On June 6, 1944, a 328-foot steel vessel dropped its ramp onto the sand at Omaha Beach and began delivering tanks, trucks and troops into the heart of the D-Day invasion. Eight decades later, that same ship – LST 325, one of the last of its kind and the only fully operational LST left in the United States – is sailing back for a return visit to Clarksville, Tennessee.
The LST 325 didn’t stop at Normandy. In the months that followed, the ship made 42 more round trips between England and France, ferrying tanks, fuel, ammunition and supplies to Allied forces, and carrying wounded soldiers back to England when it was needed as a floating hospital. On one of those crossings, the crew pulled 600 soldiers from the freezing waters of the North Sea after their ship was torpedoed and sunk by the enemy – a rescue that remains one of the ship’s most remarkable chapters.
Built in the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1942, the LST 325 stretches 328 feet long and 50 feet wide and today looks almost exactly as it did the day it left the shipyard. Its original equipment remains intact and functional, including the 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns that once defended its decks. Standing aboard the ship, visitors won’t just be looking at history; they’ll be standing on it.
That living piece of history docks in downtown Clarksville at McGregor Park along the Cumberland River from Thursday, Oct. 8 through Monday, Oct. 12, open for public tours daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Crew members will be on hand throughout the visit to walk guests through the ship’s story and honor the men who served aboard LST-class vessels during the war…