While awaiting "A" school in San Diego back in 1966, and serving briefly on a "nice respectable ship", I would walk the piers looking at all the awesome vessels wondering what I'd end up on. There was one lowly LST with a gangway that went down instead of up, looking down my nose at it, I placed it at the bottom of my dream ships list. To my HORROR, upon graduation, I received orders to the USS Monmouth County LST1032, reporting on board in Saigon in 100 degree heat and humidity. As an electrician, the engineers berthing was under the main deck, starboard side, the "room" temperature just what you'd expect with a steel "roof" in the tropics. The heat in the engine rooms was such that I dare not say, and those who have experienced it understand why, you survived by constantly wetting down your head and sleeveless shirt, wearing cut off pants, eating ice cubes which we were constantly running to the reefer to get, and staying in front of one of the supply vents that were providing cool 100 degree relief air from the outside. Living and working conditions were HELLISH in the tropics and just plain crummy anywhere else. Food was lima beans this and lima beans that, boiled beef thinly sliced and reflecting like oil on water, chocolate cake was always welcome as you couldn't see the weevils that were in the flour, water tasted like it came from a public swimming pool so we drank Kool aid and Pepsi, the only soda we could get, sometimes we got milk that we consumed like beer, and strange fresh fruits..The ship being flat bottomed, was one of the roughest riding in the navy, many times requiring one to sleep spread eagle on his back to stay in his rack. The temperature in the compartments such that you couldn't dry off after a shower, when possible we would rig the doors and run a tank deck exhaust blower so the replacement air would come screaming through the compartments on the way into the tank deck. Our uniform was TOTALLY RELAXED as we weren't operating in fancy places. Wet sweaty dirty laundry would smolder in the corner of our 9x20 foot compartment containing 15 racks , 5 stacks of lockers and a passageway through the center...THE ADVENTURE FACTOR was PRICELESS, we crisscrossed the Far East hauling ALL manner of supplies into the Mekong Delta and locations along the coast, we spent about three months total on the rivers, cruised the Inland Sea of Japan, the Philippine Islands, up river into Bangkok, old Hong Kong, Taiwan, Okinawa...I was able to tour Kowloon and the New Territories and see the Shenzhen region from a hilltop when it was just empty countryside, and tour Nagasaki... We barely survived a typhoon which caused us to visit dry docks in Sasebo and Saigon to repair cracked and broken steel, also dry docked in Guam where I left the ship...We saw colors and beauty that artists and photographers dream of, and the opposite, the filth of war. We had liberty almost everywhere we went and many obscure locations, a favorite example is what was the small town of Nha Trang, where we beached on a long empty beautiful beach, now much like Miami and Disneyland combined. We visited 20 different locations a total of about 35 times, beaching the ship 18 times, (I kept a crude diary). We all counted the days till our year was up, keeping track on our fart sacks. When the day came that we each left that miserable little ship, we kinda knew that nothing in the future was going to top it...This small account barely scratches the surface... The ship itself was over there for 5 or 6 years before being scrapped and also present at Iwo Jima and Okinawa during WW2, it can be seen beaching at Iwo Jima on the "Victory at Sea" documentaries made just after the war...I was able to visit LST325 over a decade ago with my late best boyhood friend and show him every nook and cranny, when stepping on board I totally choked up...
Thank you for your service. I’m taking my daughter to the Evansville ww2 memorial this week. It’s an eye opener to read how conditions on board were during Vietnam. Thanks again, some of us still appreciate it !!🇺🇸
Technology at its best during those times,specially the manufacturing of this kind of ship,the people and their working area is fascinating,the time they spent to build and develop it to support the war.
MY Dad was on a LST. Ralph Jefferson Adams Jr. Then there was me. He was a Sr and I was a Jr. Little Creek Navy Yard. He was a 2nd class boatswain Petty Officer who love what he did. Love the Navy. In 1969 he came aboard the USS ALBANY CG10 To see me and what a day that was. That was in Norfolk Virginia Navy yard.
Funny that so many of these were built in southern Indiana thousands of miles from the ocean, in Evansville, Indiana, the same town also built the P-47 thunderbolt, and produced .45 caliber ammunition.
A bit off track, but D-Day LST related. My father John Dall ( a keen jazz musician ) and a Royal Navy Lt Engineer serving on a US built RN lend lease Landing Ship Tank, among others, LST 165. He spotted on a subsequent trip to the D-Day landings, that the RAF Squadronairs were being loaded on board as part of the troop entertainment bound for Europe. The RAF Squadronairs, were really a rebadged famous London night club Jazz band. as were many adopted bands during WW2. My Father, being a keen jazz drummer himself, convinced them to set up all their instruments on the deck of LST-165 and just play as they sailed over to Normandy..
