Wreck of USS LST-499

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

Laid down at the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Co shipyard in Evansville Indiana on September 3rd, 1943, the USS LST-499 commissioned into US Navy service at New Orleans in January 1944 after transiting the Mississippi River from her yard.

Engaged in training maneuvers with fellow LST's and other landing craft along the Gulf Coast, LST-499 and her crew eventually loaded war cargo and stood out of American waters for England via the Azores, arriving in Brixham Harbor in early April 1944. In preparation for her upcoming role in the Allied Invasion of France, codenamed 'Operation Overlord', the LST-499 and her crew began intensive training maneuvers in Lime Bay as part of Exercise Tiger, where a surprise attack by German E-Boats on the practice landings gave her crew their first taste of the combat to come.

Wrapping up her exercises in mid May 1944, LST-499 returned to Brixham Harbor and underwent a brief refit and repainting of her camouflage before she began loading her cargo of vehicles, stores and troops on June 1st. Standing out of Brixham destined for the beaches of Normandy during the night of June 5th, LST-499 arrived off Utah Beach at dawn on June 6th, 1944 and began launching her amphibious craft at H-Hour. As D-day progressed LST-499 remained anchored offshore as her cargo of troops boarded landing craft and LVT's carried jeeps and other vehicles from her welldeck to the beachhead.

As unloading operations continued through June 7th and into June 8th and the danger posed by German artillery lessened, LST-499 weighed anchor and was proceeding closer to shore when she set off a German influence mine beneath her Port Quarter. The force of the blast knocked out both of her engines and hull plating damage allowed large amounts of water to begin filling her after spaces, dragging the LST-499's Stern deeper into the water. Damage control teams were unable to check the influx of sea water without power for the ship's pumps and within ten minutes of the blast the aft decks were awash, prompting the abandon ship order. The presence of numerous small craft facilitated the orderly evacuation of the floundering ship and shortly after the last crewman was picked off her Bow the LST-499 went down Stern-first at this location on the morning of June 8th, 1944.

For her part in the Second World War, LST-499 was awarded one Battle Star.

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