Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online: Amphibious Photo Archive

HM LST-198

USS LST-198 was transferred to the United Kingdom for the duration of World War II

LST-1 Class Tank Landing Ship:

Laid down, 22 June 1942, at Chicago Bridge and Iron Co., Seneca, IL.

Launched, 17 January 1943

Commissioned USS LST-198, 15 February 1943

Decommissioned, 27 February 1943 and transferred to the Royal Navy

LST-198 never saw active service with the US Navy

Royal Navy History
Commissioned into the Royal Navy as HM LST-198, 6 March 1943
Sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, for Liverpool in convoy SC 131, 18 May 1943
HM LST-198 participated in the following campaigns:
Sicilian occupation
Salerno landings
West Coast of Italy operations-1944--Anzio-Nettuno advanced landings
Invasion of Normandy
Served in the shuttle service between Tilbury, Ostend and Antwerp
Bow doors badly damaged in two collisions in February-March 1945
Paid off and returned to US Navy custody at New York, 23 January 1946

Struck from the Naval Register, 20 March 1946

Sold, 19 March 1948, to Ships and Power Equipment Corp., Barber, N.J.

Resold in 1948 to Shell Oil Co.

Rebuilt as a shallow draft tanker suitable for Shell’s movement of crude oil from their Lake Maracaibo oil fields to the Shell refineries in Aruba and Curacao

Named MT Lidia, reflagged Venezuela

Sold in 1982 as a storage barge to Kuwaiti interests and renamed Hamdan 10, reflagged Kuwait

Final Disposition, fate unknown
Specifications:
Displacement
1,625 t.(lt)
4,080 t.(fl) (sea-going draft w/1675 ton load)
2,366 t. (beaching displacement)
Length 328' o.a.
Beam 50'
Draft
light 2' 4" fwd, 7' 6" aft
sea-going 8' 3" fwd, 14' 1" aft
landing 3' 11" fwd, 9' 10" aft (landing w/500 ton load)
limiting 11' 2"
maximum navigation 14' 1"
Speed 11.6 kts. (trial)
Endurance 24,000 miles @ 9kts. while displacing 3960 tons
Complement
7 officers
104 enlisted
Troop Accommodations
16 officers
147 enlisted
Boats 4 LCVP
Cargo Capacity (varied with mission - payloads between 1600 and 1900 tons)

Typical loads

One Landing Craft Tank (LCT), tanks, wheeled and tracked vehicles, artillery, construction equipment and military supplies. A ramp or elevator forward allowed vehicles access to tank deck from main deck

Additional capacity included sectional pontoons carried on each side of vessel amidships, to either build Rhino Barges or use as causeways. Married to the bow ramp, the causeways would enabled payloads to be delivered ashore from deeper water or where a beachhead would not allow the vessel to be grounded forward after ballasting

Armament

1 - 12 Pounder anti-aircraft multi-barrel mount

6 - 20MM mounts

4 - Fast Aerial Mine (FAM) mounts

Propulsion

two General Motors 12-567A, 900hp Diesel engines

single Falk Main Reduction Gears

three Diesel-drive 100Kw 230V D.C. Ship's Service Generators

two propellers, 1,700shp

twin rudders