page_title: USS Taussig
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: USS Taussig / World War II
caption_attribution_description: Photo #: NH 98993 - USS Taussig (DD-746) - Underway during the later 1940s or early 1950s.
context_page_description: USS Taussig was an American Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer. It was named for Edward D. Taussig, a rear admiral of the United States Navy whose career spanned over 50 years. Adm. Taussig is remembered for claiming Wake Island for the United States on January 17, 1899 while commanding the gunboat Bennington and for accepting the physical relinquishment of Guam from Spain, ending 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. The ship was laid down on 30 August 1943 at Staten Island, New York, by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; launched on 25 January 1944; sponsored by Miss Ellen M. Taussig, Adm. Taussig's granddaughter; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 20 May 1944, Commander Joseph A. Robbins in command.
context_section_description: Upon joining the 3rd Fleet, Taussig went to work with Task Force 38 (TF 38). For the remainder of October, the destroyer searched the area just off the Philippines for pilots downed in sweeps of the archipelago during the Leyte invasion. Early in November, she joined the screen of TF 38 itself while its planes continued to support the Leyte operation with covering strikes up and down the Philippine chain. Along with more of the same duty, December brought an added danger — frightful weather. One fatal typhoon late in 1944 swallowed three American destroyers. The December sweeps, made in preparation for the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf, continued into the first week of January 1945. On 8 January, the fast carriers began their aerial assault on the shores surrounding the South China Sea. Taussig screened the flattops while their planes attacked Japanese bases along the Chinese and Indochinese coasts and on the islands of Formosa and Okinawa as well as providing support for the Allied conquest of Luzon. During the night of 20 January, the destroyer helped shepherd TF 38 through the Balintang Channel, in the northern Philippines between Batan and Babuyan Islands, and into the Philippine Sea.
  On 23 January, TF 38 returned to Ulithi for a brief rest and replenishment. At midnight three days later, it became TF 58 once again when Admiral Raymond Spruance relieved Admiral William F. Halsey as commander of the Central Pacific Force. The fast carrier task force sortied from the lagoon on 10 February, and Taussig screened Task Group 58.1 (TG 58.1) as it headed north to participate in the first carrier-based aerial attack on the Japanese home islands since the Doolittle raid of April 1942. On the morning of the 16th, TF 58 arrived at a point some 125 miles (230 km) southeast of Tokyo. While Taussig and her sister destroyers screened them from enemy submarines, the carriers hurled their planes against Tokyo and other targets on Honshū. After another strike on the morning of the 17th, TF 58 steamed south to support the Iwo Jima invasion. While two of TF 58's task groups moved in to support the Iwo Jima assault on 19 February, Taussig stood off to the south to screen a refueling rendezvous between TG 30.8 and the three remaining carrier task groups. That same day, the destroyer subjected a submarine contact to an intensive depth-charge attack. Though she apparently failed to sink the boat, Taussig succeeded in her primary mission, protecting the carriers.
  Task Force 58 cleared the Volcano Islands on 22 February to resume the air offensive against the heart of the Japanese Empire. Bad weather precluded the carrying out of operations against Tokyo and Nagoya which had been planned for the 25th and 26th, respectively, and Taussig steamed southwest to strike Okinawa on 1 March. The following day, Taussig joined Vincennes, Miami, San Diego and Destroyer Squadron 61 in a bombardment of Okino Daito Shima. Two days later, the task force returned to Ulithi.
  On 14 March, Taussig exited Ulithi lagoon to accompany the fast carriers on another raid against Japan. This time the target was Kyūshū, the southernmost of the major islands which constitute Japan proper. With the invasion of Okinawa just over a fortnight away, the carriers sought to pulverize airfields from which kamikaze attacks could be launched against the invasion force. During the raids of 18 and 19 March, American planes also attacked Japanese warships at Kure and succeeded in damaging the carriers Ryūhō and Amagi as well as the battleship Yamato. Taussig helped splash two planes on the 18th and the next day screened TF 58 as it retired from the vicinity of Kyūshū after a devastating kamikaze attack. She defended her big sisters during the sporadic air attacks of the 20th and, after the task force reorganization of the 22d, she moved off to screen TG 58.1 during the week-long aerial assault inflicted upon Okinawa at the end of March.
  On 1 April, the troops stormed ashore at Okinawa to begin the concluding operation of World War II. TF 58 provided air support through the first t
caption: Taussig underway during the late 1940s or early 1950s.
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