USS Oyster Bay (AGP-6), originally and later
AVP-28, was a
United States NavyThe 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...
motor torpedo boat tenderMotor torpedo boat tender is a type of ship used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The Motor torpedo boat tender's task was to act as a tender in remote areas for patrol boats and to provide the necessary fuel and provisions for the torpedo boats she was responsible for...
in commission from 1943 to 1946.
Construction, commissioning, and shakedown
Oyster Bay was laid down as a
Barnegat-class|The Barnegat class was a large class of United States Navy small seaplane tenders built during World War II. Thirty were completed as seaplane tenders, four as motor torpedo boat tenders, and one as a catapult training ship.-Design:...
small
seaplane tenderA seaplane tender is a ship that provides facilities for operating seaplanes. These ships were the first aircraft carriers and appeared just before the First World War.-History:...
designated AVP-28 at
Lake Washington ShipyardLake Washington Shipyards was a shipyard in Houghton, Washington on the shore of Lake Washington. Today the shipyards are the site of the lakeside Carillon Point business park...
,
HoughtonHoughton is one of the lakeside neighborhoods of the city of Kirkland, Washington. Consisting mostly of upscale, single-family homes, Houghton overlooks Lake Washington and is one of the wealthier districts of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle. The village was named for Willard Houghton, a local...
Washington, on 17 April 1942, and was launched on 7 September 1942, sponsored by Mrs. William K. Harrill. On 1 May 1943 she was reclassified as a motor torpedo tender and redesignated AGP–6 and, accordingly, completed to a modified design to allow her to fulfill this new role. She was
commissionedShip commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...
on 17 November 1943, with
Lieutenant CommanderLieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Walter W. Holroyd, USNR, in command.
Oyster Bay departed
SeattleSeattle 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...
, Washington, on 7 December 1943 for
shakedownA shakedown is a period of testing or a trial journey undergone by a ship, aircraft or other craft and its crew before being declared operational. Statistically, a proportion of the components will fail after a relatively short period of use, and those that survive this period can be expected to...
at
San DiegoSan 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...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, which lasted for the remainder of 1943.
New Guinea campaign
Oyster Bay got underway from San Diego on 2 January 1944, steaming to
BrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, en route
Milne BayMilne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, southeastern Papua New Guinea. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne.The area was a site of the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942....
,
New GuineaNew Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, for motor torpedo boat tender operations in support of the
New Guinea campaignThe New Guinea campaign was one of the major military campaigns of World War II.Before the war, the island of New Guinea was split between:...
. She serviced two squadrons of motor torpedo boats beginning on 28 February 1944 and, on 9 March 1944, got underway escorting 15 patrol torpedo boats (PT boats) to
Seeadler HarborSeeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II...
in the
Admiralty IslandsThe Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...
.
The
springSpring is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition period between winter and summer. Spring and "springtime" refer to the season, and broadly to ideas of rebirth, renewal and regrowth. The specific definition of the exact timing of "spring" varies according to local climate, cultures and...
of 1944 was an active one for
Oyster Bay. On 14 March 1944, she bombarded the
JapanJapan 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...
ese shore installations on
Pityilu IslandPityilu Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and part of the Admiralty Islands. It is off the northern coast of Manus Island and is nearly 4.8 km long and varies in width from 76 to 198 metres.-History:...
in support of the
United States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. On 20 March 1944 she was underway for Langemak, New Guinea, with 42 wounded
soldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
s for evacuation to Base Hospital,
FinschhafenFinschhafen is a district on the northeast coast of the Morobe province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the port of the same name.The port was discovered in 1884 by the German researcher Otto Finsch. In 1885 the German colony of German New Guinea created a town on the site and named it...
, New Guinea. After returning to Seeadler Harbor on 31 March 1944, she bombarded Ndrilo Island to the east of Seeadler Harbor preparatory to the landing there by U.S. Army ground forces.
Oyster Bay shifted to Dreger Harbor on 19 April 1944.
AlliedThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
forces moved on
AitapeAitape is a small town of about 8,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo, and marks the midpoint of the highway between these two capitals...
on 22 April 1944, and on 24 April 1944, two days after the landings at Aitape,
Oyster Bay departed for the area with 15 PT boats. Japanese planes attacked the
convoyA 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...
on 27 April 1944, but, while one PT boat was hit,
Oyster Bay escaped damage.
In May 1944,
Oyster Bay proceeded to
HollandiaJayapura City is the capital of Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is situated on Yos Sudarso Bay . Its approximate population in 2002 was 200,000....
, an area of heated Allied action. Air raid alerts were frequent, but no Japanese attacks ensued.
Oyster Bay got underway to Wakde Island on 5 June 1944 with two squadrons of PT boats. After Allied forces had invaded Wakde Island on 17 May 1944 to capture a major Japanese air base there, the Japanese continued to hammer away at the newly acquired airstrip. Later in June 1944,
Oyster Bay bombarded shore installations on the Wicki River and at Samar Village, preparatory to U.S. Army attacks.
Leaving
Mios WoendiMios Woendi is the name of an island and was a forward base for United States Navy during World War II. The US Navy code word for the base located in Schouten Islands, was Stinker...
