USS Lauderdale, one of 117 Haskell-class attack transports, was built to a modified Victory ship design at Portland, Oregon, and was commissioned in December 1944. Transiting via San Francisco, she arrived at San Pedro in January 1945 for shakedown training. In February Lauderdale went to Pearl Harbor, where she took part in landing exercises and loaded Army troops. In early April the transport sailed in a convoy from Ulithi to Okinawa, where she debarked her troops and cargo during a week off the beachhead and then served until mid-July as a receiving ship for uninjured survivors of ships that were damaged or sunk during the Okinawa campaign. Lauderdale then transported military passengers back to the West Coast, arriving at San Diego in early August 1945.
After the Japanese surrender, Lauderdale carried occupation troops from Portland, Oregon, to Saipan, arriving in mid-September 1945. For the next two months she transported troops and supplies to Tinian, Guam, Iwo Jima, and Japan. In mid-November she began the first of two voyages under Operation "Magic Carpet," returning veterans to San Pedro in November 1945 and to Seattle in January 1946. She then sailed via San Francisco to the East Coast. USS Lauderdale was decommissioned at Norfolk in April 1946 and in May was stricken from the Navy List and placed in the Maritime Commission's reserve fleet. Several plans for her disposal fell through, and she remains in the James River, Virginia, Reserve Fleet.
This page features our only view of USS Lauderdale (APA-179).
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital image presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 22 November 2003