New Jersey Scuba Diving

(DD-624: displacement 1,630 tons; length 348'4"; beam 36'0"; draft 17'6"; speed 35.0 knots; complement 276; armament 4 5-inch, 4 40 millimeter, 7 20 millimeter, 5 21-inch torpedo tubes, 6 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks; class Gleaves)

Baldwin (DD-624) was laid down on 19 July 1941 at Seattle, Wash., by the Seattle Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 14 June 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Ida E. Crawford, the daughter of Acting Master's Mate Baldwin; and commissioned on 30 April 1943, Lt. Cmdr. George Knuepfer in command.

After shakedown training along the west coast, the destroyer put to sea from San Francisco, Calif., on 1 JuIy bound for the east coast. The flagship of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 36, Baldwin led her division into Norfolk, Va., on 19 JuIy and operated along the east coast until getting underway from New York on 13 August in the screen of a convoy bound for Casablanca, Morocco. Similar arrangements occupied her time until late January 1944 when she resumed duty along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Some three months later, on 17 April, Baldwin headed for Europe in the screen for battleships Arkansas (BB-33) and Nevada (BB-36), and heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (CA-37). The destroyer arrived at Plymouth, England, on 28 April and began a routine that combined patrols in British waters with preparations for the Normandy invasion.

On 5 June 1944, she departed Portland in company with other units of the Western Naval Task Force. As a unit of the gunfire support group during the assault, Baldwin assisted the troops ashore with naval gunfire. In return, she suffered two hits from a light caliber shore battery on D day but sustained only slight damage. On the 9th, Baldwin joined Frankford (DD-497) in repulsing an attack by German E-boats, similar to motor torpedo boats, and received credit for destroying one of them. She operated off the coast of France until 15 July when she returned to England.

Three days later, the destroyer departed Plymouth in the screen of a 50-ship convoy bound for North Africa and arrived in Bizerte, Tunisia, on 28 July 1944. She operated in the western Mediterranean mostly between Oran, Algeria, and Naples, Italy before arriving off Saint-Tropez on 15 August, D day for the invasion of southern France. Baldwin served there as an element of the Antisubmarine and Convoy Control Group, Task Group (TG) 80.6 which screened follow up convoys between Oran and southern France. On 23 September, she concluded her part in that operation and departed Oran in company with her division mates bound for the United States.

Upon her arrival at New York on 3 October 1944, the destroyer resumed operations in American coastal waters. On 21 January 1945, Baldwin put to sea from Norfolk to rendezvous with the heavy cruiser Quincy (CA-71) which carried President FrankIin D. Roosevelt on the first leg of the trip to the "Big Three" conference at Yalta. She returned to New York on 27 February and began four months of operations in American waters. During that time, Baldwin escorted Bon Homme Richard (CV-31) to the Canal Zone and operated off the east coast in the antisubmarine screens of Boxer (CV-21) and Card (CVE-11).

On 24 June 1945, the destroyer sailed from New York on her way to the Pacific. Steaming in company with Nelson (DD-623), she visited Guantanamo Bay in Cuba; Balboa in the Canal Zone and San Diego before arriving at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 12 August. A month later, the warship joined Task Force (TF) 55 at Okinawa to prepare for the occupation of Sasebo, Japan, and participated in that operation between 20 September and 2 October. By 7 October, Baldwin was at Pusan, Korea, supporting forces sweeping mines along the Chinese and Korean coasts, a task at which she labored for the remainder of 1945.

The ship returned to the United States in January 1946 and operated along the east coast through the spring of that year. She was placed out of commission at Charleston, S.C., on 20 June 1946 and remained in reserve there until January 1961 when she was transferred to Boston. Later ordered moved to Philadelphia, Baldwin ran aground about two miles southwest of Montauk Point, Long Island, in the early afternoon of 16 April 1961 when the towline parted during the passage to Philadelphia. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1961, and she was scuttled on 6 June 1961 not far from the point where she had run aground.

Baldwin earned three battle stars for her World War II service.

from history.navy.mil