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D 560 ITS Lanciere / ex USS Taylor (DD 468):
Service history (USS Taylor)
The second Taylor (DD-468) was laid down on 28
August 1941 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works Corp.; launched on 7 June
1942; sponsored by Mrs. H. A. Baldridge; and commissioned on 28 August 1942
at the Boston Navy Yard, Lt. Comdr. Benjamin Katz in command.
Taylor began her naval career with the Atlantic Fleet. Assigned to Destroyer
Squadron (DesRon) 20, the destroyer trained at Casco Bay, Maine, and made her
shakedown cruise in the northern Atlantic before beginning duty as a
coastwise convoy escort. The latter duty lasted until mid-November when she
escorted a transatlantic convoy to a point just off Casablanca. The transit
was uneventful, save for the interception of the Spanish freighter Darro. A
boarding party from Taylor sent the neutral ship off to Gibraltar to prevent
her from transmitting information about the convoy to the enemy. Taylor
returned to the United States at Norfolk early in December and remained there
until mid-month.
On 17 December 1942, the warship cleared Hampton Roads in company with Task
Force (TF) 13 on her way to duty in the Pacific. After transiting the Panama
Canal and stopping at Tutuila in the Samoan Islands, the destroyer reported
at Noumea, New Caledonia, on 20 January 1943 for duty in the Southwest
Pacific. From Noumea, Taylor continued west to Efate in the New Hebrides
group, entering Havannah Harbor on the 26th. There, she became a unit of
DesRon 21, one of two four-destroyer divisions screening Rear Admiral
Giffen’s TF 18, comprised of three heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and
two escort carriers.
On 27 January 1943, Taylor cleared Havannah Harbor with the other ships of TF
18, one of several task forces sent out to screen an important reinforcement
echelon to Guadalcanal. Admiral Halsey, operating upon intelligence which
indicated a major Japanese attempt to reinforce their beleaguered garrison on
the island, sent put the large screening force in the hope and expectation of
a major naval engagement. That sea battle never materialized because the
enemy activities upon which he predicated his actions were actually movements
preparatory to a Japanese withdrawal. Instead, the enemy subjected TF 18 to a
scathing air attack. On the evening of the 29th, enemy Mitsubishi G4M Type 97
land attack planes [Bettys] attacked TF 18 with torpedoes. The ships brushed
off the first attack with antiaircraft fire, suffered negligible damage, and
raced on to rendezvous with the other elements of the covering force. After a
concerted effort, however, the Japanese fliers of the 701st Kōkutai
finally scored a crippling torpedo hit on Chicago (CA-29). When Louisville
(CA-28) took the stricken cruiser in tow, Taylor helped to screen the
retiring ships as they steamed out of range of enemy aircraft. The following
day, more enemy planes appeared and attacked. After Chicago took four more
torpedo hits from the land attack planes of the 751st Kōkutai, her crew
and the warships covering her abandoned the heavy cruiser to her watery fate
and returned to Efate.
On 4 February 1943, Taylor and the other ships of DesRon 21 were transferred
to TF 67, Rear Admiral Ainsworth’s cruiser-destroyer force. Soon thereafter,
TF 67 became TF 18, and the former TF 18 became TF 19. In any event, during
February and March, Taylor screened Ainsworth's cruisers - St. Louis (CL-49),
Honolulu (CL-48), and Helena (CL-50) - during operations between Espiritu
Santo and Guadalcanal. During the night of 15 and 16 March, she joined
Nicholas (DD-449), Radford (DD-446), and Strong (DD-467) in the fourth
bombardment of the Vila-Stanmore plantation located on Kolombangara Island in
the central Solomons. On 26 March, the destroyer cleared Espiritu Santo to escort
Kanawha (AO-1), Aloe (YN-1), and six coastal transports to Guadalcanal. The
ships reached Tulagi on the 29th; and, while Kanawha discharged cargo, Taylor
resumed operations at sea with Ainsworth's cruisers.
