USS Ardent (AM-340) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The second USS Ardent (AM-340) was a in the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

.

Ardent was originally laid down as HMS Buffalo

HMS Buffalo

A number of ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Buffalo:*HMS Buffalo was a storeship, launched in 1743 as the 70-gun third-rate . She was reduced to 64-guns in 1760, and renamed Buffalo and used as a storeship from 1777 until broken up in 1783. was 12-gun storeship built as the merchant...

(BAM-8), for the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

on 20 February 1943 at Alameda, California

Alameda, California

Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to Oakland in the San Francisco Bay. The Bay Farm Island portion of the city is adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. At the 2010 census, the city had a...

, by the General Engineering & Drydock Co.; rescheduled for delivery to the United States Navy; renamed Ardent and redesignated AM-340 on 24 May 1943; launched on 22 June 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Bernadette Armes, the daughter-in-law of George A. Armes, President of the General Engineering & Drydock Co., and commissioned on 25 May 1944, Lt. Comdr. Allan D. Curtis in command.

World War II Pacific operations

During the first seven months of her career, Ardent escorted convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...

s and ships operating between the west coast of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

and the Hawaiian Islands

Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...

, though she also ranged as far as Eniwetok in the Marshalls

Marshall Islands

The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...

and Tarawa in the Gilberts

Gilbert Islands

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...

Sinking of the Japanese submarine I-12

The highlight of her service during this period occurred on 13 November. Ardent and the frigate were escorting a six-ship convoy midway between Honolulu and the United States. At 12:32, Ardents sonar picked up a submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

contact. Ardent attacked first at 12:41, firing a 24-charge "hedgehog

Hedgehog (weapon)

The Hedgehog was an anti-submarine weapon developed by the Royal Navy during World War II, that was deployed on convoy escort warships such as destroyers to supplement the depth charge. The weapon worked by firing a number of small spigot mortar bombs from spiked fittings...

" pattern, and again at 12:46 with a second "hedgehog" pattern. Rockford left her escort station to assist, and fired her first barrage of rocket

Rocket

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust from a rocket engine. In all rockets, the exhaust is formed entirely from propellants carried within the rocket before use. Rocket engines work by action and reaction...

s from her "hedgehog" at 13:08; two explosions followed, before an underwater detonation rocked the ship.

Ardent carried out two more attacks and the frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

dropped 13 depth charges to administer the coup de grace. The resulting explosions caused a loss of all contact with the enemy submarine. Wreckage recovered on the scene—deck planks, ground cork covered with diesel oil, a wooden slat from a vegetable crate with Japanese writing and advertisements on it, pieces of varnished mahogany incribed in Japanese, and a piece of deck planking containing Japanese builders' inscriptions—indicated a definite "kill". Postwar research revealed the sunken submarine to be the , which had sailed from the Inland Sea on 4 October 1944 to disrupt American shipping between the west coast and the Hawaiian Islands. In sinking I-12, Ardent and USS Rockford unwittingly avenged the atrocity I-12 had perpetrated on 30 October when, after sinking the Liberty ship

Liberty ship

Liberty ships were cargo ships built in the United States during World War II. Though British in conception, they were adapted by the U.S. as they were cheap and quick to build, and came to symbolize U.S. wartime industrial output. Based on vessels ordered by Britain to replace ships torpedoed by...

SS John A. Johnson, the submarine had rammed and sunk the lifeboats

Lifeboat (shipboard)

A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...

and rafts and then machine-gunned the 70 survivors. Among the ten men killed were five enlisted men of the merchantman's Navy armed guard detachment.

Second Pacific deployment

On 1 December 1944, Ardent departed San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, and headed for Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. She reached Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

on the 10th and underwent an intensive training period before sailing for the Marshall Islands on 27 January 1945 with Task Group

Task force

A task force is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology...

(TG) 51.11, arriving on 5 February at Eniwetok. Two days later, Ardent sailed for Tinian

Tinian

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....

, and reported for duty with TG 52.3 on the llth. On 13 February, the ship got underway, in company with , , and , to participate in the Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima, officially , is an island of the Japanese Volcano Islands chain, which lie south of the Ogasawara Islands and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The island is located south of mainland Tokyo and administered as part of Ogasawara, one of eight villages of Tokyo...

campaign.

She conducted minesweeping operations off that island during the day from 15 to 18 February, and each night, her group retired to screen . During the sweeps, the ships came under intermittent fire from enemy shore batteries, but sustained no damage. On 19 February, Ardent took bomb-damaged in tow and proceeded to the Marianas

Mariana Islands

The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...

as escort for a convoy of damaged LCI

Landing Craft Infantry

The Landing craft, Infantry or LCI were several classes of sea-going amphibious assault ships of the Second World War utilized to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially...

Ship shoots down Japanese planes

Upon reaching Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

on the 25th, the minesweeper embarked 20 marines and loaded 149 sacks of mail for delivery at Iwo Jima. She arrived back at that island on 1 March but shaped a course for Ulithi

Ulithi

Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...

the next day as escort for Task Unit (TU) 51.29.3. A few weeks later, Ardent got underway with TG 52.4 to take part in the assault on Okinawa. She began minesweeping operations on the 24th and continued them through the 31st, the unit to which she was attached destroying 17 mines during this time period. During frequent enemy air attacks, the minesweeper took several Japanese planes under fire. On 26 March, an enemy plane under fire from the nearby fast minelayer started a glide for USS Ardent's stern. The minesweeper opened fire and splashed the plane 300 yards (274.3 m) away.

