Wreck of USS LST-396

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, United States Navy

Laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding Yard in September 1942 as the 396th member of the LST-1 Class of Tank Landing Ships, LST-396 commissioned into US Navy service in December 1942 as a member of the US Atlantic Fleet. Conducting type training along the US Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast in preparation for her eventual deployment to either the European or Pacific Theatre, the ship and crew were finally ordered to San Diego where they joined the US Pacific Fleet in the fight against the Japanese Empire.

Loading cargo stateside for Hawaii, LST-396 arrived at Pearl Harbor in early April 1943 where her crew resumed their intensive training on the Hawaiian Islands before departing in convoy for the Solomon Islands in May. Assigned to the litany of small landings and supply operations taking place across the Southern Solomon Islands through June, LST-396 got their first taste of combat against the Empire of Japan as they conducted the initial amphibious landings at New Georgia, Rendova and Vangunu in July 1943. Withdrawing back to Guadalcanal after the Vangunu landings to reload another cargo of supplies, vehicles and troops in preparation for her next operation, LST-396 and her crew received orders to proceed in convoy for the island of Vella Lavella for the next amphibious invasion.

Departing Guadalcanal on the 15th of August in convoy with several other LST’s and under escort by American Destroyers, LST-396 proceeded into the open waters of the Coral Sea to the South of New Georgia Island and was closing in on her destination on the 18th of August when crew in her vehicle deck reported that a fire had broken out among the ship’s cargo. Ringing all crew to General Quarters and activating the ship’s damage control parties, LST-396’s Captain alerted the ships in the convoy to his situation and advised that at the moment all was under control. Unfortunately, the flames were quickly able to find more than enough fuel among the fully-laden trucks, tanks and ammunition stored in the LST’s hold, and within moments of the initial report of fire the flames were growing out of control. Using the ship’s onboard firefighting equipment to combat the flames, damage control parties were unable to make any significant headway against the fire as it spread to several vehicles and threatened to cook off the ordinance they carried. As the heat and flames intensified below, several truck’s were seen to have their fuel tanks rupture, adding diesel and gasoline to the flames and cloaking the entire lower vehicle bay in thick black smoke.

Fearing an imminent ammunition explosion, LST-396’s Captain pulled his damage control teams topside and directed their firefighting efforts from above the inferno below, but within 20 minutes of the fire being reported the first of several ammunition and gas vapor explosions began to rock the ship. Clearly seeing that the ship was rapidly losing its battle against the fire below decks, the Captain requested immediate assistance from other ships in the convoy to help with firefighting efforts and to remove all non-essential personnel from the burning vessel. As one of the escorting Destroyers closed to render assistance, the flames caused a significant amount of artillery shells stored foreword to cook off, causing an enormous blast that blew out the ship’s hull on three sides and collapsed her forward deck. Immediately going down by the bow as tons of seawater poured into her shattered forward hull, LST-396 was quickly ordered abandoned onto the waiting Destroyer and set adrift shortly thereafter, where she continued to burn and suffer ammunition explosions before finally sinking at this location on August 18th, 1943.

For her actions during the Second World War, USS LST-396 earned two Battle Stars.

www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/160396.htm