World War II landing vessel visits Memphis for 6 days

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/local_n...034353,00.html World War II landing vessel visits Mud Island for 6 days
By Bill Dries
dries@gomemphis.com
June 13, 2003

A restored World War II landing ship on its way from Alabama to Indiana will stop in Memphis today for a six-day stay at Mud Island.

LST-325 - the initials stand for Landing Ship Tank - is going up the Mississippi River to raise awareness of the amphibious vehicles and the soldiers who served on them. It's one of only two restored LSTs in the United States.

With donations raised on the trip that began in Mobile, Ala., owners of the craft hope to maintain and continue to operate the LST as a museum.

LST tours


Where: Mud Island Boat Ramp

When: Today-Wednesday. The ship won't be open today for tours but can be seen in the harbor. Saturday-Wednesday hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Admission: Adults $8; children 12 and under $4; families $20. Tickets are sold for time slots to minimize waiting, and are available only at the site.

For LST-325 and its volunteer crew, the highlight of the journey will be a return to the Evansville, Ind., shipyard where it was made in 1942.

The ship is traveling at about 6 mph upriver, said Hal Pierce, a retired Navy Captain, who is port coordinator for the LST's journey. The ship needed a bit of help against the powerful river currents south of Memphis.

"They put a big tugboat on it and it moved up to 8 1/2 miles an hour," he said. "They got ahead of schedule, so we called off the tug."

While the 300-foot boat is docked at Mud Island, the public is welcome to come aboard starting Saturday.

Today will be spent positioning the ship and installing the gang plank on the Mud Island boat ramp for public access.

For a donation, one of the crew members will give visitors a tour that includes a look at where the crew worked, the galley and the tank deck that could hold up to 20 Sherman tanks.

In other cities, Pierce said, the ship has drawn large crowds of all ages, including World War II veterans bringing their grandchildren to see the craft.

LST-325 is carrying a group of World War II and Korean War-era military trucks, including a half track, a Jeep and an ambulance.

Other military vehicles restored by local collectors and re-enactors will be at the top of the boat ramp for visitors to see, Pierce said.

LSTs were considered amphibious because they could be grounded on a beach, although they could not go on land.

However, the LSTs sometimes carried another kind of craft that was equally at home on land as water, and was made in Memphis.

LCTs (Landing Craft Tanks) used in the Allied invasion of Sicily were made at the old Pidgeon-Thomas Iron Company on Crump Boulevard.

The LCTs were not ocean-going ships like the LSTs, and were instead carried by larger ships and then launched at the time of invasion.

Pierce said researchers believe LST-325 carried some of the LCTs made in Memphis into battle during World War II.

The LSTs were a key innovation in the Allied drive to take Nazi-occupied Europe.

The ships and their cargo as well as soldiers cut through the hostile waters confronting them. Before beaching themselves, the crew would drop a sand anchor connected to a giant winch hundreds of yards from the landing site. Once on shore, the hinged steep doors would swing to either side and a ramp would fold down.

When the ships were ready to leave, the giant winch would pull the ship off the land and back toward the anchor.