- USS General W. A. Mann (AP-112)
USS "General W. A. Mann" (AP-112) was a
troop transport that served with theUnited States Navy inWorld War II , theKorean War and theVietnam War ."General W. A. Mann", a P2-type troopship, was built by the
Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company ofKearny, New Jersey , in 1942-43 and commissioned on the date of acquisition, 13 October 1943, Comdr. Paul S. Maguire, USNR, in command.World War II
Operating out of
Norfolk, Virginia , "General W. A. Mann" delivered troops and supplies to theNorth Africa n theater, making four successive round-trip voyages toCasablanca and one toOran before mid-May 1944. She stood out 5 June 1944 for Oran again and after touching North Africa sailed thence toRio de Janeiro ,Brazil , to load troops bound forNaples, Italy . "General W. A. Mann" subsequently visited Oran andLiverpool before returning to New York 14 August. On 2 September the transport got underway for Rio de Janeiro and Naples, returning to Norfolk on 21 October.Eleven days later she sailed for
Bombay, India , viaGibraltar ,Algiers and theSuez Canal and returned to thewest coast of the United States viaBrisbane, Australia , andNew Guinea , thence toSan Pedro, California , arriving 13 January 1945. She made another passage toIndia and visitedMelbourne andNoumea on the return voyage, arrivingLos Angeles 15 April and thereafter steaming north toSan Francisco . The ship journeyed from San Francisco to thePhilippines , touchingManila andLeyte , and after reachingPearl Harbor in early June sailed thence to Norfolk via thePanama Canal ."General W. A. Mann" departed Norfolk 4 July 1945 for
Marseilles, France , to redeploy troops to thePacific . Re-entering the vast Pacific, she called atOkinawa viaEniwetok andUlithi in September and returned to Seattle, Washington 28 October.From 2 November 1945 to 5 January 1946 she made a round trip voyage from
Seattle to Nagasaki andWakayama ,Japan , setting the pattern of a series of "Magic Carpet" passages and "Diaper Runs" in which servicemen and their families were carried to and from theFar East . She stood duty as a "Guam Ferry" and continued to transport men and material until transferred to MSTS in October 1949.Korean War
During the
Korean War , "General W. A. Mann" carried preciousRepublic of Korea government cargo, includinggold andsilver bullion valued at a million and a half dollars as well as the private papers ofSouth Korea n PresidentSingman Rhee , fromPusan to San Francisco, 1 to 15 August 1950.1950s-1960s
On 16 June 1951, she sailed on a round-the-world voyage which took her from San Francisco via the Panama Canal to
New Orleans and thence viaDover, England , toBremerhaven, Germany . From this latter port, she returned to New York and thence steamed back to Bremerhaven via Dover as before, getting underway forMorocco ,Suez ,Colombo ,Indochina , and finally to San Francisco 22 September 1951 viaGuam andHawaii .From 1952 to 1962 "General W. A. Mann" made frequent trans-Pacific runs to Japan, Korea, Okinawa, Guam, the Philippines, and
Formosa out of west coast ports, and occasional passages toAlaska .Cuban missile crisis
In October 1962 during the
Cuban missile crisis , "General W. A. Mann" sailed fromSan Diego, California for theCaribbean with 55,000 pounds of provisions in case these supplies should be needed. When relative calm came to the Caribbean, "General W. A. Mann" returned to the Pacific and continued her important transportation runs from the West Coast to the Far East.Decommission
"General W. A. Mann" was struck 1 December 1966, transferred to the
Maritime Administration on 20 December 1966, and placed in theNational Defense Reserve Fleet atHudson River ,New York . She was transferred to theJames River Fleet,Fort Eustis, Virginia on 21 July 1969. On 10 April 1987 she was sold for scrap for the sum of $1,050,050, and scrapped inTaiwan in November of that year.Awards
"General W. A. Mann" earned two
battle star s for Korean War service and one forVietnam service.References
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ap112.htm "General W. A. Mann" AP-112] - DANFS Online.
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/22/22112.htm USS "General W. A. Mann" (AP-112)] , Navsource Online.
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