Wreck of USS LST-348

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

USS LST-348 was a LST-1 Class Tank Landing Ship built for the United States Navy, laid down at the Norfolk Navy Yard in November 1942 and commissioned into the US Atlantic Fleet in February 1943. Assigned for duty in the European Theatre following crew training off the Virginia Capes and in the Chesapeake Bay, LST-348 loaded supplies and departed the United States in convoy for Oran, Algeria in May 1943.

Staging at Oran with other ships of the Sicilian Occupation force, the LST-348 and her crew joined the Italian Campaign in July 1943 by landing reinforcement supplies throughout the month before she began regular convoy operations throughout the North African and Italian Coast for the balance of 1943. With Allied forces stalled at the Gustav Line and unable to defeat the German fortress at Monte Cassino, LST-348 and several dozen of her sisterships and other amphibious craft were called upon to Allied forces for a daring assault behind enemy lines at the Italian port city of Anzio. Forming part of the initial landings on January 22nd, 1944, the LST and her crew began full-scale resupply and support operations of the marooned Allied forces at the Anzio and Nettuno beachheads.

While so engaged, LST-348 was returning from Sicily in convoy during the early morning hours of February 20th when she was spotted and attacked at 0157hrs by the German U-410 while roughly 40 miles South of Naples. Struck twice on her Port side, the fully-laden LST was severely damaged by the attack and was soon dead in the water and listing heavily. Fearing further attacks and the potential explosion of her cargo, the abandon ship was ordered and scuttling charges were set before the last of her crew took to the water, leaving LST-348 to her fate. At roughly 0215hrs the scuttling charges went off and started a large fire however the battered LST remained afloat and brightly lit until U-410 fired a third and final torpedo into her hull, sinking her at this location at 0221hrs on February 20th, 1944.

For her role in the Second World War, USS LST-348 was awarded two Battle Stars.


www.navsource.org/archives/10/16/160348.htm