USS LST-325

Moored along the Ohio River in downtown Evansville, USS LST-325 presents a rare, intact example of the amphibious engineering that underpinned Allied operations in the Second World War. Launched in 1942 and commissioned in early 1943, this LST (Landing Ship, Tank) carried men, vehicles, and equipment into the North African campaign, the invasions of Sicily and Salerno, and later joined the vast armada off Normandy, landing troops and materiel at Omaha Beach and then shuttling across the Channel for months. After the war, the ship supported North Atlantic radar construction before passing to the Hellenic Navy, later returning to the United States through the efforts of veterans determined to preserve it. Its presence in Evansville is historically pointed: the city’s wartime shipyard once turned out LSTs at a remarkable pace, eventually producing 167 such vessels and thousands of local workers gained direct experience with this class. As a museum ship, LST-325 allows close study of the compromises in design that made these vessels rugged, capacious, and indispensable to amphibious logistics, as well as the industrial story of an inland community tied to seaborne warfare.