USS Beale (DD/DDE-471), a , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1822–1893).
Beale was laid down on 19 December 1941 at Staten Island, N.Y., by the Bethlehem Steel Co.; launched on 24 August 1942; sponsored by Miss Nancy Beale, a great-grandniece of LT Beale; and commissioned on 23 December 1942 at the New York Navy Yard.
World War II
1943
Early in January 1943, Beale began shakedown training off the coast of New England. Later that month, she continued that training in the West Indies near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In mid-February, the destroyer returned north to New York for a month of post-shakedown repairs. She returned to sea on 15 March and headed back to the West Indies where she served as antisubmarine escort and plane guard for the recently commissioned aircraft carrier during her shakedown training near Trinidad. Beale completed another repair period at the New York Navy Yard between 10 and 21 March and then embarked upon the long voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Steaming by way of Norfolk, Virginia, she arrived at Cristóbal in the Panama Canal Zone on 22 April and transited the canal on the 28th.
The warship paused briefly at Balboa at the Pacific terminus of the canal before heading north toward the California coast that same day. She made an overnight stop at San Diego on 5 and 6 May before arriving in San Francisco on the 7th. Five days later, Beale put to sea on her way to the Hawaiian Islands. She entered Pearl Harbor on 22 May and spent the next six weeks conducting antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and gunnery training in the local operating area. On 6 July, the destroyer departed Oahu on her way back to California. She arrived in San Diego on the 11th and remained there until the 19th when she put to sea to participate in amphibious exercises carried out near Monterey on the 21st. The following day, Beale steamed into San Francisco.
After a week's stay, she passed out of the Golden Gate again on 29 July and charted a course to the Aleutian Islands. On 5 August, the destroyer entered Kuluk Bay at Adak. Her tour of duty with the North Pacific Force lasted almost four months, but the only enemy she encountered was the foul climate. In mid-August, Beales guns joined in the bombardment preparatory to the amphibious assault on Kiska. When the troops landed, however, they discovered that the effort had been in vain. The Japanese had abandoned the island almost three weeks previously. For the remainder of her assignment in the Aleutians, the warship continued to struggle against the elements while carrying out patrol and escort missions. At the end of November, the destroyer departed Dutch Harbor and shaped a course south to Hawaii. She stood into Pearl Harbor about a week later but stayed only three days. When Beale resumed her voyage, she steered a course via Funafuti in the Ellice Islands and Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides to Milne Bay, New Guinea. She reached her destination on 18 December. Beale spent the next seven months supporting General Douglas MacArthur's conquest of the northern coast of New Guinea and consequent isolation of the large Japanese bases in the Bismarck Archipelago at Rabaul on New Britain and Kavieng on New Ireland.
She wasted little time before getting into action. Just six days after her arrival, the destroyer was underway in company with an invasion force bound for Cape Gloucester on the western end of New Britain to secure the eastern flank of the vital Dampier Strait and Vitiaz Straits between that island and New Guinea. Her echelon, made up of seven tank landing ships (LSTs) escorted by three destroyers in addition to Beale, arrived off the objective early on the 26th, and the LSTs beached during the afternoon watch.
At around 14:30, a large formation of enemy planes attacked the Allied force off Cape Gloucester. Beale escaped damage, and her gunners claimed a kill on an Aichi D3A-1 "Val" dive bomber. Her good luck, however, eluded several of her colleagues. suffered direct hits from two bombs that touched off a huge explosion, and she sank in less than 20 minutes with a loss of 108 crewmembers. , a battle-scarred veteran of Pearl Harbor, received new wounds when a hail of fragments from several near misses riddled her hull and superstructure and injured over 30 of her crew, four of them fatally. Near misses also caused damage and a few casualties on board . Later that same day while escorting LST-466 in the vicinity of Borgen Bay, Beale encountered a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" twin engine medium bomber pursued by three Republic P-47 "Thunderbolt" fighters. Her gunners joined the fracas, and the "Betty" soon went into the sea about distant on her port bow.