 USS American Legion at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, 25 October 1941.
Note her weathered dark grey camouflage paint, with white canvas lifeboat covers. |
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| Career |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Ordered: | ||
| Laid down: | 11 October 1919, as the passenger ship SS Badger State, at New York Shipbuilding corp., Camden, NJ, under a United States Shipping Board (USSB) contract. | |
| Launched: | 1921 | |
| Commissioned: | August 1941 | |
| Decommissioned: | 20 March 1946, at Olympia, WA., and returned to the War Department the same day | |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 5 February 1948, to Zidell Ship Dismantling Co., of Portland, OR. | |
| Struck: | 20 March 1946 | |
| General characteristics | ||
| Displacement: | 13,736 tons | |
| Length: | 535' | |
| Beam: | 72' | |
| Draught: | 30' 6"" | |
| Propulsion: | 8 Babcox and Wilcox header-type boilers, two Westinghouse geared turbines, two propellers, design shaft horsepower 12,000hp | |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots | |
| Range: | ||
| Complement: | 43 Officers, 639 enlisted | |
| Capacity: | 3,991 DWT cargo, 33 OCVP, 2-4 LCM(3), 1,650 troops | |
| Armament: | 4 3"/50 DP, 1x2 40 mm, 10x2 20mm | |
| Aircraft: | ||
| Motto: | ||
USS American Legion (AP-35/APA-17) was a United States Navy Harris class Attack Transport ship. She was originally built as a civilian ocean liner in July 1921 at Camden, New Jersey, but was converted for military use during the Second World War. The 13,736-ton vessel remained idle until 1926, when she began commercial service between New York City and South America. She was laid up in early 1939 due to her owner's financial difficulties but was soon taken over by the War Department for use as a U.S. Army Transport. Beginning in February 1940, she served primarily along the East coast of the United States and in the Caribbean area. She made one trans-Atlantic round-trip voyage in mid-1940, rescuing the Norwegian Crown Princess, her children, the Danish-Jewish pianist and comedian Victor Borge and many other persons from the European war zone. Her cargo on that voyage included a Swedish 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun mounting, which became the prototype for thousands of such guns built for the U.S. Navy during the war. In August 1941, after participating in the U.S. build-up in Iceland, the transport was transferred to the Navy and commissioned as USS American Legion (AP-35). She made one voyage to and from the Caribbean, then began a series of repairs to her machinery. In April 1942, the ship began a long trip to the south Pacific, which would be her operating area for nearly two years. In August 1942, she participated in the initial landings on Guadalcanal and for the next six months supported the prolonged and bitter campaign to hold that island. Reclassified as an Attack Transport and given the new hull number APA-17 in February 1943, American Legion's next, and final, combat operation was the Bougainville invasion at the beginning of November 1943. American Legion returned to the United States for overhaul in December 1943. Once this work was completed in April 1944, she was used as an Amphibious Force training ship in southern California waters for the rest of World War II. After Japan's surrender, she made two trans-Pacific voyages before the end of 1945. American Legion was decommissioned in March 1946 and transferred to the War Shipping Administration. She was sold for scrap in February 1948. This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
