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USS St. Mary's (APA-126)
Encyclopedia
USS St. Mary's (APA-126) was a Haskell-class
attack transport
of the US Navy. She was built and used during World War II
. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship
design type. St. Mary's was named for St. Mary's County, Maryland. She is the fourth of four US Navy ships to bear that name
.
, Wilmington, California; launched on 4 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Arthur S. Tode; acquired by the Navy on loan charter and delivered on 14 November 1944; and commissioned on 15 November 1944, Capt. Edward R. Glosten, USNR, in command.
Assigned to Transport Squadron 17 (TransRon 17) following shakedown, St. Mary's departed Los Angeles
on 1 January 1945; loaded bulldozers, airplane engines, bomb service trucks, and other equipment at San Diego; and, on the 4th, sailed for Manus
, Admiralty Islands
. Arriving in Seeadler Harbor
on the 21st, she offloaded her cargo and steamed to Humboldt Bay
, New Guinea
, whence she carried troops to Leyte
, 31 January to 6 February.
During the remainder of February and most of March, she trained with units of the 77th Division for Operation "Iceberg," the assault on Okinawa. On 21 March, she cleared Leyte Gulf with TG 51.1 and headed north. Five days later, she landed some of her troops on Kerama Retto
, then stood by to take on casualties. On 13 April, she shifted to the Hagushi
anchorage area; and, on the 16th, sent troops ashore on Ie Shima. On the 19th, she moved around to Okinawa's southern coast for a diversionary landing; then returned to Hagushi to discharge the remainder of her cargo and troops.
On 26 April, St. Mary's departed the kamikaze
target area. Three weeks at Ulithi
followed. On 24 May, she steamed for Guam
; exchanged landing boats; and got underway to return to the Philippines. From 31 May to 26 June, she remained in the Subic Bay
-Manila Bay
areas. In July, she trained with units of the 81st Infantry Division at Leyte; and, in early August, trained with other troops off Iloilo
.
In mid-August, hostilities ended. St. Mary's embarked occupation troops and sailed for Japan
, arriving in Tokyo Bay
on 2 September, just prior to the signing of the official surrender documents
. Two days later, she disembarked troops of the 1st Cavalry Division at Yokohama
, then returned to the Philippines
. From Mindanao
, she lifted troops to Kure
, then steamed to Okinawa; whence, as a unit of the “Magic Carpet”
fleet, she carried veterans back to the United States.
In December, the APA returned to Okinawa for a second group of returning servicemen. Departing Buckner Bay on the 19th, she developed engine trouble on 3 January 1946, 450 miles from her destination. Nashville
, however, took her in tow, and she reached San Francisco on 6 January 1946.
Six days later, St. Mary's reported for inactivation. On 15 February, she was decommissioned and returned to the Maritime Commission. She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet
at Suisun Bay
the same day. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 February.
.
Haskell class attack transport
Haskell-class attack transports were amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy created in 1944. They were designed to transport 1,500 troops and their combat equipment, and land them on hostile shores with the ships' integral landing craft....
attack transport
Attack transport
Attack Transport is a United States Navy ship classification.-History:In the early 1940s, as the United States Navy expanded in response to the threat of involvement in World War II, a number of civilian passenger ships and some freighters were acquired, converted to transports and given hull...
of the US Navy. She was built and used during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. She was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship
Victory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
design type. St. Mary's was named for St. Mary's County, Maryland. She is the fourth of four US Navy ships to bear that name
USS St. Mary's
USS St. Mary's or USS St. Marys has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and may refer to:, a galley built in 1798 and transferred to the United States Revenue Cutter Service in 1801, a sloop-of-war in commission from 1844 to 1873, also spelled USS St...
.
World War II service
The fourth St. Mary's was laid down under Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 40) on 29 June 1944 by the California Shipbuilding CorporationCalifornia Shipbuilding Corporation
California Shipbuilding Corporation built 467 Liberty and Victory ships during World War II, including Haskell-class attack transports. California Shipbuilding Corporation was often referred to as Calship...
, Wilmington, California; launched on 4 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Arthur S. Tode; acquired by the Navy on loan charter and delivered on 14 November 1944; and commissioned on 15 November 1944, Capt. Edward R. Glosten, USNR, in command.
Assigned to Transport Squadron 17 (TransRon 17) following shakedown, St. Mary's departed Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
on 1 January 1945; loaded bulldozers, airplane engines, bomb service trucks, and other equipment at San Diego; and, on the 4th, sailed for Manus
Manus Island
Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...
, Admiralty Islands
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...
