page_title: USS Schley (DD-103)
section_title: 1944
hierarchical_section_title: USS Schley (DD-103) / Service history / World War II / 1944
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy high speed transport USS Schley (APD-14) underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California (USA), on 2 October 1943, following overhaul.
context_page_description: USS Schley (DD-103) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and later designated, APD-14 in World War II. She was the first ship named in honor of Winfield Scott Schley.
context_section_description: Schley left the west coast for Pearl Harbor on 7 October, but engine repairs at Pearl Harbor took most of the rest of the year. On 30 December 1943, she arrived at San Diego to join the task force training for the invasion of the Marshall Islands. The force sailed from the west coast on 13 January 1944 and arrived off Kwajalein on 31 January. Schley landed her troops that day and then performed antisubmarine patrol duty until she reembarked her troops on 7 February.
  She sailed for Eniwetok a week later. Her activities there showed the versatility of the small, fast transports. She arrived on 17 February and, that night, put her troops ashore on Bpgon Island to prevent enemy infiltration from Engebi, which American troops had invaded earlier in the day. The next morning, she began seizing the remaining islands west of the main island of Eniwetok. That day, her troops captured five islands and helped to secure Engebi and Bogon.
  On 24 February, after transferring her troops to other transports, she got underway for Kwajalein to escort two transports from that atoll to her new area of operations, New Guinea.
  Schley arrived off New Guinea on 12 March and conducted convoy operations for the next month. On 22 April, she participated in the landings at Aitape, putting troops ashore and providing gunfire support. The next day at Tumleo Island, her boats landed troops from a larger transport while Schley again provided gunfire support. After repairs to a damaged propeller, Schley landed a company of troops on Niroemoar Island to set up a radar unit on 19 May. The next day, she rescued the crew of a wrecked American gasoline barge off Wakde Island and then sank two Japanese barges and silenced an enemy shore battery. The busy ship landed troops on Biak on 27 May and at Cape Sansapor at the western end of New Guinea on 30 July. She then proceeded to Australia for repairs.
  Schley next participated in two important preliminaries for the reconquest of the Philippines. She landed troops on Morotai on 9 September, and, on 17 October, formed part of the APD group that occupied the small islands at the mouth of Leyte Gulf, clearing the way for the invasion of Leyte three days later.
  After a month of convoy operations, Schley joined the task group which carried out landings in Ormoc Bay on 7 December. The group came under intense kamikaze attack; although her sister ship, Ward, was sunk, Schley escaped damage. She then participated in the landings at Mindoro on 15 December 1944 and at Lingayen on 9 January 1945; and, during each operation, evaded an attacking kamikaze. At Mindoro, American planes shot down the kamikaze a scant thousand yards from Schley. At Lingayen, the kamikaze veered off at the last minute to attack another ship but missed. Schley remained on patrol off Lingayen until 18 January.
caption: USS Schley off Mare Island, October 1943
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