USS Conyngham, a 1500-ton Mahan class destroyer, was built at the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, and commissioned in November 1936. She made a cruise in northern European waters the following spring and went to the Pacific later in the year to take up her regular duties with the U.S. Fleet. For the rest of the 1930s, and into the 1940s, she participated in regular training exercises and Fleet Problems. In the first part of 1941 she steamed across the Pacific to visit Australia.
Conyngham was moored in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, when Japan commenced the Pacific War with a devastating surprise attack. The destroyer engaged the enemy aircraft and got underway later in the day to commence nearly four years of wartime operations. Following patrols in the Hawaii area and an overhaul on the west coast, Conyngham escorted shipping between the U.S. and the south Pacific until October 1942. She was briefly diverted from this work in June, in order to serve with the Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway. She again operated in a carrier screen in late October during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and early in the next month fired her five-inch guns against Japanese targets ashore during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
Damaged in a collision during this bombardment, Conyngham needed repairs at Pearl Harbor before she returned to action in February 1943. Following another shelling of Japanese on Guadalcanal, she was assigned to escort and patrol work in south Pacific and Australian waters. Later in the year, she operated extensively off New Guinea, taking part in amphibious operations and bombardments in the Trobriand Islands in July, Finschhafen and Lae in August and September, New Britain late in 1943 and Saidor, New Guinea, early in the new year. Conyngham escorted battleships during the June-August 1944 assault on the Marianas, sometimes firing her own guns in fire support missions. More escort and patrol duties followed and in November she moved into the Leyte area, where she was slightly damaged in an enemy air attack on 16 November. The next month, Conyngham participated in the Ormoc Bay landings.
During the first half of 1945, Conyngham provided bombardment and escort support for amphibious operations to recover Luzon, Mindanao, Palawan and Borneo. She was still in the Philippines when the Pacific War ended and later went to Pearl Harbor, where she was prepared for her final mission, as a target in the July 1946 Bikini atomic bomb tests. Formally decommissioned after the conclusion of that operation, USS Conyngham was sunk as a target off the California coast in July 1948.
USS Conyngham was named in honor of Captain Gustavus Conyngham (1747-1819), an important figure in the American Revolution's war against British commerce.
This page features all our views of USS Conyngham (DD-371).
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 #: 80-G-171113 USS Conyngham (DD-371) Maneuvering at sea with USS Reid (DD-369) and USS Clark (DD-361), during the later 1930s. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 600 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 61512 USS Conyngham (DD-371) Transferring mail to another destroyer, during operations at sea in 1941. Conyngham appears to be painted in camouflage Measure 1. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-27127 USS Conyngham (DD-371) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 22 January 1942. Note that she still has her number three 5"/38 gun. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 605 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-38661 USS Conyngham (DD-371) At Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 15 February 1943. Destroyer in the right background appears to be USS Strong (DD-467). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-115885 USS Conyngham (DD-371) At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 24 March 1946. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 168KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Note: In addition to the views presented above:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 20 February 2002
Link added 30 December 2003