This LST (Landing Ship, Tank) is an amphibious vessel designed to land battle-ready tanks, troops and supplies directly onto enemy shores. Ships of this type proved to be enormously useful during times of war and peace both. This particular LST was originally known as LST-325 during the Second World War, USNS LST-325 during its arctic operations in the 1950's, and later L-144 (A/G Syros) while it was in the service of the Greek Navy. It was acquired by The USS LST Ship Memorial, Inc., in 2000, and caught considerable public attention when our veteran crew brought it on a 6,500-mile journey from the Greek island of Crete to Mobile, Alabama.
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The LST-325 was launched on 27 October 1942 and commissioned on 1 February 1943, with Lieutenant Ira Ehrensall the commanding officer. On February 17, during her shakedown cruise, Lt. Ehrensall was transferred to the USS LST-391 and Ensign Clifford E. Mosier replaced him. Mosier would remain the ship's commanding officer until June 1945. At the completion of her shakedown cruise in and around Norfolk, Virginia the LST-325 sailed to New York, NY. From there the LST-325 left on 19 March for Oran, Algeria following a brief stop in Bermuda.
Photo: Clifford E. Mosier, LST-325 CO, 1943-1945
LST-325 arrived in Oran on 13 April 1943 and spent the next three months going between the ports of Arzew and Mostaganem. During this time she practiced loading and beaching operations with various American and English Army units. On 28 June LST-325 arrived at La Goulette in the Bay of Tunis to prepare for Operation HUSKY, the invasion of Sicily.
On July 10 LST-325 as part of the KOOL Force (the floating reserve for the DIME Force going ashore at Gela) left Tunis, arriving in the Bay of Gela on 11 July. They remained here until the morning of the 13th before unloading the vehicles and men of the 1st Armored Division onto LCT's. They made five more trips to Sicily in support of the offensive before Messina fell on 17 August, twice bringing back loads of Italian prisoners.
Photo: Bay of Tunis, July 1943, loaded up for the invasion of Sicily
On 6 September 1943 while in Bizerte, Tunisia four members of the crew were injured during an air raid. On 13 September LST-325 sailed as part of the Northern Attack Force in support of the invasion at Salerno, Italy carrying elements of the 40th Royal Tank Regiment. Four members of the crew and four British soldiers were injured during an attack by German fighter-bombers as the ship entered the attack area. LST-325 made three trips to the beachhead at Salerno, the last trip carrying members of a Ceylanese infantry regiment from Tripoli, Libya.
Photo: Unloading across pontoon causeway at Salerno, September 1943
In late October 1943 LST-325 returned to Oran, leaving there on 12 November as part of a large convoy of ships for England. On 21 November the convoy was attacked by German bombers using the new remote-controlled glider-bombs. Several transport ships were sunk and one passenger aboard LST-325 was severely wounded by shrapnel. LST-325 entered Plymouth, England on Thanksgiving Day, 25 November 1943.
Photo: Group crew photograph, 1944
From December 1943 until May 1944 LST-325 was involved in several training exercises along the southwestern English coast. On 5 June 1944 LST-325 sailed from Falmouth, England carrying elements of the 5th Special Engineer Brigade. LST-325 was part of Force "B", the back-up force for the troops going ashore at Omaha Beach on 6 June. On 7 June they anchored off Omaha Beach and unloaded the men and vehicles onto DUKW's and LCM's.
Photo: DUCK I Exercise, Slapton Sands, January 1944
Between June 1944 and April 1945 LST-325 made 44 trips between England and France, unloading at Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno and the city of Rouen on the Seine River. Twice they carried loads of ammunition from Omaha Beach to St. Michel on the western shore of the Cotentin peninsula for the Army besieging the port city of Brest. On 28 December 1944 the LST-325 helped rescue over 700 men from the troop transport Empire Javelin that had been torpedoed off the coast of France. Lt. Comdr. Mosier was awarded the Bronze Star for this rescue.
