Arthur Middleton-class attack transport
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The ''Arthur Middleton''-class attack transport was a class of three US Navy attack transport that saw most of its service in World War II. Ships of the class were named after signatories of the
American Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...
. Like all attack transports, the purpose of the ''Arthur Middleton'' class was to transport troops and their equipment to hostile shores in order to execute
amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...
invasions. To perform this task, attack transports were equipped with a substantial number of integral
landing craft Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Pr ...
, and heavily armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect themselves and their vulnerable cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone.


Background

The ''Arthur Middleton'' class was based on the Maritime Commission's ubitiquous Type C3 hull - specifically the C3-P&C (Passenger & Cargo) type. This hull type had been designed with both merchant cargo service and naval auxiliary service in mind. All three ships were laid down by the Ingalls Shipbuilding Company of Pascagoula, Mississippi between July and October 1940. Time between initial laying of the keel to commission for each vessel varied from 20 to 26 months - an unusually long time, which suggests the shipyard may have experienced delays or had other priorities. The first to be commissioned was ''Samuel Chase'' on 13 June 1942, followed by the ''George Clymer'' two days later. ''Arthur Middleton'', the lead ship of the class, was laid down first but not commissioned until 7 September 1942, about three months later. The ships were initially classified as transports (AP) but were redesignated attack transports (APA) on 1 February 1943, the date on which several other classes of transport ship were redesignated.


In service

During World War II, two of the ships, ''Arthur Middleton'' and ''George Clymer'', served almost exclusively in the Pacific Theatre, taking part in many of the Navy's island hopping campaigns. ''Samuel Chase'', however, was assigned to the European Theatre, where she participated in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy, before transferring to the Pacific to take part in the final
Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army (USA) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) forces against the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The initial invasion of ...
. Immediately after the war the three ships of the class were assigned to transporting troops to occupation duties in newly conquered
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. They were then assigned to
Operation Magic Carpet Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II operation by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and Asian theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships ...
, the huge sealift organized to return demobilizing servicemen to the United States. Following the ''Magic Carpet'' operation, two of the ships were decommissioned in late 1946 - early 1947, after which they saw no further service. ''George Clymer'' however, remained in commission, eventually seeing service in the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was finally retired on 31 October 1967, having provided the Navy with 26 years of continuous service and accumulated an impressive fifteen battle stars. She was sold for scrap on 31 July 1968. Her two sister ships, decommissioned more than twenty years earlier, followed her to the scrap yard on 9 May 1973.


References


''Samuel Chase''





Notes

{{Arthur Middleton class attack transport