USS Triumph (AM-323)

After five days patrolling the San Pedro Bay anchorage against enemy submarine incursions, the ship got underway as a unit of task unit TU 78.3.6. En route, Triumph and her traveling companions were the subject of a kamikaze attack by three A6M Zeros. The first tried to crash into Requisite (AM-109) but missed and splashed down between that ship and Triumph. The second fighter tried a bombing run but was brought down by the combined anti-aircraft fire of the task unit. The third plane did not make an attack. Later that day, a group of medium bombers overflew the unit but made no attack.

Just before noon, the minesweeper and her mates reached Ormoc Bay and streamed their sweep gear to complete their mission. Unmolested, the group of minesweepers completed their sweeping by 2125 that night and took up station in the screen of the Ormoc Bay attack force. The following morning, the Army 77th Division landed unopposed just south of Ormoc town and in the enemy's rear area. The only Japanese attempt to oppose the operation consisted of aerial attacks — both conventional and kamikaze. Though the attacks cost the American naval forces two warships sunk, Mahan (DD-364) and Ward (APD-16), two more severely damaged, Liddle (APD-60) and Lamson (DD-367), and an LSM abandoned; they failed to impede the landings and the progress of the troops ashore. Triumph departed Ormoc Bay late on the morning of the 7th and headed back to San Pedro Bay. Though her task unit occasionally engaged enemy aircraft during the intermittent air attacks, she concentrated on her role as a part of the antisubmarine screen while the destroyers of the outer screen bore the brunt of the attack. The raids ceased at dark; and, early the next morning, task unit TU 78.3.6 reentered San Pedro Bay.

Triumph remained at San Pedro Bay until the afternoon of 12 December when she got underway to participate in the occupation of Mindoro. On the second day out, the task organization came under aerial attack. Just after midday, a kamikaze crashed into the flagship Nashville (CL-43), and the light cruiser was forced to drop out of formation and return to San Pedro Bay with Stanly (DD-478).

Additional raids occurred that afternoon, but they caused no damage. By the morning of 14 December, the unit was passing Negros Island; and Triumph, along with the rest of the minesweepers, received orders to sweep the waters ahead of the force. During that sweep, the unit was attacked by a formation of three Nakajima Ki-43s. The enemy planes dropped three bombs off Triumph's port quarter but caused no damage. An American combat air patrol drove the raiders off, and the minesweepers completed their mission by late afternoon. Just after midnight on 15 December, Triumph and her mates reached the beaches on the southwestern coast of Mindoro.

At 0225, they began sweeping the invasion approaches. They completed their task less than three hours later and moved out while the invasion force moved in. Later, she joined in sweeps of Pandarochan Bay; then returned to Mindoro Strait to form up for the return to Leyte. At 1830, she departed Mindoro and, after a brief but intense aerial attack at dusk, voyaged peacefully back to the anchorage at San Pedro Bay, anchoring there a little after 0800 on the 18th. For the remainder of the month, she remained at San Pedro Bay and conducted antisubmarine patrols in Leyte Gulf.

On 2 January 1945, the minesweeper once again departed San Pedro Bay — this time to participate in the initial invasion of Luzon. The four-day voyage to the beaches at Lingayen Gulf was punctuated by a number of Japanese air assaults. An inconclusive air-to-surface battle on the night of 2 January was followed by the first attack in earnest on the 3d. Shortly after dawn, a formation of A6M Zeroes pounced on the convoy. One near-miss of the oiler Cowanesque (AO-79) caused a fire amidships. All ships joined in a withering fire that discouraged suicide runs; and, consequently, no ship suffered a direct hit.

The next morning, enemy planes approached the formation, but combat air patrol downed some and chased others away. On the 5th, general quarters sounded five times before noon, but Triumph observed no planes. Later, three warships peeled off to chase two Japanese destroyers sighted off the convoy's quarter. The enemy ships, however, managed to escape. At 1700, a formation of Aichi D3As hit the task force. Six of them attempted suicide crashes, but only one came close to its target — an LCI — which lost its mast in the encounter. Early the next morning, the force reached its destination off the beaches at Lingayen Gulf.

Between 6 and 9 January, Triumph conducted pre-invasion sweeps of the assault areas in Lingayen Gulf. Though the main task force was subjected to incessant enemy air attacks, the minesweeper continued her mine-sweeping almost unmolested. Each night, she retired from Lingayen Gulf and took up screening station for the transports and cargo ships. On the 9th, the ground troops stormed ashore at Lingayen, and Triumph kept a close watch for enemy submarines and suicide boats. She remained in Lingayen Gulf until the 14th — riding at anchor during the last three days of that period — and then got underway with a Leyte-bound convoy of LST's and LCI's. After transiting the Sulu Sea, the Mindanao Sea, Surigao Strait, and Leyte Gulf, the Allied ships arrived in San Pedro Bay on the 19th.