On the nights of 4, 5, and 6 April 1943, she joined them in sweeps up the
"Slot" before being ordered back to Tulagi on the 7th to pick up
Kanawha. When the de stroyer was just about to enter Tulagi, a strong
Japanese air raid cancelled her mission by severely bombing Kanawha before
the old oiler could clear the harbor completely. With Kanawha disabled,
Taylor rang up 30 knots and cleared the area via Sealark Channel. During her
transit of the channel, the warship claimed the destruction of three enemy
planes and hits on two others.
For much of the month, Taylor escorted convoys in the Solomons and between
those islands and Espiritu Santo. On 20 April 1943, she rejoined TF 18. After
a brief tender overhaul, the destroyer accompanied the cruisers up the
"Slot" twice during the 10 days between 4 and 14 May to cover
mining operations in Vella Gulf. During the second operation, conducted
between the llth and the 14th, she and the other warships bombarded enemy
installations at Vila, Bairoko Harbor, and Enogai Inlet.
Between late May and early July 1943, Taylor performed escort duty. On 25
May, she cleared Espiritu Santo with Munargo (AP-20), escorted the transport
to the 180th meridian, and returned to Espiritu Santo on the 30th. During her
next assignment - escorting a convoy of troop transports to Guadalcanal and
back - she defended her charges against Japanese planes which jumped the task
unit on 10 June south of San Cristobal. After repairs at Espiritu Santo, she
served with the antisubmarine screen of escort carrier Sangamon (ACV-26)
until 6 July when she headed for Tulagi to report for duty with TF 31.
For the next four months, Taylor supported the invasions of the central
Solomons. In July 1943, she supported the New Georgia landings. On the 11th
and 12th, the destroyer covered the landing of troops and supplies at Rice
Anchorage on Kula Gulf as well as the evacuation of wounded. On the morning
of the 12th, off Kolombangara, she sank the Japanese submarine RO-107 (Lt.
Comdr. Egi Shoichi, commanding). That afternoon, Taylor was temporarily
detached from TF 31 and assigned to TF 18. She headed up the "Slot"
with Ainsworth’s cruisers - the same ones with which she had previously
served except that HMNZS Leander replaced Helena after the latter cruiser was
lost in the Battle of Kula Gulf - to intercept a Japanese surface force. That
evening, the two forces collided. Taylor and the other van destroyers
launched torpedoes and then joined the remainder of TF 18 in engaging the
enemy with their guns. It may well have been one of Taylor’s "fish"
that slammed into Jintsu’s hull just abaft her number 2 stack and ripped the
Japanese cruiser in half. There is no way of knowing for sure, but the
accumulated effect of the destroyer’s torpedoes and the entire task force’s
gunfire cost the enemy his flagship and his commander, Rear Admiral Izaki
Shunji.
Following the Battle of Kolombangara, Taylor reported back to TF 31 and
resumed support for the amphibious operations in the central Solomons. On the
night of 15 and 16 July 1943, the destroyer took Helena survivors off Vella
Lavella Island where they had found refuge after their ship went down. Almost
a week later, on the night of 23 and 24 July, the destroyer supported the
landings at Enogai Inlet and participated in another bombardment of Bairoko
Harbor. The following morning, her main battery joined in a bombardment of
the Japanese positions around the Munda area of New Georgia.
On 30 July 1943, Taylor cleared Guadalcanal in company with a troop transport
convoy bound for New Caledonia. She was detached en route to Noumea and
ordered to join TF 37 at Efate. On 11 August, Nicholas, O'Bannon (DD-450),
Chevalier (DD-451), and Taylor were ordered to return to Guadalcanal and
rejoin TF 31 for the Vella Lavella phase of the central Solomons operation.
First, she covered the landings on 15 August. Two days later, the same four
destroyers were ordered out of the anchorage at Purvis Bay to intercept a
force of troop-laden barges covered by four destroyers. During the ensuing
action off Horaniu, a mad melee of torpedoes and gunfire, neither side lost a
destroyer; but the Japanese suffered some damage when American shells set
Hamakaze ablaze. Later, after the enemy destroyers had made good their
escape, the Americans turned their attention to the scattered barges and
combat craft, sinking two subchasers, an equal number of torpedo boats, and
one barge before retiring. Forty-eight hours later, the four American
destroyers re turned once again to the area northwest of Vella Lavella to
seek out enemy barge traffic. They encountered nothing except enemy aircraft
and dodged heavy bombing attacks throughout the evening. Over the next nine
days, Taylor and her division mates made eight more trips up the
"Slot" - one of which was to cover mining operations off the west
coast of Kolombangara - but saw little or no action.
