles (ARL-41).
Willoughby and her sister ship Wachapreague retired from Leyte on 13 November 1944 and arrived at Mios Woendi on 16 November. On 17 and 18 November 1944, the motor torpedo boat tenders loaded stores and supplies. Later, in company with motor torpedo boat tender USS Pontus (AGP-20), Wachapreague, seven Army crash boats and 41 PT boats, Willoughby departed New Guinea and proceeded vai Kossol Roads back to the Philippines, in a repeat performance of the previous mass movement of PT boats from New Guinea to that strategic archipelago. After servicing the PT boats en route, at Kossol Roads, on 23 November 1944, Willoughby steamed into Leyte Gulf, arriving late on 27 November 1944.
The tender manned her general quarters stations when a large American task force nearby – composed of battleships, cruisers, and destroyers – underwent a Japanese air attack. Shells from friendly ships fell "perilously near" Willoughby, but she emerged unscathed as the force repulsed the Japanese raid.
The Luzon campaign Shifting to Espiritu Santo soon thereafter, Willoughby picked up necessary spare parts vital to the continued operation of PT boats in the Philippine Islands on 4 January 1945 and departed for the Treasury Islands on 5 January 1945, where she picked up more spare parts after her arrival on 8 January 1945. She continued loading operations at Green Island, Emirau Island, and Manus before returning to the Philippines, anchoring in San Juanico Strait on 18 January 1945.
Over the next three days, Willoughby unloaded the vital spares that had been gathered on the recently completed voyage. She then steamed to Mangarin Bay, off Mindoro Island, towing a fuel barge and a small pontoon drydock, and in company with 25 Army tugs escorted by two destroyer escorts, and arrived there on 31 January 1945. En route, on 27 January 1945, she spotted a Japanese plane, but it did not attack the convoy.
Willoughby was at Mindoro only briefly. Underway soon thereafter, she took the kamikaze-damaged destroyer USS Gansevoort (DD-608) in tow. Since no other vessels were available to tow the crippled destroyer, Willoughby drew that special duty and pulled the ship to San Pedro Bay, arriving on 5 February 1945. Willoughby then resumed tending PT boats at San Pedro Bay on 6 February 1945.