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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

USS Wakefield (AP-21)

International Radio Call Sign:
November - Whiskey - Delta - Golf NWDG

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Precedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive, 30 January 1942, Singapore)
Second Row - American Defense Service Medal (with bronze "A" clasp) - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal
Third Row - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (1) - World War II Victory Medal - Philippines Defense Medal
Personnel Awards

Purple Heart (5-KIA, 9-WIA, Singapore, 30 January 1942)

USS Wakefield (AP-21) was manned by the US Coast Guard during World War II

Wakefield Class Transport:

Laid down, 6 December 1930, at New York Shipbuilding Co, Camden, N.J., as SS Manhattan for the United States Lines

Launched, 5 December 1931

Acquired by the Navy, 14 June 1941, at New York, N.Y.

Commissioned USS Wakefield (AP-21), 15 June 1941, CDR. W. N. Derby, USCG, in command

During World War II Wakefield (AP-21) participated in the following campaign:

**Asiatic-Pacific Campaign**
Campaign and Dates
Philippine Islands Operations Evacuation of Singapore, 29 to 30 January 1942

Decommissioned due to fire damage in September 1942

Recommissioned, 10 February 1943, at Boston, MA., with a Coast Guard crew

Decommissioned, 16 June 1946, at New York

Laid up as part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, at New York in 1954

Declared surplus, 7 June 1957, and transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), for lay up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, Hudson River Group

Struck from the Naval Register in 1959

Final Disposition, sold for scrapping by MARAD, 5 March 1965, to Union Minerals & Alloys Corp.

USS Wakefield earned one battle star for World War II service

Specifications:
Displacement 22,559 t.(lt) 33,560 t.(fl)
Length 705'
Beam 86'
Draft 30' 9"
Speed 21.5 kts.
Complement

Officers 46

Enlisted 888
Troop Capacity

Officers 361

Enlisted 6,659
Largest Boom Capacity 25t.
Armament

one single 5"/38 cal dual purpose gun mount

three single 3"/50 cal dual purpose gun mounts

four quad 40mm AA gun mounts

eight .50 cal machine guns
Fuel Capacities

NSFO 31,400 Bbls

Diesel 300 Bbls
Propulsion

two New York Shipbuilding steam turbines

six Babcock and Wilcox A-type boilers 400psi 695°

single Falk Main Reduction Gears

four turbo-drive 500Kw 120V/240V D.C. Ship's Service Generators

two propellers, 30,000shp

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Source
Mercantile Service
	564k	Pre-war advertisement for trans-Atlantic travel aboard SS Manhattan	Tommy Trampp
	74k	SS Manhattan in commercial service for the United States Lines prior to World War II. German tobacco card series C, Saba-Schiffsbilder cigarettes.	Tommy Trampp
	56k		Tommy Trampp
	264k	Post card image of SS Manhattan in commercial service for the United States Lines prior to World War II.	Tommy Trampp
USS Wakefield (AP-21)
	32k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, 11 May 1942, location unknown. *Wakefield* is wearing camouflage scheme 12R. US Navy photo.	Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
	45k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) on fire at sea in the Atlantic Ocean, circa 3-12 September 1942. USS Wakefield was US bound carrying 850 passengers, mostly American construction workers when the fire broke out. US Navy photo from Acme. Photo from the collections of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History	Bill Gonyo
	153k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) stopped as clouds of smoke pour out of the burning American transport. The fires were eventually extinguished and she was towed to Halifax, NS. Photo from "United States Destroyer Operations in World War II," by Theodore Roscoe.	Robert Hurst
	87k	USS Wakefield (AP-21)'s civilian construction workers crowd the decks aft waiting to abandon ship. Note cargo nets have been placed over the side. Photo from "United States Destroyer Operations in World War II," by Theodore Roscoe.	Robert Hurst
	60k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) under tow from Halifax, Nova Scotia, 2 October 1942, after being virtually destroyed by fire in September 1942. The unblemished mottling of her paint can be seen on the forward hull and on her after end. US National Archives photo # 80-G-16505, a US Navy photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.	Robert Hurst
	42k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, date and location unknown.	Hyperwar US Navy in WWII
	107k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) "COAST GUARD TRANSPORT HEADS INTO BOSTON. . . . . . .The Coast Guard-manned troop transport, USS WAKEFIELD, arrived in Boston this morning loaded down with more than 8,100 fighting Yanks, from Naples, Italy. Also aboard the transport were Brig. Gen. Raymond E. S. Williamson, of Falmouth, Mass., of the 91st Infantry Division, seven American Red Cross; and six UNRRA members, one of whom was Miss Barbara Johnston of Morson, Mass. The passenger list also included seven members of OWI, one of the OSS, and under heavy guard, six Japanese Diplomats whose status as former representatives to the European Axis was not revealed."; 22 August 1945. US Coast Guard photo from the collections of the Office of the Coast Guard Historian.	Mike Green
	94k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) arriving at Boston, 22 August 1945. US Coast Guard photo from the collections of the Office of the Coast Guard Historian.	Mike Green
	98k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo # No. V4-W215-1.	Robert Hurst
	49k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, date and location unknown. US Navy photo.	Robert Hurst
	80k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, date and location unknown.	Capt Jerry Mason, USN
	77k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, date and location unknown.	Capt Jerry Mason, USN
	81k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway silhouetted against the setting sun. The photo was taken after USS Wakefield was recommissioned. US Navy photo from "All Hands" magazine, August 1945 issue.	CAPT. Jerry Mason, USN (Ret)
	59k	USS Wakefield (AP-21) underway, location unknown, 1945 US Navy photo.	Courtesy, Chuck Ulrich, coordinator/historian AP Transport Group

USS Wakefield (AP-21)
DANFS history entry located at the US Naval History and Heritage Command

Commanding Officers
01	CDR. Derby, Wilfred Neville ;RADM (USCG)	15 June 1941 - 17 August 1941
02	CAPT. Scammell, William Kirk ;RADM (USCG)	17 August 1941 -15 May 1942
03	CDR. Bradbury, Harold Gardner (USCG)	15 May 1942 - 29 September 1942
	Decommissioned	29 September 1942 - 10 February 1944
04	CAPT. Raney, Roy Livinston (USCG)	10 February 1944 - January 1945
05	CDR. Grey, James R. (USCG)	January 1945 - 16 June 1946


Courtesy Wolfgang Hechler and Ron Reeves

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation - Navy Log

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office - Wakefield AP-21
Bomb Damage, January 30, 1942, Singapore

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This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo

Last Updated 3 February 2012