Photo: Onloading onto an LCT, Omaha Beach, June 7, 1944
On 11 May 1945 LST-325 sailed with a convoy from Belfast, Ireland to return to the United States. One day out from Belfast the convoy was hit by a terrific storm and scattered. LST-325 slammed bow first into a monstrous wave and a crack developed across the main deck. Shipfitters were able to save the ship by welding steel plates across the damaged hull. Blessed by fair weather the rest of the way LST-325 sailed into Norfolk, Virginia on 31 May 1945.
From Norfolk LST-325 sailed to the shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. There the damage caused by the storm was repaired and the ship was fitted with the "Brodie" equipment, a system used for launching and retrieving light observation aircraft from an LST. The ship went on a shakedown cruise in August 1945 to test this new gear. The day before the ship was to sail to the Pacific the news came that Japan had surrendered and the war was finally over. After a trip to Panama in late September, LST-325 was sent to Green Cove Springs, Florida and decommissioned on 2 July 1946.
Photo: "Brodie gear" on LST-325
LST-325 was reactivated in 1951 for service in Military Sea Transport Service arctic operations. She was involved in Operation SUNAC (Support of North Atlantic Construction) in the Labrador Sea, David Strait and Baffin Bay in 1951-52. This operation was involved in constructing radar outposts along the coast of eastern Canada and Greenland. In 1961 LST-325 was again taken out of service and became part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet.
Photo: In MSTS, designated USNS LST-325, making her way through ice floes
LST-325 was again reactivated in 1963 and transferred to Greece in May 1964. Named Syros (L-144) she served in the Greek Navy until December 1999 when she was decommissioned for the third time. In 2000 she was acquired by The USS Ship Memorial, Inc., and sailed back across the Atlantic for the final time, arriving in Mobile, Alabama on 10 January 2001. One of only two World War II LST's to be preserved in the United States, LST-325 is currently undergoing restoration. She will eventually become a museum and memorial ship for the men who bravely served their country aboard LST's.
Thanks to the generous donations of many people, along with the hard work and dedication of our on-board volunteer workers, we then successfully achieved our short-term goal of having the ship ready for public presentation in September of 2001. The ship was "unveiled" and recommissioned in conjunction with the U.S. LST Association's convention held in Mobile, AL. If you look through the Progress Report archives, you will see the wonderful transformation of this ship from a rusting hulk to a once-again-proud warship, an amazing feat considering it was accomplished in a mere eight months.
Since then we have continued to make astounding progress. In the summer of 2003, we made a trip up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers with several ports-of-call. Significantly, we brought home an LST to the very communities that produced them in the first place. At this point in time, the ship is fully operational and in very good condition. However, with a ship this old, it's understandable that problems arise from time to time. It's a full-time job for all our volunteers and supporters to keep this "Grand Old Lady" operational and "up to specs."
We had made complete preparations for a 2004 Memorial Trip up the East Coast (under our own power) to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Unfortunately, Mr. Murphy reared his ugly head -- not just once, but many times over. The trip was feasible from the beginning. The biggest single problem was our getting into drydock weeks behind schedule, due to various mishaps at the shipyard. By the time we got out of drydock, there was simply not enough time to run the ship through the necessary dockside and sea trials in order to come anywhere near close to schedule. This same trip turned out to be an outstanding success in 2005, when the ship attracted tens of thousands of visitors in Alexandria, Va., Boston, Mass. and other ports of call. One of the most memorable highlights was escorting the venerable USS Constitution on a harbor turnaround.
October 3, 2005 opened a new and bright chapter in the saga of LST 325, when the ship arrived at its new homeport in Evansville, Ind. The people of Evansville greeted the ship and crew with open arms and a brand-new $3 million dollar docking facility. The ship is now in a high profile location accessible to many visitors, conventions, reunions, etc., in a city that truly loves us and cherishes their own civic pride and sense of history.