LST 557

LST 557
South Pacific
World War II

Our ship was part of the invasion of Okinawa on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. On April, 2, we carried the 6th Marines into the beach. When they unloaded and stormed the beach it was a successful landing, and after a two-day pounding by battle ships, heavy and light cruisers, destroyers, and aircraft bombers.

We were ordered the next day, April 2nd, to pull back off the beach and proceed to Bunker Bay on the other side of the main island, to a place called Tsuken Shima. This is where the well- known war correspondent, Ernie Pyle, was killed and where we had our first casualties. We were being targeted by shore batteries and after several close calls we were finally struck with a direct hit from a five inch shell hitting one our ship mates in the head, killing him instantly. The same shell struck a steel metal mount in the ship's fan tail area (The Stern). The shell burst, killing another ship mate and wounding several others. While this was happening, our ship's captain was being escorted down from his position and I saw his face and entire body covered with blood and was told later, part's of the ship mate's head was mixed with that blood. As the shore battery ceased, I saw three of our 6 F Hell Cat Planes diving in and around the cave where the gun that hit us was firing from. We were on our ship cheering, knowing the gun was taken out. Not long after however, there were two kamikazi suicide planes headed directly for our ship. One of our 40 mm guns shot the first one out of the sky. The other plane crashed only ten feet from our ship's stern and we could see the dead pilot go down and sink in the water.

There were other sporadic attacks through that day. We saw many other ships around us burning from bomb strikes, and some were burying their ship mates, letting their bodies sewed up in canvas slide into the sea. The next morning, we did the same for our two ship mates. That same day, our twenty-six year old Captain had us line up for inspection. I, along with the remaining crew noticed our Captain Joseph Devine had turned completely white from the shock of the shell hit the day before.

This story happened to my ship mates and me.

When I was 19.

Today I am 81.

And thankful to be alive to tell it.

John Hearn GM 3/c L.S.T. 557
Deerfield Beach, FL