LSTs, the Ships with the Big Mouth

Download or read book LSTs, the Ships with the Big Mouth written by Homer Haswell and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LSTs: The Ships with the Big Mouth The World War II amphibious war in the Pacific was like no other in history. Dozens of LSTs (landing ships tank) roared at flank speed up onto the beach. The bow doors opened. A ramp dropped down. Within minutes, tanks, bulldozers, trucks, jeeps, and all manner of vehicles were rolling out of the bow and onto the shore. No need for docks or wharves. More than a thousand of these LSTs were built, after the war began, to carry our troops, vehicles, and supplies to the islands of the Pacific. LSTs: The Ships with the Big Mouth is a first-hand report of LST 698 and her largely landlubber crew as she took part in the three biggest Pacific invasions at Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, and at Okinawa in Japan. Homer Haswell When the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, the author, Homer Haswell, a recent Wisconsin journalism graduate, left his advertising job in Chicago to join the Navy as a yeoman at Great Lakes, Ill. In May 1944, on graduation from midshipman school at Northwestern in Chicago, he reported to LST 698 in New Orleans. In Ensign Haswell's letters to his wife Fran, he used his "nose for news" to tell her of day-to-day happenings aboard ship. Half a century later, he wove those tales into an historic account of the ship's travels and travails to make an accurate, highly readable story of some of the great but little-known events of World War II. "World War II was one of the great events of the 20th century," Haswell said, "yet many of us are hazy about what really happened." LSTs: The Ships with the Big Mouth adds much to our knowledge of amphibious operations.