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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Strong (DD-467), 1942-1943

USS Strong, a 2050-ton Fletcher class destroyer, was built at Bath, Maine. Commissioned in August 1942, she escorted one convoy to Puerto Rico in October and another to North Africa in November before sailing for the Pacific near the end of the year. Upon her arrival in the south Pacific in late January 1943, Strong performed escort and patrol tasks during the last days of the Guadalcanal campaign and in the period leading up to the Allied offensive into the central Solomons. She also took part in a bombardment of Kolombangara in mid-March, helped to sink the enemy submarine RO-34 in early April, supported the mining of Blackett Strait in early May, shelled Kolombangara and New Georgia in mid-May and assisted in fighting off Japanese planes when they attacked shipping off Guadalcanal in mid-June.

In early July 1943, soon after the initial landings of the New Georgia campaign, Strong was part of a cruiser-destroyer task force sent to bombard the enemy while troops landed at Rice Anchorage, on New Georgia's western shore. In the early morning darkness of 5 July, as the force began to withdraw from the target area, a group of Japanese destroyers approaching on a transport mission detected the U.S. ships, fired their torpedoes at long range and retreated. Strong was the victim of their only hit. Broken nearly in two, she floated long enough for most of her survivors to be rescued by companion destroyers. However, 46 of her crewmen were lost with her.

This page features all our views of USS Strong (DD-467).

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 97883 USS Strong (DD-467) Heavily retouched copy of a photograph taken circa the later part of 1942. The retouching, which includes the land in the distance and the ship from the forward smokestack to the top of the pilothouse, was mainly done for censorship purposes, in order to eliminate radar antennas from the ship's gun director and foremast. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 610 pixels
Photo #: 80-G-52931 USS Strong (DD-467) Highlines mail to USS Honolulu (CL-48) during operations in the Solomon Islands area, circa early July 1943. Strong was torpedoed and sunk off New Georgia on 5 July 1943. Note the sign painted on Honolulu's starboard catapult: "No Smoking Abaft This Sign". Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-38661 USS Conyngham (DD-371) At Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 15 February 1943. Destroyer in the right background appears to be USS Strong (DD-467). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.
Photo #: 80-G-299058 South Pacific Operations, 1943 Ships of Task Force 18 during gunnery exercises off Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, on 19 April 1943. At right are the destroyers Strong (DD-467) and O'Bannon (DD-450), making a turn. The three large ships in the distance are light cruisers, including St. Louis (CL-49) and Helena (CL-50) at left and either Nashville (CL-43) or Honolulu (CL-48) in the right center. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 610 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

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Page made 22 February 2002