USS Ward ( DD - 139 ) - wikipedia USS Ward ( DD - 139 ) Ward in disruptive camouflage History United States Name : Ward Namesake : James H. Ward Builder : Mare Island Navy Yard Laid down : 15 May 1918 Launched : 1 June 1918 Commissioned : 24 July 1918 Decommissioned : 21 July 1921 Recommissioned : 15 January 1941 Reclassified : High - speed transport, APD - 16, 6 February 1943 Fate : Sunk by kamikaze 7 December 1944 General characteristics Class and type : Wickes - class destroyer Displacement : 1,247 long tons ( 1,267 t ) Length : 314 ft 4 in ( 95.8 m ) Beam : 30 ft 11 in ( 9.4 m ) Draft : 9 ft 10 in ( 3.0 m ) Propulsion : 2 × geared steam turbines 2 × shafts Speed : 35 knots ( 65 km / h ; 40 mph ) Complement : 231 officers and enlisted Armament : 4 × 4 in ( 102 mm ) / 50 cal guns 2 × 3 in ( 76 mm ) / 50 cal anti-aircraft guns 12 × 21 in ( 533 mm ) torpedo tubes ( 4x3 ) USS Ward ( DD - 139 ) was a 1,247 - long - ton ( 1,267 t ) Wickes - class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, later APD - 16 ( see High speed transport ) in World War II. She fired the first American shot in World War II, when she engaged a Japanese submarine before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and successfully sank her opponent. Contents 1 Design and construction 2 Service history 2.1 Pearl Harbor 2.2 After Pearl Harbor 3 Fate 4 Awards 5 Memorial 6 See also 7 References 7.1 Further reading 8 External links Design and construction Ward was named in honor of Commander James Harmon Ward, USN, ( 1806 -- 1861 ), the first U.S. Navy officer to be killed in action during the American Civil War. Ward was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California in a record of 171⁄2 days. Under the pressure of urgent World War I needs for destroyers, her construction was pushed rapidly from keel laying on 15 May 1918 to launching on 1 June and commissioning on 24 July 1918. Service History Ward transferred to the Atlantic late in the year and helped support the trans - Atlantic flight of the NC flying boats in May 1919. She came back to the Pacific a few months later, and remained there until she was decommissioned in July 1921. She had received the hull number DD - 139 in July 1920. The outbreak of World War II in Europe brought Ward back into active service. She was recommissioned in January 1941. Sent to Pearl Harbor shortly thereafter, the destroyer operated on local patrol duties in Hawaiian waters over the next year. Pearl Harbor On the morning of 7 December 1941, under the command of LCDR William W. Outerbridge, Ward was conducting a precautionary patrol off the entrance to Pearl Harbor when she was informed at 03 : 57 by visual signals from the coastal minesweeper Condor of a periscope sighting, whereupon Ward began searching for the contact. At about 06 : 37, she sighted a periscope apparently tailing the cargo ship Antares whereupon she attacked the target. The target sunk was a Japanese Ko - hyoteki - class, two - man midget submarine, thus Ward fired the first American shots of World War II a few hours before Japanese carrier aircraft formally opened the conflict with their attack on the Pacific Fleet inside the harbor. The submarine was attempting to enter the harbor by following Antares through the antisubmarine nets at the harbor entrance. By entering territorial waters while submerged, the submarine was not entitled to `` innocent passage '' protections. Ward fired several rounds from its main guns, hitting the conning tower of the submarine, and also dropped several depth charges during the attack. A Ko - hyoteki - class two - man submarine A minority of academics doubted whether Ward had really sunk a Japanese mini-sub until University of Hawaii scientists found the vessel on 28 August 2002. It lies 1,200 ft ( 366 m ) beneath the sea in American waters about 3 -- 4 mi ( 3 -- 3 nmi ; 5 -- 6 km ) outside Pearl Harbor. The starboard side of the submarine 's conning tower exhibits one shell hole, evidence of damage from Ward 's number - three gun. While her depth charges were sufficient to fully lift the 46 - long - ton ( 47 t ), 78 ft ( 24 m ) submarine out of the water, they did no apparent structural damage to the submarine, which sank due to water flooding into the vessel from the two shell holes. After Pearl Harbor In 1942, Ward was sent to the West Coast for conversion to a high - speed transport. Redesignated APD - 16 in February 1943, she steamed to the South Pacific to operate in the Solomon Islands area. She helped fight off a heavy Japanese air attack off Tulagi on 7 April 1943, and spent most of the rest of that year on escort and transport service. In December, she participated in the Cape Gloucester invasion. During the first nine months of 1944, Ward continued her escort and patrol work and also took part in several Southwest Pacific amphibious