It wasn’t the biggest ship in the U.S. Navy’s arsenal during World War II, but it was effective.
It invaded Sicily and Salerno in Italy, then Normandy on D-Day, unloading tank after tank onto Omaha Beach out of its gaping front door.
The Landing Ship, Tank — known as the USS LST 325,— which carried Sherman tanks to the front lines of some of the war’s defining battles, has made port along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh for its annual tour to raise money for its upkeep.
“Prior to this [ship model], they had to have a nice dock where a big ship would come in and have a crane and they’d set all the armor off,” said Robert Kubota, the ship’s captain. “And of course the Germans did everything they could to prevent this, so they invented these ships so that they could just load the tanks on in England and ride up on the beach.”
More than 71 years after the D-Day invasion, the ship arrived on the North Shore, dwarfing nearby yachts with its size and presence. It opens for tours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Tuesday with an admission fee of $10 for adults and $5 for children.
The LST is floating just a few hundred feet from Heinz Field, where the vessel — at 326 feet long — would stretch well into each end zone if placed on the field. The ship’s home port is in Evansville, Ind., and it usually travels to two U.S. cities a year. Its crew will steer it down the Ohio River to Cincinnati after it leaves Pittsburgh.
The LST 325 was built in Philadelphia, but many ships of the same model were manufactured in southwestern Pennsylvania, according to crew members. Of the more than 1,000 landing ship tanks made, the LST 325 is the last fully operational World War II ship of its kind.
But the ship wasn’t much of a fighter. The LST model ships were “sitting ducks,” according to Jack Stephenson, who served on a destroyer escort ship in the Pacific during WWII and is now part of the LST 325’s crew.
It was considered an achievement if it made one successful landing, said J.B. Good of Bethel Park, a crew member.
“Nobody told us how dangerous it was,” said Irwin Kuhns, who served on an LST in the Pacific during WWII.
While the ship had guns, its main focus was to get tanks, troops and supplies to the battle. The LST 325 brought 20 Sherman tanks to the Normandy beach, but Capt. Kubota said that the ships hauled almost anything imaginable.
The captain said he’s heard that LSTs delivered beer to soldiers in the Vietnam War. That comfort would have been unimaginable to Mr. Kuhns during his time on a LST in WWII, when space was at a premium.
“We had zero extra stuff. No place to get candy bars, chewing gum. No library — zero,” he said. “The only thing we could get was the mail. We didn’t have a doctor, never saw a man of the cloth.”
Andrew Goldstein: 412-263-1352, agoldstein@post-gazette.com.
First Published: September 1, 2015, 5:19 p.m.