Evansville was incredibly important to the war effort. 90% of all .45 caliber pistol ammo used by the US military was made at Evansville Chrysler, and 50% of all P-47 Thunderbolt fights were made there, too. Not bad for a "small town".
Its almost the same story with Ford willowrun plant. It was farm land at the start of the war but allready at the start of 1944 they were making 1 b24 liberator every hour
My mother was raised in Evansville. During the war, her older sisters worked in the factory’s surrounding the area. She would tell me about the LST’s that were in the river And the long hours her family worked in the factories.!
James Urie a Drummer Boy in Washington's army settled in Newburgh first then Evansville after the war for Independence. James was a Blacksmith a plow maker. Evansville was the Plow Manufacturing Leader. James was weaseled out of three Patents and died in Kansas City after opening another Black Smith Shop at the age of 72. There was a bronze statue of James in the lower level of the Old Court House.
This was a very interesting video, I live in Ohio and I'm currently scratch building a 1/96 scale LST which will be remote controlled when it's completed.
Good documentary... except one error. The "German E-Boat" foto shown at 4:42 is actually a British Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) which frequently went head-to-head with the rather superior and larger E-Boats.
didn't know the first one was built at Dravo...but that was a big shipyard that also cranked out DE's...it's still there today on Neville Island...most of the workforce here at Ambridge, just down the river... were women...employees would go down to the shoreline on their lunch hour to watch a launch which occurred about every six weeks....
the navy built a mock-up for training purposes...somewhere in Virginia, I believe...then would ship the crews to the site...in Pittsburgh they initially housed them in college dormitories, but that didn't work out too well as sailors and co-eds proved to be a volatile mix...so they built barracks right next to the plant..two of which are still there now being used by the Hussey Copper plant and visible from the highway...
Subscribed. You’ve got to make more of these! The slideshow is fantastic and your information and narration is very professional. Have you thought about just starting a series with landing craft, DD’s, CLs, CA’s etc? I think you could really do well.
Son of an LST commander (don’t know which one - which is sad). He only mention Finschaven with a funny story, and Biak, which he said was “bad” and refused to speak more of it.
Alfred Schocken's family had to escape Nazi Germany and Alfred himself was responsible for the design of the bow ramp. He was very proud of his contribution.
The narrator states towards the end of this presentation that LST 325 is the only one left still functioning this is untrue! LST 510 operates nearly every day. Converted to a Car Ferry and named the Cape Henlopen this D-Day veteran owned by Cross Sound ferry's makes several trips a day between New London CT and Orient Point, NY and is the jewel of their fleet of 5-6 ferry's.
didn't know that...how much does it resemble the original?....would be nice to get one for Pittsburgh's science center because of all the unique engineering involved...they've already got a submarine....
Odd that they mention so many amphibious landings but not the landings on the Côte d'Azur shortly after Normandy. Did the Evansville LSTs really miss that or was it just forgotten, as usual.
ANVIL and later DRAGOON history.army.mil/brochures/sfrance/sfrance.htm scroll sown a ways in the article. I think you will see a picture of LSTs debarking troops.
@@brucewelty7684 the 325 was supposedly going to Normandy for the ceremony...but I think they thought better of it...once across that ocean was enough and I guess they didn't want to push their luck...had planned to go to Evansville to see it but then it came to us....twice....
Dad (G.L. "Bud" Austing) served on board USS LST-818 in 1945/1946. It was laid down and built in Evansville!
Great orientation to the Evansville Shipyard. I volunteer on LST 325.
Son of an LST1023 sailor. I'm very proud my father served in one of these vital ships.
Amazing story. My Dad was on LST 173 in North Africa.
