USS War Hawk (AP-168) was a La Salle-class

USS La Salle (AP-102)

The first USS La Salle of the United States Navy was the lead ship of her class of transport ships in use during the latter part of World War II....

 transport

Transport

Transport or transportation is the movement of people, cattle, animals and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline, and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations...

 ship of the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, built at the Moore Dry Dock Company

Moore Dry Dock Company

Moore Dry Dock Company was a ship repair and shipbuilding company in Oakland, California. It was started in San Francisco in 1905 as the Moore & Scott Iron Works, but was destroyed by fire in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It reopened soon and in 1909 purchased the Boole Shipyard in Oakland....

 in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

 in 1942. The La Salle class transport had a displacement of almost 14,000 tons and were designed to ferry troops and supplies to and from the war zone during World War II.

The War Hawk carried eight LCVP

LCVP

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes...

 (Higgins Boat) type landing craft used to move troops and four LCMs

Landing Craft Mechanized

The Landing Craft Mechanized or Landing Craft Mechanical was a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops or tanks during Allied amphibious assaults....

 used to move heavy equipment to and from the shore.

Commissioning

Her keel was laid on 24 December 1942. The hull was completed in a little over three months and was launched on 3 April 1943 under the control of Commander S. H. Thompson. After launch, the War Hawk was fitted out and acquired by the U.S. Navy on 9 March 1944. She was commissioned on the same day and designated AP-168.

The Marianas missions

On 21 April 1944 she left the San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

 headed for Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

, on the island of Oahu

Oahu

Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...

. At Pearl Harbor the War Hawk joined the 5th Fleet Amphibious Force and after training, left for her part in "Operation Forager", the liberation of the Marianas Islands. At the time of the landing there were about 59,000 Japanese troops stations in the Southern Marianas Islands, in particular on Saipan

Saipan

Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

, Tinian

Tinian

Tinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....

 and Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

.

The assault on Marianas was conducted with overwhelming force. All total there were 198 vessels involved including 110 transports and auxiliary ships and 88 warships. These ships carried and supported a force of 110,000 men. However, Saipan had been in Japanese control for more than ten years and was heavily fortified. There were approximately 31,000 Japanese troops (including navy), and well entrenched on the island.

War Hawk arrived at Saipan on 15 June 1944 and landed elements of the 2nd Marine Division on the southwestern shore of the island. Sometime during the next eight days the War Hawk helped fight off two Japanese air attacks. During this time she also took on eleven seriously wounded Japanese prisoners of war. As was the nature of many Japanese soldiers, the only way they would be taken prisoner was if they could not fight. The extent of their wounds was so great that all eleven died in spite of efforts of the War Hawk's medical staff. They were buried at sea. Four days after the landing, the Allies engaged the Japanese Navy in the Philippine Sea

Battle of the Philippine Sea

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was a decisive naval battle of World War II which effectively eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. It took place during the United States' amphibious invasion of the Mariana Islands during the Pacific War...

 and inflicted tremendous damage. This battle prevented the Japanese Navy from resupplying their troops in the Marianas leaving a brutal war of attrition for the Japanese until the commanding general Yoshitsugu Saitō

Yoshitsugu Saito

- Notes :...

 committed suicide and the island was declared liberated on 9 July 1944.

As the fighting on Saipan came to a close, some of the War Hawks sister ships began moving troops from Saipan to Tinian. War Hawk did not directly participate in the invasion of Tinian. However, several LCVP

LCVP

The Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel or Higgins boat was a landing craft used extensively in amphibious landings in World War II. The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States, based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes...

s enroute to Saipan's beachheads, came with range of what were apparently 20mm explosive shell fire from Tinian which is only a few miles off the coast of Saipan. There were no hits, but lots of spray as the shells hit around the boats.

On 23 June 1944 War Hawk headed back to Pearl Harbor where she picked up elements of the Army's 77th Infantry and returned to the Marianas. She landed her troops on Guam on 21 July. She loitered in the area for several more days before returning to Pearl Harbor on 29 June. There she spent a month practicing with new troops from the Army's 96th Infantry Division before leaving again for the South Pacific Theater.