landings, among them the assaults on Saidor, Nissan Island, Emirau, Aitape, Biak, Cape Sansapor, and Morotai. Ward, after being hit by a kamikaze Fate As the Pacific War moved closer to Japan, Ward was assigned to assist with operations to recover the Philippine Islands. On 17 October 1944, she put troops ashore on Dinagat Island during the opening phase of the Leyte invasion. After spending the rest of October and November escorting ships to and from Leyte, in early December, Ward transported Army personnel during the landings at Ormoc Bay, Leyte. On the morning of 7 December, three years to the day after she fired the opening shot of the US involvement in the war, while patrolling off the invasion area, she came under attack by several Japanese kamikazes. One bomber hit her hull amidships, bringing her to a dead stop. When the resulting fires could not be controlled, Ward 's crew was ordered to abandon ship, and she was sunk by gunfire from O'Brien, whose commanding officer, William W. Outerbridge, had been in command of Ward during her action off Pearl Harbor three years before. In early December 2017, Ward 's wreckage was located by RV Petrel. In the movie Tora ! Tora ! Tora !, Ward was portrayed by USS Finch. Awards World War I Victory Medal American Defense Service Medal with `` FLEET '' clasp Asiatic - Pacific Campaign Medal with nine battle stars World War II Victory Medal Philippine Liberation Medal with two stars Memorial Ward 's 4 - inch gun at the Minnesota State Capitol Ward 's number - three 4 `` / 50 caliber gun was removed when she was converted to a high speed transport. It was installed in 1958, the year of the Minnesota Centennial, as a memorial at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, as the men who fired it on 7 December 1941 were members of the Minnesota Naval Reserve. A plaque containing a listing of the naval reservists from Saint Paul who served aboard Ward is now displayed in the St. Paul City Hall on the third floor between the council and mayoral offices, in an area also containing the ship 's bell from the cruiser Saint Paul. The last surviving member of the gun crew from the morning of 7 December, Alan Sanford, died in January 2015. As of 2012, no other ship in the United States Navy has borne this name, although sometimes confusion occurs with the three destroyers named Aaron Ward. See also List of United States Navy destroyers References Jump up ^ Brown, p. 133 Jump up ^ Klobuchar, Richard P. ( 2012 ). The USS Ward. US : McFarland. p. 21. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7864 - 6429 - 6. Jump up ^ Mare Island History. Vallejo Convention & Visitors Bureau website. Accessed 22 August 2007. DANFS states 15 days from keel laying to launch. ^ Jump up to : Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet ( 15 February 1942 ). `` Pearl Harbor Attack : 7 December 1941, Online Action Reports : Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet, Serial 0479 of 15 February 1942 ''. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 11 November 2013. Jump up ^ Lum, Curtis ( August 29, 2002 ). `` 1941 Japanese mini sub found off Pearl Harbor ''. Honolulu Advertiser. Jump up ^ Wiltshire, John C. ( December 20, 2003 ). `` Japanese midget submarine : sunk Dec 7, 1941 - found, Aug 2002 : Analysis of Hole in Conning Tower of Midget Sub ''. Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Jump up ^ Christine Hauser ( 2017 - 12 - 08 ). `` The First Photos of a Pearl Harbor Warship 's Watery Grave ''. New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017 - 12 - 08. Retrieved 2017 - 12 - 13. It was midmorning on Dec. 1. The team, which included pilots, researchers, historians and officials from the Philippines, watched as images were beamed back to the vessel from a remotely operated submersible vehicle circling a shipwreck at the bottom of Ormoc Bay, about 650 feet below the surface. Jump up ^ `` Wreckage of USS Ward Found in the Philippines ''. Marine Link. December 7, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017. Jump up ^ `` USS FINCH ( DER 328 ) '' ( PDF ). USS FINCH Website. USS FINCH Website. Retrieved 2015 - 12 - 21. Jump up ^ Phillips, Michael M. ( 21 May 2015 ). `` First to Fire : U.S. Gunner at Pearl Harbor Is Laid to Rest ''. Wall Street Journal. ( Subscription required ( help ) ). Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armour, London, Great Britain, 1990. ISBN 0 - 85368 - 802 - 8. Further reading This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Ward ( DD - 139 ). History of the USS Ward in World War II navsource.org : USS Ward UH finds sub that led Pearl Harbor attack Wickes - class destroyers Wickes Philip Woolsey Evans Little Kimberly Sigourney Gregory Stringham Dyer Colhoun Stevens McKee Robinson Ringgold McKean Harding Gridley Fairfax Taylor Bell Stribling Murray Israel Schley / Luce Maury Lansdale Mahan Schley Champlin Mugford Chew Hazelwood Williams Crane Hart Ingraham Ludlow Rathburne Talbot Waters Dent Dorsey Lea Lamberton Radford Montgomery Breese Gamble Ramsay Tattnall Badger Twiggs Babbitt DeLong Jacob Jones Buchanan Aaron Ward Hale Crowninshield Tillman Boggs Kilty Kennison Cowell / Ward Claxton Hamilton Tarbell Yarnall Upshur Greer Elliot Roper Breckinridge Barney Blakeley Biddle Du Pont Bernadou Ellis Cole J. Fred Talbott Dickerson Leary Schenck Herbert Palmer Thatcher Walker / YW - 57 ( Unnamed ) Crosby Meredith Bush Cowell Maddox Foote Rodgers / Kalk Burns Anthony Sproston Rizal MacKenzie Renshaw O'Bannon Hogan Howard Stansbury Hopewell Thomas Haraden Abbot Bagley / Doran World War II operators Royal Navy part of Town class Bath ( ex-Hopewell ) Brighton ( ex-Cowell ) Caldwell ( ex-Hale ) Campbeltown ( ex-Buchanan ) Castleton ( ex-Aaron Ward ) Charlestown ( ex-Abbot ) Chelsea ( ex-Crowninshield ) Georgetown ( ex-Maddox ) Hamilton ( ex-Kalk ) Lancaster ( ex-Philip ) Leamington ( ex-Twiggs ) Lincoln ( ex-Yarnall ) Mansfield ( ex-Evans ) Montgomery ( ex-Wickes ) Newark ( ex-Ringgold ) Newmarket ( ex-Robinson ) Newport ( ex-Sigourney ) Richmond ( ex-Fairfax ) Roxborough ( ex-Foote ) Salisbury ( ex-Claxton ) St Albans ( ex-Thomas ) St. Mary 's ( ex-Bagley ) Wells ( ex-Tillman ) Royal Canadian Navy part of Town class Annapolis ( ex-MacKenzie ) Caldwell Chelsea Columbia ( ex-Haraden ) Georgetown Hamilton Leamington Lincoln Mansfield Montgomery Niagara ( ex-Thatcher ) Richmond Salisbury St. Clair ( ex-Williams ) Royal Netherlands Navy Campbeltown Royal Norwegian Navy Bath Lincoln Mansfield Newport St Albans Soviet Navy Doblestnyi ( ex-Roxborough ) Dostoinyi ( ex-St Albans ) Druzhny ( ex-Lincoln ) Derzkiy ( ex-Chelsea ) Zharki ( ex-Brighton ) Zhguchi ( ex-Leamington ) Zhivuchi ( ex-Richmond ) Zhostki ( ex-Georgetown ) Preceded by : Caldwell class Followed by : Clemson class List of destroyers of the United States Navy `` Flush - decker '' destroyer high speed transport conversions Caldwell - class conversion Manley Wickes - class conversions Colhoun Gregory Little McKean Stringham Talbot Waters Dent Schley Kilty Ward Crosby Tattnall Roper Dickerson Herbert Rathburne Clemson - class conversions Brooks Gilmer Humphreys Sands Kane Overton Noa McFarland Williamson Hulbert Barry Decatur Clemson Goldsborough George E. Badger Belknap Osmond Ingram Greene X Planned conversion to high speed transport cancelled Preceded by : None Followed by : Charles Lawrence class List of United States Navy amphibious warfare ships Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in December 1944 Shipwrecks 1 Dec : HMS Empire Dace 2 Dec : Hawaii Maru 3 Dec : USS Cooper, Revoljucija 4 Dec : Kishinami 5 Dec : Hozu, USS LSM - 149 6 Dec : Antoine Saugrain, HMS Bullen, U-297 7 Dec : USS Mahan, USS Ward 9 Dec : U-387 10 Dec : William S. Ladd 11 Dec : USS Reid 12 Dec : Uzuki, U-416, Yūzuki, Z35, Z36 13 Dec : U-365 14 Dec : HMS Aldenham 15 Dec : USS LST - 472, USS LST - 738 17 Dec : U-772 18 Dec : USS Hull, USS Monaghan, Schleswig - Holstein, USS Spence, Theresia LM Russ, U-1209, Zähringen 19 Dec : U-737, Unryū 21 Dec : USS LST - 460, USS LST - 749 22 Dec : USS LST - 563 24 Dec : Alan A. Dale, HMCS Clayoquot, Léopoldville 26 Dec : HMS Capel, Kiyoshimo, U-2342 27 Dec : U-877 28 Dec : Empire Javelin, John Burke, U-735 29 Dec : U-322 30 Dec : USS Porcupine 31 Dec : U-2530 Unknown date : Ha - 83, U-196, U-400 Other incidents 5 Dec : Antoine Saugrain, Hira 9 Dec : Jun'yō 13 Dec : Myōkō, USS Nashville 25 Dec : HMS Dakins 26 Dec : HMS Affleck 30 Dec : Juan de Fuca, USS Orestes Unknown date : HMS Charlestown, U-262 1943 1944 1945 November 1944 January 1945 Coordinates : 10 ° 51 ′ N 124 ° 33 ′ E ﻿ / ﻿ 10.850 ° N 124.550 ° E ﻿ / 10.850 ; 124.550 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Ward_(DD-139)&oldid=835422541 '' Categories : 1918 ships Ships built in Vallejo, California Shipwrecks in the Philippine Sea Wickes - class destroyers World War II destroyers of the United States World War II amphibious warfare vessels of the United States Ships present during the attack on Pearl Harbor Attack on Pearl Harbor Ships sunk by kamikaze attack Maritime incidents in December 1944 Shipwreck discoveries by Paul Allen Hidden categories : Pages containing links to subscription - only content Use mdy dates from March 2016 Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Coordinates on Wikidata Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch فارسی Français 日本 語 Português Tiếng Việt 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 8 April 2018, at 16 : 46. 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Question: what did the crew of the uss ward see near the entrance to pearl harbor
Answer: a Japanese Ko-hyoteki-class, two-man midget submarine