USS Helm (DD-388) - 1945

1945

As the ships entered the Sulu Sea, heavy air attacks began. The Japanese, hitting with their only remaining weapon, struck with suicide planes on January 4, 1945 and sank escort carrier Ommaney Bay. Gunfire from Helm and the other screening ships took a heavy toll of the attackers. From January 6 to January 17 the destroyer operated with carriers west of Lingayen Gulf providing air support for these important landings. The ships departed on January 17 and arrived in Ulithi six days later.

As the great naval task force assembled for the invasion of Iwo Jima, next stop on the island road to Japan, Helm sailed on February 12 in the screen of a group of escort carriers, arriving off the volcanic island fortress on February 16. She screened the carriers during the important preliminary strikes and protected them while they lent close support to the invasion, which began on the 19th. The carrier groups were hit repeatedly by desperate air attacks, with Helm and the other destroyers accounting for many suicide and torpedo planes. When escort carrier Bismarck Sea was sunk, in a massive suicide attack on February 21, Helm rescued survivors and brought them to the transport anchorage next day.

The veteran destroyer continued screening operations off Iwo Jima until March 7 when she steamed toward Leyte for repairs. She was soon underway again, however, for the last and largest of the Pacific amphibious operations, the invasion of Okinawa. Sailing on March 27, she joined escort carrier groups off the island for pre-invasion strikes; and, after the historic assault on April 1, for ground support operations. During her stay off Okinawa the destroyer shot down many suicide planes which menaced the carriers during fanatical, last-ditch efforts by the Japanese to repel the invasion. Helm steamed to Leyte on June 19 with Okinawa secured.