Эсминец «Кейн» класса «Клемсон»

Clemson class destroyer

USS Kane (DD 235/APD 18) was a Clemson class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first ship named for Elisha Kent Kane.

Kane was laid down on 3 July 1918 and launched on 12 August 1919 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation; sponsored by Miss Florence Kane, cousin of Elisha Kent Kane; and commissioned on 11 June 1920.

Kane departed Newport, Rhode Island 20 August 1920 for her shakedown cruise to Gibraltar, Brest, Copenhagen, Danzig, and the Gulf of Riga. She was just outside the Gulf in the Baltic Sea on 1 October 1920 and supposedly well clear of the minefields laid in World War I when a mine exploded, bending her port engine shafts and port propeller struts. After repair at Landskrona, Sweden, and overhaul at Chatham, England, she sailed on 21 May 1921 for the Mediterranean. Conversion was completed by 3 April 1943, when she departed for amphibious training with the Army's 7th infantry in Monterey Bay, California. Kane departed San Francisco on 24 April and arrived in Cold Bay on 30 April to prepare for the recapture of Attu, Aleutian Islands. The morning of 11 May, Narwhal and Nautilus landed 100 Army scouts northwest of Holtz Bay. Several hours later, Kane was coached in through very dense fog by Pennsylvanias radar to land 400 reconnaissance troops, who then joined the scouts. During the ground fighting on Attu, Kane served as evacuation hospital transport and shuttled medical supplies between Holtz and Massacre Bay. Off the entrance to Dutch Harbor on 17 July, she received 12 survivors of the Russian Seiner No. 2. Following amphibious exercises off Amchitka Island, she landed elements of the Army's 1st Special Service Force on Kiska 14 August and later on Little Kiska Island. But the Japanese had evacuated under cover of fog, leaving a few mongrel dogs as sole inhabitants. This marked the end of the last Japanese hold on the Aleutians. Kane remained on duty between Alaskan and Aleutian ports until 20 November 1943, then steamed south for an overhaul in the Mare Island Navy Yard until 7 January 1944. Kane arrived in Pearl Harbor 18 January 1944 to join the 5th Amphibious Force for the capture of the Marshall Islands. Her Marine escort secured the channel islets at the entrance of Majuro Lagoon on the night of 30 to 31 January 1944 and later took the islands on the east side of Kwajalein Lagoon. She sailed on 25 February to help screen amphibious landing ships for the invasion of Milne Bay, New Guinea, then entered Seeadler Harbor, Manus, as the 7th Cavalry Regiment took the remaining strong point in the Admiralty Islands. The high speed transport landed men of the 163d Infantry at Aitape on 22 April 1944 and bombarded enemy positions before withdrawing to shell Ali Island. After escorting a convoy to the Solomon Islands she returned to Pearl Harbor on 23 May 1944. After training out of Pearl Harbor and preparations at Eniwetok, Kane landed Marines for the invasion of Saipan on 15 June 1944. After the fast carriers of the 5th Fleet destroyed Japan's carrier based airpower in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the transport supported Underwater Demolition Team 4 in operations off Saipan. On 23 June, she dodged an aerial bomb that sprayed her with shrapnel and wounded three men. She replenished at Eniwetok, then entered Agat Bay, Guam, the afternoon of 17 July. The Japanese had planted three lines of palm log cribs filled with coral rocks, linked each to the other by wire cables as anti ship defences. Her "naked warriors" of Underwater Demolition Team 4, assisted by other teams, blew up hundreds of these obstacles, clearing the way for the Marines, who landed on 21 July 1944. On 24 July, as the frogmen worked into the night, the Japanese mortar fire in Agat Bay barely missed Kane. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 August 1944 but entered Leyte Gulf on 18 October carrying 100 tons of demolition explosives to be used in clearing the way for the Leyte Invasion landings 2 days later. She carried her demolition teams to the Admiralty Islands, then set course for home and an overhaul arriving San Pedro, California, 4 December. Kane departed San Diego on 20 April 1945 to train Underwater Demolition Team 24 in Hawaiian waters until 4 May, then arrived off Kerama Retto on 12 June. After escorting Solace out of the combat zone, she patrolled the southwest anchorage of Ilinawa and fought off two kamikazes 21 June. A week later she sailed with a convoy bound for Leyte. She became a unit of the Philippine Sea Frontier on 4 July and patrolled the shipping lanes leading eastward guarding against submarines until the end of hostilities. Kane departed San Pedro Bay, Leyte, 13 September escorting occupation troops to Korea, arriving Jinsen 17 September. Thereafter, she became an unofficial receiving ship and handled communications for the Jinsen representative of the 7th Amphibious Force. Relieved on 12 November 1945, she headed for home and arrived in San Diego on 13 December 1945. After sending 149 Navy veterans ashore, she transited the Panama Canal for the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she decommissioned 24 January 1946. She was sold for scrapping on 21 June 1946 to Northern Metals Company, Philadelphia.

Kane received seven battle stars for service in World War II.