I took this picture yesterday of a World War II ship that just docked at our Vicksburg waterfront in the Yazoo Diversion Canal.
It last visited Vicksburg in 2003. Click here to go to USS LST 325 Ship Memorial website.
LSS LST 325, is a restored World War II amphibious warship, LST stands for landing ship tank; a class of 328-foot long, 50-foot wide flat-bottomed ships, capable of running aground and discharging 600 troops or military vehicles like trucks, jeeps and tanks to roll directly out on a beach through front bottom-hinged door-ramps.
The ships would run up on a beach as fast as they could, landing their bows in sand before releasing their cargo.
Commissioned February 1, 1943, LST-325 sailed as part of the Northern Attack Force in support of the invasion at Salerno, Italy, carrying elements of the 40th Royal Tank Regiment, and later was part of Force "B," the backup force for the troops going ashore at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
It anchored off Omaha Beach on June 7, and unloaded men onto smaller amphibious craft. The ship made further trips to the Normandy Coast and the city of Rouen on the Seine River.
The ship was transferred to Greece in May 1964 and was renamed Syros. It served in the Greek Navy until December 1999 when it was decommissioned.
In 2000, LST 325 was acquired by the USS Ship Memorial Inc., and crossed the Atlantic, arriving in Mobile, Alabama, in 2001.
It is one of only two World War II LSTs to be preserved the the United States and is homeported at Evansville, Indiana.
On board the USS LST 325 today!
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