Everything about Uss Hope Ah-7 totally explained
USS Hope (AH-7) was a launched under Maritime Commission contract by
Consolidated Steel Corporation,
Wilmington, California,
30 August 1943; sponsored by Miss Martha L. Floyd; acquired by the Navy the same day for conversion to a hospital ship by U.S. Naval Dry Dock,
Terminal Island, Calif.; and commissioned
15 August 1944, Commander A. E. Richards in command.
Manned by a Navy crew but carrying Army medical teams,
Hope completed her shakedown cruise and sailed
23 September 1944 to render medical care during the climactic phase of the campaign against Japan. Steaming via
Pearl Harbor and
Manus, the ship arrived
Kossol Passage, in the
Palaus, and received soldiers wounded taking the islands of the group.
American soldiers, supported by a vast naval task force, returned to the
Philippines 20 October.
Hope arrived
Leyte Gulf 7 November, to care for casualties and evacuated them to
Hollandia. Thereafter the ship made four more voyages to
Leyte to evacuate wounded. During the morning of
3 December she was followed by a Japanese submarine, and that afternoon was attacked unsuccessfully by a torpedo plane. Three days later, as she steamed toward Manus, the hospital was again attacked by aircraft. One bomb was dropped close aboard but no damage resulted. Continuing to evacuate wounded from the Philippines,
Hope arrived
Subic Bay 16 February 1945, just as paratroopers landed on
Corregidor. The ship sailed on to
Lingayen Gulf for evacuation, and sailed from Leyte
6 March for
Ulithi.
Hope sailed
9 April to take part in the
Okinawa operation, arriving off the bitterly-contested island 4 days later. During the next month she shuttled between
Saipan and Okinawa, often under attack despite her distinctive markings. As Japanese suicide planes attempted vainly to stop the invasion,
Hope assisted in rescuing sailors from damaged ships and embarked wounded soldiers. Departing
12 May 1945, the ship moved back to the Philippines and arrived
3 July at
Tarakan Island to assist, if needed, in the evacuation of Australian casualties in the invasion of
Balikpapan. She then returned to the Philippines, greeting the surrender of
Japan 15 August at
Manila Bay. Much medical and evacuation work remained to be done, however, and
Hope sailed
20 August for Okinawa and Japan, arriving
Wakayama 22 September to assist in the occupation. She sailed
22 October with returnees, arriving
San Francisco 15 November, and subsequently made two more voyages to Guam and the Philippines to bring back the sick and wounded.
Hope returned to San Francisco
22 March 1946 and decommissioned
9 May 1946. From 1946 to 1950 she was in custody of the War Department.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Uss Hope Ah-7'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://uss_hope__ah-7.totallyexplained.com">USS Hope (AH-7) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