Taylor departed Guadalcanal and the Solomons on 28 August 1943 to escort
Titania (AKA-13) to Noumea. Then - after a ten-day repair, rest, and
relaxation period in Sydney, Australia - the destroyer escorted a troop
transport convoy from Noumea to Guadalcanal. She returned to the
Tulagi-Purvis Bay area on 30 September and resumed support of the subjugation
of Vella Lavella. By this time, the Japanese had already begun to evacuate
bypassed Kolombangara and would soon make the decision to do the same at
Vella Lavella. Thus, Taylor and other destroyers continued their nocturnal
forays up the "Slot" to interdict barge traffic.
On the night of 20 October 1943, she, Terry (DD-513), and Ralph Talbot
(DD-390) engaged enemy barges and a surface force in the waters between
Choiseul and Kolombangara. Four nights later came the big action of the Vella
Lavella and Kolombangara evacuations, the Battle of Vella Lavella. While
south of New Georgia escorting a convoy, Taylor, Ralph Talbot, and Lavalette
were ordered to join O'Bannon, Chevalier, and Selfridge already embroiled in
a slugfest with nine Japanese destroyers covering the Vella Lavella
evacuation group. During the ensuing battle, the American and Japanese forces
traded torpedo salvoes and gunfire, as well as exchanged destroyer Chevalier
for destroyer Yugumo. During the battle, Selfridge and O’Bannon also received
torpedo hits, but neither was lost. Taylor went alongside Selfridge in the
closing moments of the battle and evacuated most of her crew while a skeleton
crew began their successful attempt to save the damaged destroyer. She then
screened the two cripples while they limped back down the "Slot" to
Purvis Bay.
On 17 October 1943, Taylor departed the southern Solo mons with the other
members of DesDiv 41. She and her consorts escorted a convoy of troop
transports to Efate, where they reported for duty with TF 37. Between 23 and
26 October, she made a round-trip voyage between Efate and Noumea, escorting
Lassen (AE-3) to Noumea and Aldebaran to Efate. She and her division were
reassigned to the Central Pacific Force on 31 October in preparation for the
first step in the Navy's central Pacific thrust, the seizure and occupation
of the Gilbert Islands. For that operation, she was assigned to the screen of
TG 50.1, built around carriers Lexington (CV-16), Yorktown (CV-10), and
Cowpens (CV-25). She screened TG 50.1 during the raids on Jaluit and Mili in
the Marshalls conducted during the first half of November in preparation for
the Gilberts assault. During the actual landings and occupations, she
protected her charges from enemy aircraft and submarines while their planes
took off to help those of the escort carriers maintain air supremacy over the
islands. Following the Gilberts operation, she steamed with the carriers
during raids on the Marshall Islands. Near the end of those forays, she
teamed up with Lavallette and San Francisco (CA-38) to splash two of four
Japanese Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 carrier bombers [Kates] that attacked the task
group just after noon on 4 December.
Following those raids, Taylor was ordered back to the United States for
extensive yard work, arriving in San Francisco on 16 December 1943. Repairs
completed, she put to sea on 1 February 1944 and headed - via Pearl Harbor -
back to the western Pacific. She reached Kwajalein in the Marshalls on the
18th. Taylor escorted one convoy to Eniwetok Atoll where she joined the
screen of carriers Coral Sea (CVE-57) and Corregidor (CVE- 58) on 29
February. The task unit cleared Eniwetok on 29 February and headed for Pearl,
where it arrived on 3 March. After 12 days of training operations and
repairs, the destroyer departed Pearl Harbor in the screen of Sangamon
(CVE-20), Suwanee (CVE-27), Chenango (CVE-28), and Santee (CVE-29), and
arrived in Purvis Bay near Guadalcanal on the 27th. She remained there until
5 April when she left for Milne Bay, New Guinea, for temporary duty with the
7th Fleet.
