Imperial Japanese Navy
What operated USS Stewart (DD-224) from 1943 to 1945?
USS Stewart ( DD-224 ) USS Stewart ( DD-224 ) was a destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II . She was the second ship named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart . Scuttled in a port , she was later raised by the Japanese and commissioned as Patrol Boat No . 102 . She came back under American control in 1945 after the occupation of Japan . Construction . Stewart was laid down on 9 September 1919 by William Cramp & Sons , Philadelphia ; launched on 4 March 1920 ; sponsored by Mrs . Margaretta Stewart Stevens , granddaughter of Rear Admiral Stewart ; and commissioned on 15 September 1920 , Lieutenant S . G . Lamb in command . Service history . United States Navy . Between the wars . After a year of coastal operations with a reserve division , Stewart joined Destroyer Squadron , Atlantic , on 12 October 1921 . She participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean from 12 January to 22 April 1922 ; and , after repairs , departed Newport , Rhode Island , on 20 June and proceeded , via the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean , to the Philippines for service in the Asiatic Fleet . She was destined not to return to the US for 23 years . Arriving at Chefoo , China , on 26 August , Stewart entered the routine of the Asiatic Fleet , conducting training exercises from bases at Chefoo and Tsingtao in the summer and Manila in the winter and making calls at Chinese ports during the transit in each direction . Her routine was broken briefly between 6 and 21 September 1923 by a voyage to Yokosuka , Japan , to relieve victims of the Great Kantō earthquake which had heavily damaged that city and Tokyo on 30 and 31 August . From 25 May to 16 June , Stewart supported the flight of four Army aircraft around the world , operating first in Japan and then at Shanghai . Between 1924 and 1928 , there were outbreaks of anti-foreign disturbances at Shanghai and Canton . Stewart transported marines to Shanghai in January 1925 , and during the next years , spent periods augmenting the normal gunboat patrols on the Yangtze River and on the coast near Canton . She was at Shanghai on 24 March 1927 when Chinese Communist troops attacked foreigners at Nanking , and for the next three and a half months , the destroyer was stationed at Wuhu , Nanking , Shanghai , and Chenglin to protect American nationals and shipping along the Yangtze . She was also on the China coast when the Japanese launched an air and sea attack on Shanghai in late January 1932 , and protected Americans at Swatow and Amoy from 1 to 3 and 9 to 24 February and at Shanghai from 26 February to 23 May . After full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in 1937 Stewart was again often on station in Chinese ports , at Tsingtao and Shanghai from 15 August to 18 December 1937 , from 21 February to 21 March 1938 , and from 3 June to 4 September 1939 . On the latter date , after the outbreak of war in Europe , she was ordered south for patrol duties in the Philippines , which she continued until entering the Cavite Navy Yard for overhaul on 5 April 1940 . Upon leaving the yard on 1 June , Stewart acted as plane guard vessel for seaplanes flying between Guam and the Philippines and then made a final tour of Chinese Yellow Sea ports from 7 July to 23 September 1940 . During 1941 , she remained in the Philippines as the international situation worsened ; and , on 27 November , she was ordered , along with the other major surface combatants of the Asiatic Fleet , to the Dutch East Indies . World War II . Stewart was at Tarakan Roads , Borneo , with other American and Dutch ships , when news of hostilities with Japan arrived on 8 December . During the final weeks of 1941 , she escorted naval auxiliaries from the Philippines to Port Darwin , Australia . On 9 January 1942 Stewart was one of five destroyers in an escort composed of the cruisers and , with the other destroyers , , , and departing from Darwin to Surabaya escorting the transport Bloemfontein . That transport had been part of the Pensacola Convoy and had left Brisbane 30 December 1941 with Army reinforcements composed of the 26th Field Artillery Brigade and Headquarters Battery , the 1st Battalion , 131st Field Artillery and supplies from that convoy destined for Java . On 30 January , Stewart joined Marblehead and sortied with her from Bunda Roads on 4 February to intercept Japanese forces at the south entrance to the Macassar Strait . However , Marblehead was badly damaged by air attacks during the day , and Stewart escorted her back to the base at Tjilatjap , Java . Stewart joined Admiral Karel Doormans striking force under the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command on 14 February for an attack on Japanese forces advancing along the northern coast of Sumatra . During the approach , Stewart had to back her engines to avoid a Dutch destroyer ahead of her which had run aground on a reef in Stolze Strait , and , on the following day , 15 February , she survived numerous air attacks in the Bangka Strait . Although they damaged no Allied ships , the air attacks convinced Admiral Doorman that further advance without air cover would be foolhardy , and the Allied force retired . Stewart was detached on 16 February to fuel at Ratai Bay in Sumatra . Admiral Doormans forces were scattered when the Japanese landed on Bali on 19 February , and he threw his ships against the enemy in three groups on the night of 19 and 20 February in the Battle of Badung Strait . Stewart was lead ship in the second group and , in several brief but furious night engagements , came under extremely accurate fire from Japanese destroyers . Her boats were shot away , her torpedo racks and galley were hit , and a crippling shot hit the destroyer aft below her water line , opening her seams and flooding the steering engine room . However , the steering engine continued to operate under of water ; and the destroyer was able to maintain her station in column and return to Surabaya the next morning . Scuttling . Stewart , as the most severely damaged ship , was the first to enter the floating drydock at Surabaya on 22 February . However , she was inadequately supported in the dock , and as the dock rose , the ship fell off the keel blocks onto her side in of water , bending her propeller shafts and causing further hull damage . With the port under enemy air attack and in danger of falling to the enemy , the ship could not be repaired . Responsibility for the destruction of the ship was given to naval authorities ashore , and Stewarts last crew members left the embattled port on the afternoon of 22 February . Subsequently , demolition charges were set off within the ship , a Japanese bomb hit amidships further damaged her , and before the port was evacuated on 2 March , the drydock containing her was scuttled . Her name was struck from the Navy list on 25 March 1942 and was soon assigned to a new destroyer escort , . Imperial Japanese Navy . Later in the war , American pilots began reporting an American warship operating far within enemy waters . The ship had a Japanese trunked funnel but the lines of her four-piper hull were unmistakable . After almost a year under water , Stewart had been raised by the Japanese in February 1943 and commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy on 20 September 1943 as Patrol Boat No . 102 . She was armed with two 3 inch guns and operated with the Japanese Southwest Area Fleet on escort duty . On 23 August 1944 , under command of Lieutenant Tomoyoshi Yoshima , she operated in consort with the anti-submarine vessel CD-22 , which sank with all hands , using depth charges , although PB-102 was not directly involved in this action . In November 1944 , PB-102 arrived at Kure for repairs . There her antiaircraft battery was augmented , and she was given a light tripod foremast . She then sailed for the Southwest Pacific , but the American reconquest of the Philippines blocked her way . On 28 April 1945 , still under control of the Southwest Area Fleet , she was bombed and damaged by United States Army aircraft at Mokpo , Korea . She was transferred on 30 April to the control of the Kure Navy District , and in August 1945 , was found by American occupation forces laid up in Hiro Bay near Kure . Return to United States Navy and final destruction . In an emotional ceremony on 29 October 1945 , the ship was recommissioned in the United States Navy at Kure . Although officially called simply DD-224 , she was nicknamed by her crew RAMP-224 , standing for Recovered Allied Military Personnel . On the trip home , her engines gave out near Guam , and she arrived at San Francisco , California in early March 1946 at the end of a towline . DD-224 was again struck from the Navy list on 17 April 1946 , decommissioned on 23 May 1946 , and sunk a day later off San Francisco as a target for aircraft . Five Navy F6F Hellcat fighters hit her with 18 rockets and thousands of rounds of 50 calibre ammunition but she refused to go down despite the damage . She was finally sunk by USS PC-799 which finished her off with twelve 40-mm and 17 three-inch shells fired from a range of 300 yards . Awards . - China Service Medal - American Defense Service Medal with FLEET clasp - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two battle stars - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Medal with ASIA clasp - Philippine Defense Medal References . Im black . - ( JCAHR ) , National Archives of Japan - Reference code : C08030630400 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 1 ) - Reference code : C08030630500 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 2 ) - Reference code : C08030630600 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 3 ) - Reference code : C08030630700 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 4 ) - Reference code : C08030630800 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 5 ) - Reference code : C08030630900 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from September 21 , 1943 to May 31 , 1944 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 6 ) - Reference code : C08030631200 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from June 1 , 1944 to June 30 , 1945 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 1 ) - Reference code : C08030631300 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from June 1 , 1944 to June 30 , 1945 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 2 ) - Reference code : C08030631400 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from June 1 , 1944 to June 30 , 1945 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 3 ) - Reference code : C08030631500 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from June 1 , 1944 to June 30 , 1945 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 4 ) - Reference code : C08030631600 , Detailed engagement report and wartime log book from June 1 , 1944 to June 30 , 1945 , Patrol Boat No . 102 ( 5 ) - Reference code : C08011350100 , Patrol Special Service Craft No.102 delivery list - , History of Pacific War Vol.45 Truth histories of the Imperial Japanese Naval Vessels , Gakken ( Japan ) , May 2004 , - Monthly Ships of the World , Special issue Vol.45 , Escort Vessels of the Imperial Japanese Navy , , ( Japan ) , February 1996 - The Maru Special , Japanese Naval Vessels No.49 Japanese Subchasers and Patrol boats , Ushio Shobō ( Japan ) , March 1981 , Book code 68343-51