Borneo Campaign, April – July 1945
On 30 April, the destroyer joined a special attack unit to transport, protect, and establish units of the 26th Australian Brigade on Sauau, Borneo, N.E.I. Major landings on Tarakan Island followed a day later; enemy opposition in force was surprisingly absent.
Relieved of radar picket duty off Brunei Bay on 12 June, Philip rendezvoused with a minesweeping group and left to clear the area of Miri-Luton, Sarawak, Borneo, in preparation for an assault which was to come seven days later.
Having previously paved the way for an assault landing on Brunei Bay, Borneo, Philip covered the "sweeps" while preparations were made for the next invasion. A total of 246 mines were cut loose from the heavily-planted area, not without loss of much valuable sweep gear. Hostile gun positions in the Miri area were softened by the destroyer while the minesweepers performed their chores.
Elements of the First Australian Corps, loaded at Morotai, landed at Balikpapan, Borneo, 1 July, while Philip stood guard for enemy attempts to hinder the invasion. Remaining in the area until 19 July, the destroyer bombarded the surrounding shores and helped repel such feeble air attacks as the Japanese could muster.
The end of the war followed the Borneo operation but it did not bring about immediate return to the United States for the busy destroyer. She was sent to China on mine destruction duty and remained in the Pacific area until late in 1945.
The veteran destroyer got back to the West Coast just in time to allow the crew to spend New Year's Eve on home soil. She subsequently sailed to the Atlantic and, by Directive dated January 1947, was placed out of commission, in reserve, attached to the U.S. Atlantic Reserve Fleet, berthed at Charleston, South Carolina
Philip's classification was changed to DDE-498 on 26 March 1949.
Read more about this topic: USS Philip (DD-498)
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—Thomas Otway (1652–1685)
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—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)