LSTs: Marvelous at Fifty

Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison called them the “most useful all-around craft invented by the Navy.”¹ Admiral Richmond K. Turner referred to them as “a marvel.”² Their crew members labeled them “large slow targets,” and hundreds of the ships never had names. Regardless of what they were called, no one who ever saw one—certainly no one who ever rode in one—could mistake the tank landing ship (LST) for any other ship type. Today, 50 years after their origin, and as the last 20 of nearly 1,100 LSTs start to be decommissioned, it is appropriate to reflect upon the contribution of the LSTs of World War II.

Many LST sailors may have wondered as they wallowed their way across the ocean, rolling 40° in seas that other sailors never even noticed, just who was to blame for the ship’s unique design. Winston Churchill, long a proponent of amphibious warfare, deserves the initial credit. In 1917, only two years after his sponsorship of the ill-fated landings at Gallipoli, he wrote about the value of landing infantry and tanks on beaches where they were not expected and could be decisive. Tank-landing lighters, using a “drawbridge or shelving bow,” would enable tanks to land under their own power. The lighters were to be resistant to machine gun bullets and too numerous to be stopped by shore gunfire. At the end of World War I, however, Churchill shelved his idea.³

The start of World War II, and the expulsion of the British from the European continent, caused the Allies to refocus on amphibious warfare. By October 1940 a tank landing craft (LCT) had been developed in England. It was transportable in sections and started getting into combat in the summer of 1941 in the Middle East. But that craft was limited by size and was unsuitable for open-ocean transits. Churchill, remembering his old idea, called for a larger, seagoing vessel—an Atlantic tank carrier—to transport tanks to foreign beaches.

In November 1941 representatives of the British Admiralty visited the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Ships to coordinate planning for such a ship. The U.S. Navy was appointed to lead in designing the new ship class. As technical director of Preliminary Ship Design for the bureau, John Niedermair sketched a rough drawing of what was to become an LST, which the Admiralty approved that same month.* By January 1942 the original design length had been modified twice—reaching 328 feet—and the first scale model was built. The evolution from concept to joint agreement to model testing matured in less than three months, a remarkable achievement by today’s standards.

Niedermair’s challenge was to resolve the potential conflict between requirements. The landing ship had to be large enough to be oceangoing, which necessitated a deep draft, but, contrastingly, it had to possess a shallow draft to be “beachable” and retractable. He solved this by designing a large ballast system that could be adjusted to fulfill either ocean transits or beach operations. In addition, he envisioned a ship with a large beam in relation to her length to distribute the ship’s weight over a broader area (an LST’s length-to-beam ratio was about 6:1, versus a destroyer’s 10:1 ratio). The resultant ship was then able to reduce her forward draft to less than 4 feet, and thus satisfy her mission.⁴

Bow doors were installed forward with a ramp to permit either direct landing of vehicles onto the beach or the underway launching of amphibious tracked vehicles. The doors were 14 feet wide to allow passage of most military vehicles. An elevator was installed from the main deck to the inside tank deck to facilitate moving vehicles from decks during offloading. Later, the elevator was replaced by a “tween deck” ramp that has been retained even in present-day LSTs. To ventilate the tank deck when vehicle motors were started, large blowers were installed. Two diesel engines propelled the LSTs at a speed of only 9 knots, but the square bow was the real limiting factor on speed.

Modifications were made to the ships as they were built. The initial gun batteries were augmented until, by 1945, the ultimate battery was 8 40-mm. and 12 20-mm. antiaircraft guns. The LSTs were able to carry a tank landing craft, loaded, either in sections or as a whole on the main deck. This solved the oceangoing limitations of the LCT, but off-loading the 120-foot craft via rollers and ballasting was quite a feat.

Originally, 1,152 LSTs were contracted for, with 200 of them scheduled for lend-lease to the British Navy. Their construction was given priority: even the keel of an aircraft carrier was moved to allow for several LSTs to be built. Building was spread among 18 locations to expedite the construction, with nearly two- thirds of the World War II production occurring at small yards in the Midwest and at Pittsburgh.

Seven months after Niedermair’s sketch was blessed, the keel for the LST-386 was laid down in Newport News, Virginia. The ships had only numbers then, no names. It was followed by dozens of other keel layings through the summer of 1942 as shipyards mobilized. The first LST to be commissioned was the LST-382 on 27 October 1942. It had taken 133 days from keel laying to commissioning, but by 1944, LSTs were being turned out in two months apiece.

