She entered Pearl Harbor on November 17 and began firing-while-maneuvering practice, using various courses and speeds. Harper: On November 6 LCS 52 steamed out of San Diego in company with LCSs 31, 32, 33 and 51, setting course 245 True for Hawaii, Engineering Officer Spencer Burroughs taking the conn. They still felt like they’d always be sickĪnd would like to be out of the Navy, but quick. Or stretched on the fantail flat on their backs.īut a day and a night had taken their toll. The night somehow passed, and some of the menĪ few still moaned and lay in their sacks The ship would hit in the trough with a smackĪnd shudder and roll and grunt and crack.Īnd shiver and rumble from stem to stern. They were piled knee-deep in the crowded "head"Īnd into the night when the waves got high
Many became seasick in the rough ocean, inspiring this poem by Storekeeper Larry "Pops " Cullen: Larger ships like destroyers had a 14 foot draft that prevented them from getting very close inshore, and their armament of 5 inch guns, torpedoes and depth charges were not well suited for inshore work clearing beaches for an invasion, while LCS’s 4 to 6 foot draft could put them within 500 feet of a shoreline, where several salvos of rockets quickly chewed up the beach for a landing force and 40 and 20 MM fire could zero in on gun emplacements.Īfter outfitting and fueling, the 52 sailed down the Columbia River, crossed the dangerous river bar into the Pacific and turned to port for San Diego. They came about because the Navy lacked close-in fire support from large ships for Marines and Army troops invading the islands in the South Pacific and Central Pacific. They were 150 feet long and 23 feet wide, and designed for Island warfare. There were 130 LCSs built during World War II. Like her sisters, she was, pound for pound, arguably the most heavily armed gunship on the water. 50 Caliber guns and Rockets made her a powerful little gunboat, and with pumps that could deliver 1500 GPM at 200 PSI she was also a powerful fireboat. She carried 65 enlisted men and 6 officers. LCS(L) (3) 52 was launched on 14 August 1944 at the Albina Engine and Machine Works in Portland, Oregon, and commissioned on 23 September 1944. John Harper, Larry Cullen and Virgil Thill
#BOOM BEACH LANDING CRAFT LOAD OUT ARCHIVE#
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