page_title: USS O'Flaherty
section_title: Hunter-killer operations and Lingayen Gulf
hierarchical_section_title: USS O'Flaherty / Construction and service / Hunter-killer operations and Lingayen Gulf
caption_attribution_description: English: A detailed map of the route of the Luzon Attack Force for the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945. Map shows date, time and location of all ships, American and Japanese, damaged or sunk during the approach and landing. Original source: COM7THFLT, Action Report, Luzon Attack Force
context_page_description: USS O'Flaherty was a John C. Butler-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was named for Ensign Frank Woodrow O'Flaherty, a pilot who posthumously received the Navy Cross for his actions at the Battle of Midway.
  Laid down in October 1943, launched in December of that year, and commissioned almost four months later, O'Flaherty served on convoy escort duty in the Pacific from August 1944. She operated out of Pearl Harbor in the eastern Pacific during November and December, initially with a hunter-killer group. During the first half of 1945, O'Flaherty protected escort carriers in the invasion of Lingayen Gulf, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa, which occurred in rapid succession. In the final months of the war in the Pacific, she returned to convoy escort duty. Decommissioned postwar, O'Flaherty spent more than twenty years in the Pacific Reserve Fleet before being sold for scrap in the early 1970s.
context_section_description: Arriving on 26 October, O'Flaherty received new combat information center equipment and became part of a hunter-killer group built around the escort carrier Corregidor to investigate reports of Japanese submarine activity in the Pacific between Hawaii and the west coast. She became flagship of Escort Division (CortDiv) 64 at the end of the month, and spent much of November patrolling with the hunter-killer group, although no submarines were spotted. The ship picked up the crew of a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber from Corregidor that crashed in a night landing attempt on 16 November, although one crewman died of his injuries aboard O'Flaherty. The hunter-killer group was dissolved upon return to Pearl Harbor on 19 November and she spent the rest of the month and the beginning of December at anchor for routine maintenance.
  O'Flaherty screened the escort carrier Makassar Strait while the latter conducted flight training operations off Pearl Harbor between 6 and 10 December. She picked up one pilot who crashed after takeoff from the carrier, and after her return to Pearl Harbor the commander of CortDiv 64 moved to another destroyer escort. After anti-submarine exercises with the submarine S-46 on 12–13 December the ship departed for Manus on 15 December as part of the screen for the escort carrier Wake Island. Arriving there on 26 December, O'Flaherty joined Task Unit 77.4.3, commanded by Rear Admiral Ralph Ofstie, which provided air cover to Task Force 79 (the Lingayen Attack Force) of the Seventh Fleet for the invasion of Lingayen Gulf. She departed on 31 December as part of the screen for the task unit, centered around the escort carriers Kitkun Bay and Shamrock Bay. The ship made an unsuccessful search for downed aviators from Kitkun Bay on 5 January 1945.
  As they approached Lingayen, Task Force 79 and O'Flaherty's task unit became the target of kamikaze raids. On the morning of 8 January, the ship fired a single 5-inch AA round against a Japanese aircraft approaching the nearby Task Group 79.1, her first shot in a combat operation. She ceased fire to avoid hitting pursuing American fighters, which drove off the attacker. Just after sunset, O'Flaherty put up AA fire against a lone kamikaze that crashed into Kitkun Bay, taking the escort carrier out of the fight. The ship fired further rounds against high-flying Japanese aircraft as she moved to screen the escorts assisting Kitkun Bay, and rescued a Kitkun Bay sailor from the water. She continued to screen the escort carrier and sent boats to return Kitkun Bay personnel taken off by other escorts to the carrier after she regained power on the next day.
  O'Flaherty was sent to escort the escort carriers of Task Unit 77.4.2 (commanded by Rear Admiral Felix Stump) as they provided air support for the Lingayen landings on 11 January while Kitkun Bay headed to the continental United States for repairs. On 17 January she headed back to Ulithi as part of the screen for several escort carriers after the beachhead was secured, conducting an unsuccessful search for a man overboard off the escort carrier Lunga Point on the next day before arriving at her destination on 23 January. O'Flaherty resupplied at Ulithi, and while there Farnham was replaced by Lieutenant Commander Paul L. Callan on 30 January.  In preparation for the invasion of Iwo Jima, she participated in rehearsals for the landings on islands east of Ulithi on 3 and 6 February, as part of the anti-submarine screen.
caption: The approach to Lingayen Gulf, January 1945
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