Figure1: USS Blue (DD-387), left, and USS Helm (DD-388) ready for christening, in Dry Dock Number Two at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, 27 May 1937. Note that the dry dock is already partially flooded. Blue appears to have her guns and torpedo tubes installed, and both ships' Mark 33 main battery gun directors are in place atop their forward superstructures. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Helm (DD-388) photographed circa 1937-1939. Note the dark paint on her forward 5-inch gun mounts. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Helm (DD-388) photographed during the later 1930s. Note that her Mark 33 main battery gun director has been temporarily removed from atop her forward superstructure. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Helm (DD-388) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 26 February 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: Forward view of USS Helm (DD-388) taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 25 February 1942. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the US National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Helm (DD-388) at Noumea, New Caledonia, on 6 April 1942. Photographed from USS Tangier (AV-8). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Lingayen Operation, the Philippines, January 1945. A Japanese plane makes a suicide attack on a Bagley class destroyer west of the Philippines on 5 January 1945. The ship is probably USS Helm (DD-388), which was slightly damaged by a kamikaze on that date. Note anti-aircraft shell bursts in the vicinity. Photographed by USS Steamer Bay (CVE-87). Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Helm (DD-388) comes alongside USS Makin Island (CVE-93) during the Iwo Jima operation, 24 February 1945. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after
Rear Admiral James Meredith Helm, the 2,245-ton USS Helm (DD-388) was a Bagley
class destroyer that was built by the Norfolk Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia,
and was commissioned on 16 October 1937. The ship was approximately 341 feet
long and 35 feet wide, had a top speed of 38 knots, and had a crew of 158
officers and men. Helm was armed with
four 5-inch guns, four .50-caliber machine guns, 12 21-inch torpedo tubes, and
depth charges.
After being commissioned, Helm operated in the Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans until May 1939,
when she was assigned to the Pacific. Based on the west coast and at Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, Helm participated in
routine naval exercises and fleet training programs from 1939 to 1941.
Helm was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7
December 1941. She received minor damage from two bombs that exploded near the
ship, but remained operational. In March 1942, Helm was sent to the south Pacific, which was to be her area of
operations for nearly two years. The ship participated in the invasion of
Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and took part in the disastrous battle of
Savo Island in August 1942, in which the US Navy suffered terrible losses in a
single evening. After that, Helm
escorted shipping and supported Allied forces in the Solomon Islands,
Australia, and New Guinea. In November 1943, Helm participated in the landings at Cape Gloucester, New Britain.
From 4 March
to 5 May 1944, Helm completed a badly
needed overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard at Mare Island, California. The
destroyer then was sent to the
central Pacific, where she escorted aircraft carriers during the invasion of
the Marianas Islands, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and subsequent raids on
Japanese bases from June to September 1944. For the rest of the year, Helm continued escorting carriers as
they hit Japanese targets in the Palau Islands, Formosa, Okinawa, and the
Philippines. Helm also assisted in
the sinking of the Japanese submarine I-46.
Helm’s carrier screening duties lasted well into 1945,
including participation in operations to capture Luzon in the Philippines, as
well as the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. During this time, Helm fought off numerous kamikaze
attacks that were hurled against the oncoming US Navy. Gunfire from Helm shot down a large number of these
suicide planes, but several of them still managed to get through the ship’s
anti-aircraft fire and sink some American warships. On 4 January 1945, the
escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay, which
was in the task force Helm was
escorting, was sunk by kamikaze aircraft. On 21 February, the escort carrier Bismarck Sea was also sunk by suicide
planes and Helm assisted in the
rescue of her survivors.
