USS William P. Biddle (APA-8) 1919 - 1946
Heywood Class Attack Transport
Displacement: 14,450 Tons
Dimensions: 507' x 56' x 25'6"
Armament: One 5", Four 3", Four .50 cal machine guns
Speed: 16.5 Knots
Building Information:
Laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp of Alameda, California as the the British War Surf
Launched: 1919
Served variously as the Eclipse, City of Hamburg, City of San Francisco as a passenger and mail steamship.
Commissioned: November 13, 1940 as the USS William P. Biddle
Served throughout WWII in the Pacific and Atlantic Theaters as a troop transport for the Marines and Army, ultimately serving at landings in Casablanca, New Caledonia, Sicily, Tarawa, the Marshalls, Guadalcanal, and Leyte Gulf. She was enroute with casulaties from the Phillipines to Ulithi on August 8th, 1945 (V-J Day)
Decommissioned April 9, 1946
She remained in the reserve fleet until 1957 when she was sold and broken up for scrap.
