USS ''Montgomery County'' (LST-1041) was an built for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Named after counties in 18 U.S. states, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. Originally laid down as ''LST-1041'' by the Dravo Corporation of

Neville Island, Pennsylvania Neville Township is a township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its land area consists entirely of Neville Island, which is an island on the Ohio River. The population was 1,084 at the 2010 census. History The island was former ...

, on 12 November 1944; launched on 20 January 1945, sponsored by Mrs. N. L. Gibson; ferried down the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

s to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

; and commissioned on 19 February 1945.

Service history

World War II, 1945

Following shakedown along the Gulf coast, ''LST-1041'' loaded cargo and sailed for duty in the Pacific in early April. Steaming via the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

Seattle Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

where she was loaded with army trucks before sailing to

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

. From Pearl Harbor she sailed to

Eniwetok Enewetak Atoll (; also spelled Eniwetok Atoll or sometimes Eniewetok; mh, Ānewetak, , or , ; known to the Japanese as Brown Atoll or Brown Island; ja, ブラウン環礁) is a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean and with it ...

, Marshalls on 12 June and began cargo shuttle missions to American bases in the mid- and western Pacific. Operating with LST Group 97, she sailed later in the month via

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

and

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

where she unloaded military supplies in mid-July. Later that month she returned to the Marshalls and was anchored at Eniwetok when the Japanese agreed to cease hostilities.

Post-war activities, 1945–1956

''LST-1041'' thence returned to the western Pacific and from 2 to 24 September she supported occupation operations in Japan. After occupation duty, she sailed for the United States and arrived

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, on 6 December. During the next decade this LST maintained a busy pattern of logistics, support, and amphibious training operations. She took part in numerous Atlantic Fleet and type training exercises. Training and readiness operations sent her from the east coast to the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. In addition, ''LST-1041'' took part in providing valuable support of operations off

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

and in

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arct ...

. She carried out three logistics runs; and, during her third mission from September to November 1953 she assisted in salvaging the SS ''Atlantic Waters'' after the merchant ship grounded in the approaches to Goose Bay,

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

. In September 1955 she deployed to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

for duty with the 6th Fleet. During the next months she ranged the Mediterranean from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

to southern France. Thence, she resumed training duty out of Norfolk in February 1956. Named USS ''Montgomery County'' (LST-1041) on 1 July 1955, the LST continued duty with the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force until 31 January 1956 when she decommissioned at Green Cove Springs, Florida.

Decommissioning and sale

Assigned to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, she remained in her Florida berthing area until mid-1960. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 June 1960. In August 1961 she was sold under terms of the Military Assistance Program to the

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. Scheduled for conversion to battle damage repair ship, the conversion was never undertaken and she was scrapped in 1968 without having seen any commissioned service in the German Navy.

References

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Service history

World War II, 1945

Post-war activities, 1945–1956

Decommissioning and sale

References

See also