USS Leedstown (AP-73), was an 8,600-ton transport 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...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was built in 1933 at Kearny, New Jersey

Kearny, New Jersey

Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. It was named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. As of the United States 2010 Census, the town population was 40,684. The town is a suburb of the nearby city of Newark....

 as the commercial passenger liner Santa Lucia, acquired by the Navy in August 1942, renamed and converted for amphibious assault purposes.

Service history

Commissioned in late September 1942, the ship almost immediately steamed across the Atlantic to Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, Northern Ireland, where she joined a force preparing for the invasion of North Africa

Operation Torch

Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....

.

In the early evening of 8 November, shortly after putting her troops and some of her cargo ashore east of Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

, she was attacked by German aircraft

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

and torpedoed in the stern. The following day, the immobile ship was near-missed by three bombs and hit amidships by two more torpedoes. Bombed again later in the afternoon of 9 November 1942, USS Leedstown sank off the Algerian coast with the loss of eight men out of more than five hundred on board when abandon ship was ordered.

External links

• Photo gallery at Naval Historical Center