USS LST-939

History
Name:	USS LST-939
Builder:	Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Hingham, Massachusetts
Laid down:	21 July 1944
Commissioned:	14 September 1944
Decommissioned:	22 June 1946
Struck:	31 July 1946
Honors and awards:	1 battle star (World War II)
Fate:	Sold for scrapping, 12 June 1948
General characteristics
Class & type:	LST-542-class tank landing ship
Displacement:	1,625 long tons (1,651 t) light 3,640 long tons (3,698 t) full
Length:	328 ft (100 m)
Beam:	50 ft (15 m)
Draft:	Unloaded : 2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) forward 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) aft Loaded : 8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) forward 14 ft 1 in (4.29 m) aft
Propulsion:	2 × General Motors 12-567 diesel engines, two shafts, twin rudders
Speed:	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Boats & landing craft carried:	2 × LCVPs
Troops:	Approximately 130 officers and enlisted men
Complement:	8-10 officers, 89-100 enlisted men
Armament:	8 × 40 mm guns 12 × 20 mm guns

USS LST-939 was a United States Navy LST-542-class tank landing ship in commission from 1944 to 1948.

LST-939 was laid down on 21 July 1944 at Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard, Inc. in Hingham, Massachusetts, and commissioned on 14 September 1944. During World War II LST-939 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated in the Asiatic-Pacific campaign, including the assault and occupation of Okinawa, Gunto, from April through June 1945.^[1]

Service history

During World War II, LST-939 was assigned to the Pacific Theater of Operations. LST-939 left New York Harbor in the fall of 1944, arriving first in Havana, Cuba, and then transiting the Panama Canal on its way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She was refueled in Pearl Harbor for her voyage to Guadalcanal where she was attacked by a Japanese suicide swimmer caring several packages of explosives and two grenades. The attack was successfully repelled. LST-939 departed and next beached at Dulag Leyte Gulf in the Philippines on 4 February 1945 and then transited on to Guam.

LST-939 participated in the amphibious assault of the beach at Gunto in Okinawa, where it was attacked by a kamikaze. The kamikaze was successfully destroyed in mid-air by anti-aircraft fire (AA), but a piece of the aircraft struck the forward deck. Upon landing in the Okinawa amphibious assault one crew member standing above the front door was killed by an incoming exploding coastal defense artillery shell and the executive officer, Lieutenant (j.g.) George Keat, was temporarily blinded. The ship was later damaged in a collision with LST-268 that same day during the amphibious assault. LST-939 is also known to have transited through Saipan.

Following the war, LST-939 performed occupation operations in the waters surrounding the Home Islands of Japan. She entered Japanese waters in the Port of Tokyo shortly after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. LST-939 continued to perform occupation duty in the Far East and saw service in China until mid-March 1946

Decommissioning and disposal

LST-939 was decommissioned on 22 June 1946, and struck from the Naval Register on 31 July 1946. The vessel was sold for scrap on 12 June 1948, to Walter W. Johnson Co. of Seattle, Washington.

References

1. http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/l27/lst-939.htm

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Photo gallery of USS LST-939 at NavSource Naval History