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USS Foreman (DE-633)
Encyclopedia
USS Foreman (DE-633), a of the United States Navy
, was named in honor of Ensign
Andrew L. Foreman (1920-1942), who was killed in action aboard the heavy cruiser
during the Battle of Tassafaronga
on 30 November 1942. Ensign Foreman remained at his station to help in saving his ship until asphyxiated by gas generated by the explosion. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
for his heroic self-sacrifice.
Foreman was launched on 1 August 1943 at the Bethlehem Steel Company, in San Francisco, California
, sponsored by Miss Nadine Foreman, sister of Ensign Foreman; and commissioned on 22 October 1943, with Lieutenant Commander
C. A. Manston, USNR, in command.
, Ellice Islands on 28 January 1944 to begin nine months of convoy
escort duty in the southwest Pacific. She guarded the movement of men and supplies as well as of larger combatant ships in the lengthy series of operations necessary to consolidate Allied
control of the northern Solomon Islands
and western New Guinea
. Several times she also served on anti-submarine patrol. Sailing for Sydney
, Australia
, for upkeep on 29 September, Foreman returned to Hollandia
on 18 October, and put to sea on 26 October to escort two hospital transports to newly assaulted Leyte
, arriving on 30 October. One of the transports was completely loaded that day, and before midnight, Foreman and this transport sailed for Kossol Roads
.
After escorting a resupply convoy to San Pedro Bay
in the first week of November 1944, Foreman began duty escorting combatant ships, auxiliaries, and merchantmen between the Manus
base and Hollandia, Eniwetok, Majuro
, and Ulithi
. From 9-19 March 1945, the escort served as station ship at Kossol Roads, then sailed to Ulithi to stage for the attack on Okinawa
.
Foreman sortied from Ulithi on 21 March, and arrived off Okinawa on 25 March. She spent the next five days with a fire support unit
bombarding the island in anticipation of the landings on 1 April. On 27 March, when her task force first came under air attack, she fired on a Japan
ese plane which crashed close aboard on her bow, inflicting no casualties. After the landings, Foreman was assigned to anti-submarine patrol off the entrance to the transport anchorage at Kerama Retto
. Here on 3 April, she suffered a direct hit when a lone enemy bomber
attacked her. The bomb passed through her bottom to explode about 30 ft (9.1 m) below. All power and light were lost, and one of her firerooms flooded to the waterline
, but no men were killed. Within 30 minutes, damage was under control, and repairs had been made to allow her to make her way under her own power into Kerama Retto for emergency repairs.
Fully repaired at Ulithi between 17 April and 29 May 1945, Foreman returned to patrol off Okinawa on 3 June. Eight days later, she shot down a kamikaze
with the aid of a sister destroyer escort
before it could crash her. On 29 June, she was assigned to escort duty with a force covering minesweeping
operations in the East China Sea
and flying air strikes on Chinese
targets, serving with this task force until returning to Okinawa on 16 August for brief overhaul. Escort duty from Buckner Bay followed until 26 September, when she sailed from Wakayama, Japan, with homeward bound servicemen. Arriving at San Diego on 17 October, she disembarked her passengers and sailed on to the east coast. Foreman was decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida
on 28 June 1946.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, was named in honor of Ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
Andrew L. Foreman (1920-1942), who was killed in action aboard the heavy cruiser
Heavy cruiser
The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range, high speed and an armament of naval guns roughly 203mm calibre . The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, although the term 'heavy cruiser' only came into formal use in 1930...
during the Battle of Tassafaronga
Battle of Tassafaronga
The Battle of Tassafaronga, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or, in Japanese sources, as the , was a nighttime naval battle that took place November 30, 1942 between United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign...
on 30 November 1942. Ensign Foreman remained at his station to help in saving his ship until asphyxiated by gas generated by the explosion. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross
Navy Cross
The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...
for his heroic self-sacrifice.
Foreman was launched on 1 August 1943 at the Bethlehem Steel Company, in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, sponsored by Miss Nadine Foreman, sister of Ensign Foreman; and commissioned on 22 October 1943, with Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
C. A. Manston, USNR, in command.
Service history
Foreman arrived at FunafutiFunafuti
Funafuti is an atoll that forms the capital of the island nation of Tuvalu. It has a population of 4,492 , making it the most populated atoll in the country. It is a narrow sweep of land between 20 and 400 metres wide, encircling a large lagoon 18 km long and 14 km wide, with a surface of...
