It is clear the Navy is always looking for better ways of accomplishing its amphibious mission. Perhaps this little tour will help to establish a perspective that states loud and clear, "We've come a long way baby".
"All turned upon LST's" wrote Sir Winston Churchill in Closing the Ring. Although over 1000 of these ships were built between 1941 and 1945, the demand was never satisfied. The major restriction on all Allied planning during World War II was the shortage of specialized landing craft. "All the great strategic combinations of the Western Powers were restricted and distorted by the shortage of tank landing craft for the transport of, not so much of tanks, but of vehicles of all kinds. The letters LST are burnt in upon the minds of all those who dealt with military affairs during this period".
Initially conceived to carry tanks on ocean passages and then to land them directly onto open beaches, many LST's were adapted for other tasks.
By 1945 over one hundred had been converted or completed to serve as hospital ships, repair ships, depot and base ships, ammunition ships, stores ships, headquarters ships, small aircraft carriers, fighter direction ships and accommodation ships. They were used as impromptu fire support ships with light guns ranged upon their decks to lay down a curtain of fire while approaching beaches in the South Pacific.
They sailed on every sea and fought in every theater and though their construction received the highest priority during the war, demand always exceeded supply. One can see an element of despair in a letter to General Marshall in 1943 relating to problems in pursuing the Italian campaign. "The whole of this difficult question only arises out of the absurb shortage of LST's" wrote Churchill. From the time that they were introduced into service during World War II LST's continued to serve with distinction in every armed conflict that the United States was involved in up to and including Operation Desert Storm.
A WORLD WAR 2 LST
The Design
LST design started moving rapidly when the suggestions for such a ship landed on the desk of John C. Niedermair, civilian technical director for the preliminary designs branch of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ships. It was November 4th, 1941, and the United States was not yet at war though ominious clouds hung on the horizon. The request for a new type of landing ship was given to Niedermair by his superior, Captain (later Admiral) Edward Cochraine, then assistant head of the Design Division of the Bureau of Ships. After studying the requirements for such a ship, Niedermair, in a stunning display of creativity, worked out the entire concept of an LST in about a half an hour on the same day. His basic design became the pattern for all of the 1051 LST's built during World War II and his concept must be considered to be the true ancestor of other ocean going amphibious ships of this type of later design. Niedermair has since become known as the "Father of the LST."
A PRE-KOREAN WAR LST
This was a 547 class vessal and represented minor changes to the WW2 vessels. She was commissioned February 14,1945, and was named the San Joaquin County at about the same time LST 1159 was named Tom Green County.| She carried a crew of about 110 and 6
Officers. Her length was 328
feet, beam 50 feet, draft 11'2" aft. Her speed was 12
knots. Her armament consisted of 8 40MMs and 12 20MMs. She operated in the central and western pacific from July 1955 until June 1969 and may have been involved in some operations with LST 1159. She was decommisioned September 26, 1969 and scrapped some time later.
LST's of the United States Navy, though conceived in 1941, with a few being commissioned in 1942, were not to see combat until the middle of 1943, first in the northern Solomon's in the Pacific and soon thereafter during the invasion of Sicily in the Mediteranian. General Dwight D. Eisenhower noted that 233 LST's were in readiness for the spectacular invasion of Normandy. At least 160 LST's were included in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines and 60 more were on hand at bloody Iwo Jima. More than 200 LST's were either at Okinawa or were en-route there when the massive attack on the island was launched on Easter Sunday 1945, and at least another 150 contributed to the final victory there.
Though scoffed at by some, LST's were tough, versitle little ships that served many functions, but stood alone in one function that no other ship in the world, of comparable capacity, could duplicate. Throughout recorded history, other than when approaching a dock or pier, mariners have been schooled in avoiding contact between their ships and land. LST's were conceived, designed, constructed and sailed to do just the opposite. They could cross the deepest ocean then rush headlong into land to offload their cargo where it was needed the most, without benefit of dock, pier or harbor. During an amphibious landing the objective was to get the maximum men, equipment, and supplies on the beach in as little time as possible. An invasion beach could look pretty chaotic during the peak initial landing period.
