|
The ''Harris''-class attack transport was a class of US Navy attack transport built in 1919 immediately after World War I that saw service in World War II. Like all attack transports, the purpose of the ''Harris'' class ships was to transport troops and their equipment to hostile shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of smaller integral landing craft. As with all such ships, the ''Harris''-class was well armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect itself and its vulnerable cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone. ==Background== The ''Harris'' class is amongst the few classes of attack transport that were converted from pre-war tonnage rather than built from either Maritime Commission or Victory ship hull types during the war. It also holds the distinction of being the first group of ships commissioned into the US Navy which would eventually serve as attack transports. The origins of the ''Harris'' class go back to America's entry into World War I. At that time, the US Shipping Board was set up to modernize America's merchant cargo fleet, and to provide ships suitable for service as naval auxiliaries. During this period, the Shipping Board contracted with several firms, including New York Shipbuilding and Bethlehem Steel, for the building of a class of large ships to be used as troop transports. The ships were known simply as the "535 class" after their length in feet. Although they arrived too late to see service in the First World War, sixteen were duly completed between 1919 and 1922, and since the Navy no longer had use for them, they were all eventually sold or contracted out to private companies, most notably Dollar Lines (hence the class' alternative name, the ''Dollar'' class). For their new role the vessels were converted to passenger-cargo ships, serving mostly on routes between the United States and South America, and until the 1930s, were amongst America's fastest and best passenger liners. In 1937, with another major war looming on the horizon, the US Government began to consider the possibility of reacquiring the 535' class for their originally intended role as troop transports, and when war broke out in Europe in 1939, it was decided to go ahead with the acquisition. Accordingly, a dozen of the ''Dollar'' class vessels were purchased by the War Department and converted into troop transports for service with the US Army, which named most of them after distinguished Army leaders. The ships were all eventually handed over to the US Navy, but three of them, ''Wharton'', ''Tasker H. Bliss'' and ''Hugh L. Scott'' were sunk by enemy action not long after America's entry into the war, while another, ''Willard A. Holbrook'', was acquired but never commissioned. The remaining eight then took the name of the earliest surviving ship commissioned, USS ''Harris'', and thus they became the ''Harris'' class. The Navy chose not to rename the individual ships, so they retained their former Army names. In February 1943, all the ships of the class were redesignated as attack transports. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Harris-class attack transport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|