, Ellice Islands on 28 January 1944 to begin nine months of convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
escort duty in the southwest Pacific. She guarded the movement of men and supplies as well as of larger combatant ships in the lengthy series of operations necessary to consolidate Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
control of the northern Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and western New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
. Several times she also served on anti-submarine patrol. Sailing for Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, for upkeep on 29 September, Foreman returned to Hollandia
Jayapura
Jayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
on 18 October, and put to sea on 26 October to escort two hospital transports to newly assaulted Leyte
Leyte
Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...
, arriving on 30 October. One of the transports was completely loaded that day, and before midnight, Foreman and this transport sailed for Kossol Roads
Kossol Roads
Kossol Roads, Palau is a large body of reef-enclosed water north of Babeldaob. During World War II, it was used by the United States Navy as the location of a floating resupply and repair base....
.
After escorting a resupply convoy to San Pedro Bay
San Pedro Bay (Philippines)
San Pedro Bay is a bay in the Philippines, at the northwest end of Leyte Gulf, about 15 km east-west and 20 km north-south. The bay is bounded on the north and east by Samar and on the east by Leyte Island. It is connected by San Juanico Strait to Carigara Bay of the Samar Sea. The...
in the first week of November 1944, Foreman began duty escorting combatant ships, auxiliaries, and merchantmen between the Manus
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...
base and Hollandia, Eniwetok, Majuro
Majuro
Majuro , is a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll itself has a land area of and encloses a lagoon of...
, and Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
. From 9-19 March 1945, the escort served as station ship at Kossol Roads, then sailed to Ulithi to stage for the attack on Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...
.
Foreman sortied from Ulithi on 21 March, and arrived off Okinawa on 25 March. She spent the next five days with a fire support unit
Naval gunfire support
Naval gunfire support is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of a number of disciplines encompassed by the term Naval Fires...
bombarding the island in anticipation of the landings on 1 April. On 27 March, when her task force first came under air attack, she fired on a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese plane which crashed close aboard on her bow, inflicting no casualties. After the landings, Foreman was assigned to anti-submarine patrol off the entrance to the transport anchorage at Kerama Retto
Kerama Retto
The are a group of 22 islands located southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Four of the islands are inhabited:,., and. The islands are within Shimajiri District. The Kerama-shotō coral reef is a Ramsar Site....
. Here on 3 April, she suffered a direct hit when a lone enemy bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
attacked her. The bomb passed through her bottom to explode about 30 ft (9.1 m) below. All power and light were lost, and one of her firerooms flooded to the waterline
Waterline
The term "waterline" generally refers to the line where the hull of a ship meets the water surface. It is also the name of a special marking, also known as the national Load Line or Plimsoll Line, to be positioned amidships, that indicates the draft of the ship and the legal limit to which a ship...
, but no men were killed. Within 30 minutes, damage was under control, and repairs had been made to allow her to make her way under her own power into Kerama Retto for emergency repairs.
Fully repaired at Ulithi between 17 April and 29 May 1945, Foreman returned to patrol off Okinawa on 3 June. Eight days later, she shot down a kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
with the aid of a sister destroyer escort
Destroyer escort
A destroyer escort is the classification for a smaller, lightly armed warship designed to be used to escort convoys of merchant marine ships, primarily of the United States Merchant Marine in World War II. It is employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also provides some protection...
before it could crash her. On 29 June, she was assigned to escort duty with a force covering minesweeping
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
operations in the East China Sea
East China Sea
The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...
and flying air strikes on Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
targets, serving with this task force until returning to Okinawa on 16 August for brief overhaul. Escort duty from Buckner Bay followed until 26 September, when she sailed from Wakayama, Japan, with homeward bound servicemen. Arriving at San Diego on 17 October, she disembarked her passengers and sailed on to the east coast. Foreman was decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida
Green Cove Springs, Florida
Green Cove Springs is a city in Clay County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,378 at the 2000 census. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,908. It is the county seat of Clay County....
on 28 June 1946.