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Photo # NH 60643:  USS Mahan running trials, 1936

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

USS Mahan (DD-364), 1936-1944

USS Mahan, name ship of a class of sixteen destroyers of about 1500 tons standard displacement, was built at Staten Island, New York. Commissioned in September 1936, she cruised to the Caribbean and South America during shakedown and remained in the Atlantic area until mid-1937. Mainly operating in the Pacific after that, Mahan regularly took part in the U.S. Fleet's program of training exercises and large-scale Fleet Problems. When the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the destroyer was at sea with the carrier Lexington and participated in the initial post-attack efforts to search for the enemy. Over the next ten months, Mahan was mainly employed in reinforcement, escort and patrol duties in the Hawaiian and west coast areas.

In mid-October 1942 Mahan steamed south to join the campaign to hold Guadalcanal, en route conducting a raid against Japanese patrol boats near the Gilbert Islands. Later in the month, she participated in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands and suffered damage in a collision with the battleship South Dakota near the end of that action. Mahan returned to the south Pacific in January 1943, after repairs, and escorted convoys there until mid-year, when she transferred to the Seventh Fleet for operations in the vicinity of New Guinea. In August and September 1943, she supported the landings at Nassau Bay, Lae and Finschhafen. Patrol and escort work was interrupted by gunfire support of the Cape Gloucester, New Georgia, invasion in December and the seizure of Los Negros Island, in the Admiralties, in late February 1944.

Following a west coast overhaul, Mahan passed through the central Pacific in mid-1944 before returning to the Seventh Fleet in October. She engaged in convoy and anti-submarine patrols until early December, when she took part in the landings at Ormoc Bay, Leyte. While on picket duty protecting the invasion zone on 7 December 1944, she was attacked by Japanese suicide planes and hit three times. With fires quickly spreading out of control, Mahan's crew abandoned ship, and she was sunk by one of her consorts.

USS Mahan was named in honor of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914), one of the U.S. Navy's most influential historians and strategic theorists.

This page features selected views concerning USS Mahan (DD-364).


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 60643

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Running trials, 1936.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-466572

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Underway at sea, circa 1938.

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

Online Image: 115KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 101657

USS Mahan (DD-364)


At sea, with her torpedo tubes manned and trained to port, 8 February 1938.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 101682

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Underway at 24 knots, 8 February 1938.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 535 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-29528

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 April 1942

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

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 565 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-30169

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Maneuvers near another destroyer and a battleship, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, 26 October 1942.

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

Online Image: 90KB; 740 x 415 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-36088

Guadalcanal Campaign, 1942-43


USS South Dakota (BB-57) and two destroyers alongside USS Prometheus (AR-3) for repairs, probably at Noumea, New Caledonia, in November 1942.
The inboard destroyer, with the distorted bow, is probably USS Mahan (DD-364), which was damaged in a collision with South Dakota at the close of the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands on 27 October 1942.
South Dakota received damage in both that battle and in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 15 November 1942.
The other destroyer may be USS Lamson (DD-367).

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

Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-67746

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 June 1944.
Her camouflage design is Measure 31, Design 23d.

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

Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-67747

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 June 1944.
Her camouflage design is Measure 31, Design 23d.

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

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-67752

USS Mahan (DD-364)


Closeup view of the ship's forward superstructure, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 June 1944.
View looks down on the port side of the pilothouse, and shows the ship's Mark 33 gun director, with fire control radar antenna, in the upper right. Also seen are her two forward 5"/38 Mark 21 gun mounts, non-skid deck treads, and life rafts.
Circles mark recent alterations to the ship.

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

Online Image: 132KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 99402

Commander Ernest G. Small
, Commander Destroyer Division Three

With the Commanding Officers of DesDiv 3's ships, probably on board USS Porter (DD-356), flagship of Destroyer Squadron Two. Taken on 21 March 1939, while DesDiv 3 was anchored in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with other units of the U.S. Fleet.
Those present are, from left to right:
Lieutenant Commander Jesse H. Carter, Commanding Officer, USS Drayton (DD-366);
Lieutenant Commander John F. Rees, Commanding Officer, USS Flusser (DD-368);
Commander Ernest G. Small;
Lieutenant Commander Herbert G. Hopwood, Commanding Officer, USS Mahan (DD-364); and
Lieutenant Commander Byron H. Hanlon, Commanding Officer, USS Lamson (DD-367).
Note the Mark 22 twin single-purpose 5"/38 gun mount in the background, and non-skid deck treads.
Photographed by the U.S. Fleet Base Force Camera Party.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 


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


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Page made 15 January 2002
New image added 27 June 2004