_at_Charleston%2c_South_Carolina_(USA)%2c_on_4_January_1950_(NH_99242).jpg) USS Bayfield (APA-33) atCharleston, South Carolina, 4 January 1950 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSBayfield |
| Namesake | Bayfield County, Wisconsin |
| Builder | Western Pipe & Steel |
| Yard number | 87 |
| Laid down | 14 November 1942 |
| Launched | 15 February 1943 |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. J. E. Schmeltzer |
| Christened | Sea Bass (II) |
| Completed | 30 June 1943 |
| Commissioned | 20 November 1943 |
| Decommissioned | 28 June 1968 |
| Renamed | USSBayfield |
| Stricken | 1 October 1968 |
| Honours and awards | Fourbattle stars for service in World War II, four forKorean War service, two for theVietnam War. |
| Fate | Scrapped September 1969 |
| Notes |
|
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Bayfield-classattack transport |
| Displacement | 8,100 tons, 16,100 tons fully loaded |
| Length | 492 ft (150 m) |
| Beam | 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) |
| Draught | 26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) |
| Propulsion | General Electric geared turbine, 2 xCombustion Engineering D-type boilers, singlepropeller, designed shafthorsepower 8,500 |
| Speed | 18knots |
| Boats & landing craft carried | 12 xLCVP, 4 xLCM (Mk-6), 3 x LCP(L) (MK-IV) |
| Capacity | 200,000 cubic feet (5,700 m3), 4,700 tons |
| Complement |
|
| Armament |
|
USSBayfield (APA-33) was aBayfield-classattack transport built for theUnited States Navy during World War II, the lead ship in her class. Named forBayfield County, Wisconsin, she was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
Bayfield was originally laid down as SSSea Bass under a Maritime Commission contract on 14 November 1942 atSan Francisco, California by theWestern Pipe and Steel Company. The hull was assigned to the Navy as naval transport AP-78 and was redesignated attack transport APA-33 on 1 February 1943.
APA-33 was launched on 15 February. The Navy acquired the vessel on 30 June, renamed itBayfield, and placed it in reduced commission the same day.Bayfield left San Francisco on 7 July and arrived inBrooklyn, New York on 29 July, where it was decommissioned and converted by the Atlantic Basic Iron Works to an attack transport. The completed ship was then commissioned USSBayfield (APA-33) on 20 November 1943 with CaptainLyndon Spencer,USCG, in command. Following a shakedown cruise inChesapeake Bay and subsequent repairs atNorfolk Navy Yard, she conducted amphibious training in January 1944, underwent additional repair, and was declared ready for sea on 3 February.
She received orders toNew York to embark troops for service in Europe. On 11 February the ship departed New York with a convoy bound for theBritish Isles and arrived atGlasgow, Scotland on 22 February. From there she moved south to theIsle of Portland, England to await orders.
On 11 MarchBayfield made the short run toPlymouth and joined a group of amphibious ships that then set course for western Scotland. The ships reached theRiver Clyde on 14 March and carried out landing exercises there through 21 March in preparation for the Europeaninvasion at Normandy.
On 29 March she bore the flag of Commander, Force "U" (Rear AdmiralDon Pardee Moon) and served as headquarters for planning the landings on "Utah Beach." She joined with otherNormandy-bound ships in practicing a variety of maneuvers and tactical operations during short underway periods until 26 April, whenfull-scale rehearsals took place through 4 May.
Bayfield anchored again at Plymouth on 29 April and on 7 May began embarking troops of the8th Infantry Regiment (U.S. 4th Infantry Division) and the87th Chemical Battalion. By 5 June the invasion force completed all preparations and got underway for theBay of the Seine. Passing along a swept channel marked by lighted buoys,Bayfield and the other transports reached their designated positions early on the morning of 6 June and debarked their troops. Hall of Fame baseball playerYogi Berra was a gunner's mate on-boardBayfield onD-Day.
