Wreck of USS LST-577

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, Landing Ship Tank (LST), United States Navy

Laid down in May 1944 at Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Co's Evansville, Indiana shipyard, USS LST-577 commissioned into service on July 10th, 1944 and promptly sailed down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans where she joined a convoy bound for the Pacific.

Following Amphibious exercises in the Hawaiian Islands, LST-577 sailed for Ulithi Atoll where an American and Allied fleet was massing for the Invasion of the Philippine Islands. Arriving off the shores of Leyte in November 1944 with the US Amphibious Force, the crew of LST-577 got their first exposure to combat as Japanese aircraft made a concerted effort to disrupt the landings, and got more of the same when they sailed further North to land forces at Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. Withdrawing from Lingayen Gulf for Hollandia, New Guinea to reloaded both supplies and troops, LST-577 took aboard the men and material of the US Army's 279th Replacement Company, 21st Replacement Depot as well as a group of US Navy personnel and put to sea once again bound for the Philippines in convoy.

As her convoy proceeded through the open ocean South of the Palaus, it was sighted by the Japanese Submarine RO-50 which immediately began to stalk the Allied formation. Observing the convoy to be steaming in a single file line and flanked by Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts, the Captain of the RO-50 waited until dawn on February 11th and its foggy and rainy weather to make his attack, firing a blind four-torpedo spread into the convoys course and heading. With his sonar operator confirming the successful attack as the sound of an explosion rumbled through the sea, RO-50’s crew had little time for celebration before they were pounced upon by the convoy's escorts and heavily depth charged for the next 13 hours.

Aboard LST-577, the crew had been permitted to sleep later than usual as they would likely be awake for the next several days and at battle stations while the ship was in the Philippines and under near-constant threat of air and sea attack. Steaming in the 21st position of the convoy through the foul weather, crew aboard the ship were likely unaware of any danger to their formation until a torpedo was spotted by lookouts as it passed ahead of the ship. With barely enough time to pass the sighting back to the bridge, crew located forward were thrown to the deck as a tremendous explosion on LST-577’s Port Quarter shook through the ship. Wallowing to Starboard with the force of the impact, the heavily laden LST rolled back to an even keel as the weight of the inrushing water combined with her cargo load and began to wrench her compromised hull apart. Only seconds had passed after the torpedo impact when LST-577’s keel snapped and the ship split into two pieces, the Stern briefly floating free before it reared up and sank taking 166 Army, Navy and Crew with it to the bottom. Rescue efforts for those aboard the still-floating bow section began immediately, and within 20 minutes of the attack all of LST-577's remaining survivors were pulled off the bow by convoy escorts.

After determining that LST-577’s bow and its cargo load was not worthwhile to tow to the Philippines and now posed more of a hazard to navigation than anything else, the Destroyer USS Isherwood (DD-520) sank the drifting hull section with gunfire at this location on the night on February 11th, 1945.

USS LST-577 received two Battle Stars for her World War Two service.

www.awon.org/ventura/
semperfiheart1.homestead.com/LST577_History.html
www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/160577.htm