were warmly commended by the commanding general ashore for their effective close range fire support. She then served on convoy duty between Naples and Oran, until 11 January 1944. Returning to the beachheads, she covered Allied troops storming ashore at Anzio 22 January. This Joint American–British operation initially met little opposition, but later in the day the Germans struck with a fierce counterattack. Heavy air attacks marked the following days and, in less than a week, Ludlow splashed two bombers one fighter, and three rocket glider bombs. A 5-inch shell crashed through the torpedo director deck and the pilothouse, causing Ludlow to retire, but serious damage was averted when Chief Gunners Mate James D. Johnson located the hot, unexploded shell and managed to get it topside and overboard. Antisubmarine duty Ludlow repaired at New York, then trained along the Atlantic coast and returned to the Mediterranean 20 April for antisubmarine patrols. On 19 May, Ludlow and Niblack depth charged to the surface, where Ludlows main battery sank her. After convoy alignments in the western Mediterranean, Ludlow steamed 11 August from Palermo for the invasion of southern France. Following preinvasion bombardment and beachhead screening off Fréjus, she joined Augusta from 25 to 30 August to help overcome the last resistance at Marseilles. While on coastal fire support missions around Monaco, she encountered not only floating mines and E-boats, but also attacks by explosive-laden boats and human torpedoes. Ludlow captured three operators of these one man diving machines on 5 September after a series of depth charge attacks. Fire support, convoy and patrol duty continued until 23 January 1945, when Ludlow sailed for a month's plane guard duty off the west coast of Africa, returning to Boston on 28 February. In April she sailed to England to escort a convoy of LSTs stateside, then prepared for duty in the Pacific. Convoys escorted Pacific Theater Transiting the Panama Canal 27 June, she reached Pearl Harbor 17 July and began training for operations with the fast carriers. The surrender of Japan, however diverted her to the job of escorting ships filled with occupation troops to the home islands of the defeated Empire. She departed Pearl Harbor 7 September and arrived at Wakayama, Japan on 27 July. Ludlow operated in the Far East until 3 November, then sailed for the Aleutians where she saw a brief period of "Magic Carpet" duty. Decommissioning Early in 1946,