Name USS LCI(L)-93 Launched January 1943 Struck Unknown | Laid down December 1942 Commissioned 15 February 1943 | |
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Builder Consolidated Steel Corporation
Orange, Texas | ||
USS LCI(L)-93 was an amphibious assault ship (Landing Craft Infantry - Large), commissioned in 1943 by the United States Coast Guard. It participated in the Operation Husky Landings in Sicily on 10 July 1943, as well as the landings at Salerno, Italy.
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Normandy Invasion
As part of the massive amphibious force created for The Normandy Invasion, LCI(L)-93 took part in the landings at Omaha Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944. After offloading its second cargo of American troops, the vessel became stranded between the shore and a sandbar. German Artillery then opened fire on the vulnerable ship, seriously wounding several soldiers and Coast Guardsmen. Among those injured were Stewards Mate 2/c John Roberts, an African American crewman, who lost his leg when an enemy shell passed through a bulkhead.
Badly damaged, LCI(L)-93 was lost as a result of this action.
In Art and Television
In addition to several photographs taken of LCI(L)-93 after the battle, several paintings of Omaha Beach depict the ship under fire on D-Day. The story of LCI(L)-93 was also told in The History Channel documentary A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day, with veteran John Roberts recounting his story of the ship's action at Normandy.