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| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | USSBraxton |
| Namesake | Braxton County, West Virginia |
| Builder | California Shipbuilding Corporation |
| Laid down | 29 August 1944 |
| Launched | 3 November 1944 |
| Acquired | 28 December 1944 |
| Commissioned | 29 December 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 27 June 1946 |
| Stricken | 19 July 1946 |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 9 April 1973 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Haskell-classattack transport |
| Displacement | 6,873 tons (lt), 14,837 t (fl) |
| Length | 455 ft (139 m) |
| Beam | 62 ft (19 m) |
| Draft | 24 ft (7 m) |
| Propulsion | 1 × geared turbine, 2 × header-typeboilers, 1 × propeller, designed 8,500 shp (6,338 kW) |
| Speed | 17knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) |
| Boats & landing craft carried | |
| Capacity |
|
| Complement | 56 officers, 480 enlisted |
| Armament |
|
USSBraxton (APA-138) was aHaskell-classattack transport in service with theUnited States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1973.
Braxton (APA-138) was laid down on 29 August 1944 atWilmington, Los Angeles, by the California Shipbuilding Corp. under aMaritime Commission contract (MCV hull 54); launched on 3 November 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. R. DeFrees; acquired by the Navy from the Maritime Commission on a loan-charter basis on 28 December 1944; and commissioned the following day atTerminal Island,San Pedro, Los Angeles.
Following alterations and repairs between 3 and 5 January 1945, theattack transport sailed on 9 January for shakedown training in theLong Beach, California, area. Less than a week later on 14 January,Braxton collided with the merchant tankerSS Mission Capistrano during a heavy fog and suffered damage to twoLCVP's, three life rafts, and her hull. Following repairs, the attack transport departed Long Beach on 22 January, proceeded toSan Diego, California, and reported the next day for duty with the Amphibious Training Command,U.S. Pacific Fleet.
Braxton then conducted amphibious exercises off the coast of southernCalifornia until mid-February and then headed forSan Francisco, California, where she arrived on the 20th. After embarking passengers, she departed from the Bay area on the 24th, bound forHawaii. The ship moored atPearl Harbor on 1 March and disembarked her passengers. For the rest of the month, she operated in Hawaiian waters conducting amphibious exercises offMaui andOahu.
On the morning of 9 April, the attack transport sailed for theMarshalls inconvoy PD-372T—with alsoUSS Bottineau (APA-235),Sea Flasher, and the minesweepersUSS Fixity (AM-235) andUSS Inaugural (AM-242)—and anchored atEniwetok on the morning of 18 April. The following day, after picking up additional escorts in the form ofUSS Change (AM-159) andPCE-898, the convoy sailed thence for theMarianas.
Braxton reachedSaipan early on 23 April and disembarked some of her passengers before pushing on toGuam which she reached on the afternoon of the 26th. There, she disembarked her remaining out-bound passengers before embarkingU.S. Marine Corps officers and enlisted men for the return voyage on 1 May. That afternoon, the transport sailed forOahu.Braxton arrived atPearl Harbor on the morning of 10 May, but sailed the following morning for theU.S. West Coast. Although initially ordered to San Diego, she was redirected to San Francisco en route and disembarked 120 Marines and 217 casualties there on 17 May. After brief voyage repairs, the ship then shifted to the Naval Supply Depot atOakland, California, where she loaded a cargo of fuel, ammunition, and supplies, before sailing forHawaii on 30 May.
Arriving atPearl Harbor on 5 June, the attack transport disembarked passengers from the U.S. West Coast and embarked 5 army officers and 296 enlisted men for the voyage westward, returning to sea on the 8th bound for theMarshalls. Following a stop atEniwetok on 15 and 16 June, she pushed on toSaipan, remained there from the 19th through the 26th, and finally headed on toUlithi. Underway from thatatoll on 20 July in convoy UOK 39, consisting of 40 ships—both merchant and naval—the vessel arrived atOkinawa soon thereafter and discharged her cargo nearKinmu Wan on 25 July.
