page_title: USS Abner Read (DD-526)
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: USS Abner Read (DD-526) / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: Plate XI from War Damage Report No.51 Detailing damage done to USS Abner Read (DD-526)
context_page_description: USS Abner Read (DD-526) was a Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Lieutenant Commander Abner Read, who fought in the American Civil War. The ship fought in World War II, seeing action in the Aleutian Islands Campaign. Afterwards she survived hitting a mine that blew off her stern in 1943. After repairs, she returned to service and operated in support of Allied forces in the New Guinea campaign and the Battle of Leyte. She was sunk off Leyte in 1944.
context_section_description: Abner Read held shakedown along the California coast into April 1943 and then got underway with Task Group (TG) 51.2, bound for the Aleutian Islands. She assumed patrol duties on 4 May 1943 and, on 11 May 1943, shelled targets on Japanese-occupied Attu Island, supporting soldiers of the United States Army's 7th Division who invaded that island. Abner Read again bombarded Attu on 16 May 1943 before returning to San Diego, California, which she reached on 31 May 1943.
  After two weeks in drydock at San Francisco, Abner Read got underway on 14 June 1943 for Adak, Territory of Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands. Upon her arrival there, she joined Task Force (TF) 16 and, soon thereafter, began patrolling the waters around Japanese-occupied Kiska Island in the Aleutians. On 22 July 1943, as part of Task Group 16.22, she took part in a heavy bombardment of Kiska. Between 12 and 15 August 1943, Abner Read again shelled Kiska in support of Operation Cottage, in which U.S. and Canadian forces landed on Kiska. On 17 August 1943, the American and Canadian forces discovered that Japan had removed its forces from the island prior to the Allied invasion.
  Abner Read had been conducting an antisubmarine patrol off Kiska for two days without any sign of the enemy, steaming in a figure-eight pattern, when,  
  while making 5 knots, she was shaken by an explosion aft at 0150 on 18 August. The nearest Japanese minefield was thought to be 2,000 yards (1,829 meters) away, and the exact cause of the blast was unknown, although her crew initially thought a torpedo had struck her; the U.S. Navy later concluded that the destroyer had struck a mine. The concussion tore a huge hole in her stern and set off the ship′s smoke screen generator, which began to pour toxic smoke over the stern. Men sleeping in aft compartments suffered from smoke inhalation. In the darkness, a few men fell through holes in the deck into fuel oil tanks below. After remaining attached to the ship by the starboard screw shaft for a few minutes, the stern broke away and sank, taking the ship′s aft 5"/38 caliber gun with it. About 90 men either went down with the stern or ended up in the water, which was covered with fuel oil. Once in the water, the men recovered from the effects of the smoke and could breathe. Abner Read′s crew threw flotation devices to the men in the water and launched a boat to rescue them, but the fuel oil created slippery conditions that made rescuing them difficult, and the cold water apparently killed many of the men in the water before they could be brought aboard Abner Read. About 20 men were pulled from the water, as was the body of a dead crewman. The destroyer lost 70 men killed, one missing, and 47 wounded.
  Disabled and adrift, Abner Read was in danger of drifting ashore on Kiska or onto more Japanese mines, but the destroyer USS Bancroft (DD-598) arrived on the scene and towed her out of immediate danger. At 0355, Abner Read was taken under tow by the tug USS Ute (AT-76), which pulled her to Adak for temporary repairs. After Abner Read underwent a month of repair work in various Alaskan ports, the tug USS Oriole (AT-136) towed her to the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Washington, where she was laid up on keel blocks on 7 October 1943 to receive extensive repair work. The yard work was finished on 21 December 1943, and Abner Read commenced training exercises and trials. She moved to Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, in February 1944, and while she was underway for Hollandia, New Guinea, her starboard propeller was damaged. This accident required her to put into Milne Bay, New Guinea, on 1 March 1944 for repairs. The ship was then attached to Task Force 75 and participated in the bombardment of Hollandia on 22 April 1944. She provided fire support for the initial landing at Humboldt Bay by the central attack group in Operation Reckless. Her next targets were on the Wakde Islands off the coast of Dutch New Guinea. She sought to neutralize Japanese airstrips located there by concentrated bombardment, which she conducted on 30 April 1944. Abner Read t
caption: The damage report of the attack that sunk USS Abner Read
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