A BRIEF HISTORYOF U.S.S. LCS(L) (3) 9

 

 

The U.S.S. LCS(L)(3) 9 was placed in formal commission on September 6, 1944 at the George Lawley & Sons yard in South Boston, Massachusetts.  She was one of the first in a new class of amphibious craft designed to operate as a combination gunboat, fire-fighting and rocket ship, and her primary mission was to provide close-in fire support and anti-aircraft cover for amphibious landings. 

 

On the ninth of September she got underway from Boston for Solomons, Maryland on her maiden voyage.  Her green crew took the dirty weather of the trip hard, but all hands did their jobs well.  After a two-week shakedown at Solomons and a short period for availability at Lamberts Point in Virginia, she set out in company with four other amphibious ships for Key West, Florida and the Panama Canal.

 

On arrival at the Panama Canal the “Nine” was detached from the group and ordered to proceed to join the Seventh Amphibious Force, which was then just driving the entering wedge into the Philippines.  Proceeding by way of Galapagos, Bora Bora and Espiritu Santos she arrived at the Admiralty Islands on December 23, where she joined the majority of LCS(L) Group One.  More of the Flotilla One were found at Hollandia, and late in January the ship proceeded, in a large convoy, to Leyte, arriving 1 February 1945.    

 

At Leyte LCS 9 was detached from the flotilla and was made a part of Task Group 70.4, which also included the LCS 10 and two LCIs.  For the period from February 4 to May 23, this task group, designated as “Guerilla Supply”, carried supplies to the Filipino guerillas who were harassing the enemy on the Japanese held islands of the Visayas and on Mindanao.  In addition to the primary function of supply, many attacks were carried out on small isolated Japanese coastal garrisons.  Some of the attacks consisted merely of shelling towns, burning fuel dumps and destroying barges, but in some cases amphibious landings were made by guerillas carried in the LCIs.

 

Incidentally, the Japanese plans for the defense of Mindanao were captured on one such mission.

 

From the 23^rd of May to the 1^st of August the Task Group was redesignated as “Special Mission” and these same tactics were employed in harassing the Japanese on the East coast of Luzon.  Here the supply function of the Task Group was ended and harassing the enemy constituted our sole mission.

 

When the war ended the Task Group was preparing to take Dutch troops up a river in Borneo to secure a coaling station.