LST-467

The keel was laid down on 17 October 1942 at Vancouver, Wash., by Kaiser, Inc. in Vancouver Washington; launched on 21 November 1942; and commissioned on 3 March 1943, Lt. Milton B. Taylor, USNR, in command.

During World War II, LST-467 was assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific theater and participated in the following operations:

Lae occupation—September 1943

Cape Gloucester, New Britain—December 1943 and February 1944

Hollandia operation—April 1944

Western New Guinea operations:

(a) Toem-Wakde-Sarmi area operation—May 1944
(b) Biak Island operation—June 1944
(c) Cyclone Task Force, Noemfoor Island operation—June and July 1944
(d) Cape Sansappr operation—August 1944
(e) Morotai landings—September 1944

Leyte landings—October and November 1944

Lingayen Gulf landing—January 1945

Consolidation of the southern Philippines:

(a) Palawan Island landings—March 1945
(b) Visayan Island landings—March 1945

Tarakan Island operation—April and May 1945

Following the war, LST-467 returned to the United States and was decommissioned on 28 May 1946 and struck from the Navy list on 5 June 1946. On 22 November 1946, the tank landing ship was sold to the National Metal & Steel Corp., Terminal Island, Calif.

The LST 467 earned eight battle stars and the Navy Unit Commendation for World War II service and was credited with shooting down five enemy planes.

A Historical Report.

TO: Adjutant General, U.S. Forces, APO 704.

1. The CYCLONE TASK FORCE was organized and put into operation on June 22, 1944. The 3rd Portable Surgical Hospital was attached, at that time to the 6th Division and in operation as a surgical hospital between the Tor-Tirfome [Tirfoam] Area below Sarmi with the 20th Inf. Regt. The 11th Portable Surgical Hospital was attached to the CYCLONE TASK FORCE but on this date relieved us and we returned to Toem. Colonel Sandlin, Commanding 158 Inf Regt, requested of General Patrick that we be assigned in its place, as we had previously satisfactorily worked together, and as the 11th Portable Surgical Hospital just been committed to combat which would necessitate another movement of each organization at a time when casualties were heavy in the Tor-Tirfome [Tirfoam] Area. The request was granted by the 6th Army and we were attached to CYCLONE TASK FORCE on 24 June, 1944 by Radiogram dated 24 June, 1944.

2. From June 16 to June 26, 1944 our time was spent packing, reequiping and preparing for the coming invasion. On June 26, 1944 the camp was packed into 2 2½ ton trucks borrowed from Lt Col Rollings, 27th Combat Engr., 2 3/4 ton trucks, a jeep and one ton trailer. The equipment, thus mobile loaded, is the minimum amount required to function as a complete hospital and everything carried is required on the D-day set up. We leave no rear echelon and do not bulk load any equipment because of destressing previous experiences. We carry all equipment necessary for the completion of a campaign.

3. Our mission on a Task Force is to supply adequate surgical care functioning as a surgical team and give such medical care until an evacuation chain is established or until a higher echelon field hospital can arrive and safely set up, at which time we fill the other function prescribed by T/O, i.e. that of a station hospital. We have carried out these functions until the completion of the CYCLONE TASK FORCE.

4. June 26, 1944, the equipment and drivers were mobile loaded on LST 467 and the following day, personnel was committed to the open upper deck for a practice run. The LST fleet pulled off the beach and cruised off Wakde Island until daylight of June 27, 1944 when they disgorged alligators filled with infantry soldiers making a practice beach landing. Once free of their burden the LST returned and beached again at Toem.

5. We remained on board, in the heat and weather for two days, the EM sleeping the “sun” deck under trucks and becoming exhausted from little rest and two meals a day. A bad situation, yet it seemed illogical to unload with the actual run a matter of days away.

6. On June 29 the LST pulled out at night and proceeded throughthe Shouten Islands by Biak to anchor off the NW corner of Noemfoor Island at daylight about 1500 yards from the coral reef. With daylight a tremendous aerial and naval bombardment took place along the coast, the bombing and strafing were in full view. The naval shells could be seen striking the shores, trees, and camoflauged defences. The Infantry departed in alligators and landed along a strip of beach opposite Karimi Air Strip and fighting could be followed through field-glasses. Each forward move was marked by smoke grenades beyond which the destroyers continued to shell and throw in a straffing fire. Patrols along the sandy beach could be seen to deploy and fire, rise and move forward, and fire again.

7. Soon after the infantry was ashore LCMs began to remove mobile equipment from the LST to edge of the reef where they were driven ashore through. two to four feet of water. The feeding of LCMs by LST is an interesting phenomenon looks like some prehistoric monster nourishing its young. Lines of Troops wading over the coral, with equipment held high, were fired on by enemy mortars located about the hill beyond the airstrip. The water spouts from the shells hardly deflected the moving soldiers in their forward move. Trucks and trailers, jeeps, engineer and artillery equipment began moving across to shore under their own power with an occasional one getting drowned out, or getting struck between cracks in the coral. An alligator full of ammunition was hit and began to blaze furiously igniting a 2 ½ ton truck sitting next to it on the beach. Both rapidly became completely destroyed.

8. We joined the parade ashore getting onto an LCM in thick heavy rain that blotted out the reef, the shore, and the island. The LCMs beached and the first truck drove off into water over the engine and drowned out. The ship pulled off and found another place along the coral. We stepped off into neck deep water. The water-proofed vehicles drove off. It was a laughable sight to see a jeep completely under water with only the driver's head and the top out and see it continue to the dry land. We collected on the beach without casualties, with no loss, but thanoughly wet equipment and preceeded to a previously designated area on the far aide of the air strip about in its middle, next to the 158 Inf Regt C. P., to be met by a stream of casualties before we could unload. The established D-day routine is to send all casualties to the LST which carries a surgical team and 120 hospital beds. We diverted them out in that manner to be treated on the ship and immediately evadnated. By 3:30 PM we were set up and doing surgical proceedings.

9. Our first few patients were badly wounded Japanese, Formosans and Javanese with a few shell-fragment wounds among Americans. Surgical work was light and gave us a chance to clear and clean up the area which was full of blasted trees and coral lumps

SOURCE: National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 407, The Adjutant General's Office, World War II Unit Histories: 3d Portable Surgical Hospital, Box 21733.

LST 467 was Sold for scrap 1948 but resold and converted to a freighter in 1952 by Davie Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd. of Louzon Quebec and renamed the Frank J Humphrey, and in 1973 was purchased by the West Indies Trading Company and renamed again to the WIT Shoal II.

LST 467 sank, in Krum Bay, South St.Thomas, on the 6th of November, 1984 during Tropical Storm Klaus, which was upgraded to a Huricame only a few hours later. It was then patched in order to be re-floated. Many versions of what was going to happen to her abound. She was going to be sunk in very deep water south of the Virgin Islands or she was going to Puerto Rico to be scrapped. Either way, her hull was roughly patched to survive the trip and she was towed out of Charlotte Amalie during May 1985.

One of the patches broke free a couple of miles into the trip, so the towline was cut. She sank gracefully bow first to sit upright and intact in 90 feet of water, on sand.

If you have any further information about the LST-467 or any other ship built at the Portland OR or Vancouver Washington shipyards, let us know. Kaiser@beadee.com