USS Wedderburn (DD-684), was a of the United States Navy.
Namesake Charles Foster Wedderburn was born on 2 October 1892 in Chicago, Illinois. He was appointed a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy on 7 July 1911, he graduated and received his commission on 5 June 1915. Ensign Wedderburn served on the cruiser from graduation to the end of 1915. In December 1915, he transferred to the destroyer assigned to the Asiatic Fleet and based at Cavite in the Philippines. He was promoted to Lieutenant (junior grade) on 1 July 1917; and, a month later, his ship departed Cavite with orders to the coast of France. Based at St. Nazaire, his ship escorted convoys in the eastern Atlantic. While on such a mission about west of Gibraltar, Chauncey was involved in a fatal collision with a British merchantman, SS Rose, on the night of 18–19 November. The destroyer sank at approximately 03:17 on the 19th taking Wedderburn and 20 of his comrades to their deaths.
Construction and commissioning Wedderburn (DD-684) was laid down on 10 January 1943 at San Francisco by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 1 August 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Gertrude F. Wedderburn; and commissioned on 9 March 1944.
1944 Following shakedown training along the west coast and post-shakedown availability back at the Bethlehem Steel Co., Wedderburn departed San Francisco on 21 June in company with Fieberling (DE-640). The two warships arrived in Pearl Harbor six days later, and Wedderburn joined Task Unit (TU) 19.3.2 with which she served briefly on plane guard and anti-submarine duty. On 1 July, the destroyer continued her voyage west to Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands where she joined Task Force (TF) 53 for the second assault of the Marianas operation, the battle of Guam.
She stood out of Eniwetok on 17 July in company with Task Group (TG) 53.4, the Southern Transport Group. She arrived off Guam on 22 July, the day after the initial assault on that island and, for the next three weeks, performed yeoman service protecting the invasion fleet—upon which the battle ashore depended—from the threat of Japanese submarine attack. Her service in the Marianas ended on 10 August when she shaped a course back to Eniwetok.
Wedderburn reentered the lagoon at Eniwetok on 14 August. There, she was reassigned to the antisubmarine screen of a fast carrier task group, TG 38.2, built around Intrepid (CV-11), Hancock (CV-19), Bunker Hill (CV-17), Cabot (CVL-28), and Independence (CVL-22). She sailed from Eniwetok on 29 August in company with the entire fast carrier task force (TF 38) to conduct a major sweep of Japanese-held islands including the Philippines, the Palaus, and Yap Island. Wedderburn screened the carrier from enemy submarine attacks while they sent their planes against targets on Mindanao and Leyte and, later, the Visayas sub-group. They also provided initial aerial bombardment for the Palau invasion and for the Morotai operation. Those missions took up almost the entire month of September, and the destroyer did not enter a "port" until the 28th when TG 38.2 arrived at Saipan. On 1 October, she and TG 38.2 moved on to recently captured Ulithi where the ships arrived the next day. Wedderburn, however, soon returned to sea. Task Force 38 rendezvoused about 375 miles west of the Marianas on 7 October to open the preliminaries to the invasion of Leyte. Wedderburn continued her antisubmarine vigil while the carriers she protected launched their aircraft first against Okinawa, then Formosa, and finally Philippine targets, striking enemy air bases on Luzon and the Visayas to give the United States dominance in the air over Leyte when the invasion began on 20 October.
Wedderburn continued to guard the fast carriers while they operated off the northeastern shore of Luzon providing distant air support for the Leyte invasion. By the 24th, it had become apparent that the Japanese planned to dispute the landing with some variety of naval force. The result was the four-phase Battle for Leyte Gulf. That same day, planes from Wedderburn-protected carriers opened the battle striking at the enemy's Center Force, commanded by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita—while it traversed the Sibuyan Sea toward the San Bernardino Strait. Late that evening, after having sunk battleship Musashi and damaged other Japanese ships, the fast carriers raced northward to take the bait offered by a force of almost plane-less aircraft carriers which Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa was using as a decoy force. Thus, Wedderburn was far north when the Surigao Strait and Samar phases were fought on the night of 24–25 October and the morning of the 25th, respectively. Instead, she participated in the final phase of the battle, against Ozawa's force, though her role remained one of support for the carriers which she screened against submarine attack while she rescued their downed aviators.
After the Battle for Leyte Gulf, the destroyer continued to operate off Luzon with TG 38.2 while the carriers' planes provided additional air cover for the troops fighting to capture Leyte. That duty lasted until 5 November when engine trouble forced her to set a course for Ulithi. The warship arrived at that advanced base on 10 November, quickly completed repairs, and rejoined TG 38.2 off Luzon just after mid-month. Her return, however, proved brief; for, on 23 November, she received orders to return to Ulithi to join TG 38.1. At Ulithi, she conducted exercises until 10 December when she departed the atoll with TG 38.1 to support the landings on Mindoro. During that operation, TF 38 passed through the infamous typhoon of December 1944 which damaged many ships in the force and sank three. Wedderburn, however, suffered only minor damage and participated in the search for survivors of Hull (DD-350), Monaghan (DD-354), and Spence (DD-512) though she did not engage in any actual rescue operations. The damage caused by the typhoon necessitated a return to Ulithi for repairs. The destroyer and the other ships of TF 38 entered the lagoon on Christmas Eve and remained there six days, resuming operations on 30 December 1944.
