Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 42150:  USS Maury in 1938.  Autographed by Adm. Arleigh A. Burke

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

USS Maury (DD-401), 1938-1946

USS Maury, a 1500-ton Gridley class destroyer, was built at San Francisco, California. She entered commissioned service in August 1938 and took part in exercises and other fleet activities in the Pacific Ocean through the late 1930s and into the 1940s. At sea with the carrier Enterprise when Japan brought the United States into World War II with the 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Maury continued to serve as a carrier escort during most of the war's first ten months. In February 1942 she participated in the raids on the Marshall Islands and Wake, and during the latter mission helped sink a Japanese picket boat. Maury operated with Enterprise during the Battle of Midway in early June, the invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in early August 1942, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons later in that month, and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October.

As the campaign to hold Guadalcanal approached its climax, Maury was assigned to a cruiser-destroyer force tasked with blocking Japanese attempts to reinforce their troops ashore. At the end of November 1942 this unit engaged the enemy in the Battle of Tassafaronga, an action that produced serious damage to American cruisers but left Maury uninjured. She continued to serve in the Solomons until August 1943, taking part in escort missions and two night surface fights: the battle of Kolombangara on 12-13 July 1943 and the highly successful torpedo action in Vella Gulf on 6-7 August.

Following west coast shipyard work, Maury was back in the war zone in time to participate in the Gilberts operation in November 1943 and the Marshalls invasion in January and February 1944. She screened aircraft carriers during raids throughout the central Pacific over the next several months, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June and the associated operations to capture islands in the Marianas. From September into November 1944, Maury's carrier escort tasks continued during the Palaus operation, western Pacific air strikes and the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

In January and early February 1945 Maury participated in the invasion of Luzon and subsequent operations. She then steamed eastward to Hawaii and served in that area for several weeks before transiting the Panama Canal on her way to New York, where she arrived in June. No longer needed for active service, USS Maury was decommissioned in October 1945 and sold for scrapping in June 1946.

This page features all the views we have related to USS Maury (DD-401).


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 42150

USS Maury (DD-401)


Photographed when first completed in mid-1938.
The original print has been autographed by Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN, who served with Maury while he was a Destroyer Division commander in 1943.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 50949

Wake Island Raid, 24 February 1942


A Japanese patrol boat (black smudge to the right) under attack by gunfire from USS Balch (DD-363) and USS Maury (DD-401) and aircraft from USS Enterprise (CV-6), during the Wake Island raid.
Photographed from USS Salt Lake City (CA-25).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-204934

Gilberts Operation, November 1943


USS Guadalupe (AO-32) refuels USS Maury (DD-401) and USS Lexington (CV-16) at sea in the Gilbert Islands area, 25 November 1943.
Photographed from Lexington.

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

Online Image: 102KB; 740 x 595 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 19-N-19540

USS Maury (DD-401)


Ship's Historical Data Plaque, photographed circa 1938.

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

Online Image: 126KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

 


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


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 9 May 2002