For Memorial Day... I used to spend tons of time volunteering on board LST 325...

[lw55566]

I was lucky enough to sail as crew on board from Boston all the way to Mobile, on the 2005 summer tour. This is the only US navy ship preserved as a museum that is still functional and gets underway for at least one trip a year. LST were designed to land Tanks directly on to the beach. IN reality they delivered anything and everything from WWII till Vietnam... and in some third world navies well into the 2000's. The Greek Navy had her from 1964-2001...











LST 325 on Normandy Beach 12 June 1944 National Archives

 

[LSUSMC]

That's pretty cool

 

[#1bambam]

Yes it is.Cool indeed.

 

[JLouv]

Cool....but my stomach is churning at the prospect of riding the blue water in a flat bottomed ship....

 

[flamatrix99]

Cool....but my stomach is churning at the prospect of riding the blue water in a flat bottomed ship....

Try a submarine at periscope depth during a hurricane! I didn't get sick but I wanted too!

 

[LACamper]

Cool!

How many interior decks can be filled with vehicles? Just the one? Or more?

 

[lw55566]

How many interior decks can be filled with vehicles? Just the one? Or more?

The Tank Deck is figuratively and literally the center of the LST. It would carry about 18 tanks. This empty space was filled with any and all manner of vehicles, supplies and equipment. In addition to the basic role of carrying this material to the beach during an invasion, some LST’s had their tank decks converted to floating hospitals, troop barracks, and huge repair shops. The tank deck was located just above the waterline and parallel to it throughout most of the ships length. A fan-trunk ventilation system was used to remove exhaust fumes from the tank deck.

Cool....but my stomach is churning at the prospect of riding the blue water in a flat bottomed ship....

Yea... it rides rough. The other problem is the have so much free board they tend to sail with the wind.

In one book on LSTs I read that BuShips was surprised the ride and handling of the ships received so little criticism from the crews. Apparently war time LST crews had so little previous seagoing experience that they accepted LST behavior as normal.

 

[lw55566]

 

[JLouv]

LST

Large
Slow
Target