Revenge VI (AM-110)
1943-1966
A general word classification.
VI
(AM-110: displacement 890; length 221'3"; beam 32'0"; draft 10'9"; speed 18.0 knots; complement 100; armament 1 3-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 2 20 millimeter, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog}, 4 depth charge projectors, 2 depth charge tracks; class Auk)
Right (AM-110) was laid down on 19 June 1942 at Seattle, Wash., by the Winslow Marine Railway & Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 7 November 1942; renamed Revenge 15 May 1943; and commissioned on 21 July 1943, Cmdr. Frederick F. Sima, DE-V(G), USNR, in command.
After outfitting at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Wash., Revenge underwent shakedown out of San Pedro and San Diego, Calif. She departed on 13 October 1943 for further training in the Hawaiian Islands, and on 10 November she set course for Makin Island, the Gilberts, arriving two days later. After two days of minesweeping, she commenced antisubmarine patrol off Makin and Tarawa.
Following Christmas and training at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, Revenge sailed for Kwajalein Atoll and commenced minesweeping operations on 13 January 1944. For a brief period following the invasion, she alternated between antisubmarine patrol and harbor entrance control. From the end of February through mid-May, she was utilized as an escort vessel, travelling between the Marshalls, the Gilberts and the Hawaiian Islands. She then returned to the west coast.
Upon completion of a short availability at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif.,Revenge again commenced escort duty out of Pearl Harbor. September 1944 brought the resumption of training exercises, this time at Hilo, after which she sailed for Manus, the Admiralties. On October 11th she headed for the Philippines and the invasion of Leyte.
The weather proved exceedingly rough and, the night before the initial sweep, the ships encountered 20-foot seas. In spite of the weather, Mine Division Thirteen (of which Revenge was a unit) entered Leyte Gulf at daybreak with gear streamed. No navigational plots could be kept, nor could the ships remain on stations as the weather had reached typhoon intensity. No enemy action was observed, but activities were made hazardous by the abundance of floating mines and the difficulties involved in maneuvering the craft. The weather abated somewhat the next day and sweeping operations were earned out in a more normal fashion. After six days, Revenge was credited with the destruction of nearly 70 mines.
Once the beachhead was secured and the anchorage made safe, the division continued clearance sweeps around Homonhon and Samar. On 27 November 1944, Pursuit (AM-108) and Revenge made an exploratory sweep on the western side of Leyte.
Revenge was scheduled to participate in the invasion of Luzon early in January 1945, but, because of a damaged propeller shaft, she was ordered to Pearl Harbor for repairs. In February she was again assigned convoy duty, this time out of Ulithi, Western Carolines. Then, on March 19 she got underway with some 70 other minecraft for the invasion of Okinawa.
Revenge. encountered no early difficulties off Okinawa, operating just off the invasion beaches, where strong tides caused some anxiety and these very tides caused minesweeperSkylark (AM-63) to drift into unswept waters on 28 March, where she struck a mine and sank. In the attendant rescue operations, Revenge cleared a path to one side of Skylark while Sage (AM-111) cleared a path to the other. Rescue work proved so swift ands efficient that only five men died in the stricken minesweeper and they had been slain in the initial explosion.
For 76 days, Revenge remained on patrol off Okinawa. In March 1945 her gunners detected and sank a Japanese suicide boat as it attempted to run in under cover of darkness. Late in June relief was assigned and Revenge called at Guam for a two week availability.
In July 1945 Revenge returned to Okinawa, but soon departed with a small minesweeping group for the East China Sea. Then, on 27 August, Revenge went alongside Ellyson (DMS-19) to take aboard a Japanese pilot for the sweep of Tokyo Bay. The next morning Revenge led the group into Tokyo Bay. There was a fairly wide channel, and safe anchorages were quickly charted for the rest of the fleet. The minesweepers then shifted operations to the coastline. After a month of such operations and some additional time in Tokyo Bay, the minesweepers were ordered to Sasebo.
Operations out of Sasebo took Revenge and her sisters into the East China Sea and the Straits of Formosa. She spent Christmas of 1945 in Shanghai, and in January 1946 returned to Sasebo. In mid-January 1946 she sailed for San Pedro, Calif., and from there through the Panama Canal for Charleston, S.C., for inactivation overhaul.
Following inactivation on 18 March 1947, she was assigned to the Texas Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Orange, Texas, where she remained until recommissioned on 14 February 1951. She then provided training services along the east coast as well as in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Reclassified as a fleet minesweeper (steel hull) MSF-110 on 7 March 1955, she was decommissioned two days later and was assigned to the Florida Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Green Cove Springs, Florida.
In 1961 Revenge was transferred to the Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility, Orange, Texas, where she remained until stricken from the Navy List on 1 November 1966. She was sold for scrap in May 1967.
Revenge earned six battle stars for her World War II service..
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
9 April 2024
