USS O'Brien (DD-725) - World War II

World War II

After shakedown out of Bermuda, British West Indies and Norfolk, Virginia O'Brien joined convoy forces 14 May 1944 en route to Scotland and England. Following patrol and escort duty near England, she participated the invasion of Normandy and in-shore Bombardment of Cherbourg. On 25 June while supporting minesweeps well inshore of Texas (BB-35), which was engaging German shore batteries at Cape Levi, near Cherbourg, O'Brien's own gunfire was so accurate that enemy gunnery positions shifted from Texas to O'Brien. She received a direct hit just abaft the bridge, but was able to stay on station long enough to lay a smoke screen for Texas. Thirteen men were killed and nineteen wounded. Following temporary repairs on the Isle of Portland, England, O'Brien escorted a convoy to the Boston Naval Shipyard where she underwent extensive work.

After training in the Boston and Norfolk areas, she escorted Ticonderoga (CV-14) to the Pacific via the Panama Canal and San Diego for carrier operations with the 3rd Fleet east of the Philippines. In early December, she joined 7th Fleet assault forces at Ormoc Bay, Philippines. While under continuous air attack, O'Brien crewmen attempted to extinguish oil fires in Ward (APD-16), caused by Japanese suicide planes, until ordered to sink the stricken transport by gunfire. O'Brien's commanding officer, Commander W. W. Outerbridge, had been in command of Ward when she had sunk a Japanese submarine off Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. On 15 December 1944, O'Brien fought fires in LST-472 caused by suicide planes, and rescued 198 survivors.

Following a brief patrol period at Mindoro Strait she proceeded to Lingayen Gulf for the invasion of Luzon. On 6 January 1945, a Japanese aircraft crashed into the port side of her fantail causing slight damage. After several days of escort duty and shore bombardment during the landing of Army assault troops, she proceeded to Manus Island, for repairs. She joined fleet carrier forces 10 February 1945 for air strikes against Tokyo, Iwo Jima, and the Bonin Islands. Aircraft attacked her off Kerama Retto 27 March while U.S. forces secured an advance logistics base for the attack on the Japanese home islands. One plane crashed into the water as a result of gunfire while another, a "Val" suicide plane carrying a 500 pound bomb, crashed into the port side amidships exploding a magazine. Fifty were killed or missing and seventy-six wounded in the valiant crew.

During the summer, the ship underwent repairs at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and training in San Diego. As the war ended in mid-August 1945, she returned to the 3rd Fleet for patrol duty in Japanese water. O'Brien operated in the eastern Pacific, Hawaii, the Marianas, and Australia through the first half of 1947. She returned to the west coast in the summer and decommissioned at San Diego, California, 4 October 1947.