The warship reached Milne Bay on 7 April 1944 and, the following day, headed
on to Cape Sudest, where she became a unit of TF 77 for the amphibious
assault at Humboldt Bay. During the assault, she screened aircraft carriers
and acted as fighter director until 24 April when she departed to escort a
convoy back to Cape Sudest. From there she moved to Morobe Bay, where she
spent the remainder of the month in availability alongside Dobbin (AD-3).
During the first week in May, Taylor escorted a convoy from Cape Cretin to
the Hollandia invasion area and acted as fighter director shin once more. She
returned to Cape Cretin on 7 May and departed again two days later to screen
a convoy of LST's to the Russell Island subgroup in the Solomons. On 13 May,
the destroyer reported back to the 3d Fleet in the Solomons, dropped off the
convoy, and departed again to screen another convoy to New Caledonia.
On 24 May 1944, she stood out of Noumea in company with DesDiv 41 to return
to the Solomons and arrived at her new base of operations, Blanche Harbor, on
27 May. Taylor operated out of that port in the northern Solomons and
Bismarcks area until early August. On the night of 28 and 29 May, she
patrolled off Medina Plantation on New Ireland while her sister ships
bombarded the area to neutralize mobile coastal guns. From 1 to 6 June, she
operated with DesDiv 41 conducting antisubmarine operations. During the week
from 7 to 14 June, Taylor and the other ships of DesDiv 41 joined TG 30.4 for
hunter-killer antisubmarine operations. On the 10th, she depth-charged the
Japanese submarine RO-111 (Lt. Comdr. Nakamura Naozo) forced her to the
surface, and damaged her heavily with 5-inch and 40-millimeter fire. The
submarine submerged again, and Taylor made two more depth-charge runs to
administer the coup d’grace. The destroyer returned to Blanche Harbor on the
15th and operated in that vicinity until the first week in August.
On 5 August 1944, Taylor changed operational command from the 3d Fleet to the
7th Fleet. She began her duty with that fleet with a practice bombardment of
the Aitape area of New Guinea late in August and a practice landing at Moffin
Bay conducted on 6 September. Both operations were in preparation for the
landings made on the island of Morotai in the Netherlands East Indies on 15
September. For the remainder of the month, she acted as fighter director ship
and as a unit of the invasion force's antisubmarine and antiaircraft screen.
The destroyer also escorted convoys to the landing area until mid-October.
Between 18 and 24 October 1944, Taylor was a unit of the screen for the
second reinforcement echelon for the Leyte invasion. During a Japanese aerial
assault on the 24th, the destroyer laid a smoke screen to protect the convoy.
That night, as the Battle of Surigao Strait opened, Taylor and the other
destroyers of her division were anchored near the entrance of San Pedro Bay.
Though she did not actually join the surface engagement, Taylor joined the
support force on the following morning. Following that, she patrolled the
vicinity of Dinagat Island with a unit known as the "torpedo attack
force." On 27 and 28 October, the warship screened TG 77.4, the escort
carrier group. During that duty, she rescued a downed fighter pilot from
Enterprise (CV-6) and a seaman from Petrof Bay (CVE-80). Frequently, she
helped fend off Japanese air attacks.
On 29 October 1944, she joined TG 77.2 and departed the area of Leyte Gulf.
After visits to Seeadler Harbor, Ulithi Atoll, and Kossol Roads, she returned
to Leyte Gulf on 16 November. Between 16 and 29 November, the destroyer
continued to screen TG 77.2 and to patrol the eastern entrance to the Surigao
Strait. Again, she joined her sister ships in beating off heavy enemy air
raids, climaxed by a large attack of suicide planes and dive bombers on the
29th. She claimed one sure kill and two assists during those raids. Taylor then
cleared Leyte Gulf for almost a month at Seeadler Harbor before returning to
Leyte on 28 December to prepare for the invasion of Luzon.
Taylor departed Leyte Gulf on 4 January 1945 in the screen for the cruisers
in the covering force. The next day, the destroyer sighted two torpedoes
running toward her formation. After giving the submarine alarm, Taylor
launched a depth charge attack on the enemy submarine - a midget. Following
those attacks, she rammed the small submarine and sent it on its last dive.
