Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Radford

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ClassFletcher class
TypeDestroyer (DD)
HullDD-446
Launched1942-05-03
Commissioned1942-07-22
FateAfloat. Survived the war. Sold for scrap October 1970
Armament (class)Five single 5-inch guns, two funnels, and two sets of torpedo tubes.
Command

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

The armament line is the class drawing, not a measurement of this hull.

Radford
U.S. Navy. USS Radford (DD-446) steaming into Tulagi Harbour with 468 survivors form USS Helena (CL-50), 6 July 1943.jpg. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

USS Radford (DD-446) was a Fletcher-class destroyer of the United States Navy. She was launched on 3 May 1942 and commissioned on 22 July 1942. William K. Romoser was her captain from the day she entered service.

She fought in the Battle of Kula Gulf on 6 July 1943. In that action she was stationed astern of the cruisers.

After the cruiser Helena sank, Radford stayed with the destroyer Nicholas. The two ships took off more than 700 of Helena's men.

Before dawn the same pair fired on the destroyer Mochizuki. Accounts of that firing differ on whether Mochizuki was hit.

On 25 November 1943, west of Makin, Radford depth-charged the submarine I-19. That boat was lost with all hands. Radford survived the war. She was sold for scrap in October 1970.

The pictures on this page are the originals.