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After disembarking her troops,Bayfield began service as a supply and hospital ship in addition to continuing her duties as a flagship. Those assignments kept her off the Normandy coast while other transports rapidly unloaded troops and cargo and then returned to England. On 7 June she shifted to an anchorage five miles off the beach and made smoke that night to protect Utah anchorage fromLuftwaffe attacks.
On 25 JuneBayfield returned to port, and on 5 July joined Task Group (TG) 120.6 bound forAlgeria. Upon its arrival atOran on 10 July the group was dissolved, andBayfield continued on to Italy. AtNaples, Rear Admiral Moon assumed command of Task Force 8 or "Camel" Force, for theinvasion of southern France. Plans and procedures were refined, and full-scale rehearsals were held off beaches nearSalerno between 31 July and 6 August.
Following thesuicide of Rear Admiral Moon, a victim of what would become known as "battle fatigue" on 5 August, Rear Admiral Spencer Lewis took command of TF 87 on 13 August, andBayfield sailed for the southern coast of France. Early on 15 August, she put troops of theU.S. 36th Infantry Division ashore east ofSaint-Raphaël in theGolfe de Fréjus.
As its target, "Camel" Force assaulted the best defended section of the coast, an area where theArgens River flows into the Mediterranean, and the hard fighting there keptBayfield in the vicinity of the Golfe de Fréjus for almost a month. She returned to Naples on 10 September and three days later received orders to join atransatlantic convoy at Oran. The attack transport steamed by way ofBizerte to embark passengers for transportation back to the United States and left Oran with her convoy on 16 September. She arrived inNorfolk, Virginia on 26 September, disembarked her passengers, and entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for overhaul.
The attack transport spent the first week of November preparing for duty in the Pacific. She loaded supplies and got underway on 7 November for thePanama Canal, in transit toHawaii.Bayfield arrived atPearl Harbor on 26 November. The next day, she broke the flag of Commander, Transport Squadron (TransRon) 15, Commodore H. C. Flanagan. Between 6 December and 18 January 1945 the ship participated in five practice amphibious landings atMaui.
Bayfield departed Pearl Harbor on 27 January and touched atEniwetok for fuel before arriving atSaipan on 11 February. Following rehearsal offTinian on 12 and 13 February, the Joint Expeditionary Force (TF 51) got underway on 16 February forIwo Jima.
Bayfield debarked troops from the4th Marine Division onD-Day, 19 February, and while anchored off Iwo Jima for the remainder of the month served both as a hospital and a prisoner-of-war ship.Bayfield returned to theMarianas on 1 March to prepare for theRyukyu Islands campaign. On 6 and 7 March she loaded supplies and equipment of the2nd Marine Division and got underway on the 11th for rehearsal exercises preparatory to theinvasion of Okinawa.
Her task force left the Marianas on 27 March and hove-to off the southeastern coast ofOkinawa onEaster morning, 1 April. As part of TG 51.2, the attack transport and other units of Demonstration Group "Charlie" simulated a landing on the south coast to draw attention away from the actual landings at theHagushi beaches. Although the ruse failed to fool theJapanese, TG 51.2 received more Japanese air attacks than did the real landings. TheHinsdale andUSS LST-884 were both severely damaged bykamikazes.
The group continued the demonstration the next day and then retired seaward to await orders.Bayfield's troops were not required at Okinawa, and on 11 April she got underway for Saipan, where they were disembarked on the 14th. She then remained at Saipan undergoing maintenance and repairs until 4 June.
Bayfield sailed for theSolomons on 4 June to load cargo and move it closer to the fighting. She stopped atTulagi on the 12th and atEspiritu Santo in theNew Hebrides on the 17th. She sailed on 1 July for the Marianas and unloaded at Tinian on 9 July and Saipan on 13 July. After taking on passengers, Bayfield got underway for Guam where she arrived on 14 July. Two days later, the transport set course forCalifornia.
