USS Abbot (DD-629) was a in the service of the United States Navy. She was the second Navy ship named after Commodore Joel Abbot (1793–1855).
Abbot was laid down on 21 September 1942 at Bath, Maine by the Bath Iron Works, launched on 17 February 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Grace Abbot Fletcher, the granddaughter of Commodore Abbot, and commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 23 April 1943.
Service history
World War II The destroyer completed outfitting at Boston by 13 May when she reported to the Commander, Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, for shakedown training. She conducted her initial training out of Casco Bay, Maine, until 18 June and, during the next three months, served as an escort for larger warships conducting their own shakedown cruises. On 10 September, Abbot departed the New England coast bound for the western Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal on 16 September and, after a brief stop at San Diego, California, resumed her voyage west on 28 September. The warship arrived in the Hawaiian Islands early in October and began additional training. However, a collision with aircraft carrier on 18 October forced her into the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for a repair period lasting almost three months. Abbot finally returned to sea on 10 December and briefly resumed training.
1944 In mid-December, the destroyer stood out of Pearl Harbor, bound for the Ellice Islands, and arrived at Funafuti on the day after Christmas. Training and upkeep occupied her time through the early days of January 1944. Later that month, Abbot became a unit of Task Group 50.15 (TG 50.15), the so-called Neutralization Group attached to Task Force 58 (TF 58) for the occupation of the Marshall Islands. The assignment of that task group – carried out between 29 January and 17 February was to cut off bypassed Wotje and Taroa and to prevent enemy troops and war-planes there from supporting the Japanese garrisons at Majuro, Kwajalein, and Eniwetok. Abbot joined , , , and five other destroyers in frequent shore bombardments of the two atolls to keep troops occupied and planes grounded. She continued to perform that duty until 12 February at which time she began patrolling between Majuro and Kwajalein.
By the middle of March, the destroyer had been reassigned to the southwestern Pacific where she carried out convoy escort duty between the southern Solomons and the New Guinea ports of Milne Bay and Cape Sudest. In mid-April, she became an element of the screen of TG 78.2, an escort carrier group built around , , , and . The destroyer helped to protect the escort carriers from possible Japanese air and submarine attacks, while they launched their planes to provide close support for troops landing at Aitape and Hollandia on the northern coast of New Guinea. TG 78.2 ended that mission on 5 May, but Abbot remained with the escort carrier group until 7 May, when she and several other ships shaped a course for the New Hebrides Islands. She reached Espiritu Santo on 12 May.
For the next four weeks, Abbot received routine maintenance and conducted training evolutions out of Espiritu Santo. Early in June, the destroyer headed back toward the Central Pacific in company with escort carriers and other destroyers. They stopped at Kwajalein in the Marshalls to make final preparations for the assault on Saipan. On 12 June, she stood out of Kwajalein lagoon in company with TG 53.7, the Carrier Support Group built around , , and . The task group arrived in the Mariana Islands on 16 June. While the air groups of the three carriers provided close air support for the assault troops – first, at Saipan and, later at Guam — Abbot and her sister ships in the screen again protected the carriers from enemy air and submarine forces. She and her charges remained with the invasion force throughout the decisive Battle of the Philippine Sea in which TF 58 shattered the remnants of Japanese naval air power. About a week later, on 26 June, she and joined forces to splash a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty". Through the month of July, Abbot continued to shepherd the carriers while their aviators struck targets on Saipan and Guam in support of the American invasion troops.
Early in August, Abbot returned to Pearl Harbor for repairs, relaxation, and training. On the 28th, she began preparing for another amphibious operation. She concluded that training during the second week in September and departed Hawaii on the 15th headed for the western Pacific. Steaming via Eniwetok, she arrived at Manus Island in the Admiralty Islands on 3 October. She resumed training at Manus until 14 October when she got underway with the transport screen bound for the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte. She arrived off the beaches of that island on 20 October and began providing antiaircraft and antisubmarine protection for the transport area. Though the group to which she was attached came under sporadic air attack that day, only one intruder approached near enough to Abbot for her to open up with her antiaircraft battery. However, that twin-engine bomber night. Abbot assisted the troops ashore with night illumination and harassing fire on enemy lines near Dulag.
