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A type of ship that's credited with helping win World War II traveled the Ohio River recently. It is the last fully preserved World War II landing ship tank still in operation. Tim Jagielo with member station WNIN got to explore this working artifact.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)
TIM JAGIELO, BYLINE: The landing ship tank, or LST 325, usually docks in Evansville on the Ohio River. But for four weeks, the crew visited different cities, offering tours of the ship, which looks the same as it did in 1944.
ZACH SHAW: So right here, we see this map. What is this map? This map shows you every location the ship went to during World War II.
JAGIELO: LST 325 crew member Zach Shaw is leading a tour at the ship's first stop in Muscatine, Iowa.
SHAW: All of the major turning points - in school, you kids may have heard some of these names, like North Africa, during Operation Torch and Salerno. This ship was there when all of those big events happened.
JAGIELO: Six thousand people paid to tour the ship that weekend, according to the museum which maintains it. And these tours support their efforts. Other stops were in Missouri and Illinois. In 1944, the ship delivered troops and tanks to Omaha Beach on D-Day.
SHAW: These vessels were custom made during World War II because prior to the war, they didn't exist.
JAGIELO: This is the last seaworthy World War II landing ship tank in the world. Traveling at max speeds of about 14 miles an hour, LST's have been called last ship there or large, slow target. But speed wasn't why the ship was important to the Allies in World War II.
JAMES MACLEOD: I think it's very easy to say that this was the ship that won the war. Obviously, it was a much more complicated story than that.
JAGIELO: This is University of Evansville history professor James MacLeod.
MACLEOD: But if you think about the American landings in France and Sicily and Italy and North Africa and all across the Pacific, really, they were successful because the soldiers and Marines that landed were able to be supported relatively quickly with heavy equipment and tanks, and that was primarily done by LSTs.
JAGIELO: This ship was one of about a thousand built for the war. One hundred and sixty-seven were built right here in Evansville.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHIP ENGINE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Ready? Fire it up.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHIRRING)
JAGIELO: The LST is powered by twin 100-year-old locomotive engines, each the size of a passenger car.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHOOSHING)
JAGIELO: The crew of mainly volunteers had to prepare the ship prior to the cruise.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHOOSHING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Check your pressure on (inaudible).
JAGIELO: On the deck, the crew is untying the ship, preparing to disembark.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Ready?
(SOUNDBITE OF TOOLS BANGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right. That's it for right now.
JAGIELO: In wartime, the upper deck would hold lighter vehicles like Jeeps. The LST slowly turns around in the Ohio River and motors away, people waving to crew members on board.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I see you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right. I see you, too.
JAGIELO: While Jeeps sat on the top deck...
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I still see you.
JAGIELO: ...The cavernous tank deck below held and delivered 20 Sherman tanks into enemy territory. This feature is most striking for MacLeod.
MACLEOD: And you think what that must have been like during the moments before the ship hit the beaches, when there would have been dozens and dozens of young men in the 20 Sherman tanks that would have been lined up in that tank deck, just waiting for the bow doors to open and for their war to start.
JAGIELO: MacLeod says because so few World War II veterans remain, such artifacts are important to learn about the history and to remember their sacrifices.
For NPR News, I'm Tim Jagielo in Evansville, Indiana.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICK BARBACHANO SONG, "ARBOLITO DIVINO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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