USS Yarnall (DD-541) - Philippines Campaign

Philippines Campaign

On the latter day, Yarnall sortied with the entire Fast Carrier Task Force for a three-day aerial sweep of Japanese air bases on Formosa. During that operation, Yarnall provided aircrew rescue services and performed antiaircraft and antisubmarine screening duties. During the first day of that attack, the destroyer fired on 15 enemy planes and splashed two of them. The following evening, she barely evaded a bomb which exploded close astern. She emerged unscathed from another bombing attack on the 14th.

Following the Formosa raid, Yarnall's unit steamed south to operate off Luzon. She screened the carriers while their planes suppressed Japanese land-based air-power in the vicinity during the landings at Leyte. During the three-phased Battle of Leyte Gulf which thwarted the Japanese attempt to break up the American liberation of Leyte, Yarnall continued to screen the carriers as they raced northward to destroy Admiral Ozawa's decoy force built around planeless aircraft carriers. After successfully completing that mission, TF 38 made a fueling rendezvous on 30 and 31 October and then resumed its duty pounding enemy installations on Luzon.

At the end of the first week in November, the carriers and their escorts once again retired to Ulithi. The destroyer returned to sea on 14 November to screen TF 38 during further aerial attacks on Japanese installations in the Philippines. On 23 November, she headed back to Ulithi with TG 38.1 for logistics. In December, she returned to the Philippines with TG 38.1 to support the landings on the island of Mindoro and to continue the pressure on Japanese air forces based on Luzon. During that mission, she successfully weathered the famous typhoon on 17 December 1944 which claimed destroyers Hull (DD-350), Monaghan (DD-354), and Spence (DD-512). She returned to Ulithi on 24 December and remained there until January 1945.

On 1 January, TG 38.1 stood out of Ulithi to provide air support for landings on Luzon at Lingayen Gulf. The planes hit Formosa on the 3d and 4th, pounded airfields on Luzon on the 6th and 7th, and returned to Formosa installations on the day of the landings, 9 January. That night, Yarnall accompanied the fast carriers through Bashi Channel into the South China Sea to begin a series of raids on Japan's inner defense line. Unopposed by the Japanese Fleet, TF 38 sent planes against bases at Camranh Bay and Saigon in Indochina, then against Formosa on 15 January. Fighters attacked Amoy, Swatow, and Hong Kong in China as well as Hainan Island in the Gulf of Tonkin. On the 16th, they returned to Hong Kong and Hainan for a repeat performance and for good measure made a sweep of Canton. The task force exited the South China Sea via Balintang Channel and then hit Formosa and the Nansei Shoto on 21 January. Okinawa felt the carriers' punch on the 22d; and, two days later, TF 38 set a course back to Ulithi.