Island on 12 July 1944,
Oyster Bay reported to Brisbane for
shipyardShipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
availability. A
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
plane struck the top of the ship’s mast, carried away her
antennaAn antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
e and damaged her
navigationNavigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...
lights on 22 July 1944, but hasty repairs permitted
Oyster Bay to depart for Mios Woendi on 16 August 1944.
Philippines campaign
Oyster Bay then steamed on to
MorotaiMorotai Island Regency is a regency of North Maluku province, Indonesia, located on Morotai Island. The population was 54,876 in 2007.-History:...
, needed as a staging area for the
Philippines campaignPhilippines campaign may refer to various military campaigns that have been fought in the Philippine Islands, including:-Spanish colonial period :...
. As the Allies assaulted the beaches of
Leyte IslandLeyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...
in the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in October 1944,
Oyster Bay set out for
Leyte GulfLeyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...
. Japanese planes counterattacked, but U.S. Navy planes and anti-aircraft fire took a heavy toll of them. In November 1944,
Oyster Bay went to
general quartersGeneral Quarters or Battle Stations is an announcement made aboard a naval warship to signal the crew to prepare for battle or imminent damage....
221 times, but was not attacked. She shifted to
San Juanico StraitSan Juanico Strait is a narrow strait in the Philippines. It separates the islands of Samar and Leyte. At its narrowest point, the strait is only wide, said to be the narrowest strait in the world. It is crossed by the San Juanico Bridge....
on 21 November 1944 and on 24 November 1944, while taking on
gasolineGasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
, she was attacked by two
Nakajima B5N|-See also:-References:NotesBibliography* Bridgwater, H.C. and Peter Scott. Combat Colours Number 4: Pearl Harbor and Beyond, December 1941 to May 1942. Luton, Bedfordshire, UK: Guideline Publications, 2001. ISBN 0-9539040-6-7....
"Kate"
torpedo bomberA torpedo bomber is a bomber aircraft designed primarily to attack ships with aerial torpedoes which could also carry out conventional bombings. Torpedo bombers existed almost exclusively prior to and during World War II when they were an important element in many famous battles, notably the...
s that were driven off by heavy antiaircraft fire. Two Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighters dived on
Oyster Bay on the 26 November 1944, but intense antiaicraft fire shot them both down.
In January 1945,
Oyster Bay got underway for Hollandia, then returned to Leyte Gulf for motor torpedo boat tender operations on 8 February 1945. Departing for the invasion of
ZamboangaZamboanga Peninsula / Western Mindanao is a peninsula and an administrative region in the Philippines. Designated as Region IX, the region consists of three provinces, namely, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga Sibugay, its component cities of Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, and...
on 6 March 1945, she arrived two days before the invasion and remained with the bombardment group until the landings.
Oyster Bay next rendezvoused with PT boats in
Sarangani BaySarangani Bay is a bay located on the southern tip of Mindanao in the Philippines. It opens up to the Celebes Sea on the Pacific Ocean. General Santos City, one of the Philippines most important cities and ports, is located on the bay, making the bay one of the busiest and often the sight of...
at
MindoroMindoro is the seventh-largest island in the Philippines. It is located off the coast of Luzon, and northeast of Palawan. The southern coast of Mindoro forms the northeastern extremum of the Sulu Sea.-History:...
on 24 April 1945 and supported them during night raids against the Japanese positions in
Davao GulfDavao Gulf is a gulf found in Mindanao in the Philippines. It has an area of 308,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from Celebes Sea. It is surrounded by all four provinces in the Davao Region. The largest island in the gulf is Samal Island. Davao City, on the gulf's west...
. In May 1945,
Oyster Bay reported to Leyte Gulf, thence steaming to
SamarSamar, formerly and also known as Western Samar, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Catbalogan City and covers the western portion of Samar as well as several islands in the Samar Sea located to the west of the mainland...
. She departed on 18 May 1945 for Tawi Tawi, where she continued motor torpedo boat tender operations until she returned to Guinan Harbor on 6 August 1945.
Post-World War II service
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended with the cessation of hostilities with Japan on 15 August 1945
Oyster Bay turned toward the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on 10 November 1945 and steamed into
San Francisco BaySan 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...
, California, on 29 November 1945.
Decommissioning, reserve, and disposal
DecommissionedTo decommission a ship is to terminate her career in service in the armed forces of her nation. A somber occasion, it has little of the elaborate ceremony of ship commissioning, but carries significant tradition....
on 26 March 1946,
Oyster Bay was struck from the
Naval Vessel RegisterThe 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 12 April 1946 and transferred to the Maritime Commission on 12 August 1946.
Transferred back to the U.S. Navy on 3 January 1949,
Oyster Bay was reclassified as a small seaplane tender and redesignated AVP–28 on 16 March 1949. She was berthed at
StocktonStockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, California, where she remained in the Pacific Reserve Fleet until 1957, seeing no active service as a seaplane tender.
Italian Navy service
Oyster Bay was transferred to the Government of Italy on 23 October 1957, She then served in the
Italian NavyItalian Navy may refer to:* Pre-unitarian navies of the Italian states* Regia Marina, the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of Italy * Italian Navy , the navy of the Italian Republic...
as the
special forcesSpecial forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
tender
Pietro Cavezzale (A5301).
The Italian Navy decommissioned
Pietro Cavezzale in October 1993 and she was stricken by the Italian Navy on 31 March 1994. She was sold for scrapping in February 1996.