1945 The return to sea brought TF 38 into active participation in support of the Luzon invasion at Lingayen. The fast carriers sought to keep Japanese reinforcements—airborne, naval, and land—from entering the fray against the invading forces by keeping enemy air-power grounded and by sinking as much of his shipping as possible. Thus, Wedderburn resumed her role as guardian of the carriers while their planes made up the offensive arm of the Third Fleet. On 3 and 4 January 1945, fast carrier aircraft hit air installations and shipping at Formosa and Okinawa. They went after targets on Luzon itself on the 6th and 7th and, on the 9th, the day of the initial landings, returned to Formosa for air suppression duty while troops were going ashore. Following that assignment, she moved through Bashi Channel with TF 38 for two weeks of air raids on Japanese-held southern China and French Indochina which included an anti-shipping sweep of the South China Sea. On the return voyage, TF 38 planes struck at the Nansei Shoto, a group of islands near Okinawa, on the 21st and 22d before reentering Ulithi Lagoon on the 25th.
Soon thereafter, the Third Fleet became the Fifth Fleet when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance relieved Admiral William F. Halsey. The change in designation reflected the change of command only, and all else remained substantially as it was. Wedderburn continued to provide antisubmarine protection for her task group, redesignated TG 58.2. Early on 10 February, the fast carriers again stood out of Ulithi to provide air support for the assault on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands. On 16 February, they launched planes for a strike against air installations around Tokyo, the first air raid on the Japanese capital since 1942 when the Fast Carrier Task Force commander, Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher—then captain of Hornet (CV-8)—launched Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle's B-25 bombers on their famous raid. During the current two-day attack, the American planes made 138 sorties in which their pilots claimed to have sunk three picket boats and an escort carrier as well as to have destroyed over 700 enemy aircraft. Following the raid, Wedderburn escorted the carriers south to Iwo Jima where she participated in shore bombardments and patrolled against submarines in TF 51's transport area. On 23 February, she departed Iwo Jima and rejoined TG 58.2 as it headed off north with the rest of TF 58 for another round of strikes on the Japanese home islands. Foul weather, however, forced the cancellation of those strikes; and, after a refueling rendezvous, the carriers and their escorts reentered the lagoon at Ulithi on 4 March.
After 10 days of refueling, rearming, and repairing, TF 58 left Ulithi and shaped a course for Japan. Their first targets were the airfields on Kyūshū, located within striking range of Okinawa, the 5th Fleet's next objective. The carriers launched planes on 18 March, but the enemy struck back with fighters, bombers, and kamikazes. In the ensuing battle, near misses damaged Enterprise (CV-6), Yorktown (CV-10), and Intrepid (CV-11). The next day, Franklin (CV-13) received a direct bomb hit; and the enemy scored one on Wasp (CV-18) as well. However, on a more positive side, Wedderburn gunners claimed two of the attacking enemy planes. After TF 58 sustained the damage of 18 and 19 March, it was reorganized somewhat. Wedderburn's TG 58.2 became a task group made up of damaged carriers Enterprise, Franklin, and Wasp, and gave up a number of its screening units to the similarly reformed TG 58.1.
Wedderburn was one of those escorts so reassigned and consequently remained with TF 58 while the task group of cripples retired to base. She continued to screen the carriers as they launched air strikes on Okinawa during the last week in March and the week following the 1 April landings. Throughout the entire period, the Japanese launched air attacks at them incessantly.
It was not until the 6th, however, that sighting reports made it apparent that the enemy planned a suicidal surface attack with the remnants of their fleet. Superbattleship Yamato, screened by a cruiser and eight destroyers, started south to contest the landings. The fast carriers continued to steam on station off Okinawa protected by Wedderburn and her colleagues but, on 7 April, launched a series of search and attack sorties which ultimately sent the mighty Japanese battleship to the bottom along with light cruiser Yahagi and four of the escorting destroyers.
After that scrape, TF 58 concentrated its efforts on supporting the troops ashore and defending itself and the invasion force from the final onslaught of Japanese air power. Wedderburn remained in the vicinity of the Ryukyu Islands for another 20 days until TG 58.1 headed for Ulithi on 27 April. On 18 May, the destroyer departed Ulithi to escort Missouri (BB-63) to Guam to pick up Admiral William F. Halsey who was scheduled to take command of the naval forces off Okinawa later that month. She then escorted Missouri back to the Ryukyus and reentered the fray at Okinawa at the beginning of the final week of May.
Halsey took over from Admiral Raymond Spruance on 27 May; and—now that Admiral Halsey was back in overall command—Wedderburn and her associates became units of the 3d Fleet rather than of the 5th Fleet. For the remainder of World War II, she screened various task groups of TF 38 first while they continued support for the Okinawa operation and, later that summer, when they went on their final rampage in the Japanese home islands. The Japanese capitulation on 15 August found her in the screen of TG 38.4 while the carriers were preparing for yet another air strike—one which they did not launch.