Name USS LST-939 Commissioned 14 September 1944 Struck 31 July 1946 Launched 23 August 1944 | Laid down 21 July 1944 Decommissioned 22 June 1946 Construction started 21 July 1944 Length 100 m | |
Builder Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Hingham, Massachusetts | ||
USS LST-939 was a United States Navy LST-542-class tank landing ship in commission from 1944 to 1948.
Contents
LST-939 was laid down on 21 July 1944 at Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc. in Hingham, Massachusetts, and commissioned on 14 September 1944. During World War II LST-939 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated in the Asiatic-Pacific campaign, including the assault and occupation of Okinawa, Gunto, from April through June 1945.
Service history
During World War II, LST-939 was assigned to the Pacific Theater of Operations. LST-939 left New York Harbor in the fall of 1944, arriving first in Havana, Cuba, and then transiting the Panama Canal on its way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was refueled in Pearl Harbor for her voyage to Guadalcanal where she was attacked by a Japanese suicide swimmer caring several packages of explosives and two grenades. The attack was successfully repelled. LST-939 departed and next beached at Dulag Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on 4 February 1945 and then transited on to Guam.
LST-939 participated in the amphibious assault of the beach at Gunto in Okinawa, where it was attacked by a kamikaze. The kamikaze was successfully destroyed in mid-air by anti-aircraft fire (AA), but a piece of the aircraft struck the forward deck. Upon landing in the Okinawa amphibious assault one crew member standing above the front door was killed by an incoming exploding coastal defense artillery shell and the executive officer, Lieutenant (j.g.) George Keat, was temporarily blinded. The ship was later damaged in a collision with LST-268 that same day during the amphibious assault. LST-939 is also known to have transited through Saipan.
Following the war, LST-939 performed occupation operations in the waters surrounding the Home Islands of Japan. She entered Japanese waters in the Port of Tokyo shortly after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. LST-939 continued to perform occupation duty in the Far East and saw service in China until mid-March 1946
The LST-939 was stationed in Yokusuka, Japan from 29 Nov-15 Dec 1945 at which time it sailed to Wakayama, Japan, (Dec 18-28), from there to Sasebo, Japan (Dec31-8 Jan), then over to Jinsen Korea (12 Jan-16 1946), to Taku, China (19 Jan-21 Jan), down to Tsingtao, China (23 Jan-26 Jan '46), then on down to Shanghai, China (28 Jan-23 Feb). During this trip from Japan it was reported to be seeking U.S. ships for which it was carrying ship supplies. After spending nearly a month in Shanghai it returned up the Chinese coast to Taku/Tangku (9 Mar-15 Mar '46). At that point orders were received to return to the U.S. for decommissioning.O n the 27 Mar '46 it arrived in Apra Guam. While there it put to sea where it cruised a typhoon during the period 28 Mar-30. It returned to Apra from Apr 1-6. Then on to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from 27 Apr - 1 May '46.It sailed for San Fancisco, CA arriving 11 May, 1946.The LST 939 was decommissoned on 22 Jun, 1946.(This information secured from the National Archives and was a recording of Deck Logs of the LST 939 from 29 Nov '45 to Jun 1946) from The Bureau of Naval Personnel Record Group 24.
Decommissioning and disposal
LST-939 was decommissioned on 22 June 1946, and struck from the Naval Register on 31 July 1946. The vessel was sold for scrap on 12 June 1948, to Walter W. Johnson Co. of Seattle, Washington.