Pacific ships

Photos and the story

Feland

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TypeTransport (AP)
HullAPA-11
BuilderConsolidated Steel, Los Angeles
Launched1942-11-10
FateAfloat. Not sunk in the Marshalls.

Laid down, displacement, length, beam, draft, speed, and complement are not stored for each hull, so this table leaves them out.

Feland
USS Feland (APA-11) at anchor, circa 1944, in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 3D. U.S. Navy photograph. Wikimedia Commons File:USS Feland (APA-11) at anchor, circa in 1944.jpg. Public domain.

Feland, APA-11, was a Doyen-class attack transport. Consolidated Steel at Los Angeles launched her on 10 November 1942 as a troop transport, AP-18, Maritime Commission hull 182. She became an attack transport on 1 February 1943 and was commissioned on 21 June 1943, Captain Clinton A. Misson in command. She was named for Major General Logan Feland, USMC, and his widow sponsored her.

She carried Marines from San Diego to Pago Pago and trained in New Zealand and at Efate. At Tarawa she lay off the island for eight days from 20 November 1943, landing reserve troops, loading casualties and re-embarking troops once the island was taken. She sailed from Honolulu on 22 January 1944 with soldiers for Kwajalein, landed them as reserves on 1 February, one day after the first assault, and took them back aboard a week later when the atoll was won.

At Saipan she made a demonstration landing at Tanapag Harbor on 15 June 1944 and began landing troops the next day. That night she was ordered to retire to avoid an expected Japanese attack, and she returned on 21 June to finish unloading and embark casualties. She landed troops at Guam on 22 July and arrived off Dulag in Leyte Gulf on 20 October. At Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945 she landed troops and cargo in record time despite heavy mortar fire from shore, which wounded two men handling landing craft. At Iwo Jima her troops were held in reserve until 27 February, when they landed through heavy surf.

She carried passengers between New Guinea and the Philippines in mid-1945, was overhauled on the west coast, and was decommissioned at Seattle on 15 March 1946. She was laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and scrapped in 1964. She earned five battle stars.

The pictures on this page are the originals.