| “Outstanding among the destroyers of the Pacific Fleet …” said ComDesPac in 1944 of USS Nicholas, DD (later DDE) 449, “… a noble ship” whose 27½-year record spanned the history of Fletcher-class destroyers in the US Navy. Built at Maine’s Bath Iron Works, the second Nicholas was, in 1942, the first of the 175 2,100-ton Fletchers launched and commissioned and, in 1970, one of the last retired from the Navy.
The “Nick” was named for the senior officer of American Marines. In World War II, she served as flagship of Destroyer Squadron 21 and earned 16 battle stars including two for submarines sunk. For action in the Solomon Islands in 1943 with Radford, she was awarded one of the first Presidential Unit Citations—a token, Admiral Nimitz told the crew, of “the respect and esteem which this ship, her officers and men have well earned throughout the Navy.” For action in the Philippines in 1944 and ’45,
Above: from motion picture film of Nicholas alongside Missouri to transfer Japanese pilots and emissaries, 27 August 1945, courtesy Lars Andersen. Below: ”Triumph and Peace” by Tom Freeman, depicting the same event. |
she also received a Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation Badge.
Approaching Japan in August 1945, Admiral Halsey ordered that Nicholas and twin sister O’Bannon with Taylor be present in Tokyo Bay for Japan’s surrender “because of their valorous fight up the long road from the| November 1966. Click to view either image in more detail. |
South Pacific to the very end.” Assigned to his Flagship Task Group on 27 August, the “Nick” steamed ahead of the formation to receive Japanese peace emissaries and harbor pilots for transfer around the fleet. Two days later, she and her sisters led Missouri into Tokyo Bay and, on 2 September, transported Allied and American representatives to Missouri for the surrender ceremony.
Mothballed and then modified in both 1950 (DDE) and 1960 (FRAM), Nicholas completed fourteen more Western Pacific deployments and saw action off both Korea (5 battle stars and a Korean Presidential Unit Citation Badge) and Vietnam (9 stars). The Navy’s oldest active destroyer in the sixties, she also participated in the Apollo 7 and 8 spacecraft recovery missions before being retired in 1970 and scrapped.
Here we revisit life on board Nicholas and sister ships through photos, logs, official reports, first-person accounts and a complete reproduction of her World War II cruise book, plus introductions to her namesake and design.
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