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Photo # 19-N-65301:  USS Mugford off the Mare Island Navy Yard, April 1944

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Mugford (DD-389), 1937-1948

USS Mugford, a 1500-ton Bagley class destroyer, was built at the Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts. Commissioned in August 1937, she made a shakedown cruise in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas, then was sent to the Pacific where she operated for the rest of her career. The destroyer took part in the regular activities of the U.S. Fleet during the later 1930s and into the early 1940s.

Mugford was moored at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard when the Japanese attacked there on 7 December 1941. She engaged enemy aircraft and put to sea later in the day. During the first months of the Pacific War, she participated in the abortive Wake Island relief expedition and escorted convoys between the U.S. and the south Pacific. In early August 1942, Mugford was part of the invasion force during the Guadalcanal landings. When the Japanese counterattacked with dive bombers on the operation's first day, she was hit by a bomb, with the loss of nearly twenty of her men, but was able to remain in action.

Following repairs, Mugford operated off Australia and New Guinea. In addition to patrol and escort duties, in 1943 she took part in several amphibious invasions, among them Woodlark Island, Lae, Finschafen, Arawe and Cape Gloucester. On 25 December 1943, during the latter operation, she suffered damage and casualties from an enemy air raid. In 1944, Mugford continued her New Guinea area activities until February, when she steamed to the U.S. for overhaul. She then participated in the Saipan invasion and the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June 1944 and remained in the Marianas and Marshalls area into August. For much of the rest of 1944, Mugford screened aircraft carrier striking forces during raids in the western Pacific and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. On 5 December she was operating near Leyte when a Japanese suicide attack plane hit her amidships, causing serious damage and killing eight crewmen.

Mugford returned to the war zone in March 1945 and spent the rest of World War II patrolling the area between Saipan and Ulithi. She performed occupation duties around Japan in September and October, then steamed eastward across the Pacific to the U.S. in November 1945. During the first half of 1946, she prepared for service as a target during the July atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll. These left her contaminated by radioactivity, and Mugford stayed in the Marshall Islands thereafter. She was scuttled off Kwajalein on 22 March 1948.

This page features selected views of USS Mugford (DD-389).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: 19-N-17426

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Off Boston, Massachusetts, 25 October 1937.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 81578

USS Mugford (DD-389)


At Havana, Cuba, circa late 1937.
Note that her main battery gun director is not fitted.

Courtesy F.J. Vaughn, 1974.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 345 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 63128

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Underway at sea, 30 June 1939.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 77KB; 590 x 765 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-65301

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 April 1944.
She is painted in camouflage Measure 32, Design 1d.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-80114

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 February 1945.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-80117

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 February 1945.
Her torpedo tubes are trained out on both sides of the ship.
Note depth charge tracks on her stern, with her name faintly visible below them.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 615 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-116828

USS Mugford (DD-389)


At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 14 May 1946, while being prepared for use as a target for the Operation "Crossroads" atomic bomb tests.
Note her name and frame numbers painted on her hull sides, just below the deckline.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 19-N-116832

USS Mugford (DD-389)


At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 14 May 1946, while being prepared for use as a target for the Operation "Crossroads" atomic bomb tests.
Note her battery of sixteen 21-inch torpedo tubes, in quadruple mountings amidships.

Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 172KB; 740 x 480 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: NH 55807

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Ship's officers and crew pose on her forecastle, circa 1939-40.
Seated in the front row, center, is Lieutenant Commander Arleigh A. Burke, her Commanding Officer.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 580 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-32149

Ships of Destroyer Squadron Four


Firing offset gunnery practice inside the Great Barrier Reef about ten miles north of the Palm Islands, off the Australian coast, 9 October 1942.
The two ships are USS Mugford (DD-389), at left, and USS Patterson (DD-392).
Photographed from USS Helm (DD-388).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 600 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-273074

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24)
, center, and
USS Franklin (CV-13), right

Afire after they were hit by Kamikaze attacks off the Philippines on 30 October 1944.
Photographed from USS Mugford (DD-389), whose port midships 20mm guns are in the foreground.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 92KB; 600 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 
Photo #: 80-G-627568

USS Mugford (DD-389)


Scene in the ship's Radio Central compartment, during Operation "Crossroads", 5 June 1946.
Among the radio equipments present are CFT-46154 (left center) and CRV-46148 (right) radio receivers, identified by their Bureau of Ships data plates.
Note photographic data board on the desk, in lower left.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

 

In addition to the views presented above:

  • Photo # NH 83109, a chart of ship locations during the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, locates USS Mugford in the lower center part of the image, moored at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 29 January 2002