USS Bayfield
USS Bayfield (APA-33) at Charleston, South Carolina, 4 January 1950
| |
History | |
---|---|
United States | |
Name | USS Bayfield |
Namesake | Bayfield County, Wisconsin |
Builder | Western Pipe & Steel |
Yard number | 87 |
Laid down | 14 November 1942 |
Launched | 15 February 1943 |
Sponsored by | Mrs. J. E. Schmeltzer |
Christened | Sea Bass (II) |
Completed | 30 June 1943 |
Commissioned | 20 November 1943 |
Decommissioned | 28 June 1968 |
Renamed | USS Bayfield |
Stricken | 1 October 1968 |
Honours and awards | Four battle stars for service in World War II, four for Korean War service, two for the Vietnam War . |
Fate | Scrapped September 1969 |
Notes |
|
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Bayfield-class attack transport |
Displacement | 8,100 tons, 16,100 tons fully loaded |
Length | 492 ft (150 m) |
Beam | 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) |
Draught | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) |
Propulsion | General Electric geared turbine, 2 x Combustion Engineering D-type boilers, single propeller, designed shaft horsepower 8,500 |
Speed | 18 knots |
Boats & landing craft carried | 12 x LCM (Mk-6), 3 x LCP(L) (MK-IV) |
Capacity | 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m³), 4,700 tons |
Complement |
|
Armament |
|
USS Bayfield (APA-33) was a Bayfield-class attack transport built for the United States Navy during World War II, the lead ship in her class. Named for Bayfield County, Wisconsin, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Construction
Bayfield was originally laid down as SS Sea Bass under a Maritime Commission contract on 14 November 1942 at
APA-33 was launched on 15 February. The Navy acquired the vessel on 30 June, renamed it Bayfield, and placed it in reduced commission the same day. Bayfield left San Francisco on 7 July and arrived in
Amphibious operations in Europe
Invasion of Normandy
She received orders to New York to embark troops for service in Europe. On 11 February the ship departed New York with a convoy bound for the British Isles and arrived at Glasgow, Scotland on 22 February. From there she moved south to the Isle of Portland, England to await orders.
On 11 March Bayfield made the short run to
On 29 March she bore the flag of Commander, Force "U" (Rear Admiral
Bayfield anchored again at Plymouth on 29 April and on 7 May began embarking troops of the
After disembarking her troops, Bayfield began service as a supply and hospital ship in addition to continuing her duties as a flagship. Those assignments kept her off the Normandy coast while other transports rapidly unloaded troops and cargo and then returned to England. On 7 June she shifted to an anchorage five miles off the beach and made smoke that night to protect Utah anchorage from Luftwaffe attacks.
Invasion of Southern France
On 25 June Bayfield returned to port, and on 5 July joined Task Group (TG) 120.6 bound for Algeria. Upon its arrival at Oran on 10 July the group was dissolved, and Bayfield continued on to Italy. At Naples, Rear Admiral Moon assumed command of Task Force 8 or "Camel" Force, for the invasion of southern France. Plans and procedures were refined, and full-scale rehearsals were held off beaches near Salerno between 31 July and 6 August.
Following the
As its target, "Camel" Force assaulted the best defended section of the coast, an area where the
Operations in the Pacific
The attack transport spent the first week of November preparing for duty in the Pacific. She loaded supplies and got underway on 7 November for the Panama Canal, in transit to Hawaii. Bayfield arrived at Pearl Harbor on 26 November. The next day, she broke the flag of Commander, Transport Squadron (TransRon) 15, Commodore H. C. Flanagan. Between 6 December and 18 January 1945 the ship participated in five practice amphibious landings at Maui.
Invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Bayfield departed Pearl Harbor on 27 January and touched at
Bayfield debarked troops from the
Her task force left the Marianas on 27 March and hove-to off the southeastern coast of
The group continued the demonstration the next day and then retired seaward to await orders. Bayfield's troops were not required at Okinawa, and on 11 April she got underway for Saipan, where they were disembarked on the 14th. She then remained at Saipan undergoing maintenance and repairs until 4 June.
