USS Clay

History
United States
Name	USS Clay
Namesake	Clay County, Alabama; Clay County, Arkansas; Clay County, Florida; Clay County, Georgia; Clay County, Illinois; Clay County, Indiana; Clay County, Iowa; Clay County, Kansas; Clay County, Kentucky; Clay County, Minnesota; Clay County, Mississippi; Clay County, Missouri; Clay County, Nebraska; Clay County, North Carolina; Clay County, South Dakota; Clay County, Tennessee; Clay County, Texas; Clay County, West Virginia;
Builder	Western Pipe & Steel
Laid down	14 October 1942
Launched	23 January 1943
Christened	Sea Angel
Commissioned	15 March 1943
Decommissioned	29 April 1946
Renamed	USS Clay, President Johnson, La Salle.
Stricken	19 July 1946
Honours and; awards	Four battle stars for service in World War II.
Fate	Scrapped 1974
Notes	Delivered 29 June 1943
General characteristics
Class and type	Bayfield class attack transport
Displacement	11,760 tons
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, two Combustion Engineering D-type boilers, single propeller, Design shaft horsepower 8,500
Speed	18.4 knots
Complement	51 officers, 524 enlisted. Troop capacity 80 officers, 1,146 enlisted
Armament	2 × single 5 inch/38 dual purpose mounts, one fore and one aft.; 2 × quad 40 mm AA gun mounts.; 2 × twin 40 mm AA gun mounts forward, port and starboard.; 18 × single 20 mm gun AA gun mounts.;

USS Clay (APA-39) was a

Bayfield class attack transport in service with the United States Navy

from 1943 to 1946. She was then sold into commercial service and was scrapped in 1974.

History

USS Clay was originally laid down as Sea Angel by the

Japanese

.

Saipan

After an abortive operation against

2nd Marine Division

.

Clay then returned to Pearl Harbor with troops and Japanese prisoners of war, arriving on 9 July. Clay's naval division was then ordered to

San Diego to embark the 5th Marine Division for an attack on Guam, but during the trip Guam fell to US forces and the ship was diverted to Hawaii

in preparation for a new operation.

Leyte

After intensive rehearsals, USS Clay then embarked with elements of the

96th Infantry Division for an attack on Yap, but once again the course of the war made the invasion unnecessary and the ship was ordered to participate in an invasion of Leyte instead, 700 miles beyond. The vessel staged at Manus and on 14 October set sail as part of a large invasion force, taking part in the invasion on 20 October. Under constant threat from Japanese aircraft, Clay then sailed from Leyte to Hollandia and thence Morotai, before returning to Leyte with vital reinforcements and supplies. The vessel unloaded in a single day and on 14 November proceeded once again to Manus, then to Cape Gloucester, where following her arrival on 27 November, she began to prepare for the invasion of Luzon in Lingayen Gulf

.

Luzon

On 31 December 1944, USS Clay departed for the invasion of Luzon. In the face of kamikaze air attacks, the invasion was successfully carried out on 9 January. Clay herself helped beat off the suicide attacks, and the Japanese erroneously reported her sinking.

Clay then returned to Leyte to embark elements of the

6th Marines

.

Okinawa

After more rehearsals, USS Clay embarked in March with elements of the 6th Marines as part of the massive invasion fleet destined for

San Diego

.

After the Japanese surrender

On 27 July USS Clay headed once more for the Pacific, but before she could arrive the US unleashed its atomic bombs on

Nagasaki and Hiroshima and the Japanese surrendered. Clay continued to Leyte, and from there to Cebu

where she embarked elements of 182nd Infantry Regiment for occupation duties in Japan. On 1 September, she sailed for Tokyo Bay as flagship of Temporary Squadron 13 (part of Tokyo Force), skippered by Squadron Commander Captain R C Bartham.

Sailing through swept minefields and past the wreck of the Japanese battleship Nagato, USS Clay disembarked her cargo in the devastated industrial region between Yokohama and Tokyo, before returning to Cebu and thence to Otaru with more occupation troops. She then journeyed to Guam to pick up occupation troops for Tientsin, China. From there she sailed to Saipan to embark troops returning home to the United States, arriving at San Pedro on 5 December 1945. After a second trip to the Pacific to pick up more returning servicemen, she sailed from San Francisco on 9 March 1946 and arrived at New York on 27 March. She was decommissioned on 15 May 1946 .

In the course of her naval career, USS Clay covered over 100,000 miles in wartime operations. She received four

battle stars

for her wartime service.

Commercial service

After decommissiong, the vessel was sold through the

Maritime Commission on 12 September 1946 to American President Lines, which renamed her SS President Johnson. By the 1970s she had been sold again, to Waterman Steamship Corporation

, and renamed SS La Salle. The vessel was finally scrapped in 1974.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
AP-84 / APA-39 Clay

v t e Bayfield-class attack transports
Bayfield Bolivar Callaway Cambria Cavalier Chilton Clay Custer DuPage Elmore Fayette Fremont Henrico Knox Lamar Leon Alpine Barnstable Burleigh Cecil Dade Mendocino Montour Riverside Westmoreland Hansford Goodhue Goshen Grafton Guilford Sitka Hamblen Hampton Hanover
Preceded by: Arthur Middleton class Followed by: Ormsby class
List of United States Navy amphibious warfare ships