During the Allied approach to Lingayen Gulf and in the days following the
landings, the Japanese subjected Taylor and her sister ships to a series of
heavy air raids. Taylor’s antiaircraft gunners assisted in splashing at least
two of the attackers. Through the end of January, the warship screened the
cruisers and the escort carriers on patrol west of Luzon.
From early February through mid-June 1945, Taylor operated out of Subic Bay
in the Philippines. Between 13 and 18 February, she participated in an extensive
bombardment of Corregidor and of the Mariveles Bay area of Luzon to support
minesweeping operations and to pave the way for an assault by airborne
troops. Early in March, she supported the recapture of Zamboanga on Mindanao
during which the destroyer's guns helped reduce enemy shore installations.
She also covered the minesweepers while they cleared the way for the invasion
force. On 15 March, Taylor returned to Corregidor where she bombarded caves
on the island’s western cliffs. On 26 March, the ship participated in the
amphibious assault on Cebu Island, where she joined Boise (CL-47), Phoenix
(CL-46), Fletcher (DD-445), Nicholas, Jenkins (DD-447), and Abbot (DD-629) in
laying down a heavy pre-landing bombardment.
After a short two-day sightseeing visit to Manila, Taylor cleared the
Philippines with Boise, Phoenix, two Australian warships, and four other
American destroyers to support the amphibious landings in northeastern
Borneo. En route, she captured five Japanese who were attempting to escape from
Tawi Tawi on a raft. On 27 April 1945, Taylor and her sister ships reached
the vicinity of the invasion - Tarakan, a small island located just off the
eastern coast of Borneo and north of Makassar Strait. She operated in that
area until 3 May and delivered a preinvasion bombardment and call fire. On 3
May, two days after the actual landings, she departed Tarakan to resume duty
in the Philippines, where for the remainder of the month she conducted
training operations.
In mid-June 1945, Taylor rejoined the 3d Fleet at Leyte Gulf and, for the
remainder of the war, screened various units of that fleet. During the latter
part of the month, she screened aircraft carriers operating south of Okinawa
which conducted air strikes on Sakishima Gunto. On 25 June, she returned to
Leyte Gulf and remained there until 8 July, when she departed in the screen
of TG 30.8, the logistics group for the fast carriers of TF 38. The destroyer
operated with TG 30.8 off Honshu until 3 August when she joined the screen of
one of the fast carrier task groups, TG 38.4. On 8 August, she resumed duty
with the logistics group for five days. On the 13th, Taylor rejoined TG 38.4
just in time to be a part of the last offensive actions directed at Japan.
Following the cessation of hostilities on 15 August 1945, she patrolled off
Honshu with the fast carriers. On 23 August, she joined Nicholas and O’Bannon
in the screen of Missouri (BB-63) and as such was one of the first American
warships to enter Tokyo Bay, arriving on 29 August. The destroyer was present
at the surrender ceremony conducted on board Missouri on 2 September and
carried Allied war correspondents to and from the ceremony. She operated in
the Far East until 10 October when she departed Tokyo Bay to return to the
United States. Taylor arrived in San Francisco on 1 November and began
preparations for inactivation. On 31 May 1946, the destroyer was
decommissioned and placed in reserve at San Diego.
After four years of inactivity, Taylor moved to the San Francisco Naval
Shipyard on 9 May 1950 and, three days later, began an extensive conversion
to an escort destroyer. While still completing conversion, she was officially
redesignated DDE-468 on 2 January 1951. On 3 December 1951, Taylor was
recommissioned at San Francisco, Comdr. Sheldon H. Kenney in command. On 3
February 1952, she put to sea for a two months shake down period off San
Diego. On 24 March, the escort destroyer headed west to her new home port,
Pearl Harbor, and arrived there on the 30th. Following two months in the Hawaiian
Islands, Taylor set out to return to the western Pacific for the first time
since World War II. She stopped at Midway Island and Yokosuka, Japan, before
joining TF 77 on 16 June to screen the carriers during air operations off the
Korean coast.