WhileBraxton remained atOkinawa for the remainder of the month, wartime conditions were very much in evidence. As her war diary for 27 July states: "enemy planes definitely in [the] vicinity...." The presence of the Japanese planes usually triggered the use of smoke boats and shipboard generators to screen the ship in artificial fog. Such conditions continued into August, but the arrival of atyphoon forced the ship to sea on the 1st for two days to ride out the "blow."
Early on the 6th, the ship weighed anchor and sailed forUlithi, joining convoy 0KU-17—34 ships and 11 escorts. Upon her arrival there on the 10th, she fueled fromUSS Sepulga (AO-20) and received orders to sail for Saipan. Underway on 13 August, she had not gone far before she received orders re-routing her toGuam.Braxton moored inApra Harbor on 14 August and commenced loading cargo and embarking passengers. All through the night and most of the morning, the embarking and loading continued until shortly before noon. Underway on the 15th,Braxton stood out of Apra Harbor, bound forJapan. She then formed up withUSS Grimes (APA-172),USS Meriwether (APA-203),USS Mellette (APA-156),USS Lanier (APA-125),USS Waukesha (AKA-84), and a trio ofdestroyers to make upTask Unit (TU) 12.1.2.
Braxton and her consorts later joinedtask force TF 31—commanded by Rear Admiral Oscar C. Badger inUSS Iowa (BB-61)—on the 19th and she dropped anchor inSagami Wan,Honshū on the 27th. After landing the first occupation troops on the 30th, the ship returned to the transport area inTokyo Bay. During the rest of the day, more Marines, together with bluejacket detachments andRoyal Marine units—under the guns of theUnited States Third Fleet and beneath a veritable umbrella of aircraft—occupiedYokosuka.
On 1 September,Braxton sailed for theMarianas, and anchored inSaipan harbor on the 5th. The next morning, she fueled fromUSS Caribou (IX-114). She then shifted toTanapag Harbor where, between 9 and 11 September, she embarked more than 1,200 passengers. She cleared Tanapag Harbor on the afternoon of 18 September, bound forNagasaki. Early in the afternoon of 23 September,Braxton and the other transports disembarked the2nd Marines and6th Marines to occupy theatomic bomb-devastated city. Three days later,Braxton—with nine other APAs, an attack cargo ship, and a single escort—sailed for thePhilippines. After refueling and reprovisioning atManila from 9 to 11 October, she embarked elements of the U.S. Army's25th Infantry Division atLingayen Gulf between 12 and 14 October. She got underway on 23 October inLingayen Nagoya Convoy No. 2.
Braxton reachedNagoya on the 28th, but did not moor until the 30th. There, she disembarked the 25th Division, rear echelon and completed unloading her cargo later that day. Having put her "third load of occupation troops on Japan",Braxton sailed forSan Pedro, Los Angeles, on 3 November as part of the "Operation Magic Carpet" fleet. She then made a round-trip, "Magic-Carpet" voyage to thePhilippines and returned to San Pedro on 13 February 1946.
Braxton remained there into April. On the 9th,LCI-1O17 came alongside and transferred 8 German officers, 154 enlisted men, and 2 prisoners—the remaining crewmen of the heavy cruiserPrinz Eugen (IX-300), a war prize that had been brought to the United States from theBaltic—toBraxton. The transport got underway at 1610 that same day. After transiting thePanama Canal on the 17th,Braxton reachedStaten Island early on the 23d. She then embarked 1,492U.S. Army enlisted men and, with the 164 formerPrinz Eugen crewmen still on board, sailed forGermany on 3 May 1946, reachingBremerhaven on the morning of the 10th.
Ten days later,Braxton got underway for the United States with naval and military passengers and reachedStaten Island on 30 May. Underway for Norfolk on 3 June,Braxton anchored inHampton Roads the following morning. After preparations for inactivation, she was decommissioned there on 27 June 1946.Braxton was turned over to theWar Shipping Administration on the 29th, and her name was struck from theNavy List on 19 July 1946. She was placed in the portion of theNational Defense Reserve Fleet berthed atJames River, Virginia. She remained there, inactive, until sold on 9 April 1973 to theUnion Minerals and Alloys Corporation, ofNew York City, to be scrapped.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
