USS Warrington (DD-383)

At that juncture, the southwestern Pacific became Warrington's area of operations. Upon reaching Nouméa, New Caledonia, she began a five-week stretch of convoy duty that took her to such diverse places as Australia, Samoa, Hawaii, Guadalcanal, and the New Hebrides Islands. On 1 October, she departed Espiritu Santo in the last-named island group to escort Prince William to Samoa, whence the destroyer headed to Pearl Harbor for repairs and to pick up a convoy.

Warrington returned to Espiritu Santo on 30 October but by 6 November had arrived off Koli Point, Guadalcanal, where she joined up with the second echelon of the Bougainville invasion force. At daybreak two days later, she escorted the troop ships charged to her protection into Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville. She patrolled to seaward while the transports landed reinforcements and supplies on the beaches to the east and southeast of Cape Torokina.

Near noon, the air raid warning sounded. Both troop and cargo ships got underway to evade the action; and Warrington joined the antiaircraft defenses for the anchorage and beachhead. At four minutes after noon, the destroyer opened fire on two Japanese planes crossing her stern. The first began smoking almost immediately and crashed dead astern. The second came under fire from the other ships as well; shuddered under the impact of the combined fire of the ships and then, trailing pieces from his fuselage, splashed down, too. Warrington claimed sole credit for downing the first plane and a part in getting the second. The enemy withdrew at about 12:25; and, six minutes later, the transports resumed their tasks at Cape Torokina. That night, she escorted the empty transports back to Guadalcanal.

For the next month, Warrington made escort runs between Guadalcanal and Espiritu Santo. On 14 March, she became a part of the antisubmarine screen for an escort carrier task group operating in support of Task Force 37 (TF 37) which, in turn, was striking at Kavieng, a large Japanese base located on the northwestern tip of New Ireland. Later that month, she escorted the third convoy of troopships to Emirau Island, arriving there on the 28th. On 6 April, the destroyer returned to the New Hebrides, stopping briefly at Espiritu Santo before continuing on to Efate where she discharged passengers. On 9 April, she reentered the port at Espiritu Santo for an 11-day availability.

On 20 April, she rejoined TF 37 at Efate and, four days later, headed south to Sydney, Australia, where she arrived on 29 April. After a week in the Australian port, Warrington headed back to Efate with TF 37, entering Havannah Harbor on 10 May.

There, she and the destroyer Balch were detached from the task force and ordered to New Guinea. The two destroyers reached Milne Bay on 13 May and reported for duty with the 7th Fleet. Two days later, Warrington stood out of Milne Bay bound for Capes Sudest and Cretin. At the latter place, she joined the antisubmarine screen of a Hollandia-bound convoy of LST's. She escorted her charges into Humboldt Bay on 22 May and remained there for three days. She and Balch got underway together again on the 25th to conduct a shore bombardment mission at Wakde Island in support of the advancing troops of the 6th Army.

She began her first mission early on 26 May. Dense foliage precluded the identification of specific targets, so Warrington contented herself with an area bombardment, firing more or less uniformly throughout the designated sector. On 27 May, she and Bach returned for a repeat performance, at the conclusion of which they received a message from the general commanding ashore lauding their ". . . superb cooperation . . ." and indicating that their gunfire had been ". . . of great assistance . . ." to the troops ashore. That same day, the two destroyers headed back to Humboldt Bay.

The return to Hollandia, however, proved brief. Warrington entered the bay on 28 May but departed again late that afternoon to escort an echelon of LST's to a convoy rendezvous point. Upon her arrival, she joined the convoy's antisubmarine screen and set course to escort it to Biak Island. The convoy reached Biak at 07:25 on 30 May, and Warrington received orders instructing her to report to shore fire control group no. 1 to deliver call-fire in support of American ground forces advancing toward Mokmer airstrip. About an hour later, she received instructions from the commanding general ashore to patrol west of the beachhead to keep the Japanese from moving reinforcements in from that direction. After a singularly uneventful morning and afternoon, the destroyer quit her patrols and assumed responsibility as fighter director ship when Swanson left the unit that night.

The following day, she retired from Biak with TG 77.8 and arrived back at Humboldt Bay the same day. From 3–5 June, she made another voyage to Biak during which she provided gunfire support briefly on the 5th before departing to escort the empty LST's back to Humboldt Bay.

Following a voyage that took her to Manus in the Admiralties and back to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, Warrington departed the latter port on 19 June in company with Balch to return to the United States. Steaming via Bora Bora, the two destroyers transited the Panama Canal on 8 July, stopped briefly at Colón, and arrived in New York on the 15th. She immediately entered the New York Navy Yard and began repairs.

She completed her yard period at New York early in August, conducted maneuvers at Casco Bay, Maine, and then entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for additional alterations. On 10 September, she departed Norfolk in company with Hyades and set her course for Trinidad.

Two days out of Norfolk, along the Florida coast, the two ships encountered heavy weather. In the afternoon, Warrington received word that she was steaming directly into a hurricane. Later that evening, the storm forced the destroyer to heave to while Hyades continued on her way alone. Keeping wind and sea on her port bow, Warrington rode relatively well through most of the night. Wind and seas, however, continued to build during the early morning hours of 13 September. Warrington began to lose headway and, as a result, started to ship water through the vents to her engineering spaces.

The water rushing into her vents caused a loss of electrical power which set off a chain reaction. Her main engines lost power, and her steering engine and mechanism went out. She wallowed there in the trough of the swells, continuing to ship water. She regained headway briefly and turned upwind, while her radiomen desperately, but fruitlessly, tried to raise Hyades. Finally, she resorted to a plain-language distress call to any ship or shore station. By noon on 13 September, it was apparent that Warrington's crewmen could not win the struggle to save their ship, and the order went out to prepare to abandon ship. By 12:50, her crew had left Warrington; and she went down almost immediately. A prolonged search by Hyades, Frost, Huse, Inch, Snowden, Swasey, Woodson, Johnnie Hutchins, ATR-9, and ATR-62 rescued only five officers and 68 men of the destroyer's 20 officers and 301 men. Warrington's name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 23 September 1944.