During the five months that she spent in the Far East, Taylor drew several
different assignments. Initially, she operated with the fast carriers and
conducted bombardments of enemy-held positions along the coasts of Korea.
During the second week in July 1952, she returned to Yokosuka for upkeep and
then went to sea again for exercises which included several weeks of
hunter-killer operations. On 1 August, the escort destroyer rejoined TF 77
and, in September, stood blockade watch off Wonsan for three weeks. Her blockade
duty at Wonsan was far from passive for, on numerous occasions, she was
called upon to shell enemy shore batteries and lines of transportation and to
screen minesweepers during daily sweeps of the harbor. Late that month,
Taylor headed south for a tour of duty on the Taiwan Strait Patrol during
which she made a weekend port call at Hong Kong. In late October, the escort
destroyer returned north to the western coast of Korea where she patrolled
with two British warships, the carrier HMS Glory and the light cruiser HMS
Birmingham. On 21 November, Taylor returned to Yokosuka, completing the first
leg of her voyage home.
After conducting patrols in the western Pacific while en route to Hawaii,
Taylor entered Pearl Harbor on 8 December 1952. Following a month of leave
and upkeep, she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard for a month of
repairs. For the next three months, she conducted shakedown training in the
Hawaiian Islands in order to integrate her replacements with the rest of the
crew. On 2 May 1953, the warship exited Pearl Harbor to deploy to the western
Pacific again. She reached Yokosuka on the 12th and, after visiting that port
and Sasebo, put to sea to join a carrier task group - built around Bairoko
(CVE-115) and HMS Ocean off the western coast of Korea. For the most part,
she screened the carriers during air operations; however, on two occasions,
she patrolled close to the enemy-held shore line to discourage the North
Koreans from attempting to take offshore islands held by United Nations forces.
She returned to Sasebo on 1 June for 11 days of upkeep before heading for
Okinawa and two weeks of antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training. On 25 June,
Taylor returned to Japan at Yokosuka, but she departed again almost
immediately for duty with the Taiwan Strait Patrol. During that assignment,
she visited Hong Kong once again as well as Kaohsiung where she trained
sailors of the Taiwan Navy. The escort destroyer returned to Yokosuka on 20
July and, after two days of voyage repairs, departed the Far East. She
arrived in Pearl Harbor on 31 July and, the following day, entered the naval
shipyard there for a three month overhaul.
Taylor’s return to Pearl Harbor coincided very closely with the formal end to
hostilities in Korea. The armistice came on 27 July 1953 when she had just
passed the midpoint of her voyage - five days out of Yokosuka and four days
from Pearl Harbor. While she saw some action during her two Korean War
deployments, they occurred during the relatively quiet, final two years of
the conflict. Her subsequent deployments, while they included both duty off
Korea and on the Taiwan Strait Patrol, were entirely peaceful in nature until
the expansion of the American role in the Vietnamese civil war in 1965.
In the five years between 1 March 1954 and 1 March 1959, Taylor completed
five more deployments to the western Pacific, earning the Armed Forces
Expeditionary Medal for service in the Taiwan Straits (11-15 October 1958)
and during contingency operations concerning Quemoy and Matsu (27-28 January
1958). During each, she conducted training exercises and made goodwill visits
to Far Eastern ports. When not in the Orient, she conducted normal operations
out of Pearl Harbor. During her sixth post-Korean War deployment in 1959 and
1960, she visited Australia for the celebration commemorating the victory at
the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. Upon her return to Pearl Harbor on
26 May 1960, the escort destroyer conducted normal operations again until
December when she entered the Pearl Harbor Naval Ship yard for a major
overhaul before deploying to the western Pacific again in August 1961. In
lieu of her annual western Pacific deployment, Taylor spent the spring and
summer of 1962 in the mid-Pacific as one of the support units for Operation
Dominic, nuclear tests conducted in the upper atmosphere. In October, she
returned to Hawaii to begin a repair period which saw her through the end of
1962. During that year, she reverted to the classification of destroyer and
was re- designated DD-468 on 7 August 1962.