En route, she was diverted from the canceled invasion of Yap

Yap

Yap, also known as Wa'ab by locals, is an island in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It is a state of the Federated States of Micronesia. Yap's indigenous cultures and traditions are still strong compared to other neighboring islands. The island of Yap actually consists of four...

 to take part in the invasion of the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

.

Leyte

During the latter part of 1944 and early 1945, the War Hawk participated in the operations to liberate the Philippines. She left Pearl Harbor carrying elements of the Army's 96th Infantry Division and headed for Yap Island, in the Carolines. En route, she changed heading for Eniwetok as the invasion of Yap was canceled. After leaving Eniwetok, she sailed for Manus. She headed to the Philippines on 14 October 1944 to take part in the invasion of Leyte

Battle of Leyte

The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the invasion and conquest of the island of Leyte in the Philippines by American and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by...

.

Leyte

Leyte Island

Leyte is an island in the Visayas group of the Philippines.The island measures about 180 km north-south and about 65 km at its widest point. In the north it nearly joins Samar, separated by the San Juanico Strait, which becomes as narrow as 2 km in some places...

 was heavily defended by 20,000 Japanese troops. The Japanese Army had decided that it was best to fortify the Philippines to prevent the Allies from moving north through them to the Japanese homeland. In total there were about 432,000 troops on the various Philippine Islands. There were also between 100 and 120 operational Japanese air bases that would be used to provide air attacks during any amphibious invasion.

The approach to the landing was from the southwest through the Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf

Leyte Gulf is a body of water immediately east of the island of Leyte in the Philippines, adjoining the Philippine Sea of the Pacific Ocean, at . The Gulf is bounded on the north by the island of Samar, which is separated from Leyte on the west by the narrow San Juanico Strait, and on the south by...

. The beaches were between the cities of Tacloban

Tacloban City

The City of Tacloban is a port city approximately 360 miles southeast of Manila. It is the first in Eastern Visayas to be classified as a Highly Urbanized City. It is the capital of the Philippine province of Leyte and is the largest city in terms of population in Eastern Visayas...

 and Dulag

Dulag, Leyte

Dulag is a third-class municipality in the province of Leyte in Eastern Visayas in the Philippines. This coastal town covering 11,007 hectares of land is home to 44,143 residents...

 on the northeast side of the island. In total, the Leyte invasion was the largest invasion mounted in the Pacific to date. There were a combined total of 701 ships of which 157 were warships. The transports put six Army divisions and one battalion of Rangers onto Leyte in just a few days.

It was during this phase of the war that General Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...

 waded ashore at Red Beach and issued his famous "I have returned" speech to the people of the Philippines. Carl Mydans

Carl Mydans

Carl Mydans was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration and Life magazine....

, a photographer for Time–Life, took the famous photograph of MacArthur wading ashore on Red Beach on 9 January 1945. War Hawk landed her troops not far away at Green Beach.

In the evening of 21 October 1944, War Hawk was maneuvering through the Gulf and rammed the battleship near the stern. The Tennessee was laying dead in the water and generating smoke to protect the ships from air attack. No one was hurt on either ship. The damage to Tennessee was light but the War Hawk sustained moderate damage near the bow.

One of the more interesting pieces of cargo that the War Hawk landed at Leyte was a Piper Cub

Piper J-3

The Piper J-3 Cub is a small, simple, light aircraft that was built between 1937 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. With tandem seating, it was intended for flight training but became one of the most popular and best-known light aircraft of all time...

 artillery spotting aircraft. It left Pearl Harbor loaded on to the deck of the War Hawk (with its wings removed) and was put ashore by an LCM. Before the aircraft could be assembled, a Japanese mortar round knocked a palm tree over onto it.

After the initial invasion of Leyte, War Hawk sailed back to Dutch New Guinea where she picked up a field hospital

Field hospital

A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...

 unit and returned to Leyte. War Hawk returned to New Britain

New Britain

New Britain, or Niu Briten, is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from the island of New Guinea by the Dampier and Vitiaz Straits and from New Ireland by St. George's Channel...

 and picked up troops from the Army's 40th Infantry Division and returned to Luzon

Luzon

Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines. It is located in the northernmost region of the archipelago, and is also the name for one of the three primary island groups in the country centered on the Island of Luzon...

