|
| History |
|---|
 United States |
|---|
| Name | Lindenwald |
| Namesake | Lindenwald |
| Builder | Moore Dry Dock Company |
| Laid down | 22 February 1943 |
| Launched | 11 June 1943 |
| Commissioned |
- 9 December 1943 – 5 April 1947,
- 18 February 1949 – 12 December 1956
|
| In service | 12 December 1956 – 1959 |
| Recommissioned | 1 July 1960 – 30 November 1967 |
| Stricken | 1 December 1967 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 25 September 1968 |
| General characteristics |
|---|
| Displacement |
- 7,930 tons (loaded),
- 4,032 tons (light draft)
|
| Length | 457 ft 9 in (139.5 m) overall |
| Beam | 72 ft 2 in (22.0 m) |
| Draft |
- 8 ft 2½ in (2.5 m) fwd,
- 10 ft ½ in (3.1 m) aft (light);
- 15 ft 5½ in (4.7 m) fwd,
- 16 ft 2 in (4.9 m) aft (loaded)
|
| Propulsion | 2 Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2 Skinner Uniflow Reciprocating Steam Engines, 2 propeller shafts - each shaft 3,700 hp, at 240 rpm total shaft horse power 7,400, 2 11 ft 9 in diameter, 9 ft 9 in pitch propellers |
| Speed | 17 knots (31 km/h) |
| Range |
- 8,000 nmi. at 15 knots
- (15,000 km at 28 km/h)
|
Boats & landing
craft carried |
- 3 ×
LCT (Mk V or VI)
- each w/ 5 medium tanks or
- 2 × LCT (Mk III or IV)
- each w/ 12 medium tanks or
- 14 ×
LCM (Mk III)
- each w/ 1 medium tank
- or 1,500 long tons cargo or
- 47 × DUKW or
- 41 × LVT or
- Any combination of landing vehicles and landing craft up to capacity
|
| Capacity | 22 officers, 218 men |
| Complement | 23 officers, 267 men |
| Armament |
- 1 ×
DP gun;
- 2 ×
AA guns;
- 2 × 40 mm twin AA guns;
- 16 × 20 mm AA guns
|
| Aircraft carried | modified to accommodate helicopters on an added portable deck |
USS Lindenwald (LSD-6) was an
(1782–1862).
Lindenwald was authorized as a Mechanized Artillery Transport, APM-6; reclassified LSD-6 on 1 July 1942; laid down 22 February 1943 by
launched on 11 June 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Wilbur M. Lockhart and
commissioned on 9 December 1943.
World War II
Central Pacific campaigns
After
.
Anchoring off Guadalcanal on 23 February, she received calls from Admiral
2d Marine Division. The ship then stood off
Saipan while on the beaches the marines overcame tough opposition with naval gunfire and air support.
Lindenwald departed for San Francisco 22 June and arrived 11 July, touching Pearl Harbor en route to unload boats and marine casualties.
Philippine and Okinawa campaigns
Departing the West Coast only 10 days after arrival, Lindenwald loaded boats at Pearl Harbor and steamed for the
Leyte on 14 October and anchored in the LSD launching area 20 October. The next day, she quickly unloaded boats and got underway for
Hollandia,
New Guinea, to carry General
MacArthur's rear echelon to the new headquarters at Leyte. For the next two months,
Lindenwald carried troops and equipment from New Guinea to Manus and Leyte.
With Leyte secured, Lindenwald prepared for
Biak Island and returned again to Lingayen 11 February. Shoving off 13 February, she arrived Guam on the 24th, then proceeded to
Milne Bay, New Guinea, loaded 38 boats, and steamed for Leyte. Arriving 12 March, she reported to Task Force 51 (TF 51) under Vice Admiral
Richmond K. Turner and began preparations for the upcoming
Okinawa campaign.
Lindenwald sailed due north from
Okinawa on 26 March and arrived 1 April. She remained off Okinawa for 92 days, docking, repairing, and servicing
landing craft damaged by enemy gunfire or the heavy surf. During this period, the ship repaired 452 boats. Enemy harassment twice threatened to cut short her busy career. Early morning 27 May, after suicide planes crashed into two sister auxiliary ships,
Lindenwald splashed an enemy aircraft before it could crash nearby
Carina. Two weeks later, a murderous barrage from
Lindenwald diverted an incoming suicide plane just enough to escape disaster. It barely missed the
radar mast and splashed 500 yards off the bow.
With the liberation of Okinawa completed, Lindenwald sailed for San Francisco on 1 July and pulled in three weeks later. After a 2-month overhaul, she made a fast run to Pearl Harbor, then sailed via the Panama Canal for Galveston, Texas, and transport duty in the Gulf of Mexico.
1946 – 1954
She steamed from
Pacific Reserve Fleet
at San Francisco.
Lindenwald recommissioned 18 February 1949 and operated off the West Coast until 26 November, then steamed to
U.S. 6th Fleet in the
Aegean Sea. Returning to the western Mediterranean, she visited ports in
France,
Italy, and
Spain during late 1953, departing
Oran for Norfolk 24 January 1954.
1954 – 1958
During the following three years, Lindenwald made another European voyage and spent each summer operating in the icy waters off Greenland with the
Military Sea Transportation Service
(MSTS). May 1955, she spent time re supplying the DEW Line in the area of Eskimo Point up to Nov 1955. Lilly noticed the ship did not have a motto or plaque, so he created one with the motto Illigitimas non Carborundum ("don't let the bastards get you down") which BUSHIPS approved, perhaps without knowing the translation. HU-2 Fleet Angels was attached to the Lindenwald for search & rescue duties. Decommissioned 12 December 1956, she was transferred to MSTS the same date and was placed in service as
USNS Lindenwald (T-LSD-6), and assigned to MSTS, Atlantic.
As a unit of MSTS, she made supply runs to bases in northern Greenland and the
for further repairs, upon completion of which she was placed in MSTS Ready Reserve.
1959 – 1967
Reacquired by the Navy early the next year, she recommissioned on 1 July 1960 and was assigned to the Amphibious Force,
U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Besides extensive training duties with the Amphibious Forces, the ship also played a vital peacekeeping role during the volatile 1960s. She helped stabilize the Caribbean area during the
Dominican Republic revolt of November 1961. From 14 February to 16 June 1962, the ship again patrolled the Mediterranean with the 6th Fleet. When President
John F. Kennedy ordered the
quarantine of Cuba in the fall of 1962,
Lindenwald policed the area around
Puerto Rico.
After spending most of 1963 in Arctic waters, the ship displayed her combat readiness in Operation "Quick Kick" during April 1964 and again that summer with the transatlantic amphibious exercise operation "Steel Pike I."
As civil disorder rocked the
Palomares, Spain
.
Until late 1968, Lindenwald alternated between upkeep, overhaul, and conducting amphibious exercises and training along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean. Lindenwald decommissioned at Little Creek on 30 November 1967 and was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 December 1967. On 25 September 1968, she was sold to Union Minerals & Alloys Corp., for scrapping. Despite this, as late as 1977 she could be seen moored at Base Naval Rio Santiago (ARA/ Armada Argentina) near La Plata (República Argentina), probably waiting scrapping nearby.
Lindenwald received five
service.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
External links
_underway_in_Hampton_Roads_1965.jpg)
United States
United States Navy
Argentine Navy
Republic of China Navy