Local operations in the Hawaiian Islands occupied the remainder of 1962 and
the first six months of 1963. On 4 June 1963, the destroyer stood out of
Pearl Harbor with a hunter/killer group bound for duty with the 7th Fleet.
During this deployment to the Far East, Taylor called at Kobe, Japan; Hong
Kong; Okinawa; and Kushiro as well as the base ports of Yokosuka, Sasebo, and
Subic Bay. The call at Kushiro - a fishing port on Hokkaido, the northernmost
of the Japanese home islands - constituted Taylor’s contributions to the
People to People Program and aided immeasurably in developing greater
understanding between the peoples of the United States and Japan. Other than
that, the warship engaged in numerous unilateral and bilateral training
exercises through the remainder of the cruise which ended at Pearl Harbor on
29 November. Taylor operated locally in Hawaii until April 1964 when she
entered drydock for a three-month overhaul. In July she resumed operations in
Hawaiian waters.
Those operations continued throughout most of the fall of 1964. On 23
November, the destroyer cleared Pearl Harbor in company with Yorktown
(CVS-10) and Taussig (DD-746) to return to the Orient. The task unit steamed
via Midway Island and, on 3 December, made port at Yokosuka, Japan. Four days
later, she put to sea for two weeks of combined antiaircraft/antisubmarine
warfare exercises conducted with Hancock (CVA-19) and Strauss (DDG-16) near
Okinawa. On 19 December, the warship returned to Japan at Sasebo and remained
there through the holidays and into the New Year. On 4 January 1965, Taylor
cleared Sasebo and rejoined Yorktown and Thomason for a voyage to Hong Kong.
The three ships remained in the British Crown Colony for five days before
clearing port for a series of special operations conducted in the Philippine
Sea. At the conclusion of that duty, she put into Subic Bay on 24 February.
After four days in the Philippines, Taylor headed back to Sasebo, where she
arrived on 3 March. Exactly two weeks later, the destroyer got underway for
the western portion of the South China Sea. She arrived off the coast of
Vietnam on 21 March and patrolled there for the following five weeks. On 27
April, Taylor headed back to Yokosuka for a brief stop - from 3 to 6 May -
before returning to Hawaii. The destroyer reentered Pearl Harbor on the 13th
and conducted local operations in Hawaiian waters. On 6 December, Taylor
entered the drydock for another overhaul.
The destroyer left the dock in mid-January 1966 and stood out of Pearl Harbor
on 7 February and, with the other ships of DesDiv 111, shaped a course for
the western Pacific. The warship reached Yokosuka 10 days later and spent
eight days undergoing voyage repairs. On 25 February, she departed Yokosuka
to join Task Group 70.4 off the coast of Vietnam the following day. She
patrolled Vietnamese waters until the Ides of March, when she headed north to
patrol the Taiwan Strait. During her stay in the area around Taiwan, she
visited Kaohsiung. Her relief arrived on 12 April, and Taylor steamed off to
Hong Kong for a five-day port call. On the 21st, she returned to Yankee
Station to resume operations in support of American and South Vietnamese
forces ashore. Among other tasks, she brought her main battery to bear on the
enemy and rendered naval gunfire support between 28 April and 1 May. She
conducted upkeep at Sasebo in May and ASW drills from 26 May to 10 June
before resuming patrols in the Taiwan Strait on the 11th. She cleared the
area again on 5 July, rejoined TG 70.4 on 7 July, and put into Yokosuka the
following day. After a week of preparations, the warship departed Yokosuka to
return to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 22 July.
On 2 August 1966, Taylor began a tender availability period alongside Prairie
(AD-15) which lasted through the end of the month. Following a short cruise
for gunnery practice, Taylor commenced a restricted availability which lasted
until late in November. During the first two weeks in December, the destroyer
made a round-trip voyage to Pago Pago, American Samoa. She re turned to Pearl
Harbor on 16 December for holiday leave and upkeep. During the first three
months of 1967, the ship conducted local operations around Hawaii, made
repairs, and generally prepared to return to the Far East in late spring.