.

Luzon

The next step in the liberation of the Philippines was the invasion of the island of Luzon, the island on which the capitol Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

 resides. The invasion of Luzon began in the Lingayen Gulf

Lingayen Gulf

The Lingayen Gulf is an extension of the South China Sea on Luzon in the Philippines stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central...

 on the western side of the island on 9 January 1945. In just a few days, the War Hawk and her sister ships had landed almost 175,000 troops, mostly made up of the 6th Army. These troops began a push east, north and south towards Manila.

Initially, beach resistance was light and with a low surf, War Hawk was able to put her troops and supplies almost directly onto the beach. There was some fire from Japanese gun emplacements. These emplacements were often made of layers of coconut logs which, being very spongy, were very resistant to everything but the large caliber weapons.

Lingayen Gulf

At 04:10 hours on the morning of 10 January 1945, War Hawk was anchored in Lingayen Gulf where she was attacked in the dark by a "Shinyo" suicide boat. These boats were small motorboats laden with up to two tons of explosives in the bow. Lookouts reported hearing an approaching boat when the Shinyo rammed the port side of the ship. The explosion blew a 25 foot hole in hold number three killing 61 men. (Commander Thompson's official Action Report filed on 18 January 1945 states that 23 people were missing and unaccounted for 20 minutes after the explosion. He does not give details on the wounded.) The damage to the ship was extensive including flooding in the engine room which knocked out power. With the ship dead in the water, the crew struggled to keep her afloat, restore power and fight off continuing Japanese air attacks throughout the day. That same day two Landing Craft Infantry

Landing Craft Infantry

The Landing craft, Infantry or LCI were several classes of sea-going amphibious assault ships of the Second World War utilized to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially...

 (LCI-365 and LCI-974) were sunk in the same area by Shinyo boats.

By 11 January, the hole had been buttressed and partial power had been restored and the War Hawk began a long slow journey back to Leyte Gulf. Two days later, 13 January, the gun crews downed a kamikaze

Kamikaze

The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

 aircraft splattering the bow with flaming debris. Once in Leyte Gulf, further and more permanent repairs were made to the ship enabling her to sail to Manus in the Admiralty Islands for further dry dock work. She set sail for the San Francisco Bay on 22 February 1945.

The end of World War II

War Hawk was repaired at an unknown dock facility in San Francisco Bay and set sail for San Diego on 29 May 1945. There she picked up troops from an unspecified division and returned to Guam in the Marianas

Mariana Islands

The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...

. She made one more trip back to San Francisco for load of Naval replacements and headed for Eniwetok, Ulithi and Leyte Gulf. While in route, she received word that the United States had dropped two atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

 and the Japanese had agreed to an unconditional surrender

Unconditional surrender

Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological...

.

Decommissioning and after life

War Hawk was decommissioned on 12 August 1946 in Seattle, Washington. She became the property of the Maritime Commission on 13 August after sailing to Olympia, Washington, and was eventually struck from the Navy List

Naval Vessel Register

The Naval Vessel Register is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from the time a vessel is authorized through its life cycle and...

 on 8 October 1946.

The Waterman Steamship Corporation

Waterman Steamship Corporation

Waterman Steamship Corporation is an American deep sea ocean carrier, specializing in liner services and time charter contracts. It is owned by International Shipholding Corporation, based in Mobile, Alabama....

of Mobile, Alabama, purchased her on 4 February 1948 and operated her until 1964 as a freighter. After her service with Waterman, the War Hawk was sold to the Ocean Transport Company of New York and renamed Ocean Dinny. She operated with under Ocean Clippers, Inc., until 1966 when she was sold again, renamed to Overseas Dinny, by her last owner of record, the Overseas Carrier Corporation. The last record of the War Hawk has her as being dropped from the American Shipping Board Register in 1970.

External links

• Record of shipbuilding at Moore Dry Dock Co.