War in Pacific: on the board of a landing ship

War in Pacific: on the board of a landing ship

On December 8, 1941, the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan after the attacks on British bases in Asia (Hong Kong) and American bases in the Pacific (Pearl Harbor). Japanese expansion continued up to 1942, but the economic potential between the opposing sides was not comparable. During the war, the U.S. built about 1200 warships, including 99 aircraft carriers, while Japan could put into service only a few large warships.

The author of this archive served on one of the U.S. Navy ships. The negatives of American sailor Dell Francis Panen were wrapped in a yellowed mailing envelope. All images were taken by the photographer in 1945. Dell Francis Panen, like many in the military, was an amateur photographer and served as a sailor on a tank landing ship (LST), presumably the USS LST-986.

The tank landing ship would carry 20 tanks or other combat vehicles, which would drive themselves ashore via a ramp located in the front of the ship. Together with the tanks, LST was able to take on board up to 163 soldiers. And on the main deck it was possible to carry a landing craft tank (LCT) to act in cases when a large ship could not approach the shore. Fully loaded LST ships traveled very slowly, making them easy targets for the enemy. That is why sailors nicknamed them LST - Large Slow Target. For the defense, the ship was armed with seven 40-mm guns, and twelve 20-mm guns. The number of guns could be varied. This was the ship's last level of defense against Japanese kamikaze attack. But sometimes even this did not help. On one of Panen's photos, we can see the consequences of the Japanese kamikaze attack on the American base on the island of Okinawa on June 22, 1945. The attack killed 5 men and wounded a large number, and the tank landing ship USS LST-534 was sunk. During the liberation of the islands in the Pacific, 1,152 tank landing ships were built by the Americans.

The tank landing ship USS LST-986 (LST-542 class) on which the photographer served was laid down on January 15, 1944, at the Boston Navy Yard and launched on March 5, 1944. The ship entered service on April 14, 1944. The ship's captain was Lieutenant Anthony Lozica, USNR (December 1944 - December 1945). During World War II, LST-986 was assigned to the Asia-Pacific Theater and participated following operations: the capture and occupation of Guam (July and August 1944), the landing at Lingayen Gulf (January 1945), the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto (April and May 1945). The ship, along with her crew, which included Dell Francis Panen, earned three battle stars for World War II service.

After the war, LST-986 served in the Far East until early March 1946. After that the ship returned to the United States and was decommissioned on July 18, 1946. On November 4, 1948, the ship was sold to Moore Dry Dock Company in Oakland, California, for scrapping.