In San Francisco on 30 July,Bayfield went into drydock for a major overhaul before the expectedinvasion of the Japanese home islands. However,hostilities ended on 15 August while the transport was still undergoing repairs. Ten days later,Bayfield departed San Francisco, bound via Eniwetok, Marshall Islands forSubic Bay andZamboanga in thePhilippines. At Eniwetok on 7 September, revised orders directed her toTacloban, Philippines, where she arrived on 14 September and reported to CommanderAmphibious Group 3 for duty in the occupation ofAomori, Japan. On 17 SeptemberBayfield embarked soldiers and equipment of theU.S. 81st Infantry Division. The landings at Aomori took place according to schedule on 25 September.
After discharging the troops,Bayfield returned to the Marianas on 4 October and joined the "Operation Magic Carpet" fleet. She embarked a full complement of returning veterans at Saipan and at Tinian before heading home on 7 October. Upon her arrival atSan Pedro, California on 20 October, she disembarked passengers including the TransRon 15 staff. Following repairs, the ship carried occupation troops toKorea in November 1945 and January 1946, returning from each voyage with a full contingent of veterans.
In March, the attack transport was ordered to Pearl Harbor for "Operation Crossroads", theatomic bomb tests scheduled to take place atBikini Atoll in July. She set sail fromOahu on 2 April and proceeded viaKwajalein and Eniwetok to Bikini with supplies and equipment. She returned to Pearl Harbor early in May to take on more cargo and arrived back at Bikini on 1 June.Bayfield then served as a barracks ship for the crews of the target ships.
On 30 June she took station 22 miles from the site of the initial Test "ABLE", anairburst detonated at 09:00 on 1 July 1946. After the explosion,Bayfield reentered the lagoon and anchored at 17:28 that day. She remained there until 18 July providing berthing spaces for members of the survey and monitoring teams until they were able to return to their own ships. She then got underway to participate in a one-day rehearsal for test "BAKER".
On 24 JulyBayfield again departed the lagoon and at 08:35 on the 25th, observed the underwater detonation from a distance of 15 miles. She returned to the anchorage at dawn the following morning and remained until 3 August. She stopped at Kwajalein to check contamination levels, resumed her journey on 8 August, and arrived at San Francisco on the 20th. On 28 August 1946, Bayfield arrived at Puget Sounds Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in Bremerton Washington for further decontamination as a result of the atomic blast test at the Bikini Atoll test site.
The transport continued to serve with the Pacific Fleet making two more cruises to China until joining the Atlantic Fleet in November 1949. Based atNorfolk, Virginia she operated along the eastern seaboard and in theWest Indies until mid-August 1950, when the outbreak of hostilities in Korea on 25 June called her back to the Pacific.
Bayfield arrived inKobe, Japan, on 16 September and, the next day, got underway forInchon, Korea. She spent the next seven months providing logistic support to theUnited Nations forces in Korea. She returned toSan Diego on 26 May 1951 and, except for a cruise to Japan and back in September 1951, did not return to theFar East until March 1952, again to support troops in Korea.
During the next two years,Bayfield made three more cruises to theOrient and performed special duty in August and September 1954, assisting in the evacuation of refugees that resulted from thepartition of Vietnam into acommunist north and a democratic south. As one of more than 40 amphibious ships employed in "Operation Passage to Freedom", the transport provided food, shelter, and care to the evacuees as she carried them south toSaigon. She returned to San Diego on 9 October and commenced a routine of alternating local training operations along the West Coast with deployments to the Far East.
On 26 March 1955,Bayfield arrived at the site of thePan Am Flight 845/26ditching in the Pacific Ocean and rescued the 19 survivors.
In February 1961Bayfield changed home port from San Diego toLong Beach where she served as the flagship for the Commander Amphibious Squadron (PhibRon) 7. Her first assignment saw her underway for a major amphibious exercise in Hawaii. During that operation, the transport received orders dispatching her to the western Pacific to bolster the 7th Fleet during theLaotian crisis. The tension soon subsided, however, andBayfield returned to Hawaii to finish the interrupted training exercise before continuing on back to the West Coast.