An LST Beach Party
Naval Historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote about LST's, "They were literally what their crews called them, Large, Slow, Target's." Morison called LST's "the most useful all around craft invented by the Navy."
LST 1159 - Tom Green County
Four great groups of ships were built by the United States, the first being the 1051 ships built during World War II. The second phase of U.S. LST construction began with the LST 1156 which was commissioned in November of 1952 and was later named the USS Terrebonne Parish. (The USS LST 1153 and the USS LST 1154, though great ships, were built as experimential steam powered ships and were not considered as a great group of ships) Fifteen of the Terrebonne Parish class of ships were built. LST 1159 - Tom Green County was one of this class of ships. One of the major improvements of this class over the World War II class was the mounting of four diesel engines rather than the two mounted in the previous design. This allowed a speed of about 15 knots, or about 50% higher than the World War II version.
The third major group of American built LST's was the DeSoto County class, of which seven were built. This class had a higher degree of habitability for the crew and embarked troops. They were considered the ultimate design available with traditional LST bow doors, and with a top speed of 17.5 knots. This class of LST was the fastest LST in service prior to the arrival of the Fourth Great Group of Ships: American Newport class in 1969.
A Newport Class LSTShips of this class are the first to depart from the bow-door design that characterized the workhorses of World War II.
What Next??
Description: Primary landing ships,
resembling small aircraft carriers, designed to put troops
on hostile shores. Features: Modern U.S. Navy
amphibious assault ships are called upon to perform as
primary landing ships for assault operations of Marine
expeditionary units. These ships use Landing Craft Air
Cushion (LCAC), conventional landing craft and helicopters
to move Marine
assault forces ashore. In a secondary role, using
Harrier aircraft and anti-submarine warfare
helicopters, these ships perform sea control and limited
power projection missions. The Wasp-class are
the largest amphibious ships in the world. The lead ship,
USS Wasp (LHD-1), was commissioned in July 1989.
Builders: Ingalls Shipbuilding,
Pascagoula, Miss.
Description: Air cushion craft for transporting,
ship-to-shore and across the beach, personnel, weapons,
equipment, and cargo of the assault elements of the Marine
Air-Ground Task Force.
Features: The landing
craft air cushion (LCAC) is a high-speed, over-the-beach
fully amphibious landing craft capable of carrying a 60-75
ton payload. It is used to transport weapons systems,
equipment, cargo and personnel from ship to shore and
across the beach. The advantages of air-cushion landing
craft are numerous. They can carry heavy payloads, such as
an M-1 tank, at high speeds. Their payload and speed mean
more forces reach the shore in a shorter time, with shorter
intervals between trips. The air cushion allows this
vehicle to reach more than 70 percent of the world's
coastline, while conventional landing craft can land at
only 15 percent of the coasts. Background:
Thirty-three air-cushion landing craft were authorized and
appropriated through FY86. An additional 15 were funded in
FY89, 12 more in FY90 and FY91. The remaining 24 were
funded in FY92. As of December 1995, 82 LCACs had been
delivered to the Navy.
Description: Amphibious Command ships provide command
and control for fleet commanders. Background:
Commissioned in 1970, these are the only ships to be
designed initially for an amphibious command ship role.
Earlier amphibious command ships lacked sufficient speed to
keep up with a 20-knot amphibious force. Subsequently,
both ships became fleet flagships.
H3>General Characteristics, Blue Ridge
ClassBuilders:
Crew: 52 officers, 790 enlisted
The "Gator"Navy equipment keeps evolving, improving,
getting bigger, and more complex. The Officers and crew get
more demands put on them, require more training and develop
skills that crewmen in my time never even thought of. The
men and women of todays Navy provide us with ample reasons
to be proud of todays Navy and to continue to be proud of
having served in a great branch of the military.
|
