USS LST-507 was a 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 opposing ...

. She was sunk by a German torpedo attack in April 1944 during Operation Tiger. LST-507 was laid down on 8 September 1943 at Jeffersonville, Indiana, by the Jeffersonville Boat & Machine Co.; launched on 16 November 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Raymond C. Fuller; and commissioned on 10 January 1944.

Sinking

Operation Tiger was a pre-invasion exercise carried out off the coast of Southern England on 28 April 1944 in preparation for the upcoming

Normandy Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...

. After having taken on its complement of personnel and vehicles at Brixham, the LST joined the end of a convoy at

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

. Just after 02:00, whilst circling

Lyme Bay Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel off the south coast of England. The south western counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay. The exact definitions of the bay vary. The eastern boundary is usually taken to be Portland Bill on the ...

, the convoy was attacked by a group of German

E-boat E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...

s. LST-507 was the first to be hit by a torpedo at 02:03, and had to be abandoned by 02:30. It partially floated till dawn and then the bow was sunk by fire from a British destroyer. It was the only LST (out of the three hit, of which two sank) to go up in flames. Of the 700 estimated US Army and Navy fatalities during Exercise Tiger, 202 were from the sinking of LST-507. LST-507 was struck from the Naval Register on 9 June 1944.

Units on board

The army units were: 478th Amphibious Truck Company, 557th Quartermaster Railhead Company, 33rd Chemical Company, 440th Engineer Company, 1605th Engineer Map Depot Detachment, 175th Signal Repair Company, 3206th Quartermaster Service Company and 3891st Quartermaster Truck Company. There were two 1/4 ton trucks, one 3/4 ton truck, thirteen 2½ ton trucks, and 22

DUKW The DUKW (colloquially known as Duck) is a six-wheel-drive amphibious modification of the -ton CCKW trucks used by the U.S. military during World War II and the Korean War. Designed by a partnership under military auspices of Sparkman & Step ...

Wreck

The wreck of the LST now lies at a depth of at . This wreck site and that of LST-531 are classed as protected wrecks, and so diving without a licence is not possible.

References

* * LST-491-class tank landing ships World War II amphibious warfare vessels of the United States Ships built in Jeffersonville, Indiana Wreck diving sites in the United Kingdom World War II shipwrecks in the English Channel 1943 ships Maritime incidents in April 1944 {{US-mil-ship-stub

Sinking

Units on board

Wreck

See also

References