While awaiting "A" school in San Diego back in 1966, and serving briefly on a "nice respectable ship", I would walk the piers looking at all the awesome vessels wondering what I'd end up on. There was one lowly LST with a gangway that went down instead of up, looking down my nose at it, I placed it at the bottom of my dream ships list. To my HORROR, upon graduation, I received orders to the USS Monmouth County LST1032, reporting on board in Saigon in 100 degree heat and humidity. As an electrician, the engineers berthing was under the main deck, starboard side, the "room" temperature just what you'd expect with a steel "roof" in the tropics. The heat in the engine rooms was such that I dare not say, and those who have experienced it understand why, you survived by constantly wetting down your head and sleeveless shirt, wearing cut off pants, eating ice cubes which we were constantly running to the reefer to get, and staying in front of one of the supply vents that were providing cool 100 degree relief air from the outside. Living and working conditions were HELLISH in the tropics and just plain crummy anywhere else. Food was lima beans this and lima beans that, boiled beef thinly sliced and reflecting like oil on water, chocolate cake was always welcome as you couldn't see the weevils that were in the flour, water tasted like it came from a public swimming pool so we drank Kool aid and Pepsi, the only soda we could get, sometimes we got milk that we consumed like beer, and strange fresh fruits..The ship being flat bottomed, was one of the roughest riding in the navy, many times requiring one to sleep spread eagle on his back to stay in his rack. The temperature in the compartments such that you couldn't dry off after a shower, when possible we would rig the doors and run a tank deck exhaust blower so the replacement air would come screaming through the compartments on the way into the tank deck. Our uniform was TOTALLY RELAXED as we weren't operating in fancy places. Wet sweaty dirty laundry would smolder in the corner of our 9x20 foot compartment containing 15 racks , 5 stacks of lockers and a passageway through the center...THE ADVENTURE FACTOR was PRICELESS, we crisscrossed the Far East hauling ALL manner of supplies into the Mekong Delta and locations along the coast, we spent about three months total on the rivers, cruised the Inland Sea of Japan, the Philippine Islands, up river into Bangkok, old Hong Kong, Taiwan, Okinawa...I was able to tour Kowloon and the New Territories and see the Shenzhen region from a hilltop when it was just empty countryside, and tour Nagasaki... We barely survived a typhoon which caused us to visit dry docks in Sasebo and Saigon to repair cracked and broken steel, also dry docked in Guam where I left the ship...We saw colors and beauty that artists and photographers dream of, and the opposite, the filth of war. We had liberty almost everywhere we went and many obscure locations, a favorite example is what was the small town of Nha Trang, where we beached on a long empty beautiful beach, now much like Miami and Disneyland combined. We visited 20 different locations a total of about 35 times, beaching the ship 18 times, (I kept a crude diary). We all counted the days till our year was up, keeping track on our fart sacks. When the day came that we each left that miserable little ship, we kinda knew that nothing in the future was going to top it...This small account barely scratches the surface... The ship itself was over there for 5 or 6 years before being scrapped and also present at Iwo Jima and Okinawa during WW2, it can be seen beaching at Iwo Jima on the "Victory at Sea" documentaries made just after the war...I was able to visit LST325 over a decade ago with my late best boyhood friend and show him every nook and cranny, when stepping on board I totally choked up...
Thank you for your service. I’m taking my daughter to the Evansville ww2 memorial this week. It’s an eye opener to read how conditions on board were during Vietnam. Thanks again, some of us still appreciate it !!🇺🇸
@@l.p.5259 Thank you for your reply.
Mark, the video took us around the ship, and your comment took us inside it. Damn cool!
my late wonderful stepmother was a welder at the ship yard GOD rest her soul really enjoy this walk back in time
Technology at its best during those times,specially the manufacturing of this kind of ship,the people and their working area is fascinating,the time they spent to build and develop it to support the war.
MY Dad was on a LST. Ralph Jefferson Adams Jr. Then there was me. He was a Sr and I was a Jr. Little Creek Navy Yard. He was a 2nd class boatswain Petty Officer who love what he did. Love the Navy. In 1969 he came aboard the USS ALBANY CG10 To see me and what a day that was. That was in Norfolk Virginia Navy yard.
My dad was a plank owner on U.S.S. L.S.T. 960 from 1944 till her decom in 1947. Great stories and a great class of ship.
As a plank owner, was he actually awarded a real plank or was it just on paper?
My dad was lieutenant navigator on LST 30- arromaches beach d day….went there when on my honey moon….very moving experience
Funny that so many of these were built in southern Indiana thousands of miles from the ocean, in Evansville, Indiana, the same town also built the P-47 thunderbolt, and produced .45 caliber ammunition.
A bit off track, but D-Day LST related. My father John Dall ( a keen jazz musician ) and a Royal Navy Lt Engineer serving on a US built RN lend lease Landing Ship Tank, among others, LST 165. He spotted on a subsequent trip to the D-Day landings, that the RAF Squadronairs were being loaded on board as part of the troop entertainment bound for Europe. The RAF Squadronairs, were really a rebadged famous London night club Jazz band. as were many adopted bands during WW2. My Father, being a keen jazz drummer himself, convinced them to set up all their instruments on the deck of LST-165 and just play as they sailed over to Normandy..
