1944 — May 21, Munitions Explosion, six LSTs lost, West Loch, Pearl Harbor, HI     —   163

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 4-5-2024 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

—  163  Alexander, Joseph H.  Storm Landings. Naval Institute Press, 1997, p. 68.

—  163  Barger, Mel. “The Second Pearl Harbor Disaster.”  United States L.S.T. Association.

—  163  Johnson, William L. C. “Tragedy at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, 21 May 1944.” In Barger.

—  163  Sample.  “Navy Remembers 65th Anniversary of Deadly Disaster.”  AP, May 21, 2009.

—  163  Schmitt, Robert C.  Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 70.

—  163  US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”

—  163  US Dept. Navy. “Pearl Harbor’s Second Disaster Remembered.”  May 27, 2003. 

Narrative Information

Barger: “Official reports actually gave 1508 (or 3:08 p.m.) as the probable time the first explosion was heard. But two other explosions, one at 1511 and the second at 1522, probably resulted in much of the damage and prevented crews from taking needed action to save their ships. The 1522 explosion was believed to have doomed LST-69, closing off any chance of escape….

 

“…more than a hundred ships and smaller craft were gathered there on 21 May 1944.

 

West Loch was a busy area that day in 1944. Many of the ships were being loaded with ammunition, gasoline, and other cargo in preparation for the Marianas campaign. Marines and soldiers were also aboard the ships. And twenty-nine LSTs were berthed there to receive supplies from the West Loch Naval Ammunition Depot. LST-69 was berthed in a row identified as T-8, along with LSTs -205, -225, -274, -43, -179, -353, and -39. Next to them was T-9, which berthed LSTs -480, -140, -224, -340, -23, -462, and -222. The ships that would be lost in the disaster were LSTs -353, -179, -43, -480, and -69. Though LSTs had only been in operation for about a year, some of them already had impressive combat records, and LST-69, a Coast Guard ship, had made landings in the Aleutian Islands campaign and bloody Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands.


As the loading progressed, there was apparently considerable carelessness in the handling of ammunition and other explosive cargo. At the same time, few of the officers and men involved in the loading operations had real experience or training in handling such dangerous cargo. Not only were welding operations being carried on, but smoking was also suspected as a possible cause of the explosions.

 

The scene had everything that was needed for an accident about to happen. As author Howard E. Shuman noted in the Summer 1988 issue of Naval History, it was a euphemism to say that the LSTs were combat loaded. “They were floating ammunition dumps, floating gasoline storage tanks, floating vehicle garages, floating ship repair yards, and floating overcrowded hotels,” he wrote. “The ships’ magazines were loaded. The ready boxes for their guns were full. Six thousand cubic feet of cargo ammunition were stowed on the tank decks aft and under the guns and some amphibious craft known as dukws. The trucks, jeeps, and weapons carriers on the main decks were loaded with ammunition and fuel. Each LST carried 80 to 100 drums each containing fifty-five gallons of high-octane gas on her forecastle, as well as nearly 200,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 5,000 pounds of lubricating oil for her own engines. Drums of fog oil, smoke pots, and floats were on the fantails. Each LST had a 199-man crew and carried about 200 Marines or soldiers as passengers.”


According to the official investigation that followed the disaster, the first explosion occurred on board LST-353, where heavy ammunition was being unloaded. This ignited gasoline stored in drums on adjoining ships, and in moments several LSTs were ablaze and clouds of smoke were billowing up from West Loch. The flames prevented crews from casting off lines and breading free of the other ships. Then a second explosion came at 1511, and a third—the most violent—followed at 1522. The entire scene was a melee of smoke and confusion, with men either being blown overboard or leaping into the water to escape the flames….

 

While the thousands of service persons based in Hawaii as well as civilian residents knew about the disaster, it received very little publicity then or later. Howard Shuman offered three reasons why news about the tragedy was suppressed: 1) to protect the buildup for the Saipan invasion; 2) the secret classification of the report from the court of inquiry; and 3) the fact that the report was not declassified until 1 January 1960. “By then the disaster was forgotten,”….”  (Barger.  USLSTA.)

 

Johnson: “Sunday, 21 May 1944, was a warm and sunny day in Pearl Harbor. During the previous night and during the morning, 34 LSTs had entered West Loch, Pearl Harbor, after complet­ing maneuvers off the Hawaiian Islands of Maui and Kahoolawe….

 

“Because of the shortage of ammunition ships in the area, several LSTs were designated to supplement the six ammunition ships which were present and available. LSTs were to become floating ammunition dumps carrying 750 rounds of 5″-38 caliber ammunition each. Ten additional LSTs were to carry 270 — 4.5″ rockets, 6,000 rounds of 40 m.m. and 15,000 rounds of 20 m.m. ammunition. Other LSTs were loaded with gasoline drums to guel the gas guzzling LVTs they were carrying.

 

“Lt. (j.g.) Chester A. Martin, USN, was the junior skipper in TU 52.5.1 LST Unit One which was under the command of J.L. Harlan, Lt. Cdr. USN. Martin was in command of LST-353, which was the last of the ships to carry a mortar laden LCT, the 963. His crew was busily complying with the order to offload the 4.2″ mortars and their ammunition. A work­ing parry of Army men from the 29th Chemical Company were moving by hand the mortar ammunition from the LCT into the bed of a truck which was parked immediately forward of the LCT and on the LST elevator. This operation had begun during the morning of 21 May 1944.

