Ellyson was laid down by
Federal Shipbuilding of
Kearny, New Jersey on 20 December 1940. She was
launched on 26 July 1941 sponsored by Miss Gordon Ellyson, daughter of Commander Ellyson, and
commissioned on 28 November 1941.
1942 Still outfitting when the
United States entered
World War II,
Ellyson was quickly readied for sea and patrolled in the Atlantic, protecting Allied shipping from
Halifax,
Nova Scotia, to the
West Indies and
Panama Canal. On 14 January 1942 she rescued 24 survivors from the sunken
Norwegian SS
Norness. On 15 June she broke the
pennant of Commander, Destroyer Squadron 10, which she was to carry proudly through the war, through the squadron's redesignation to Mine Division 20 and the subsequent conversion of its destroyers to high-speed
minesweepers. In August 1942
Ellyson began operating with the
aircraft carrier , and remained with her through the landings at
Fedhala,
French Morocco, on 8 November. After two months of escort duty along the east coast, she rejoined
Ranger on two voyages to
Casablanca to ferry
Army planes to
north Africa.
1943 On 5 April 1943
Ellyson arrived at
NS Argentia,
Dominion of Newfoundland, to prepare for operations with the
Royal Navy. She sailed for
England on 12 May in the screen of the
battleships and , and operated with the
British Home Fleet out of
Scapa Flow in the
Orkney Islands screening
convoys, giving distant support to Allied shipping to
Murmansk and
Iceland, and attempting to lure
German battleship and other German surface ships from the safety of Norwegian bases to battle on the open seas. In July she took part in a feint invasion of southern Norway to distract German attention from the real
assault on Sicily. Returning to
Norfolk, Virginia, on 9 August 1943,
Ellyson screened during the battleship's
shakedown cruise off Argentina, then returned to Norfolk with her on 24 October. On 3 November
Ellyson sailed in the scouting line for
Iowa who was carrying
President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the
Teheran Conference. Later, moving into the battleship's screen,
Ellyson touched
Bahia,
Brazil;
Freetown,
Sierra Leone,
Dakar, and
Port Royal, South Carolina; before returning to
Boston, Massachusetts, on 19 December.
1944 On 6 January 1944
Ellyson once again joined
Ranger for screen and plane guard duty in
Narragansett Bay. She sailed for north Africa 19 April and arrived at
Oran on 1 May. On the 16th while hunting
submarines
Ellyson made contact on , touching off an intensive coordinated air-sea hunt. The submarine surfaced at 23:58, and soon dived after a brief duel with .
Ellyson and continued the attack with
depth charges, forcing
U-616 to surface again.
Ellyson sank her with gunfire on the morning of the 17th, then rescued 30 survivors.
Ellyson arrived at
Plymouth, on 22 May 1944 for last-minute preparations for the
invasion of France. On 6 June she covered the Army Ranger assault on
Pointe du Hoc to knock out the heavy gun emplacements reported there. On 25 June she saw action off
Cherbourg, blasting gun installations, destroying
naval mines, and laying a
smoke screen for larger fleet units.
Ellyson sailed from
Portland Harbour on 29 June 1944, to
invade southern France on 15 August. She led the destroyer fires support group in directly behind the minesweepers and knocked out defenses for the incoming troops. On patrol on 27 August she illuminated a suspicious fishing vessel and captured it, finding 50 German submariners trying to escape.
Ellyson remained on patrol to cover the landing of reinforcements and support the invasion until October, then sailed for Boston, arriving 8 November to begin conversion to a high-speed minesweeper. She was reclassified to
hull classification symbol DMS-19 on 15 November 1944.
1945 After training in
Chesapeake Bay,
Ellyson sailed from Norfolk, on 3 January 1945 for the Pacific. On 24 March she arrived off
Okinawa with the rest of her squadron to sweep in advance of
the invasion. After thus making possible the pre-assault bombardment, she supported smaller minesweepers clearing approaches to the beaches and inner harbors. After the landings of 1 April
Ellyson joined the
radar picket line. The varied and dangerous duties assigned her squadron in the Okinawa operation took a heavy toll, only three of the 12 ships with whom she sailed in the next three months survived undamaged.
Ellyson went to the aid of her
sister ship on 6 April, attempting to tow the abandoned
kamikaze victim. Flames and the threat of a
magazine explosion forced
Ellyson to sink the stricken destroyer early on 7 April to prevent her drifting on to
Japanese-held
Ie Shima.
Ellyson herself was attacked several times and accounted for a number of Japanese planes. In July 1945
Ellyson became
flagship for the task group sweeping the
East China Sea. Upon the ceasefire, she joined
Third Fleet off
Tokyo Bay and cleared it for the incoming occupation fleet units. In September she returned to Okinawa, and from her base at
Buckner Bay, served as command ship for clearing the
Inland Sea. She sailed from Japan on 5 December for Norfolk, arriving 5 January 1946.
Post war Ellyson remained in the Atlantic, based at
Charleston, South Carolina, primarily, for training as far as the
Caribbean Sea. In 1948 she was immobilized at Charleston, resumed operations that November when she sailed to Argentia to sweep for an amphibious exercise. Attached to Mine Force,
Atlantic Fleet,
Ellyson continued to operate from Charleston on training duty along the east coast and in the Caribbean. She served in the
Mediterranean with the
Sixth Fleet in 1949, 1951, and 1953. On 4 May 1954 her hull classification symbol reverted to
DD-454.
Japanese service She was decommissioned 19 October 1954, and transferred to the Japanese Government on 20 October 1954 under the
Mutual Defense Assistance Program. She served in the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force as
Asakaze. In 1970 the ship was returned to the United States, and was sold to
Taiwan, where she was cannibalized for spare parts. ==Awards==