Allied Warships

USS Bancroft (ii) (DD 598)

Destroyer of the Bristol class

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Destroyer
Class	Bristol
Pennant	DD 598
Built by	Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. (Quincy, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
Ordered	16 Dec 1940
Laid down	1 May 1941
Launched	31 Dec 1941
Commissioned	30 Apr 1942
End service	1 Feb 1946
History	Decommissioned 1 February 1946. Stricken 1 June 1971. Sold 16 March 1973 and broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Bancroft (ii) (DD 598)

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	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. John Leslie Melgaard, USN	30 Apr 1942	12 Jul 1943
2	T/Cdr. Ray Maurer Pitts, USN	12 Jul 1943	30 Sep 1944
3	Gordon Haskell Smith, USNR	30 Sep 1944	Oct 1944
4	Charles Ellsworth Pond, USN	Oct 1944	1 Feb 1946

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Notable events involving Bancroft (ii) include:

17 Mar 1944
USS Iowa (Capt. J.L. McCrea, USN) departed Majoro Atoll as part of Task Group 50.10 which was to bombard Milli Island. The other ships of the task force were battleship USS New Jersey (Capt. C.F. Holden, USN) and destroyers USS Dewey (Lt.Cdr. R.G. Copeland, USN), USS Hull (Lt.Cdr. C.W. Consolvo, USN), USS MacDonough (Cdr. J.W. Ramey, USN) and USS Phelps (Lt.Cdr. D.L. Martineau, USN). Air cover was provided by fleet carrier USS Lexington (Capt. F.B. Stump, USN) escorted by destroyers USS Bancoft (Cdr. R.M. Pitts, USN), USS Meade (Cdr. J. Munholland, USN) and USS Edwards (Cdr. P.G. Osler, USN).

For the daily positions of USS Iowa during this operation see the map below.