USS Woodworth

Woodworth was attached to Task Force (TF) 65 in January 1943, conducting patrols and exercises at the western entrance to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides.

On 2 February, Woodworth passed to the control of Vice Admiral Richard P. Leary who commanded TF 69 from his flagship, New Mexico.

On 7 April, while escorting Tappahannock in the Solomons area, Woodworth came under enemy air attack by six planes north of Rua Sura Island.

Woodworth spent the remainder of April and early May in tactical training exercises, escort, and patrol in waters between the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

From 8 May to 29 June, Woodworth escorted transports carrying reinforcements to Guadalcanal and helped to screen TF 10—consisting of two carriers, three battleships, one cruiser, and several destroyers—to Nouméa.

Woodworth's maneuvers enabled her to avoid the torpedoes, and she suffered only one personnel casualty and mere superficial damage from three machine gun hits.

On 2 July 1943, Woodworth and the destroyer Jenkins bombarded Japanese positions on Wickham Island, Vonguna, New Georgia, to assist the advance of troops ashore.

The next day, Woodworth sailed for Tulagi, touched at Port Purvis on Florida Island and Rendova Harbor, and arrived off Rice Anchorage on 5 July 1943 to participate in the first landing operations there.

During the action, she was struck a glancing blow to the stern by Buchanan, causing some flooding and light damage, but she continued to screen the cruiser St. Louis which was hit by a torpedo.

On the evening of 8 January 1944, Woodworth took part in the bombardment of the Shortland Islands and encountered ineffective return fire from the shore.

She conducted escort and patrol operations between the northern Solomons and the Bismarck Archipelago until 13 January when she joined Destroyer Squadron (Des Ron) 12 and, with the destroyers Farenholt, Lansdowne, and Buchanan, conducted a bombardment of shore installations, barge concentrations, and staging points on the northeast coast of Bougainville, Baniu Harbor, and Ruri Bay, Solomon Islands; but she encountered no return fire and no air or surface opposition.

While transiting Bougainville Strait, Woodworth fired five salvoes at a Japanese tent camp on the northwest tip of Choiseul Island.

Several snoopers later approached the task force and were taken under fire, Woodworth's guns accounted for one while she and her sister ships sustained no casualties or damage.

On 14 and 15 February, Woodworth, with Farenholt, Buchanan, Lansdowne, and Lardner, conducted an antishipping sweep of St. George's Channel north of Rabaul, New Britain, but encountered no Japanese vessels.

On 24 February, while conducting an antishipping sweep along Truk-Kavieng, New Ireland, shipping lanes about 60 miles northwest of Kavieng, she made radar contact with a Japanese merchant vessel and a large, heavily laden tanker.

From 1 through 21 March, Woodworth conducted training exercises, escort missions, antisubmarine searches, and barge-hunting operations throughout the Solomon Islands.

Baltimore was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Pearl Harbor to discuss future strategy in the Pacific with Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur.

In late 1944, while refueling at sea from the carrier Salamaua, Woodworth sustained numerous superficial damages as a result of a mid-refueling collision.

First Class Quartermaster L. G. Chacona, while manning the wheel during the exercise, struggled against a port-ward drift until the ship veered off course enough to cause the hawser line, whose usage was discontinued as a result of the accident, connecting the two bows to snap.

The carriers of Woodworth's task group launched an air strike on Okinawa on 10 October, and the planes later raided Japanese installations at Aparri, northern Luzon.

Thus, Woodworth became the station ship for the Ulithi Surface Patrol and Escort Group and participated in search and rescue operations for the remainder of March.

On 28 May, she and Henley escorted the carrier Natoma Bay to Kerama Retto, Okinawa Shima, where Woodworth underwent repairs until 6 June.

The following day, while conducting air strikes on Miyako Retto of Sakishimo Gunto, two undetected enemy planes closed the formation and made suicide dives on the escort carriers.

On 14 August, Woodworth was ordered to proceed independently to Iwo Jima to pick up mail and passengers for the Fast Carrier Force.

On 22 August, she was then assigned to a task unit organized around Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague in the carrier Ticonderoga which was charged with providing air coverage for the first occupation force to go to the Japanese homeland.

She served Italy as Artigliere (D 553), operating as a fleet destroyer and for some time as command ship for motor torpedo boat flotillas until struck from the Italian Naval Vessel Register in January 1971.