Barbet II (YMS-45)
(YMS-45: dp. 320; 1. 136'0"; b. 24'6"; dr. 6'1"; s. 12 k.; cpl. 33; a. 1 3", 2 20mm.; cl. YMS 1)
Any of a number of tropical songbirds exhibiting a stout bill set with bristles.
II
YMS-45 was laid down on 20 June 1941 at Brooklyn, N.Y., by the Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp.; launched on 20 April 1942; and commissioned on 8 June 1942, Lt.(jg.) LeRoy E. Rogers, Jr., USNR, in command.
After trials and outfitting, the motor minesweeper reported for duty to the Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier. On 31 August, she departed Norfolk in company with YMS 44, bound for Bermuda. The ship operated as an escort vessel in the West Indies through the end of the war in Europe. She was based at Bermuda until 4 October 1943 when she and YMS-44 moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On 6 June 1945, YMS-45 headed for Hampton Roads and arrived at Norfolk on the 11th. She stood out to sea again on 18 July as an element of Task Unit (TU) 29.01, bound for the Pacific. The motor minesweeper transited the Panama Canal between 29 July and 1 August and reached San Pedro, Calif., on 13 August. From that port, she shifted south to San Diego where she remained for seven weeks.
On 1 October, YMS-45 put to sea and shaped a course for Oahu. The warship entered Pearl Harbor on the 13th and operated in Hawaiian waters until 1 December when, in company with four other motor minesweepers, she got underway for the Ryukyu Islands. She and her colleagues arrived in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, on 20 December and conducted minesweeping operations in those waters for about a month. After a three week visit to Sasebo, Japan, in February 1946, the warship returned home via Pearl Harbor. She reached San Francisco on 28 March and remained there until 13 June. On that day, the ship headed south with TU 99.12.9. Steaming by way of San Diego, she arrived in the Canal Zone on 28 June. She entered port at New York on 12 July and was decommissioned there on 5 August 1946.
The minesweeper remained in reserve until 13 January 1947 when she was placed in service as a school ship for reservists of the 3d Naval District. On 19 August 1947, YMS-45 was named Barbet and redesignated AMS-41. On 11 May 1950, the warship was placed in commission, in reserve. On 21 November 1950, she was placed in full commission. The minesweeper continued to serve as a school ship for New York reservists until early in 1952 when she was reassigned to Mine Squadron (MinRon) 4 and to the Mine Countermeasures Station at Panama City, Fla. That duty, punctuated by repair periods at various locations along the east coast, filled the remainder of her active career.
Barbet was redesignated MSC(0) 41 on 7 February 1955; but, on 18 April 1955, she began inactivation preparations at Green Cove Springs, Fla. She was decommissioned at that port on 17 June 1955 and remained in reserve there for a little more than four years. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 1 November 1960. Details regarding her ultimate disposition are unavailable, but, presumably, she was scrapped.
Barbet (AMS-41) earned one battle star as YMS-45 for her role in the postwar minesweeping performed off Okinawa and in Japanese waters.
Raymond A. Mann
7 March 2006