Following an Operational Readiness Inspection in mid-April 1967, she cleared
Pearl Harbor on the 18th to join the 7th Fleet in the Orient. On the 25th,
she changed operational control from the 1st to the 7th Fleet and, three days
later, steamed into Yokosuka. During the first half of June, the destroyer
participated in exercises with units of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense
Force and ships of the Republic of Korea Navy. After two days in port at
Sasebo, she got under way on 19 June for her first line period on Yankee Station.
Between 22 May and 25 June, she plied the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin
plane-guarding for Hornet (CVS-12) and providing gunfire support for Allied
forces operating ashore. On 27 June, Taylor put into Subic Bay. After a
tender availability at Subic Bay and a visit to Manila, she put to sea on 10
July to participate in SEATO exercise "Sea Dog." Between the 26th
and the 28th, she visited Bang Saen on the Gulf of Thailand. After three more
days on Yankee Station - from 28 July to 1 August - the destroyer made for
Taiwan. She reached Kaohsiung on the 3d and remained until the 15th, when she
headed back to the coast of Vietnam. From 19 August to 11 September, she
cruised along the Vietnamese coast providing naval gunfire support as needed
by the forces operating ashore. She cleared the coast of Indochina on the
12th, and, after a five-day stop at Hong Kong and another tour of duty in the
Gulf of Tonkin, she returned to Yokosuka on 11 October. Five days later, she
shaped a course back to Hawaii.
Taylor arrived in Pearl Harbor on 23 October 1967, and the destroyer
commenced her regular overhaul on 11 December. Repairs and modifications
occupied her time through the first three months of 1968. The warship
completed overhaul on 22 March and conducted sea trials during the first week
in April. Later, engineering problems forced the postponement of further
operations until the end of the month. At that time, she began preparations
for refresher training. The warship conducted refresher training in May and
June, then got underway for San Diego, Calif., on 27 June. She conducted
operations - primarily gunnery drills at San Clemente Island - from 3 to 11
July. On the latter date, she headed back to Hawaii. En route, Taylor
conducted bombardment exercises at Kahoolawe Island and then entered Pearl
Harbor on the 17th. Three weeks later, the destroyer cleared Pearl Harbor on
5 August and set course for the Gulf of Tonkin.
After fueling stops at Midway, Guam, and Subic Bay, she arrived on station
off Vietnam on 21 August 1968. Taylor did plane guard duty for Intrepid
(CVS-11) for a day; then steamed off with the carrier and destroyers Maddox
(DD-731) and Preston (DD-795) toward Sasebo. She returned to the Gulf of
Tonkin on 5 September and conducted air and surface surveillance as well as
antisubmarine warfare exercises in addition to plane-guarding for the
carriers. On the 19th, the destroyer moved in closer to the coast to provide
naval gunfire in support of troops ashore. That duty continued until 6
October when she cleared the combat zone to return to Subic Bay for repairs,
supplies, and ammunition. On 20 October, the warship took up where she left
off and began a week pounding various targets in Vietnam. That line period
was followed by visits to Cebu City and Subic Bay in the Philippines. During
late November and early December, she resumed duty on the gunline. On 4
December, she cleared the combat zone and set a course through the Luzon
Strait to Yokosuka, where she arrived on the 12th. She spent Christmas in
Yokosuka, but returned to Yankee Station by New Year’s Day 1969.
In mid-January, she departed Vietnamese waters for the last time. After stops
at Subic Bay; Manus Island; Melbourne, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; and
Pago Pago, Samoa, the warship arrived back in Pearl Harbor on 28 February. In
May, a board of inspection and survey looked her over and determined that she
was unfit for further naval service. Early in June, Taylor was moved to San
Diego, Calif., and was decommissioned. Her name was struck from the Navy list
on 2 July 1969, and she was transferred to Italy at the same time.
Taylor earned a Navy Unit Commendation and 14
battle stars for her World War II service, two battle stars for the Korean
conflict, and five battle stars for her Vietnam service.
The former American destroyer served in the
Italian Navy as Landere (D.560) until January 1971. At that time, she was
decommissioned and struck from the Italian Navy list. She was subsequently
cannibalized to maintain her sister ships still serving in the Italian Navy.
source: US Naval History &
Heritage Command
no service history from ITS
Lanciere (D 560) at this time
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