Attack Transport USS William P. Biddle (APA-8)

 - World War II Service Dates: February 1941 - April 1946.

- Earned 7 battle stars in major amphibious assaults in North Africa, Sicily, Tarawa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Luzon and Leyte Island.
- World War II Service Type: Heywood Class Attack Transport.
- Navy Transport (AP-15) / Navy Attack Transport (APA-8).
- Engine: 4 Babcock and Wilcox header-type boilers, De Laval Steam Turbine geared turbine drive, single propeller, designated shaft horsepower 9,500.

- Length: 507 feet.
- Beam: 56 feet.
- Tonnage: 14,450 GRT.

- Draft: 25’6”.

- Speed: 16.5 knots.
- Armament: (1945) four 3"/50 gun mounts, two 40mm    twin mounts, eight 20 mm single mounts.

- Crew: 45 officers, 515 enlisted men.
- Troop Capacity: 66 officers, 990 enlisted men.

Brief History

- Originally laid down for the UK Admiralty as the general cargo ship War Surf, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Alameda, CA.

- Completed under USSB contract, named SS Eclipse, Hull #168, February, 1919.

- Purchased by Baltimore Mail Steamship Co., 1929.

- Reconstructed at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Kearny, N.J., renamed SS City of Hamburg.

- Purchased by Panama Pacific Lines, renamed SS City of San Francisco, 1939.

- Acquired by the US Navy in 1940.

- Converted for Naval service as a Navy Transport, Moore Dry Dock Co., Oakland, CA.

- Commissioned USS William P. Biddle (AP-15), February 3, 1941.

- The USS Biddle (AP-15), along with USS Fuller (AP-14), USS Elliot (AP-13), USS Heywood (AP-12), and USS Neville AP-16 would come to be known as “The Fighting Five Originals.”

- Reclassified as an Amphibious Attack Transport, (APA-8), February 1, 1943.  

- Troop units transported: 7^th Defense Battalion, USMC, San Diego, CA to Pago Pago, Samoa (3/15/41); 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marine Regiment, San Diego, CA to Reykjavik, Iceland (7/7/41); 5^th Infantry Division, Staten Island, NY, to Reykjavik, Iceland (9/16/41); Operation Torch - landed elements of the 3^rd Infantry Division, and 1^st Battalion of the 67^th Armored Regiment, Norfolk, VA to Fedala, French Morocco, North Africa (11/8/42); Naval Construction Battalion 40, “The Fightin’ Forty” Seabees, Norfolk, VA to Noumea, New Caledonia (1/27/43); Operation Husky - landed elements of the 157^th Infantry Regiment, Oran, Algeria to Scoglitti, Sicily (7/10/43); Operation Galvanic - landed elements of the 2^nd Marine Division, Wellington, New Zealand to Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll (11/20/43); Operation Flintlock - landed elements of the 4^th Marine Division, San Diego, CA to Roi and Namur Islands, Kwajalein Atoll (1/31/44); 22^nd Marine Division, Guadalcanal (4/13/44); 40^th Infantry Division, Gloucester, New Britain (4/28/44); 1^st Marine Division, Russell Islands, New Georgia (5/3/44); 1^st Battalion, 22^nd Marine Division, Saipan (6/12/44); Invasion of Guam - landed Combat Landing Team 1, composed of elements from the 22^nd Marine Regiment, 1^st Provisional Marine Brigade at Agat, Guam (7/21/44); Invasion of Leyte Island - landed elements of the 7th and 96th Infantry Divisions on Dulag Beach, Leyte Island (10/20/44); 346^th Harbor Craft Co, and 673^rd Machine Gun Battery, US Army, Hollandia to Morotai (10/28/44); 310^th Bomb Wing, USAAF, Leyte Island (11/13/44); Invasion of Luzon Island - landed elements of the 1^st Battalion, 185^th Regiment, 40^th Infantry Division, Lingayen Gulf, Luzon (1/9/45).

- Decommissioned, Norfolk, VA, April 9, 1945

- Struck from the Naval Register, June 5, 1946

- Delivered to Maritime Commission for National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River Group, Fort Eustis, VA., 1946.
- Sold for scrap, 1957.