Evansville was incredibly important to the war effort. 90% of all .45 caliber pistol ammo used by the US military was made at Evansville Chrysler, and 50% of all P-47 Thunderbolt fights were made there, too. Not bad for a "small town".
Yes 3 billion rounds and incredibly the plant went from building Plymouths to making ammo with a 60 day turn around.
Its almost the same story with Ford willowrun plant. It was farm land at the start of the war but allready at the start of 1944 they were making 1 b24 liberator every hour
My mother was raised in Evansville. During the war, her older sisters worked in the factory’s surrounding the area.
She would tell me about the LST’s that were in the river And the long hours her family worked in the factories.!
My great grandfather was on LST 582 in the battle of Okinawa
My grandfather served on lsd 338 it’s interesting to learn about my relatives
James Urie a Drummer Boy in Washington's army settled in Newburgh first then Evansville after the war for Independence. James was a Blacksmith a plow maker. Evansville was the Plow Manufacturing Leader. James was weaseled out of three Patents and died in Kansas City after opening another Black Smith Shop at the age of 72. There was a bronze statue of James in the lower level of the Old Court House.
This was a very interesting video, I live in Ohio and I'm currently scratch building a 1/96 scale LST which will be remote controlled when it's completed.
My hometown!
Anyone know where 213 was built?
Good documentary... except one error. The "German E-Boat" foto shown at 4:42 is actually a British Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB) which frequently went head-to-head with the rather superior and larger E-Boats.
My dad served on LST 741 from 1942 - !944. Wonder if she was made in Evansville ?
didn't know the first one was built at Dravo...but that was a big shipyard that also cranked out DE's...it's still there today on Neville Island...most of the workforce here at Ambridge, just down the river... were women...employees would go down to the shoreline on their lunch hour to watch a launch which occurred about every six weeks....
Plank Owner of the first of the last class, USS Newport LST 1179. 20 were built, some are still active today.
the navy built a mock-up for training purposes...somewhere in Virginia, I believe...then would ship the crews to the site...in Pittsburgh they initially housed them in college dormitories, but that didn't work out too well as sailors and co-eds proved to be a volatile mix...so they built barracks right next to the plant..two of which are still there now being used by the Hussey Copper plant and visible from the highway...
Subscribed. You’ve got to make more of these! The slideshow is fantastic and your information and narration is very professional. Have you thought about just starting a series with landing craft, DD’s, CLs, CA’s etc? I think you could really do well.
Son of an LST commander (don’t know which one - which is sad). He only mention Finschaven with a funny story, and Biak, which he said was “bad” and refused to speak more of it.
Alfred Schocken's family had to escape Nazi Germany and Alfred himself was responsible for the design of the bow ramp. He was very proud of his contribution.
what part of evansville was the ship yard?
Very near where the LST 325 is currently moored. If you take a tour of the ship, the tour guide can point out the location to you.
The narrator states towards the end of this presentation that LST 325 is the only one left still functioning this is untrue! LST 510 operates nearly every day. Converted to a Car Ferry and named the Cape Henlopen this D-Day veteran owned by Cross Sound ferry's makes several trips a day between New London CT and Orient Point, NY and is the jewel of their fleet of 5-6 ferry's.
didn't know that...how much does it resemble the original?....would be nice to get one for Pittsburgh's science center because of all the unique engineering involved...they've already got a submarine....
LST 325 is the only one in it's ORIGINAL WWII Configuration.
Even though the LST 510 is configured into a car ferry, I would love to ride it. I am a sailing crewmember of LST 325.
My dad served on no 90....sipan... ocanowa...wish I would have asked him more about his experiences in ww2
Cool
what route did the LSTs take to sea?
down the river to New Orleans....
From the East Coast to Bermuda, then to Algiers. From there to the beaches in Italy, to England to France.
Odd that they mention so many amphibious landings but not the landings on the Côte d'Azur shortly after Normandy. Did the Evansville LSTs really miss that or was it just forgotten, as usual.
ANVIL and later DRAGOON history.army.mil/brochures/sfrance/sfrance.htm scroll sown a ways in the article. I think you will see a picture of LSTs debarking troops.
@@brucewelty7684 the 325 was supposedly going to Normandy for the ceremony...but I think they thought better of it...once across that ocean was enough and I guess they didn't want to push their luck...had planned to go to Evansville to see it but then it came to us....twice....
"Large Stationary Target"😂
Electromotive diesels powered them
Two, V-12 EMD 567s, when underway the only thing noisier than being in the main engine room is watching Top Fuel at the drags...