Darke was named for a county in Ohio. Oregon Shipbuilding at Portland launched her on 29 August 1944 under a Maritime Commission contract, and Mrs. J. Hanson sponsored the ship. The Navy received her on 10 October 1944 and commissioned her that same day. Captain McF. W. Wood was in command.
Port Hueneme dropped astern on 4 December 1944. Hawaiian waters were her training ground from 10 December to 27 January 1945, and rehearsal landings followed at Saipan. She cleared for Iwo Jima on 16 February. On 19 February her boats put men of the 5th Marines ashore in the assault. Until 25 February she stayed off the island, sending cargo in and taking casualties out, then shaped course for Saipan and arrived on 5 March. Army troops embarked at Espiritu Santo. She carried them through Saipan to Ulithi, where the Okinawa expedition was staging, and at Okinawa set them ashore as reinforcements, the work running from 9 April through the 14th. On 23 April she was back at Ulithi to replenish.
Guam provided two new LCMs. She then made for San Pedro Bay at Leyte, arriving 29 May 1945, and trained Army troops there until the fighting ended. From 27 August to 6 October 1945 she made two voyages that lifted men at San Pedro Bay and set them down in Japan for occupation duty.
Magic Carpet service came next. She left Hiro, on Honshu, on 11 October. Passengers came aboard at Guam, then at Guadalcanal, then at Noumea. San Francisco was the arrival, on 18 November. Two further trips, finished between 30 November 1945 and 3 February 1946, brought veterans home. They had boarded at Pearl Harbor and at Eniwetok and Kwajalein. She left San Francisco on 10 February for the east coast and entered Norfolk on 27 February. The Navy decommissioned her on 17 April 1946. On 22 April the Maritime Commission took the ship for disposal. Two battle stars were credited to the war.