Status - John Skinner - USS Daly:
USS Daly (DD-519) -New Guinea
June 8th:
Arrived Biak Island for patrol duty with a cruiser-destroyer force. General alarm sounded twice for radar contacts. Daly not engaged during these times. Japanese destroyer force detected around 11:30 PM and all destroyers, including Daly, are ordered to attack. Japanese torpedoes in water but are avoided.
June 9th: Destroyer group closing slowly on Japanese targets. Lead US destroyer Fletcher begins exchanging fire with Japanese destroyers. Torpedoes in water. At 2:08 AM, destroyers Hutchins and Daly begin exchanging fire with Japanese ships. At 2:16 range is closing and Daly is straddled by enemy shells. By 2:38 AM, Daly ceases firing and joins other destroyers in returning to rendezvous point. Resumed patrol; heavy rain in the afternoon, two more general alarms during the day and another near midnight.
June 10th: Patrol in the morning and ordered to return to Hollandia (Humboldt Bay) early afternoon. Anchored at 4:00 PM. Replenished ammunition in the evening.
June 11th: Anchored until 4 PM; then joining Task Force 75 to return to Seeadler Harbor, New Guinea.
Patrol duty at Biak Island was busy and tense during this time. Biak was well beyond most of the US forces and the ship had to be alert at all times for threats from the air, sea, and also submarines. The crew would get very little rest during these times, and were likely very relieved to have a short time away, at Seeadler Harbor, from the main action.
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In the Central Pacific, the various task forces for the invasion of the Marianas were now in motion, moving toward the mid-month invasion of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.
In France, Allied troops moved inward from the beaches while the mulberry harbors were being brought into the beaches to bring supplies.
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More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 493-49.
- New Guinea and the Marianas, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 123-125, 170-173.
- War at the End of the World, James P. Duffy, pp, 328-340.
- Events of June, 1944
- Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives, USS Daly, DD-519, June 1944
NEXT POST: JUNE 15TH
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