USS Rall
USS Rall was an of the United States Navy during World War II. She was sent off into the Pacific Ocean to protect convoys and other ships from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft. She performed escort and anti-submarine operations in dangerous battle areas and returned home with three battle stars.
She was laid down on 24 May 1943; launched on 23 September by Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California; sponsored by Mrs. R. R. Rall, widow of Lieutenant Rall; and commissioned on 8 April 1944.
World War II Pacific Theatre operations
Following shakedown and training exercises off the California coast in April and May, Rall departed San Francisco, California, on 9 June, escorting, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 18 June. For the next three months, she supported the Pacific Submarine Training Command.On 23 September 1944, the destroyer escort sortied from Pearl Harbor to escort troop ships carrying the occupation force for Ulithi Atoll. The task group arrived at Ulithi on 8 October and spent the remainder of the month on patrol and escort missions there and in the Palaus.
In the early weeks of November, the destroyers served in an escort group protecting the oilers of Task Group 30.8, which supported the assault ships at the Leyte Gulf landings. During this duty she rode out heavy weather from a typhoon with no serious damage.
''Rall'' sinks Japanese midget submarine
On 20 November a Japanese midget submarine torpedoed and sank oiler in Ulithi Lagoon. Laying depth charge patterns at the site of swirls in the calm water of the lagoon, Rall was credited with sinking the submarine when debris and bodies surfaced.Support invasion operations
Following patrol duties in early December, Rall and escorted two escort carriers to the Admiralty Islands, then returned to Ulithi. On 14 December Rall with other ships sortied from that atoll and arrived in Hawaii in time for Christmas.After invasion rehearsals at Maui and Kahoolawe preparatory to the Iwo Jima assault, Rall got underway 26 February 1945 as a unit of the escort group convoying the garrison troops for the occupation of that island. The transports and their escorts arrived on 21 March and landed the Army occupation units. Rall then escorted the transport group carrying assault troops back to Saipan. From there she proceeded to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, arriving on 19 March.
Assigned as a screening ship for the transports carrying the Floating Reserve, the 27th Infantry Division, for the Okinawa invasion, DE-304 sortied from Espiritu Santo on 25 March for Ulithi and the Ryukyus. En route, the convoy made an unidentified submarine contact, and Rall's lookout spotted a floating mine in the convoy path and detonated it by gunfire. The task group arrived off Okinawa on 9 April, and Rall took a screening station about 10 miles southeast of Ie Shima. The next few days were quiet except for air raid alerts.