. Arriving in Seeadler Harbor
Seeadler Harbor
Seeadler Harbor, also known as Port Seeadler, is located on Manus Island, Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea and played an important role in World War II...
on the 21st, she offloaded her cargo and steamed to Humboldt Bay
Teluk Yos Sudarso
Yos Sudarso Bay also known earlier as Humboldt Bay is a small bay in Indonesia. It is on the north coast of New Guinea, about 50 kilometers west of the border between Indonesia's province of Papua and the country of Papua New Guinea...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, whence she carried troops to Leyte
Leyte
Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...
, 31 January to 6 February.
During the remainder of February and most of March, she trained with units of the 77th Division for Operation "Iceberg," the assault on Okinawa. On 21 March, she cleared Leyte Gulf with TG 51.1 and headed north. Five days later, she landed some of her troops on Kerama Retto
Kerama Retto
The are a group of 22 islands located southwest of Okinawa Island in Japan. Four of the islands are inhabited:,., and. The islands are within Shimajiri District. The Kerama-shotō coral reef is a Ramsar Site....
, then stood by to take on casualties. On 13 April, she shifted to the Hagushi
Hagushi
Hagushi bay was the primary unloading point for American supplies during the invasion of Okinawa during World War II. The bay, at the mouth of the Bishi River , was the dividing line between the First and Sixth US Marine divisions, which landed on the Hagushi beaches to the north, and the Seventh...
anchorage area; and, on the 16th, sent troops ashore on Ie Shima. On the 19th, she moved around to Okinawa's southern coast for a diversionary landing; then returned to Hagushi to discharge the remainder of her cargo and troops.
On 26 April, St. Mary's departed the kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
target area. Three weeks at Ulithi
Ulithi
Ulithi is an atoll in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, about 191 km east of Yap. It consists of 40 islets totalling , surrounding a lagoon about long and up to wide—at one of the largest in the world. It is administered by the state of Yap in the Federated States of...
followed. On 24 May, she steamed for Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
; exchanged landing boats; and got underway to return to the Philippines. From 31 May to 26 June, she remained in the Subic Bay
Subic Bay
Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...
-Manila Bay
Manila Bay
Manila Bay is a natural harbor which serves the Port of Manila , in the Philippines.The bay is considered to be one of the best natural harbors in Southeast Asia and one of the finest in the world...
areas. In July, she trained with units of the 81st Infantry Division at Leyte; and, in early August, trained with other troops off Iloilo
Iloilo
Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of Panay Island and is bordered by Antique Province to the west and Capiz Province and the Jintotolo Channel to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is Guimaras Province,...
.
In mid-August, hostilities ended. St. Mary's embarked occupation troops and sailed for Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, arriving in Tokyo Bay
Tokyo Bay
is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was .-Geography:Tokyo Bay is surrounded by the Bōsō Peninsula to the east and the Miura Peninsula to the west. In a narrow sense, Tokyo Bay is the area north of the straight line formed by the on the Miura Peninsula on one end and on...
on 2 September, just prior to the signing of the official surrender documents
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that enabled the Surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist...
. Two days later, she disembarked troops of the 1st Cavalry Division at Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, then returned to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. From Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, she lifted troops to Kure
Kure, Hiroshima
is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...
, then steamed to Okinawa; whence, as a unit of the “Magic Carpet”
Operation Magic Carpet (World War II)
Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II effort by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and CBI theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships, and troop transports began repatriating soldiers from...
fleet, she carried veterans back to the United States.
In December, the APA returned to Okinawa for a second group of returning servicemen. Departing Buckner Bay on the 19th, she developed engine trouble on 3 January 1946, 450 miles from her destination. Nashville
USS Nashville (CL-43)
USS Nashville , a Brooklyn-class light cruiser, was laid down on 24 January 1935 by New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey; launched on 2 October 1937; sponsored by Misses Ann and Mildred Stahlman; and commissioned on 6 June 1938, Captain William W...
, however, took her in tow, and she reached San Francisco on 6 January 1946.
Six days later, St. Mary's reported for inactivation. On 15 February, she was decommissioned and returned to the Maritime Commission. She was placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet
National Defense Reserve Fleet
The National Defense Reserve Fleet consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.The NDRF is...
at Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary at in northern California, USA. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an inverted river delta...
the same day. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 21 February.
Fate
In 1956 St. Mary's was withdrawn from the Reserve Fleet as part of a Repair Program, GAA-Pacific Far East Lines, and then returned. On 18 April 1975 she was sold to Nicolai Joffe Corp., for $219,489.78, to be scrapped. At 1235 PDT, on 3 June 1975 she was withdrawn from the Reserve Fleet and sent to the breaker's yardShip breaking
Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for scrap recycling. Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before there is so much wear that refitting and repair becomes uneconomical. Ship breaking allows materials from the ship, especially...
.