USS Kalk, a 1620-ton Benson class destroyer built at San Francisco, California, was commissioned in October 1942. She spent over two months shaking down off the U.S. West Coast and at year's end steamed to the Aleutians, where she conducted patrol missions until late February 1943. Transferred to the Atlantic in April, Kalk began several months of convoy escort service between the East Coast and North Africa.
Kalk returned to the Pacific in January 1944 by way of the Panama Canal. Assigned to the Seventh Fleet, she performed escort and patrol duties and supported amphibious operations in the Admiralty Islands and along the north shore of New Guinea. On 27 May 1944, while participating in the Biak invasion, a Japanese bomb hit Kalk amidships, causing severe damage to the ship and heavy casualties among her crew. She had to be towed to port for emergency repairs prior to going to the U.S. for shipyard work.
Her repairs were completed in October 1944, and Kalk was back in the Western Pacific by the end of November. Her primary assignment for the remainder of World War II was as an escort for the extensive force of logistics ships that kept the fighting fleet almost constantly in action against the enemy. While so employed, she supported the campaigns to seize the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. At the end of the Pacific War, Kalk was present in Tokyo Bay to witness the 2 September 1945 Japanese surrender ceremonies. She voyaged back to the United States beginning in October, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, in mid-December. The next month, the destroyer was sent to Charleston, South Carolina, where she was decommissioned in May 1946. USS Kalk remained in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1968. She was sunk as a target in March 1969.
USS Kalk was named in honor of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Stanton F. Kalk, USN, (1894-1917), who lost his life in the sinking of USS Jacob Jones in December 1917.
This page features all the views we have related to USS Kalk (DD-611).
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.
In addition to the views referenced above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other photograph of USS Kalk (DD-611). The following listing describes this image:
The image listed below is NOT in the
Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our
page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".
USS Kalk (DD-611) in harbor. Photograph is dated June 1943. Port broadside surface view. The image has been retouched by wartime censors to remove radar antennas from atop the foremast and Mark 37 gun director. Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center. The image listed above is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".Note: The Mare Island Navy yard location of the images
referenced above strongly indicates that the National Archives
holds other views of USS Kalk (DD-611). When a ship completed
shipyard work at Mare Island, several photographs were usually
taken to show her latest configuration: A bow-on view, a 3/4
bow view, a broadside view, a 3/4 stern (quarter) view, and a
stern-on view (all of these generally taken while the ship was
off the yard, showing her entire length); plus two or three relatively
close-up views emphasizing details. The latter were generally
taken from a shipyard crane, looking down on the ship while she
was alongside a pier. |
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 20 September 2002