USS Avocet (AVP-4)

USS Avocet (AM-19/AVP-4) was a Lapwing-class minesweeper initially acquired by the U.S. Navy for the dangerous task of removing mines from minefields laid in the water to prevent ships from passing.

Avocet was commissioned at the Norfolk Navy Yard, on 17 September 1918, as a minesweeper with Lieutenant Christian Crone in command.http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a14/avocet-i.htm DANFS entry from the Naval Historical Center Recommissioned on 8 September 1925 as a small seaplane tender, USS Avocet (AVP-4) was present during the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941. The ship survived the war, and was sold as a hulk on 6 December 1946.

Avocets role in the Attack on Pearl Harbor

At about 0745 on Sunday, 7 December 1941, Avocet's security watch reported Japanese planes bombing the seaplane hangars at the south end of Ford Island and sounded general quarters. Her crew promptly brought up ammunition to her guns and the ship opened fire. The first shot from Avocets starboard 3 in (76.2 mm) gun scored a direct hit on a Nakajima B5NN2 carrier attack plane ("Kate") that had just scored a torpedo hit on the battleship , moored nearby. The "Kate", from the aircraft carrier 's air group, caught fire, slanted down from the sky, and crashed on the grounds of the naval hospital, one of five such planes lost by Kaga that morning.

Initially firing...
Read More