The ship deployed to the Far East again in January 1962 and spent most of the overseas tour participating in exercises and showing the flag. Near the end of the assignment,Bayfield received orders toBuckner Bay, Okinawa, where she stood by during another crisis in Laos. Late in July 1962 she returned to Long Beach and resumed operations out of her home port. In October she had to forego another major amphibious exercise in Hawaii because of theCuban Missile Crisis. The transport embarked elements of the1st Marine Division and headed through the Panama Canal to support forces engaged in thequarantine ofCuba. With the end of that crisis,Bayfield returned to Long Beach on 15 December.
Following a regular overhaul atWillamette Shipyard inRichmond, California and refresher training out of San Diego until 6 June 1963, the attack transport resumed local training operations. On 17 September she embarked from Long Beach on another deployment to the western Pacific.Bayfield made a port call in Hawaii for three weeks, then resumed her cruise west on 16 October and arrived at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 31 October. She made a visit toHong Kong during the latter part of November, returning to Subic Bay near the end of the month. The ship spent December operating in the waters between Okinawa and Japan, stopping inNumazu,Yokosuka,Nagoya andSasebo.
Bayfield also carried cold weather training called "Operation Backpack" at Pohang, South Korea and joined theNationalist Chinese in exercises nearTaiwan during the first two months of 1964. She disembarked her Marine contingent at Buckner Bay, Okinawa, in mid-March and headed back to the West Coast, arriving in Long Beach on 6 April.Bayfield operated out of Long Beach for more than a year and then deployed toSouth Vietnam in May 1965.
Bayfield returned to the West Coast in December and resumed local training missions in the Long Beach and San Diego operating areas early in 1966. Later that spring, she began a five-month overhaul at the Todd Shipyard inAlameda, California. Getting underway from Todd Shipyard "Bayfield" sailed to Mare Island to take on ammunition then proceeding on to Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (San Francisco). "Bayfield" was in Hunters Point during theRace Riots and crew members were escorted back to ship under police escort from Market Street in San Francisco. The ship left the yard on 26 September and spent several weeks at San Diego for amphibious maneuvers and refresher training.
Bayfield embarked on another tour of duty in the Far East on 28 December, refueled at Pearl Harbor early in January 1967, and continued on westward. She touched at Okinawa on 19 January and continued on to the Philippines. At Subic Bay, ComPhibRon 7 shifted his flag to the transport and she got underway for Vietnam on 31 January.
The ship served as a floating barracks atDa Nang until 15 February 1967 and then sailed for Okinawa to take on Marines and equipment for rotation to the Vietnamese combat zone. During that operation,Bayfield anchored at the mouth of the Cua Viet River, and her embarked Marines went ashore to rotate with units that had been serving eight miles upriver atDong Ha.Bayfield returned to Okinawa on 13 March.
In April, she loaded troops for another landing and put them ashore south of Da Nang on 28 April. The transport continued to serve off the coast of Vietnam until 28 May, ferrying troops between points as needed and transporting casualties to the hospital shipSanctuary. Relieved by theDuluth,Bayfield headed home, via Sasebo, Hong Kong and Pearl Harbor.
In August 1965 she participated in Operation Starlite was the first major offensive regimental size action conducted by a purely U.S. military unit during the Vietnam War. Followed by Operation Piranha which was a US Marine Corps operation that took place on the Batangan Peninsula southeast of Chu Lai, lasting from 7 to 10 September 1965.
Bayfield earned fourbattle stars for World War II service, four for Korean service, and two for service in Vietnam.
USSBayfield carried out exercises until 27 December, at which time she was placed in a reduced readiness status. Berthed next to theTalladega at Long Beach,Bayfield prepared for inactivation. She was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 28 June 1968. A board of inspection and survey found the transport to be "unfit for further service", and her name struck from theNaval Vessel Register on 1 October 1968. She was sold to the Levin Metals Corporation of San Pedro, California on 15 September 1969 and scrapped.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.