The U.S. Navy's Interim Lsm(r)S in World War II: Rocket Ships of the Pacific Amphibious Forces - Paperback

by Ron MacKay (Author)

The "Interim" LSM(R) or Landing Ship, Medium (Rocket) was a revolutionary development in rocket warfare in World War II and the U.S. Navy's first true rocket ship. An entirely new class of commissioned warship and the forerunners of today's missile-firing naval combatants, these ships began as improvised conversions of conventional amphibious landing craft in South Carolina's Charleston Navy Yard during late 1944. They were rushed to the Pacific Theatre to support the U.S. Army and Marines with heavy rocket bombardments that devastated Japanese forces on Okinawa in 1945.

Their primary mission was to deliver maximum firepower to enemy targets ashore. Yet LSM(R)s also repulsed explosive Japanese speed boats, rescued crippled warships, recovered hundreds of survivors at sea and were deployed as antisubmarine hunter-killers. Casualties were staggering: enemy gunfire blasted one, while kamikaze attacks sank three, crippled a fourth and grazed two more. This book provides a comprehensive operational history of the Navy's 12 original "Interim" LSM(R)s.

Author Biography

Ron MacKay, Jr., was a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman from 1973 to 1977 and served with the Fleet Marine Force at Okinawa with the 3rd Marine Division. The historian and a board member for the U.S.S. LSM-LSMR Association, he has written articles on the LSMs and LSM(R)s, and has been employed in the aerospace industry for more then 30 years. He lives in Chehalis, Washington.