Possessing insufficient minesweepers to protect U.S. harbors and
bays as the threat of war in Europe spread, in the winter of
1939-40 the Navy began purchasing fishing vessels and modifying
them to combat mines. One of them, Condor (AMc-14), first sighted
the Japanese Type-A midget submarine that destroyer Ward (DD-139)
sank on December 7, 1941 with the first shots fired by American
forces during World War II. She would be one of six coastal
minesweepers to receive a battle star. From boat- and shipyards
across America came the largest production run of any World War II
warship, 561 scrappy little 136-foot wooden-hulled vessels
characterized by Arnold Lott in Most Dangerous Sea as
"belligerent-looking yachts wearing grey paint." Although their
designers envisioned that they would operate primarily in the
vicinity of yards or bases, the YMSs (too numerous to be given
names) would see action in every theater of war, earning almost 700
battle stars, twenty-one Presidential Unit Citations, and fifteen
Navy Unit Commendations. YMSs were present in the North African
campaign, in Sicily, at Anzio, Salerno, and elsewhere in Italy, and
swept ahead of invasion forces at Normandy and in Southern France.
In the Pacific, they operated in the Marshall Islands, New Guinea,
Solomons, Treasury Island, Gilbert Islands, New Britain, Admiralty
Islands, Guam, Palau, Leyte, Luzon, Manila Bay, Iwo Jima, Southern
Philippines, Okinawa, and Borneo. Following the war, they cleared
mines from the East China Sea, Yangtze River approaches, and
throughout Japanese waters, and their activities gave rise to the
proud slogan of the mine force: "Where the Fleet Goes, We've Been."
During the Korean War, a mere sixteen auxiliary motor minesweepers
(former YMSs) performed the bulk of mine clearance, often while
inside the range of enemy coastal artillery, necessary for larger
naval vessels to close the coast to support operations ashore.
Garnering collectively 124 battle stars, seven Presidential Unit
Citations, and seven Navy Unit Commendations, the men aboard these
ships were then, and remain to date, the most highly decorated
crews of minesweepers in the history of the U.S. Navy.
General
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