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Photo # NH 99687:  USS Caldwell off San Francisco, California, 3 March 1945

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

USS Caldwell (DD-605), 1942-1966

USS Caldwell, a 1620-ton (standard displacement) Benson class destroyer built at San Francisco, California, was commissioned in June 1942. Beginning in September of that year the new ship served in the north Pacific, escorting convoys and combat forces during the Aleutians campaign. She also took part in the amphibious assault on Attu in May 1943. Caldwell steamed south in September 1943 to join aircraft carrier task forces in raids on Tarawa and Wake islands. In November she screened landing ships during the invasion of Makin Island, in the Gilberts.

During the Kwajalein operation in late January and February 1944, Caldwell served with escort aircraft carriers. In the spring of that year she participated in the fast carriers' strikes on Japanese bases in the central Pacific and New Guinea. For most of the rest of 1944 the destroyer was employed on patrol and escort service in the Marshall Islands and, later in the year, in the Philippines area. Hit by a suicide attack plane during the Ormoc Bay landings on 12 December, Caldwell was seriously damaged and lost 33 of her crew, with many more suffering injuries.

Caldwell was repaired at San Francisco, California, returning to the combat zone in April 1945. She spent the next few months on escort missions and as part of the invasion forces during the campaign to recover Borneo. Again damaged, this time by a mine in Brunei Bay on 27 June, she was completing repairs when the Second World War's fighting ended in August. During the first two months of the post-war era she escorted landing craft in the western Pacific, then returned to the U.S. Sent to the East Coast, Caldwell was decommissioned at Charleston, South Carolina, in April 1946 and beginning two decades as part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She was sold for scrapping in November 1966.

USS Caldwell was named in honor of Lieutenant James R. Caldwell (1778-1804), who was killed in action at Tripoli on 7 August 1804.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Caldwell (DD-605).


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 #: NH 99685

USS Caldwell
(DD-605)

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 August 1943.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99686

USS Caldwell
(DD-605)

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 August 1943.
Note barrage balloon in the upper left distance.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 99687

USS Caldwell
(DD-605)

Off San Francisco, California, 3 March 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 525 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-32313

USS Caldwell
(DD-605)

View looking aft, while she was in the early stages of construction at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, 3 April 1941. Her keel had been laid on 24 March.

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

Online Image: 187KB; 740 x 625 pixels

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

 


USS Caldwell (DD-605) is visible in the center distance in the following photograph of another ship:

Photo #: 19-N-33050

USS Detroit (CL-8)


At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 15 August 1942.
Note her after 6"/53 guns and men lounging on the fantail. Circles mark recent alterations to the ship.
Destroyers in the background include USS Preston (DD-379), at right, and USS Conyngham (DD-371), at left. On the far side of the pier from them are USS Caldwell (DD-605), in the far center distance beyond Preston's bow, and USS Walke (DD-416), at left beyond Conyngham.
YOS-1 is in the far right distance.

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

Online Image: 142KB; 740 x 630 pixels

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

 


In addition to the views referenced above, the National Archives appears to hold other photographs of USS Caldwell (DD-605). The following listing describes some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • Photo #: 80-G-41910
    USS Caldwell (DD-605) at rest or underway at very low speed, probably when first completed. The photograph is dated June 1943, but was probably taken about a year earlier.
    Starboard broadside (slightly toward the stern) surface view. Note: This image has been retouched by wartime censors to remove radar antennas atop Caldwell's gun director and mast.

  • Photo #: 80-G-49366
    USS Caldwell (DD-605) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, probably on 7 August 1943.
    Port broadside (somewhat toward the bow) surface view. This photograph appears to have been retouched to remove the radar antenna atop the ship's gun director, though antennas on her mast remain visible.

  • Photo #: 80-G-214856
    USS Caldwell (DD-605) comes alongside USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) to take men aboard, while at sea during the Marshalls operation, 2 February 1944.
    Port bow surface view.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed above are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


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


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    Page made 7 November 2004