 

“After each truck was loaded with ammunition, it was then lowered on the elevator to the tank deck of the LST and then advanced to the bow ramp of the ship and carried to shore in an LCM. Shortly after 1500 hours, while the unloading was in progress, an explosion took place in the area where the Army truck was being loaded. In a few minutes, a second explosion took place which detonated the remaining ammunition on the LST-353 with a huge roar that sent fragments and flames over all seven other LSTs at Tare 8, the moorage designation for eight LSTs.

 

“Gasoline fires were started in several other LSTs and at 1511 hours one of the LSTs explod­ed, spreading fragments and debris over nearly every ship in the harbor.

 

“Another explosion occurred at 1522 hours. Fortunately, most of the Marines who had been embarked had left the LSTs for transfer to the transports which would take them to Eniwetok. Those that remained were trapped in a burning inferno. Navy and Coast Guard tugs and fire­boats fought the blazes, and Vice Admiral Turner embarked in a small boat and directed the operations of several of the small rescue craft that fought the blazes and rescued the men in the water.

 

“By nightfall the flames were under control. The ships that were written off as total losses were LST-353 with LCT-963 on board, LST-179, LST-43, LST-480, LST-39, and LST-69, which was a totally manned Coast Guard ship with LCT-961 which she was carrying.

 

“The casualty toll was 163 dead and 396 injured. The Second Marine Division lost 95 and the Fourth Marine Division lost 112. These were replaced with insufficiently trained men, and somehow the staff of Forager scraped up enough LSTs to replace the six that were lost…” (Johnson, William L. C. “Chapter Eight: Tragedy at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, 21 May 1944.” Barger, Melvin D. (editor). Large Slow Target, Volume II: A History of the Landing Ships (LSTs) and the Men Who Sailed on Them. Taylor Publishing 1989.)

 

Sample: “According to the Navy, 163 servicemen died at West Loch and 396 were wounded. Of those who perished, more than a third were from a nearly all-black Army unit that was handling ammunition on LST 353, though it had received no training for the task….The disaster, as well as a more powerful accidental ammo explosion two months later at the Port Chicago naval ammunition depot in the San Francisco area, led to vast changes in how the Navy handles ordnance.” (Sample. “Navy Remembers 65th Anniversary of Deadly Disaster.” AP, 5-21-2009)

 

Schmitt notes that this disaster was “The fifth most destructive to human life in Hawaiian history…”  (Schmitt, Robert C.  Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, p. 70.)

 

US Navy: “Accidental ordnance blast on LST-353 sets off cataclysmic ammunition explosions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor. Six tank landing ships (LST-39, LST-43, LST-69, LST-179, LST-353, LST-480), three tank landing craft (LCT-961, LCT-963, LCT-983), and 17 track landing vehicles (LVTs) are destroyed in explosions and fires. 163 killed and 396 injured. 21 May 1944.” (US Dept. Navy. “Casualties: US Navy…Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured…”)

 

US Navy: “Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (NNS) – May 21, 1944…. 29 tank landing ships (LSTs) prepared for a major battle during World War II. The United States was planning a massive attack on Saipan. Sailors and Marines hustled to load the LSTs and prepare for war. It was to be the D-Day of the Pacific.  But something went wrong. Amidst the loading of ordnance, hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel, trucks and small arms, one of the LSTs exploded for a reason never definitively determined.  Quickly, a chain reaction of explosions dealt flaming shards of steel into the air. Thick black smoke billowed into the air, while oil slicks crept across the water. The Sailors and Marines scattered. Some attempted in vain to put out the growing number of fires. Others tried to save themselves and their shipmates. Their mission was complicated by debris in the water that fowled rescue boat’s engines…. In all, six LSTs were sunk, and several severely damaged. Dead were 163 men, and 396 were wounded….” (U.S. Navy. “Pearl Harbor’s Second Disaster Remembered.”  May 27, 2003.) 

Sources

 

Alexander, Joseph H. Storm Landings. Naval Institute Press, 1997. Google preview accessible at: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Storm_Landings/bYA7AAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Alexander,+Joseph+H.+Storm+Landings&printsec=frontcover

 

Barger, Melvin D. “The Second Pearl Harbor Disaster.” United States L.S.T. Association.  Accessed May 26, 2009 at: http://www.uslst.org/archive_second_pearl_harbor.htm

 

Johnson, William L. C. “Tragedy at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, 21 May 1944.” Chapter Eight in: Barger, Melvin D. (editor). Large Slow Target, Volume II: A History of the Landing Ships (LSTs) and the Men Who Sailed on Them. Taylor Publishing 1989.

 

Sample, Herbert A. “Navy Remembers 65th Anniversary of Deadly Disaster.” Associated Press, May 21, 2009. At: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/05/ap_west_loch_disaster_052109/

 

Schmitt, Robert C. Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii. 2-2-2009, 86 pages. Accessed 9-20-2012 at: Catastrophic Mortality in Hawaii – eVols – University of Hawaii. Accessed at: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fevols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F10524%2F150%2FJL03074.pdf%3Fsequence%3D2&ei=UPSvVK2bLoO4yQTO74L4DA&usg=AFQjCNHER9A57xAr6d0m9mJcnsc4F2Z8Gg&bvm=bv.83339334,d.aWw

 

United States Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center. “Casualties: US Navy and Marine Corps Personnel Killed and Injured in Selected Accidents and Other Incidents Not Directly the Result of Enemy Action.” Washington, DC: Washington Navy Yard. Accessed at:  http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/NHC/accidents.htm

 

United States Department of the Navy. Pearl Harbor’s Second Disaster Remembered.  Pearl Harbor, HI:  Naval Media Center Pearl Harbor Public Affairs Release Number NNS030527-07, May 27, 2003.  Accessed at:  http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=7598