USS LST-357 was an 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...

 active during the Second World War. Whilst never formally named, she was nicknamed Palermo Pete by her crew.

She was laid down in October 1942 at the Charleston Navy Yard, and commissioned in February 1943.

LST-357 first saw service at the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and then at the Salerno landings

Allied invasion of Italy

The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...

 in September, where a crew of just under 150 all ranks took some 90 casualties. In 1944 she moved to England to support the Normandy landings

Operation Neptune

The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 , beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time...

, landing on Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach

Omaha Beach is the code name for one of the five sectors of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during World War II...

on D-Day.

Following the end of the war, she served on occupation duties in the Far East, before being decommissioned in June 1946 and sold for scrapping in April 1948.