On the morning of 21 October, Abbot retired from Leyte to escort a group of transports to Hollandia. She arrived at that New Guinea port on 26 October and remained there until 2 November when she returned to sea with a group of transports bound for Morotai in the northern Molucca Islands of the Netherlands East Indies (now part of Indonesia). She arrived at Morotai three days later and remained there for five days. During her stay at Morotai, the enemy staged frequent night air raids on the Morotai airfield but left the ships in the anchorage unmolested. However, this pattern changed after she departed the island with a Leyte-bound task group. As the group approached the Philippines, Japanese land-based air began intermittent day and night attacks. On 13 November, a Nakajima B6N "Jill" launched a torpedo in the midst of Abbot'''s formation but failed to score a hit. repaid this impertinence by splashing the enemy plane some ahead of Abbot. After several days at anchor off Dulag – during which time she claimed to have damaged a Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" with her 5-inch battery — Abbot got underway for Hollandia on 24 November. She arrived at that New Guinea port on 29 November and remained there almost one month. On 23 December, the destroyer weighed anchor for the Philippines in company with a small cargoman and remained at Leyte through the end of the year and into 1945.
1945 Provisioning and upkeep complete, Abbot put to sea on 2 January 1945 with TG 77.4, the Escort Carrier Group for the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf. Within that task organization, she was assigned to the screen of Rear Admiral Felix Stump's San Fabian Carrier Group. During the voyage from Leyte to Lingayen, the formation came under increasingly intense air attacks by the kamikaze corps. On 4 January, one aircraft succeeded in crashing into and damaged that escort carrier so badly that she was abandoned and sunk by a torpedo from . On 6 January, the Support Carrier Group divided into its constituent units, the Lingayen and San Fabian groups. Abbot continued to provide antisubmarine and anti-air protection to the San Fabian group while aircraft from its carriers carried out prelanding bombing and strafing missions and, after the ninth, supported the invasion troops in their struggle to wrest the island from the Japanese. That duty – as well as support for the secondary landings at San Felipe and Nsugbu — lasted until 31 January. At that time, Abbot departed Lingayen Gulf in company with the carriers and headed for Mindoro.
After a week of duty at Mangarin Bay, Mindoro, Abbot set a course for Subic Bay in the screen of the carriers. From that base, she joined the carriers in supporting the assaults on the islands in Manila Bay — Corregidor, El Fraile, Carabao, and Caballo. Abbot herself destroyed a number of mines around Corregidor and captured three Japanese who attempted the swim from Corregidor to Bataan. After the 15 February paratroop landing on Corregidor, the destroyer provided call fire and night illumination fire.
On 17 February, she returned to Subic Bay for a week of replenishment and upkeep before sailing for Palawan on the 24th. In company with cruisers , , , and three other destroyers, Abbot steamed up to support elements of the Army's 41st Infantry Division's assault on Puerto Princesa — the main port on Palawan. No gunfire from the warships was necessary, however, and they headed back to Subic Bay later that day. Abbot remained at Subic Bay in an upkeep status until 4 March when she joined another cruiser-destroyer force for the assault on Zamboanga, Mindanao. There, she acted as fire-support ship for the minesweepers as well as for the troops ashore. On 11 March, she patrolled near Basilan Island — located to the south of Zamboanga Peninsula — and destroyed enemy barges with gunfire. The following day, Abbots unit completed its mission at Mindanao, headed back to Luzon, and arrived back at Subic Bay on 17 March.
After a week of upkeep and logistics there, the warship resumed missions in support of the occupation of the remaining Japanese-held Philippine Islands. On 24 March, she stood out of Subic Bay with a cruiser-destroyer force on its way to help liberate Cebu in the Visayas subgroup. Two days later, she opened fire in the prelanding bombardment at beaches some four miles (6 km) west of Cebu City. The troops went ashore around 08:30 and the warships then shifted to call fire and harassing fire. From there, she proceeded to San Pedro Bay, Leyte, escorting a mixed group of LCMs and LCIs. After her arrival at San Pedro Bay, she remained there for the rest of March undergoing a tender availability. Through most of April, the destroyer was attached to the Commander, Philippine Sea Frontier, for whom she conducted a series of missions carrying mail and passengers.
On 24 April, she was returned to the operational control of the Commander, 7th Amphibious Force. She moved to Cebu harbor where she served standby duty as fire—support ship for the Americal Division. That assignment proved relatively uneventful until the first week in May. On 3 May, she took under fire a group of houses on Nailon Point near Tobagan village, Cebu, rumored to harbor a concentration of Japanese troops. From there. Abbot moved along the coast toward Cebu harbor, firing at targets of opportunity as she went. She repeated the mission three days later and then departed Cebu on 8 May. Staged through Mindoro, the destroyer participated in the landings at Macajalar Bay on the island of Mindanao. She participated in the preparatory shore bombardment early on the 10th though it later proved to have been unnecessary when the assault troops encountered absolutely no Japanese. The ship remained in the neighborhood until the 14th to be on hand should her guns be needed. On that day, she shaped a course back to San Pedro Bay and spent the next three weeks engaged in patrols and escort missions in the southern Philippines. She concluded her Philippine service with a 10-day tender availability at Leyte.