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Nehenta Bay made her
shakedown cruise from San Francisco Bay to Pearl Harbor 6 to 12
February 1944, carrying replacement aircrews and planes. She put
into San Diego 21 February with damaged planes returned from combat
zones for repair. After further West Coast training, she sailed for
Pearl Harbor 18 March, again with replacement aircraft and aviation
materiel, added to her lading in Hawaii, and reached Majuro 7 April
to deliver mail, men, and aircraft to fast carriers moored there.
She returned to San Diego from Majuro and Pearl Harbor 27 April,
bringing home wounded and other passengers, along with damaged
aircraft.
After combat readiness training off California and in Hawaii,
Nehenta Bay left Pearl Harbor 18 June 1944 for the Marianas assault,
staging at Eniwetok late in the month. With TF 51, her planes flew
antisubmarine and combat air patrols during operations against
Tinian, which they strafed 5 July and 7 July, blasting gun
emplacements and a sugar refinery. Returning to Eniwetok 16 July to
refuel and replenish, Nehenta Bay next sailed, with Midway and 12
destroyers, for antisubmarine and combat air patrols off Guam and
Saipan, striking targets on the latter.
Next assigned to escort fleet oilers during at-sea replenishment
operations, Nehenta Bay played an essential part in the 3rd Fleet's
victory-winning operations from August 1944 through January 1945.
The ships she guarded made it possible for the fast carriers to
remain at sea for extended periods, smashing at targets in the
Carolines and Philippines, on Formosa, and on the Chinese coast.
Such attacks in turn made possible the capture of the Palaus, and
the return to the Philippines.
With Manus and Ulithi as her bases, Nehenta Bay faithfully and
tirelessly protected her vulnerable charges, fighting through the
December typhoon despite heavy damage and shooting down a Japanese
attacker 12 January 1945. She returned to San Diego 19 February 1945 for
overhaul, refreshed her training in Hawaiian waters, then qualified
new aviators off Guam before arriving at Ulithi 9 May to prepare for
strikes on Okinawa. Her planes flew patrols and made direct strikes
on enemy positions to aid fighting men ashore, blasting the Japanese
from eaves and ridges. Her formation came under kamikaze attack 7
June, when two of her sisters were crashed.
From the end of June through early August, Nehenta Bay again guarded
oilers as they served the 3rd Fleet in its climactic raids against
Japan itself. She was en route to operations in the Aleutians when
hostilities ended, and her task force sailed 31 August for
occupation duties around Japan, patrolling and dropping supplies to
prisoners of war. She returned to Pearl Harbor 24 September to
disembark her air squadron and all aviation equipment and gasoline,
thus making room for passengers. She sailed 30 September to embark
homeward-bound troops in the Marshalls, and with them reached San
Francisco in mid-October. In November she sailed to the Philippines
on similar duty, returning to the West Coast 27 November. Sailing
via the Panama Canal, Nehenta Bay arrived Boston 31 January 1946 for
inactivation. She decommissioned and entered reserve at Boston 15
May 1946. Reclassified CVU–74 on 12 June 1955 and AKV–24 on 7 May
1959, Nehenta Bay was sold to Coalmarket, Inc., 29 June 1960 and
scrapped. |
