_c1944.jpg) USS Hunter Liggett (APA-14), a ship of theHarris class | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Harris class |
| Builders | |
| Operators |  United States Navy |
| Succeeded by | McCawley class |
| Built | 1919-1922 |
| In service | Commercial: 1926-1937 |
| In commission |
|
| Completed | 8 (acquired) |
| Retired | 8 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Harris-classattack transport |
| Displacement | 13,529 tons (lt), 21,900 t.(fl) |
| Length | 535 ft 2 in (163.12 m) |
| Beam | 72 ft 4 in (22.05 m) |
| Draft | 31 ft 3 in (9.53 m) |
| Propulsion | 2 ×turbines, 8 ×boilers, 2 × propeller, designed shafthorsepower 10,000 -12,000 |
| Speed | 17 - 18knots |
| Capacity |
|
| Complement | 29-67 officers, 585-673 enlisted |
| Armament | 4 ×3"/50 caliber dual-purpose guns, 1-2 × twin40mm guns, 0-2 × quad1.1"/75 caliber guns, 10-18 × single20mm guns. |
TheHarris-class attack transport was a class ofUS Navyattack transport which saw service inWorld War II. The purpose of any attack transport was to deliver troops and their equipment to hostile shores in order to executeamphibious invasions using an array of smaller integrallanding craft. Being intended to serve in forward combat areas, these ships were well armed withantiaircraft guns to protect itself and its vulnerable cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone.
TheHarris class is amongst the few classes of attack transport that were converted from pre-war tonnage rather than built from eitherMaritime Commission orVictory ship hull types during the war. It also holds the distinction of being the first group of ships commissioned into the US Navy which would eventually serve as attack transports.
The origins of theHarris class go back toAmerica's entry intoWorld War I. At that time, theUS Shipping Board was set up to modernize America'smerchant cargo fleet, and to provide ships suitable for service asnaval auxiliaries. During this period, the Shipping Board contracted with several firms, includingNew York Shipbuilding andBethlehem Steel, for the building of a class of large ships to be used astroop transports. The ships were known simply as the "535 class" after their length in feet.
Although they arrived too late to see service in the First World War, sixteen were duly completed between 1919 and 1922, and since the Navy no longer had use for them, they were all eventually sold or contracted out to private companies, most notably Dollar Lines (hence the class' alternative name, theDollar class). For their new role the vessels were converted to passenger-cargo ships, serving mostly on routes between theUnited States andSouth America, and until the 1930s, were amongst America's fastest and best passenger liners.
In 1937, with another major war looming on the horizon, the US Government began to consider the possibility of reacquiring the 535' class for their originally intended role as troop transports, and when war broke out in Europe in 1939, it was decided to go ahead with the acquisition. Accordingly, a dozen of theDollar class vessels were purchased by theWar Department and converted into troop transports for service with theUS Army, which named most of them after distinguished Army leaders.
The ships were all eventually handed over to theUS Navy, but two of them,Tasker H. Bliss andHugh L. Scott were sunk by enemy action not long after America's entry into the war, while another,Willard A. Holbrook, was acquired but never commissioned. The remaining eight then took the name of the earliest surviving ship commissioned, USSHarris, and thus they became theHarris class. The Navy chose not to rename the individual ships, so they retained their former Army names. In February 1943, all the ships of the class were redesignated as attack transports.
TheHarris class had almost twice the displacement of most its sister attack transport classes whilst retaining about the same speed of 17-18 knots. The ships could consequently carry a large number of troops - between about 1,500 and 2,000 (and it seems, in more comfortable conditions than those that prevailed for the other APA classes). They could also carry a moderate amount of cargo.
Their main armament consisted of four3"/50 caliber guns, supported by one or two twin40mm cannon and a variable number of20mm weapons. Some of the ships also had one or two quad-mounted1.1"/75 caliber guns.
Later classes of attack transport were to receive heavier armament as the 20mm weapon in particular was to prove of limited effectiveness at combatingJapanesekamikaze tactics.
Commissioned relatively early in the war, theHarris class ships saw action in all the major theatres of war, including theMediterranean,Atlantic andPacific Theatres. Ships of the class saw action in virtually every majoramphibious operation of the war, including the invasions ofNorth Africa,Sicily,Italy,Normandy and Southern France; and in the Pacific, through America'sisland hopping campaign, from the invasions of theAleutians andGuadalcanal in 1942 to the final battle forOkinawa in 1945.
At the close of hostilities a number were employed in redeploying American troops for occupation duty in newly conqueredJapan and its former territories inChina andKorea, after which they were utilized inOperation Magic Carpet, the giant sealift organized to bring demobilizing American servicemen back to theUnited States.
The entire class wasdecommissioned shortly after the war in early 1946, and scrapped in February–March 1948.