Each ship’s complement was usually around 110, the officers sometimes naval reservists or Coast Guardsmen.⁵ A lieutenant was usually assigned as commanding officer, so he and his inexperienced crew had to learn fast. Some training was conducted at Camp Bradford at Little Creek, Virginia, before the sailors reported aboard. After a quick commissioning, training continued during fitting-out cruises or on the job en- route to the combat zone.

The first LSTs to be in action reached the Pacific in March of 1943. The commanding officer of the LST-446 proclaimed, “An LST is the only ship in the world of 4,000 tons or over that is continuously rammed into and off coral, sand, and mud.”⁶ These ships usually arrived with an embarked LCT, often after a 67-day, 9,800-mile transit from the East Coast. In the Mediterranean the LSTs arrived in time to support the invasion of Sicily in July of 1943.

The first LST losses followed shortly thereafter. The LST-333 was torpedoed by a U-boat and sunk off Algeria on 22 June 1943, and several were lost off Sicily, where a sandbar caused the LSTs to beach at some distance from the shore. The remedy was for the ships to carry causeways that could be fitted together, linking the beach with the ship’s bow ramp.

On 10 July 1943, the LST- 313 was unloading at Beach Green 2 when it was attacked by a German ME-109 fighter. One bomb hit and exploded below the tank deck, causing significant damage. Soldiers and sailors forward were able to swim out through the bow and to pass the wounded ashore. Nearby, the LST-311 abandoned her causeway and approached the burning ship from astern. Placing her bow to the 313's stem, 311 was able to rescue 80 trapped men. The next day another LST was sunk as well. Still, the LSTs effectively supported the landings and continued to assist the campaign ashore with periodic supply runs.⁷

In the Pacific, the LST-342 was the first to be lost. Operating in the Solomon Islands during the New Georgia campaign. the ship was torpedoed and beached on Florida Island, where she remains today. Hostile gunfire was always a threat to beached LSTs. During the seizure of the Treasury Islands, for example, LSTs 399, 460, and 485 carried New Zealand troops to a landing in Blanche Harbor. Within minutes of beaching, both ships were targets of mortar fire—each taking two hits—and sniper fire. At the same time, the LST-399 discovered that she had beached eight yards from a Japanese pillbox. The LST’s guns could not be brought to bear, and the crewmen were forced to seek cover. A New Zealander solved the stalemate by climbing aboard a bulldozer embarked on the LST, raising its blade for protection, then roaring down the ramp toward the threat. Circling around the position to approach it from the blind side, he was able to blade the pillbox under, ending that danger to the ship.⁸

LSTs performed other tasks throughout the war, extending their role well beyond Churchill’s original concept. Of the 1,152 LSTs contracted, 1,051 were actually built, although all received hull numbers. Of these, 113 LST hulls were converted to other types: some became motor torpedo boat tenders (AGP), battle damage repair ships (ARB), landing craft repair ships (ARL), salvage craft tenders (ARST), aircraft engine repair ships (ARVE), general store issue ships (AKS), and self-propelled floating barracks (LST(M) or APB). LST-Hs were modified to provide immediate medical care and to evacuate the wounded: they transported more than 40,000 casualties during the Normandy Invasion alone. Some LSTs became mini-aircraft carriers to support fixed-wing reconnaissance aircraft operations.

By war’s end, 13 LSTs had been destroyed or sunk due to accident, grounding, or weather; 6 of them were lost on a single day in 1943 due to an ammunition explosion. Enemy action caused the loss of an additional 26. This relatively small ratio of losses to commissioned LSTs attests to the durability of the ships and the abilities of their crews in self-defense and damage control. There was something special about the design after all.

New wars and LST designs followed World War II. Although the vintage LSTs participated in Korea, the faster Terrebone Parish (LST-1156) class dominated the 1950s. It was followed by the Desoto County class in the late 1950s and eventually the Newport (LST- 1179) class, the 20-knot LST. These ships earned names, and served in Vietnam, the Cold War, and Desert Storm.

Perhaps more than any other ship class, the tank landing ship remains linked to its World War II roots. The modem LST sailor would feel comfortable— or as comfortable as any LST will allow—on the original LST. He would still feel the excitement of turning toward shoal water to launch tracked vehicles or to ground a perfectly good ship on a beach. Certainly all sailors recognize that whether called by number or name, the LST that emerged 50 years ago was indeed a marvel.