CORKWOOD AN-44
Sailing by way of Ulithi to Leyte in March 1945 CORKWOOD joined Amphibious Group 7 and sortied with an LST flotilla for the Okinawa operation. She served as harbor entrance control ship at Kerama Retto and also conducted salvage and net maintenance operations, frequently under enemy attack.

CANOTIA AN-47
Arriving at Eniwetok 15 February 1945, she reported for duty with the 5th Fleet, and sailed to Iwo Jima, where she had mooring and salvage duty from 28 Feb. to 12 April. The first portion of this duty came as bitter action raged ashore, and enemy air attacks still menaced American shipping.

LANCEWOOD AN-48
Lancewood sailed for the western Pacific 24 January 1945. After touching Eniwetok and Guam, she reached a holding area off Iwo Jima 20 February and 3 days later began pulling damaged landing craft off the beaches to facilitate unloading operations. She placed moorings, laid nets, and salvaged landing craft off Iwo Jima until 12 April.

PAPAYA AN-49
PAPAYA arrived Saipan 1 August 1944. She assisted in net operations while fighting on the beach was still in progress, helping capture both Saipan and Tinian.

WINTERBERRY AN-56
On an unknown day in May 1945 an enemy plane attacked the ships assembled in Buckner Bay. Winterberry opened fire, but the enemy succeeded in crashing into one of the attack transports. Fifteen minutes later, three more dive bombers raided the anchorage. They dove in from the sun and immediately drew anti aircraft fire. Winterberry opened up with her guns and assisted in bringing down two of the three raiders.

ABELE AN-58
After a brief period spent in the Leyte Gulf staging area, Abele arrived off Kerama Retto on 26 March to begin laying net defenses. Although she was attacked by Japanese suicide boats and aircraft during the next seven weeks, she suffered no damage. On 18 April1 the ship assisted in the downing of one enemy airplane. She also claimed credit for downing one Japanese "Val" on 11 June.

TEREBINTH AN-59
The ship arrived off the Ryukyus Islands and sortied on 19 March 1945. They arrived off Kerama Retto on the 26th and troops of the 77th Infantry Division landed on the beaches there at 0800 that morning. By afternoon the main islands of the group were under American control, and Terebinth began net laying operations in the afternoon

This page is created and maintained by Gary P. Priolo