Bayfield sailed for the Solomons on 4 June to load cargo and move it closer to the fighting. She stopped at Tulagi on the 12th and at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on the 17th. She sailed on 1 July for the Marianas and unloaded at Tinian on 9 July and Saipan on 13 July. After taking on passengers, Bayfield got underway for Guam where she arrived on 14 July. Two days later, the transport set course for California.
Occupation and demobilization cruises
In San Francisco on 30 July, Bayfield went into drydock for a major overhaul before the expected
After discharging the troops, Bayfield returned to the Marianas on 4 October and joined the "
Post-World War II service
Atomic testing
In March, the attack transport was ordered to Pearl Harbor for "
On 30 June she took station 22 miles from the site of the initial Test "ABLE", an
On 24 July Bayfield again departed the lagoon and at 08:35 on the 25th, observed the underwater detonation from a distance of 15 miles. She returned to the anchorage at dawn the following morning and remained until 3 August. She stopped at Kwajalein to check contamination levels, resumed her journey on 8 August, and arrived at San Francisco on the 20th. On 28 August 1946, Bayfield arrived at Puget Sounds Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton Washington for further decontamination as a result of the atomic blast test at the Bikini Atoll test site.
1946–1960
The transport continued to serve with the Pacific Fleet making two more cruises to China until joining the Atlantic Fleet in November 1949. Based at Norfolk, Virginia she operated along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies until mid-August 1950, when the outbreak of hostilities in Korea on 25 June called her back to the Pacific.
Bayfield arrived in
During the next two years, Bayfield made three more cruises to the
On 26 March 1955, Bayfield arrived at the site of the
1961–1968
In February 1961 Bayfield changed home port from San Diego to Long Beach where she served as the flagship for the Commander Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 7. Her first assignment saw her underway for a major amphibious exercise in Hawaii. During that operation, the transport received orders dispatching her to the western Pacific to bolster the 7th Fleet during the Laotian crisis. The tension soon subsided, however, and Bayfield returned to Hawaii to finish the interrupted training exercise before continuing on back to the West Coast.
The ship deployed to the Far East again in January 1962 and spent most of the overseas tour participating in exercises and showing the flag. Near the end of the assignment, Bayfield received orders to
Following a regular overhaul at
Bayfield also carried cold weather training called "Operation Backpack" at Pohang, South Korea and joined the
Bayfield returned to the West Coast in December and resumed local training missions in the Long Beach and San Diego operating areas early in 1966. Later that spring, she began a five-month overhaul at the Todd Shipyard in Alameda, California. Getting underway from Todd Shipyard "Bayfield" sailed to Mare Island to take on ammunition then proceeding on to Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (San Francisco). "Bayfield" was in Hunters Point during the Race Riots and crew members were escorted back to ship under police escort from Market Street in San Francisco. The ship left the yard on 26 September and spent several weeks at San Diego for amphibious maneuvers and refresher training.
Bayfield embarked on another tour of duty in the Far East on 28 December, refueled at Pearl Harbor early in January 1967, and continued on westward. She touched at Okinawa on 19 January and continued on to the Philippines. At Subic Bay, ComPhibRon 7 shifted his flag to the transport and she got underway for Vietnam on 31 January.
Vietnam War
The ship served as a floating barracks at
In April, she loaded troops for another landing and put them ashore south of Da Nang on 28 April. The transport continued to serve off the coast of Vietnam until 28 May, ferrying troops between points as needed and transporting casualties to the hospital ship Sanctuary. Relieved by the Duluth, Bayfield headed home, via Sasebo, Hong Kong and Pearl Harbor.
In August 1965 she participated in Operation Starlite was the first major offensive regimental size action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. Followed by Operation Piranha which was a US Marine Corps operation that took place on the Batangan Peninsula southeast of Chu Lai, lasting from 7 to 10 September 1965.
Bayfield earned four
Decommissioning
USS Bayfield carried out exercises until 27 December, at which time she was placed in a reduced readiness status. Berthed next to the Talladega at Long Beach, Bayfield prepared for inactivation. She was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 28 June 1968. A board of inspection and survey found the transport to be "unfit for further service", and her name struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1968. She was sold to the Levin Metals Corporation of San Pedro, California on 15 September 1969 and scrapped.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- "AP-78 / APA-33 Bayfield". Amphibious Photo Archive. Retrieved 21 April 2007.
External links