Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.
- Christopher Eger
Warship Wednesday June 25, The Fighting Swenson
1945 in the Pacific, photographed from DD-745. Courtesy Robert Baumbrucker, NHC NH 89376. Ed Zajkowski
Here we see USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, in all of her World War Two glory pounding it out on the high seas. She is the only ship named for naval hero Lyman Knute Swenson (USNA 1916).
One of those rare early 20th century officers who did everything, from battleships to submarines to destroyers, he was the wartime commander of the hard-luck light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52). Twice torpedoed during the Battle of Guadalcanal, in what historian S. E. Morison called the “wildest most desperate sea fight since Jutland,” Juneau sank rapidly, taking under Swenson and most of her crew, including the five Sullivan brothers. This battle prevented the Japanese from landing reinforcements on Guadalcanal and Swenson was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions.
A warbaby, the destroyer that carried his name was laid down September 11th, 1943 at Bath Iron Works in Maine with his daughter sponsoring the vessel. Commissioned in Boston 2 May 1944, she was rushed off to war.
The 58-ship Sumner-class were large and heavily armed when compared to the old flush-deck destroyers that preceded them. Sandwiched between the svelte Fletcher-class and the follow-on Gearing-class (which were nothing but modified Sumners), these boats cost some $8 mill a pop (although Bath contracted for $5.1 million for Swenson) and Uncle Sugar got a swell deal from them, with most of the class serving into the 1970s.
At 3500-tons full load and 376-feet long, these bruisers packed a half-dozen 5-inch/38 DP guns (in twin mounts) as well as a dozen 40mm Bofors, another dozen 20mm guns, a brace of 10 torpedo tubes to take on Japanese cruisers, plus depth charges to bust enemy subs with. As such, they had much more kick than the Fletcher-class that preceded them, while still being able to float in as little as 16 feet of water (at a light load) and make 34-knots when needed. Capable of carrying more than 500 tons of fuel oil for her boilers, these ships had long legs, and could run 6000-nm on a full load, more than three times early pre-war built destroyers– which was important in the far-flung pacific.
Swenson arrived in the Philippines as part of the screen of Carrier Task Group 38.4 in October, 1944. There, off Samar on 30 October, she was the first US ship to fire on the first Japanese Kamikaze suicide planes. She went on to sail with Task Group 38.1 on the epic 3800-mile raid around the Pacific rim in January 1945, participated in the daring nighttime anti-shipping run thorough the entrance of Tokyo Bay with DESRON 61 on 22/23 July, helping to sink two freighters with her 5-inch guns, and witnessed the surrender of Japan that September.
All in all she had a very successful and lucky war, putting some 200,000 miles on her hull in just over a year.
USS Swenson in heavy swells alongside USS Wasp, January 1945. Photo 80G 301572 by John Chiquoine
She spent the next five years in quiet peacetime operations around the Pacific, finding herself stationed in Japan when the balloon went up in Korea in 1950. Pressed into service as a transport, she transported the US Army’s 560th MP company to Pusan then sent the next several months in plane guard and shore bombardment missions.
She fired no less than 1700 rounds of 5″ shells into the forces attacking the Pusan perimeter, exploded floating mines with her 40mm guns at Inchon, and traded shots with North Korean shore batteries on the island of Wolmi-Do. In covering the landings at Inchon she fired another 1400 rounds of 5″ and three thousand rounds of 40-mm. For this action Swenson and the five other destroyers with her were awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
A Chaplain reads the Last Rites service as Lieutenant (JG) David H. Swensen is buried at sea from USS Toledo, off Inchon, where he had been transferred for his wounds. The Lieutenant had been struck by shrapnel from North Korean shore-based artillery while his ship, USS Lyman K. Swenson was bombarding enemy positions on Wolmi-do island, Inchon, on 13 September 1950. The USS Swenson is seen observing the service in the distance.
After stateside refit in 1951 where she received up to date radars and electronics, as well as new barrels for her shot-out five inchers, she returned to Korean waters where she landed troops behind enemy lines, rescued downed fliers, and pummeled North Korean railway yards and trains, being one of the few members of the club of naval ships that have sent locomotives cartwheeling through the air.
Following the cessation of hostilities there, came more peacetime service.
She was FRAMM’d in 1960. This removed most of her WWII era AAA armament, added facilities for the nifty Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) UAV (yes, they had them back then!) replaced her 21-inch torpedo tubes with two triple Mark 32 tubes for the Mark 44 ASW torpedo, and added Variable Depth Sonar (VDS). She also got her first ECM gear and modern sonars and radar, effectively making her as effective as a contemporary new destroyer at a fraction of the cost.
DASH drone on USS Swenson. Photo by Curt Helmer, DD729 website
As soon as Vietnam got hot she was there, participating in naval gunnery support missions along the I Corps area during 15 days in October 1964, she fired no less than 2966 rounds of 5″ ammunition.
Follow-on tours in 1967, 68, 69, well you get the idea, saw more gunfire support with her miniature drone deck being just large enough to accommodate the occasional Huey. She also played plane guard on Yankee station during this time between participating in the Mekong Yacht Club.
USS Swenson in 1969 Vietnam coastal waters. Image courtesy of Earl Faubion, DD729 website
With the looming wrap up of the Vietnam conflict (at least for the Americans) her days were numbered. The Navy was pushing for a new fleet of huge 7000-ton Spruance class destroyers, twice as large as the Sumners, and room had to be made.
The old fighting Swenson was decommissioned and struck from the Naval List 1 February 1974, just shy of her 30th birthday.
In addition to the Navy Unit Commendation, the ship earned the following awards: American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign (with 5 battle stars), World War II Victory, Navy Occupation Service, China Service, National Defense Service, Korean Service (with 6 battle stars), Armed Forces Expeditionary, Vietnam Service (with 10 stars), United Nations Service, Philippine Liberation (with one star), Korean Presidential Unit Citation, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign.
A dozen of the Sumner-class destroyers were sold to the Republic of China (Taiwan) between 1969-1974, with Swenson being one of the last to go. She was never recommissioned into the ROC navy, being used as a floating source of spare parts.
Finally by the 1990s she was scrapped. However there are undoubtedly parts from her that still remain afloat on the USS Taussig, which since 1970 served Taiwan as the as Lo Yang (DD-14). Since 2000, that hardy old tin can, the last of her class still in military service, has been semi-preserved as a floating museum at Cijin Port, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
The only Sumner class destroyer in the U.S is the USS Laffey DD-724. Known as the “Ship that would not die” Laffey survived a swarm of 22 kamikazes during WWII and served alongside Swenson at Inchon in 1950. She is preserved as memorial and berthed at Patriot’s Point, Charleston, South Carolina.
Please visit her when you get a chance.
The former crew-members of the might Swenson have their own reunion site and at http://www.dd729.com/ which supplied many of the images here.
Specs:
(Off Mare Island 1945)
(As built)
Displacement: 2,200 tons (3500-fl)
Length: 376 ft 6 in (114.8 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12.2 m)
Draft: 15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Propulsion: 60,000 shp (45 MW);
2 propellers
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h)
Range: 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) @ 15 kt
Complement: 336
Armament: 6 × 5 in./38 guns (12 cm),
12 × 40mm AA guns,
11 × 20mm AA guns,
10 × 21 in. torpedo tubes,
6 × depth charge projectors,
2 × depth charge tracks
After FRAM II: (1960)
6 × 5 in/38 cal guns (127 mm) (in 3 × 2 Mk 38 DP mounts)
2 × triple Mark 32 torpedo tubes for Mark 44 torpedoes
1 × Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH)
Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), ALR-1 EW suite
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