LeHardy, DE-20, was an Evarts-class destroyer escort. She was laid down at Mare Island Navy Yard on 15 April 1942 as HMS Duff (BDE-20) for the Royal Navy, launched on 21 November 1942, Mrs. Bert A. Barr sponsoring, retained by the Navy and renamed on 19 February 1943, and commissioned on 15 May 1943. She was named for Lieutenant Commander Marcel LeHardy, communications officer of the cruiser San Francisco, who was killed in the Solomons campaign and received the Navy Cross for the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
She escorted convoys on the run from the west coast to Pearl Harbor, then served as antisubmarine screen for a convoy to Tarawa in November 1943 and stayed with the 5th Fleet in the Gilberts. She sailed from Pearl Harbor on 28 January 1944 as part of the escort for the convoy to the Marshalls and arrived off Kwajalein on 5 February, the day the atoll was secured. She then escorted the cargo ships to Funafuti, returned for the Eniwetok operation in mid-February, and went back to Pearl Harbor on 4 March for training with fleet submarines.
From 22 October 1944 until 22 January 1945 she escorted tanker convoys from Eniwetok to Ulithi, then went to Seattle for an overhaul, and returned to the same runs on 28 May. On 2 September 1945 she left Kwajalein for Wake Island. She arrived on 4 September and stood by while the Japanese admiral surrendered the island, and a party from the ship went ashore and raised a flagpole that again flew the American flag.
She reached San Pedro on 27 September, was decommissioned on 25 October 1945, and was sold on 26 December 1946 to the National Metal and Steel Corporation at Terminal Island. She earned three battle stars.