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De Haven (DD 727), flagship of DesRon 61, off Mare Island on 10 Dec 1945.

Destroyer Squadron 61
World War II Operations

DesRon 61 World War II operations
Destroyer Squadron 61 was the second squadron of Allen M. Sumner-class 2,200-tonners to form in the Pacific. The squadron was composed of nine ships commissioned between March and June 1944 as follows:
Destroyer Squadron 61
1944
Destroyer Division 121
USS De Haven (DD 727), flag
USS Mansfield (DD 728)
USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD 729)
USS Collett (DD 730)
USS Maddox (DD 731)
Destroyer Division 122
USS Blue (DD 744)
USS Brush (DD 745)
USS Taussig (DD 746)
USS Samuel N. Moore (DD 747)
Blue arrived in the Pacific and joined TF 58 at Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands in July 1944. She and Taussig earned service stars for participating in the Palaus operation in September–October. The remainder of the squadron joined them for the Leyte operation and then continued on to Luzon.

Maddox was struck by a suicide plane off Formosa on 21 January 1945 and retired to Ulithi for repairs. Other ships in the squadron participated in the Iwo Jima operation.

Maddox rejoined the squadron for the Okinawa operation. East of that island on 18 April 1945, Collett joined Heermann, McCord, Mertz and Uhlmann in following up a depth charge attack by aircraft from Bataan (CVL 29) and sinking submarine I-56.

The squadron closed out the war with the Third Fleet in its operations off Japan during the summer of 1945. On 22–23 July, in rough weather following the passage of a typhoon, it attacked a convoy in Sagami Wan outside of Tokyo Bay in one of the deepest penetrations of coastal waters to that time.