
USS Stack, a 1500-ton Benham class destroyer, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia. Commissioned in November 1939, she steamed to the West Indies and Brazil on shakedown. Stack operated in the Pacific during most of 1940 and in June 1941 returned to the Atlantic. Following overhaul she served on the Neutrality Patrol and remained in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean after the United States entered World War II in December 1941. On 29 January 1942, the destroyer delivered a depth charge attack that badly damaged the German submarine U-132.
In June 1942, Stack accompanied USS Wasp to the Pacific. She escorted that aircraft carrier during the early August invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi and remained in her screen during the early weeks of the campaign to hold Guadalcanal. For the last four months of 1942 and much of 1943, Stack was employed on escort and patrol duty in the south Pacific. In mid-1943 she was part of a surface action group of destroyers that, during the night Battle of Vella Gulf on 6-7 August, delivered a devastating torpedo and gunfire attack on their Japanese counterparts.
Stack served with a carrier task force that hit the enemy's base at Rabaul on 11 November 1943, and helped fight off the resulting Japanese aerial counterattack. Later in November and through the first two months of 1944, she participated in the invasion of the Gilbert Islands, the bombardment of Nauru, and the capture of strategic bases in the Marshalls. After overhaul on the west coast, Stack spent mid-1944 in action off New Guinea and supporting the landings on Morotai. She took part in the invasions of Leyte in October 1944 and of Luzon in January 1945, providing anti-submarine and anti-aircraft protection for shipping and gunfire support for troops ashore. During March-June 1945 Stack served in the Okinawa operation.
As the Second World War fighting came to an end in August 1945, Stack was operating in the central Pacific. During the following weeks, she supported the surrender of Japanese forces in the area and the ensuing occupation effort. Returning to the U.S. at year's end, she was soon sent to Pearl Harbor where she subsequently joined the target fleet for the July 1946 Operation "Crossroads" atomic bomb tests at Bikini. Formally decommissioned in late August 1946, USS Stack was sunk as a target off Kwajalein Atoll in April 1948.
This page features selected views of USS Stack (DD-407).
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
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Photo #: NH 97966 USS Stack (DD-406) Photographed off the U.S. east coast, circa late 1939. Note snow on the ship's after gun mount covers. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 46KB; 740 x 480 pixels |
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Photo #: 19-N-42249 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 March 1943. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 81KB; 740 x 620 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-42250 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 21 March 1943. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 630 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67023 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 27 May 1944. Her camouflage is Measure 31, Design 11d. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67024 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 27 May 1944. Her camouflage is Measure 31, Design 11d. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 620 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67025 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 27 May 1944. Her camouflage is Measure 31, Design 11d. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67027 USS Stack (DD-406) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 27 May 1944. Note how her Measure 31, Design 11d camouflage pattern changes from port to starboard. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 620 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-42253 USS Stack (DD-406) Plan view amidships, from the pilothouse to the torpedo tubes, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 19 March 1943. Note details of the ship's foremast and smokestack; barge YF-462 and what appears to be workers' housing in the background. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 140KB; 605 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-42254 USS Stack (DD-406) Plan view forward, from the bow to the pilothouse, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 19 March 1943. Note details of the ship's bridge and Mark 33 gun director. Also note open passenger tractor-trailer rig at right and supply storage area in the distance. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 131KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67029 USS Stack (DD-406) Plan view forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 5 May 1944. Note long dent in her hull side, near the waterline somewhat aft of her hull number; Mark 33 gun director atop the pilothouse; and 5"/38 guns. Also note USS Farenholt (DD-491) tied up astern; floating drydock at left, diver boat just off Stack's starboard side and railway cars on the pier. Circles mark recent alterations to the ship. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 162KB; 600 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 19-N-67031 USS Stack (DD-406) Plan view aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 5 May 1944. Note quadruple torpedo tubes on the main deck, and secondary conning station between the 40mm gun mounts on the after deckhouse. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 159KB; 600 x 765 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: NH 97967 USS Stack (DD-406) View of the ship's forward portion, probably taken soon after she had been used as a target during the July 1946 Operation "Crossroads" atomic bomb tests. Note test structure on her bow and the apparently scorched condition of her paint. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 590 pixels |
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| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 1 June 2002