USS Welles (DD-628) - Southwest Pacific Area

Southwest Pacific Area

Welles and her traveling companions arrived at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands on 21 January and remained there for a week before getting underway for New Guinea. The destroyer arrived at Milne Bay on 5 February and joined the U.S. 7th Fleet. Later in the month, she escorted a convoy of LSTs to Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain. On 29 February, Welles provided gunfire support for elements of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division then landing on Los Negros Island in the Admiralties. During that operation, the destroyer came under fire from enemy automatic weapons and at least one field gun but sustained no damage. After completing her portion of the mission, she moved out to the transport area to provide antisubmarine defense. Periodically, she returned close to shore to provide all fire for American troops fighting ashore.

In March, she returned south to the area around Buna to prepare for operations to capture the remainder of the northern coast of New Guinea. During the Hollandia assault, the first of five leap frog steps to the Vogelkop, Welles was assigned to Task Group 77.2 (TG 77.2), the Central Attack Group which mounted its assault at Humboldt Bay on 22 April. About a month later, on 18 May, she supported the landings at Wakde Island and at Sarmi on the New Guinea mainland. From there, the warship continued with General Douglas MacArthur's amphibious jump to Biak Island where she provided gunfire support during the landings and consolidation operations from 27 May to 2 June. During that time, she destroyed several Japanese barges, harassed enemy ground forces, silenced a shore battery or two and helped to repel several air attacks.

Leaving Biak on 2 June, the warship screened logistics convoys along the New Guinea coast for about a month before arriving off Noemfoor Island, located just west of Biak, to support the capture of that island. At the end of July, she participated in the last amphibious operation in New Guinea when troops went ashore at Cape Sansapor on the Vogelkop.

She returned to Aitape early in August and then moved from there down the coast to Finschhafen whence she departed on 23 August, bound for the Solomon Islands. Welles arrived at Florida Island on 6 August and became a unit of the U.S. 3rd Fleet. She immediately plunged into preparations for the impending Palau attack. For the assault on Peleliu and Angaur, the destroyer initially screened the carriers providing air support. After the mid-September landings on the two islands, she was detached from the carriers and moved into the transport area to provide antisubmarine defense and to guard against any attempts to reinforce the two islands. At the conclusion of her participation in the Palau operation, she joined TG 77.2 and began preparations for the invasion of the Philippines at Leyte.