Figure 1: USS Southard (DD-207) underway on 20 April 1932. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Southard (DD-207), date and place unknown. Photograph courtesy of Robert M. Cieri. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Southard (DD-207) in Alaskan waters during the 1930s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Southard (DMS-10) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 9 June 1942. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Southard (DMS-10) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 9 June 1942. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Southard (DMS-10) photographed from dead ahead, off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 June 1942.The actual date of the photo may be 9 June 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Southard (DMS-10) photographed from directly astern, off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 10 June 1942. The actual date of the photo may be 9 June 1942. Note details of her conversion to a fast minesweeper: squared-off triangular transom, with her name visible; sweep gear and davits on the stern; depth charge tracks angled out over the propeller guards; .50 caliber anti-aircraft machine guns at the rear of her after deckhouse. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Southard (DMS-10) off San Francisco, California, 27 May 1943, after an overhaul. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Southard (DMS-10) off San Francisco, California, 27 May 1943, after an overhaul. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Southard (DD-207), circa the early 1930s. Photograph courtesy of Marc Piché. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard (1787-1842), USS Southard (DD-207) was a 1,215-ton Clemson class destroyer that was built by William Cramp & Sons at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned on 24 September 1919. The ship was approximately 314 feet long and 30 feet wide, had a top speed of 35 knots, and had a crew of 122 officers and men. Southard was armed with four 4-inch guns, one 3-inch gun, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes, and depth charges.
Shortly after being commissioned, Southard patrolled off the east coast of the United States and then was deployed to the Mediterranean. In late 1920, the ship steamed through the Suez Canal and moved on to the Far East, arriving at the Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines on 16 February 1921. Southard remained in the Philippines until August 1922, when she was ordered to return to the United States. She arrived at San Diego, California, in October and was decommissioned there on 7 February 1922.
Southard was re-commissioned on 6 January 1930. For the next ten years, the ship served mainly in the Pacific, but also made occasional visits to the Atlantic. By 1940, as war was raging in Europe, Southard was converted into a high-speed minesweeper and was re-designated DMS-10 in October of that same year. Although now based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Southard was at sea when Pearl Harbor was attacked on 7 December 1941. She returned to Pearl Harbor two days after the attack and was assigned to patrol various approaches to the naval base until 23 January 1942.
During the next seven months, Southard assisted in escorting convoys between Hawaii and the west coast of the United States. The destroyer then was sent to the South Pacific in July 1942 and one month later participated in the American amphibious assaults on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. For the rest of 1942, Southard was assigned to convoy escort duty between New Caledonia and the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands.
Early on the morning of 10 November 1942, while steaming off Guadalcanal on her way to another convoy assignment, Southard spotted a Japanese submarine steaming on the surface. Southard immediately slowed down to 10 knots and opened fire on the submarine. The submarine submerged and Southard began her first depth-charge attack of the war. After making a preliminary attack, the destroyer lost contact with the Japanese submarine for more than three hours. But Southard remained in the area and regained contact. For the next three hours, the destroyer made five more depth-charge runs over the submarine. Finally, after her last attack, the men on board Southard spotted oil floating to the surface, an indication that the submarine was hit. Southard steamed over the oil slick to investigate, but found no other wreckage from the submarine. Suddenly, like a wounded shark, the submarine surfaced almost vertically, exposing her whole conning tower, the hull forward of the tower, and part of her keel. The submarine’s bow gradually dropped about 10 degrees and then the ship sank rapidly by the stern. Although absolute confirmation of the kill was never obtained, all evidence pointed to Southard having sunk the Japanese warship.
Southard was sent back to the United States for an overhaul and arrived at San Francisco, California, on 19 April 1943. The overhaul was completed by 8 June, at which point Southard was sent back to the Solomon Islands, just in time to take part in the amphibious assault on the island of Bougainville. Southard was one of the ships that bombarded enemy targets on Bougainville and was also used for minesweeping duties in Empress Augusta Bay, Florida Island, and Purvis Bay. But the bulk of Southard’s time was spent on convoy escort duties. After several months of convoy escort duty, Southard was sent back to the United States for another major overhaul. The ship returned to San Francisco and arrived there on 31 May 1944.
Southard’s overhaul was completed in July of 1944. She was immediately sent back to the western Pacific and participated in minesweeping duties during the invasions of the Palau Islands in September 1944, Leyte Island in October and Luzon in January 1945, both of which were in the Philippines. But while on a minesweeping mission in Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines on 6 January 1945, a Japanese kamikaze aircraft crashed into Southard amidships. The plane’s engine buried itself inside the ship while the rest of the plane broke off and bounced off her starboard side, tearing a hole six feet wide in her deck. The crew began emergency repairs on the destroyer and, incredibly, after only 14 hours the ship was back in action sweeping for mines. On 14 January, the ship was sent back to Pearl Harbor for more extensive repairs. She reached Hawaii in February and repairs were completed in May 1945.
After repairs were completed, Southard was sent to Okinawa to participate in the assault on that island. She reached Okinawa towards the end of May and for the next three months she swept mines, screened transports, and delivered mail to the fire support ships around Okinawa. After the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, Southard remained in the vicinity of Okinawa. Sadly, In September and October 1945, soon after the end of the war in the Pacific, the ship was battered by typhoons and driven aground on two different reefs during two different storms. The ship was written off as a total loss and Southard was formally decommissioned on 5 December 1945. Her hulk was destroyed on 14 January 1946. USS Southard received 10 battle stars for her service during World War II.