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Following commissioning, the destroyer U.S.S. Shaw remained at Philadelphia until April 1937, when she crossed the Atlantic on her shakedown cruise which revealed some design flaws in the class. Returning to Philadelphia in June, she commenced a year of yard work to correct deficiencies before completing acceptance trials in June of 1938. (Shaw had the No. 3 gun mount removed to improve stability, leaving her with 4 - 5" guns instead of the original 5.) Shaw transferred to the Pacific, overhauling at Mare Island in 1939. By February 1941, Shaw was at Pearl Harbor. In November 1941, Shaw was placed in drydock YFD-2 for hull maintenance along with yard tug Sotoyomo.
On December 7, 1941 Shaw, still in drydock, was hit three times by bombs during the Japanese attack, causing serious fires and structural damage. Shaw was abandoned when the fires could not be controlled and shortly after 0930 her forward magazines blew up, creating one of the most famous series of photographs of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Twenty-five crewmen were killed aboard Shaw. By January 1942, Shaw was refloated, given a temporary bow and sent to San Francisco for complete repairs. Shaw returned to the war in April of 1942, escorting the carriers Hornet and Enterprise during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October, rescuing the crew of the torpedoed destroyer Porter during this operation and later sinking that ship with gunfire.
Following service in the Guadalcanal campaign, Shaw served in the New Guinea, New Britain and Cape Gloucester operations (where three men were killed and 33 wounded in an air attack on December 26, 1943). Shaw left the war zone for Hunter’s Point shipyard and repairs which were completed by May of 1944. Shaw returned to battle in time to provide fighter direction, screening and shore bombardment for the Saipan and Guam assaults, followed by operations in the Philippines at Leyte, Lingayen Gulf and the re-capture of Manila Bay. She continued performing screening, call fire support, night illumination, and shore bombardment missions through January of 1945.
After the Philippines operations, Shaw supported the assault and occupation of Palawan during February and March of 1945. In April, Shaw operated off the Visayan Islands, sinking two Japanese barges off Bohol. Shaw grounded on an uncharted pinnacle shortly thereafter and had to return to San Francisco for repairs and modernization which was completed in August 1945, just as the war ended. Shaw transferred to the Atlantic, arriving in New York by October. Although only about ten years old, Shaw was very battle-worn and she and her sisters had been supplanted in major fleet duties by the more modern and capable Fletcher and Allen M. Sumner classes of destroyers. Shaw was decommissioned on October 2, 1945 and her name stricken from the naval register two days later. Shaw was sold and scrapped in July of 1946. (DBoyer 2007)
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