USS Laffey (DD-724) is an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, which was constructed during World War II, laid down and launched in 1943, and commissioned in February 1944. The ship earned the nickname “The Ship That Would Not Die” for her exploits during the D-Day invasion and the battle of Okinawa when she successfully withstood a determined assault by conventional bombers and the most unrelenting kamikaze air attacks in history. Today, Laffey is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is preserved as a museum ship at Patriots Point, outside Charleston, South Carolina.
The destroyer USS Laffey (DD-724) became a famous hero ship after surviving an 80-minute attack by 22 Japanese kamikaze planes and conventional bombers on April 16, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. F. Julian Becton, Laffey’s Captain, wrote an excellent book entitled The Ship That Would Not Die (1980), which describes in vivid detail the attack where seven planes hit the destroyer, another two dropped bombs that hit the ship, and three got splashed by the ship’s guns so near that they sprayed shrapnel across the decks. Due to heroic efforts by Laffey’s crewmen, the ship somehow stayed afloat despite fires, flooding, several inoperable guns, and a jammed rudder, but 32 men died and 72 men were wounded in the battle.
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