The second USS McCall (DD-400) was a in the United States Navy named after Captain Edward McCall, an officer in the United States Navy during the War of 1812. Launched in 1937, she saw service throughout World War II, including in the Guadalcanal Campaign, Battle of the Philippine Sea, and other battles, earning 9 battle stars for her service. She was struck from the rolls in 1947 scrapped the following year.
History
Construction
McCall (DD-400) was laid down on 17 March 1936 at the Union Plant, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, San Francisco, California and launched on 20 November 1937; sponsored by Miss Eleanor Kempff. The ship was commissioned on 22 June 1938, Lieutenant Commander John Whelchel in command.
1941-1943
Assigned to the Pacific, McCall reported for duty in Destroyers, Battle Force, 16 January 1939. Less than two years later, on 7 December 1941, she was steaming with the aircraft carrier en route to Pearl Harbor from Wake Island when she received word of the Japanese attack on the former. McCalls task force (TF 8) immediately commenced a search for the Japanese Fleet. By the time the force returned to Pearl Harbor only one Japanese vessel had been sighted, the submarine which was sunk by the force's aircraft on 10 December. For the remainder of 1941 McCall, in the screen of Enterprise, stayed in the Hawaiian Islands area to guard against follow-up attack.
As the Japanese advanced south and east through the islands of the southwest Pacific, McCall headed in that direction with Enterprise and for raids on Japanese installations in the southern Marshall Islands and northern Gilbert Islands. Making the strikes on 1 February 1942, the carrier forces and bombardment groups completed their missions in spite of heavy aerial resistance and were back at Oahu on 5 February. On 15 February, the force (now designated TF 16) got underway for Wake and Marcus Islands against which they launched surprise attacks, 24 February and 4 March, respectively, and then returned to Pearl Harbor, 10 March.
McCall spent the next 6 weeks on patrol in Hawaiian waters and then did escort duty from Hawaii to Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga islands. At the end of May she sailed north to the Aleutian Islands as the Japanese stretched toward Alaska. Throughout the summer months she patrolled out of Kodiak, Alaska and participated in the bombardment of Japanese targets in the western Aleutians. She returned to Pearl Harbor 30 September, underwent overhaul and got underway with TF 11 for the South Pacific, 12 November 1942, to join in the Battle of Guadalcanal. In the Solomon Islands area for the next 10 months, the destroyer operated from Nouméa as she cruised on antisubmarine patrols and escorted carriers and convoys. On 19 September 1943 she departed to escort a convoy to San Francisco, California. There she underwent overhaul and then exercises along the west coast before sailing west again.
1944
Early in 1944 she joined TF 58, the fast carrier force, and put to sea 19 January, to screen the carriers as their planes raided Wotje, Taroa, and Eniwetok during February. McCall next screened the carriers as strikes were conducted against Palau. In March the force commenced operations from newly won Majuro and from there McCall sailed to guard the carriers as they made heavy strikes on the Palaus, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai, 30 March to 1 April; covered the landings at Hollandia, 22 April; and raided Truk, Satawan, and Ponape, 29 April to 1 May.
After brief repairs at Pearl Harbor, McCall rejoined TF 58 at Majuro 4 June. Two days later the force sortied for operations in the Marianas Islands. First, they directly supported the landings on Guam, Rota, and Saipan, and then raided Iwo and Chichi Jima to prevent enemy reinforcements from reaching the Marianas through those islands. Then on 18 June they received word of a Japanese force sighted between the Philippines and the Marianas.
On 19 June, the Battle of the Philippine Sea began as Japanese carrier based planes attacked the 5th Fleet. By the end of the two‑day battle, the Japanese had lost three carriers, 92 percent of its carrier planes and 72 percent of its floatplanes, a disastrous toll in a war based largely on naval airpower. After pursuing the Japanese, the carriers, with McCall in the screen, turned their attention to the Bonins and then retired to Eniwetok, arriving 27 June.