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Photo # NH 97450:  USS Helm during the Iwo Jima operation, Feb. 1945

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

USS Helm (DD-388), 1937-1947

USS Helm, a 1500-ton Bagley class destroyer, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia. Commissioned in October 1937, she operated in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas until May 1939, when she went to the Pacific. Based on the west coast and in Hawaii, Helm took part in routine fleet readiness activities through 1939, 1940 and 1941.

Helm was in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941. She received light damage from two bombs that burst nearby, but remained operational. In March 1942, the destroyer was sent to the south Pacific, which was to be her operational area for nearly two years. She participated in the Guadalcanal invasion and the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942 and subsequently escorted shipping and otherwise supported Allied forces in the Solomon Islands, Australia and New Guinea areas. In November 1943, Helm covered the landings at Cape Gloucester, New Britain.

Following a Stateside overhaul, Helm shifted to the central Pacific, where she accompanied the fast carriers during the Marianas operation, the Battle of the Philippine Sea and subsequent raids on Japanese bases during June-September 1944. For the remainder of the year, she remained with the carriers as they hit enemy targets in the Palaus, Formosa, Okinawa and the Philippines and defeated the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In late October, Helm assisted in sinking the Japanese submarine I-46.

Helm's carrier screening duties lasted well into 1945, including participation in operations to capture Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, with many fights against Japanese suicide planes. Beginning in July 1945 and continuing beyond the end of hostilities, she served as an escort and patrol ship in the central and western Pacific. After a brief return to the United States in November, Helm went to Pearl Harbor, decommissioning there in June 1946. She survived target ship employment in the Bikini atomic bomb tests a month later and was sold for scrapping in October 1947.

This page features all our views of USS Helm (DD-388).

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 61903

USS Blue (DD-387)
, left, and
USS Helm (DD-388)

Ready for christening, in Drydock # Two at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, 27 May 1937.
Note that the drydock 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 U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 155KB; 740 x 605 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 61888

USS Helm (DD-388)


Photographed circa 1937-39.
Note the dark paint on her forward 5"/38 gun mounts.

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

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 67686

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

Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 430 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-28728

USS Helm (DD-388)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 26 February 1942.

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

Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-28726

USS Helm (DD-388)


Plan view, forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 25 February 1942.

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

Online Image: 130KB; 600 x 765 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-28729

USS Helm (DD-388)


Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 25 February 1942.
Note her torpedo tubes, life rafts, 26-foot motor whaleboat, smokestack and other midships details.

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

Online Image: 139KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-266840

USS Helm (DD-388)


At Noumea, New Caledonia, on 6 April 1942.
Photographed by USS Tangier (AV-8).

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

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-273114

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

Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97450

USS Helm (DD-388)


Comes alongside USS Makin Island (CVE-93) during the Iwo Jima operation, 24 February 1945.

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

Online Image: 111KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 

Note: In addition to the views presented above:

  • Photo # NH 97751 shows a ship that may be USS Helm, in action during the Japanese air attack on the Guadalcanal-Tulagi invasion force, 8 August 1942;
  • Photo # NH 83109, a chart of ship locations during the 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, locates USS Helm in the upper center part of the image; and
  • Photo # 80-G-32149, a view of destroyers Mugford (DD-389) and Patterson (DD-392) during gunnery practice in October 1942, was taken from USS Helm.


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


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    Page made 23 November 2000
    New images & links added 29 January 2002