USS Stoddard (DD-566) - Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

Stoddard entered Pearl Harbor for the third time on 24 April 1945. For almost a month, her crew enjoyed recreation in the islands and conducted operational training in preparation for assignment to Okinawa and the Fast Carrier Task Force. Stoddard sailed from Pearl Harbor on 11 May, in the screen of Ticonderoga (CV-14), bound for Ulithi. Along the way, Ticonderoga's air group got in a little live-ammunition practice on 17 May, when they struck the Japanese forces isolated on Taroa and the other islets of Maleolap Atoll. The task group reached the lagoon at Ulithi on 22 May. A week later, Stoddard departed the atoll to take up station off Okinawa.

On 2 June, she arrived off Okinawa and took up radar picket station. Though the Okinawa campaign was rapidly nearing its conclusion, the proximity of airfields in Japan and on Formosa allowed enemy air power to continue to make life unpleasant for the ships around the island. True, the deluge of kamikazes had abated, but the skies continued to shower significant numbers of suicide planes. Stoddard covered the withdrawal of several cargo ships on 4 June during a typhoon-evasion maneuver; then returned to her station. At sunset on 7 June, two planes attacked, but both were sent hurtling into the sea before they could reach the ships. During her tour of duty on the picket line, Stoddard claimed two Japanese planes for herself, two assists, and one probable kill.

She cleared Okinawa on 17 June in the screen of Mississippi (BB-41). Three days later, she passed through Surigao Strait into Leyte Gulf. For the remainder of the month, she underwent repairs and took on provisions at San Pedro Bay. She put to sea again on 1 July, this time in the screen of TF 38, the Fast Carrier Task Force. For the next 45 days, she guarded the carriers as their planes made repeated strikes on the Japanese home islands. Stoddard was detached once during that period of time, on 23 July, to join DesDiv 113 in a bombardment of Chi Chi Jima in the Bonins. After the cessation of hostilities on 15 August, she continued to cruise the waters near Japan with TF 38 to cover the occupation forces. She cleared Japanese waters from 21 September until 7 October, while she underwent availability at Eniwetok, then returned for training exercises until November.

On 18 November, she departed Japan for the United States. She transited the Panama Canal a month later and arrived at Philadelphia Navy Yard two days before Christmas. Stoddard went through a yard overhaul until late March 1946, then ferried personnel to Charleston, S.C., in April. She began inactivation overhaul at Charleston Navy Yard on 8 July and was placed out of commission in January 1947.