USN:
The forward 12"/50 gun turrets of heavy cruiser USS Alaska (CB-1) June 1944
Admirable-class minesweeper USS Execute (AM-232) off Seattle, 10 November 1944
USS Lamberton (DMS-2) off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, May 4, 1945
Lamberton was a
Wickes-class destroyer, built by Newport News Shipbuilding, and launched in March, 1918, and first commissioned on August 22, 1918 with a hull number of DD-119. Seeing little service during World War 1, the destroyer was transferred to the Pacific in July, 1919, only to be decommissioned as part of the post-World War 1 drawdowns on June 30, 1922.
Lamberton was recommissioned on November 15, 1930 as a replacement for a destroyer that had to be retired due to defective machinery. In April, 1932, the destroyer would be reassigned as a dedicated target towing vessel, and be redesignated as an auxiliary with the hull number AG-21. Between then and 1940,
Lamberton would be used to tow targets in gunnery exercises as well as carrying out experiments in high-speed minesweeping. In 1940,
Lamberton would be converted into a destroyer-minesweeper and be given a new hull number of DMS-2. As an aside, future actor Ernest Borgnine served aboard
Lamberton during his first enlistment in the US Navy (1935-41.)
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor found
Lamberton screening the cruiser
Minneapolis (CA-36), which was at sea several miles off Oahu to conduct gunnery practice. For the next seven months, the destroyer engaged in local defensive patrols around Hawaii, before being sent to the Aleutians in July, 1942. There,
Lamberton was engaged in patrol and escort duty, as well as supporting the landings on Attu. In July, 1943, the destroyer was recalled to the West Coast, where she spent the remainder of the war engaged in target-towing duty, being downrated to an auxiliary in June, 1945, reverting to her previous hull number of AG-21. After the Japanese surrender, she made it out to Okinawa, only to become one of the over 200 ships driven ashore by Typhoon Louise on October 9, 1945, but was refloated and returned to the United States, where she was decommissioned on December 13, 1946, and sold for scrap in May, 1947.