She remained there until 25 January when she headed out to resume action off Luzon. She reached Subic Bay and swept its coastal waters. On 4 February, she departed and headed back to Leyte, stopped at San Pedro Bay from 8 to 13 February, then put to sea once again on her way to the Marianas.

Triumph entered Apra Harbor, Guam, and reported for duty with the U.S. 5th Fleet. Two days later, she set a course for Ulithi, the staging area for Operation Iceberg, the invasion and occupation of the Ryūkyūs. She arrived at Ulithi the following day and began a period of rest, repairs, and rehearsals.

Early in the afternoon of 19 March, Triumph sailed put of the lagoon at Ulithi with the Ryukyu Islands invasion force. When she arrived at her destination early on the morning of the 24th, Triumph and her division mates joined the Shea (DM-30) and a patrol craft in minesweeping operations. On the 26th, the destroyer Halligan (DD-584) struck a mine, and it caused explosions in her forward magazine which ripped off most of her forward section. Two ships of Triumph's unit proceeded to assist the stricken warship but managed to rescue only 172 members of Halligan's 325-man complement.

The following day, the division swept 15 mines of which Triumph claimed three. On the 28th, her formation endured its first air raid of the campaign when three enemy planes dived in to attack. The formation shot all three done. The minesweeper continued sweeping operations through the end of the month. She and her colleagues concluded their mission on the eve of the landings, 31 March, and began duty with the task force's antisubmarine screen.

At 0600 the following morning — April Fool's Day and Easter Sunday rolled into one — landing craft started their move shoreward; and, soon thereafter, the first wave of U.S. Marines and soldiers hit the beaches on Okinawa.

During the ensuing four months, Triumph alternated screening duties with minesweeping operations. On several occasions during that time, she became directly involved in the incessant air attacks launched by the Japanese against the invasion force. On 16 April, when Taluga (AO-62) received a kamikaze hit, Triumph was soon at hand to rescue three men blown overboard in the action. The minesweeper herself almost required such assistance on the 18th when a Nakajima B5N torpedo bomber apparently tried to crash into her. Near sunset, he came in from astern up the port side, passed under her port yardarm, and splashed down not far from Triumph.

The air raids continued, but their primary targets remained the radar picket destroyers. Consequently, Triumph experienced few actual surface-to-air engagements. On 11 May, while she patrolled off Ie Shima, she brought two enemy planes under fire but could not definitely claim credit for the one splashed by antiaircraft fire. Combat air patrol accounted for the other one. Between mid-May and mid-June, she executed her patrols and sweeps under relatively calm circumstances.

On 15 June, however, she experienced another potentially fatal adventure. At dusk, Triumph was patrolling north of Kerama Retto when an enemy torpedo bomber executed a near-perfect run on her. Initially, the plane was thought to be friendly, though the radarman continued to track the unidentified aircraft just in case. The pilot lined his plane up with the moon, made a well-executed approach, and launched his torpedo. Two sharp-eyed sailors on board Triumph spied the torpedo splash, raised the alarm, and the warship immediately went hard to starboard to evade the torpedo. It passed in her wake, a scant 30 yards astern. Darkness precluded any real antiaircraft response, so Triumph resumed her patrols. Three days after that attack, the minesweeper put into Kerama Retto for supplies and upkeep.

Triumph remained in Kerama Retto through the end of June. On the 30th, she got underway to rehearse for sweeps into the East China Sea. Those preparations continued until Independence Day when she sortied with Task Unit TU 39.11.6. She arrived in the assigned area with the rest of her unit on the 5th and conducted a highly productive, eight-day sweep unimpaired by Japanese air activity. She returned to Buckner Bay, located on the western coast of Okinawa, on Bastille Day. There she replenished and refueled over a three-day period before returning to the East China Sea to resume mine-sweeping operations.

However, just before beginning that mission, she was detached from the East China Sea minesweeping force and was ordered to report to task force TF 39 for further orders. On 17 July, she was forced to leave the anchorage at Buckner Bay to evade a typhoon. After serving in the antisubmarine screen of the ships forced out of the anchorage, the warship returned to Buckner Bay on 21 July and remained there, awaiting orders, until 5 August. On that day, she stood out of the bay as a unit in the screen of a convoy of tank landing ships.

Two days later, she took PGM-11 in tow after the latter ship suffered an engine casualty. On the 11th, Triumph parted company with the convoy to tow PGM-11 into Apra Harbor, Guam. With Pledge (AM-277) and YMS-341 in escort, the minesweeper entered Apra Harbor on the morning of 12 August. Three days later, she received word of the Japanese capitulation.

Triumph remained at Guam for a month undergoing repairs. She departed on 12 September to participate in the occupation of Japan and former Japanese possessions. She served her entire tour of occupation duty at Okinawa, arriving there on 18 September and departing again on 19 October.