On four occasions on 28 March, Japanese aircraft approached Ardent and her consorts. An adjacent formation shot down the first, 5000 yards (4,572 m) from USS Ardent's port beam. Combined fire from Adams and Ardent, as well as other ships in the formation, splashed the second, 1200 yards (1,097.3 m) on the port beam. Ardent opened fire on the third aircraft, and saw it splash, the victim of a barrage put up by a formation of ships on the starboard quarter. USS Adams accounted for the fourth enemy aircraft. Later that same day, the minesweeper struck a mine and sank; Ardent rescued 19 survivors.

Okinawa landings

Following the completion of minesweeping operations, Ardent assumed station on a patrol screen. On L-day, the day of the landings at Okinawa, 1 April 1945, a suicider crashed the nearby , causing extensive damage. During this period, Ardent opened fire on several Japanese planes, but scored no hits.

Stateside repair period

Ordered to proceed to Saipan for engine repairs, Ardent sailed for her destination on 4 April, and arrived on 10 April. Since parts necessary for the repairs were not available in the forward areas, she was routed via Pearl Harbor, to Seattle, where she arrived on 30 May.

Ardent underwent engine repairs at Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

until 7 August. Six days later, on the 13th, the minesweeper sailed for Pearl Harbor, and was at sea, en route to the Hawaiian Islands, when the war with Japan ended.

Post-World War II operations

Departing Pearl Harbor on 20 August in company with and , Ardent called at Saipan from 13 to 17 September, and arrived at Okinawa on the 21st.

Pushing on for Japan, Ardent moored at Sasebo

Sasebo, Nagasaki

is a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. As of 2011, the city has an estimated population of 259,800 and the density of 609 persons per km². The total area is 426.47 km². The locality is famed for its scenic beauty. The city includes a part of Saikai National Park...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, on 27 September, disembarking passengers, and delivering mail and freight. The ship made a brief trip back to Okinawa, arriving there on 2 October, before she returned to Sasebo on 20 October. During her time at Okinawa, she sortied on 7 October to ride out a typhoon, and conducted sweeps down the island's east coast for survivors of that storm. Joining TU 52.4.1 on 27 October, Ardent proceeded to the "Klondike" minefield area, located in the East China Sea

East China Sea

The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China. It is a part of the Pacific Ocean and covers an area of 1,249,000 km² or 750,000 square miles.-Geography:...

100 miles (160.9 km) southwest of Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

. She conducted daily minesweeping operations until 8 November, when she arrived back at Sasebo. Between that time and the end of the year, Ardent operated between Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

and Kyūshū, escorting ships, transporting minesweeping gear, and observing Japanese minesweeping operations and conducting demolition firing at the mine disposal grounds at Kushikino Ko. She remained thus engaged into March 1946.

Routed to Kobe

Kobe

, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...

on 4 March 1946, in company with , Ardent sailed for the Hawaiian Islands two days later, on 6 March. Touching at Saipan, Eniwetok, Johnston Island and Pearl Harbor, the minesweeper continued on to the west coast of the United States; parting company from USS Defense on 16 April, Ardent dropped anchor in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

on 19 April.

Stateside inactivity

The minesweeper lay in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard

San Francisco Naval Shipyard

The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...

until November 1946. Subsequently proceeding to San Diego

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

in company with , Ardent then operated in the vicinity of San Clemente Island

San Clemente Island

San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the Channel Islands of California. It is owned and operated by the United States Navy, and is a part of Los Angeles County. Defined by the United States Census Bureau as Block Group 2 of Census Tract 5991 of Los Angeles County, California, it is long and...

, Newport Beach

Newport Beach, California

Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...

, and Oceanside, California

Oceanside, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Oceanside had a population of 167,086. The population density was 3,961.8 people per square mile...

, and on air-sea rescue stations off the coast of southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

. Returning to pier 17, Treasure Island (California), on 15 December 1946, to commence preparations for inactivation, Ardent shifted to the San Diego Naval Station on 22 January 1947.

Decommissioning

Placed out of commission, in reserve, on 30 January 1947, Ardent was berthed with the San Diego group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. While she was in reserve, the ship's designation was changed to MSF-340 on 7 February 1955. Struck from the Navy List

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

on 1 July 1972, the ship was subsequently sold to the government of Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

on 19 September 1972.

Mexican Navy service

On 19 September 1972, the former Ardent was sold to the Mexican Navy

Mexican Navy

The Mexican Navy is the naval branch of the Mexican military responsible for conducting naval operations. Its stated mission is "to use the naval force of the federation for the exterior defense, and to help with internal order". The Navy consists of about 56,000 men and women plus reserves, over...

, which renamed her ARM Juan N. Álvarez (C77). Her pennant number was later changed to G09, before being changed a final time to P108 in 1993. , Juan N. Álvarez

External links

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