DDay

[Craig Sanders]

Can anyone confirm the name of the BMN ship that delivered US Troops to Omaha Beach on Dday?

[Ivan Cloherty]

Can anyone confirm the name of the BMN ship that delivered US Troops to Omaha Beach on Dday?

I think you will find that were over 1100 Merchant vessels involved in the D Day landings at all Beach Heads. You may have to be a little more specific

[Ivan Cloherty]

A little bit more specific information for you on D DAY Landings

6800 Naval vessels
79% British
16.5% American
4.5 % Other Allies

864 Merchant vessels, plus over 300 small non naval craft.

Naval Sailors 112,824 British : 52,889 American : 4,998 Other Allied sailors

British Merchant Navy personnel 25,000

Landed on Beaches American 57,500 ( UTAH 23,250, OMAHA 34,250)

" " " British 75,215 (GOLD 24,970, JUNO 21,400, SWORD 28,845)

Now you can envisage the enormity of trying to trace one particular ship

[Chris Allman]

Just to help Craig - I know of one British Merchant Ship that was carrying troops to Omaha Beach on D Day and who landed her troops by LCA and that was the LSI (L) SS Empire Javelin. She carried troops of the - 1st Battalion 116th Infantry regiment of US 29th Division.

[Red Lead Ted]

This is from Wiki Craig, But I must say the page is very informative, Well worth a read Terry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_ship,_infantry

Design and conversion[edit]
LSIs were grouped according to their troop capacity and endurance. [6] Initially, all were requisitioned merchant vessels that exchanged carrying lifeboats for landing craft. [7] During April and June 1940, the Glens underwent further conversion into LSIs capable of transporting an embarked force of up to 34 officers and 663 other ranks and carrying 12 LCAs on Welin-McLachan davits and 1 LCM(1) stored in chocks on deck and launched by 30-ton derricks.[8][9][10] Glengyle was built by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee, for the Glen Line. The only vital alterations to the 18 knot Glengyle and her sisters, Glenroy and Glenearn, were to assure davits strong enough to lower fully loaded LCAs, and to provide accommodation for the army units to be transported.[11] This latter alteration entailed introducing tables, forms, and posts for slinging hammocks into the former cargo hold.[12] Glengyle, the first LSI, was accepted into service on 10 September and, on 31 January 1941, she sailed around Africa to the Mediterranean.
Smaller LSI, such as Queen Emma and Princess Beatrix, were generally converted cross-channel ferries,[13] or a converted passenger ship.[14]
Conversion was accomplished, as with LSI(L), by adding davits for the landing craft, providing troop accommodation, plus some defensive armament, such as QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns, and anti-aircraft guns, such as the 20 mm Oerlikon cannon.
In Canada in the spring of 1943, work was under way on the conversion of Prince David and Prince Henry to landing ship infantry (medium) (LSI (M)). They were reconfigured to carry 550 infantrymen transported in six LCAs and two LCM(1)s, and have large sick-bay facilities for the anticipated casualties. Their old 6-inch (152 mm) guns were replaced with two twin 4 inch mountings, two single Bofors, and ten Oerlikons. The rebuilding, which took place at Esquimalt and Vancouver, was completed in December 1943 and shortly after re-commissioning, she left for the United Kingdom via Cristobal and New York City, under Captain T.D. Kelly RCNR, (her final commanding officer) who had supervised the fitting-out of both ships. The ship's davits were capable of lifting an LCA which, by this time in the war, was approaching 14 tons.


Four LCAs go ashore from HMCS Prince David off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944
In Australia in mid-1942, HMAS Manoora was marked for conversion into the Royal Australian Navy's first landing ship, infantry at Garden Island Dockyard.[15] Her armed merchant cruiser armament was removed and replaced with a single 12-pounder gun, six 40 mm Bofors, and eight 20 mm Oerlikons.[16] The Walrus amphibian aircraft was removed, and the ship was modified to carry US manufactured landing craft: 17 LCVPs, and two LCM(3)s.[17][18] Manoora was initially able to accommodate 850 soldiers, but later modifications increased this to 1,250.[19] The ship was recommissioned on 2 February 1943 with the pennant number C77, and after spending six months on amphibious warfare training in Port Phillip, was deployed to New Guinea.[20]
In the United States, a commercial hull was put in war production by the Maritime Commission; the C1-S-AY1 subtype of thirteen ships built by Consolidated Steel Corporation, were modified for use as LSI(L)s under lend-lease.[21] These ships were all given two-word names beginning with "Empire", such as SS Empire Spearhead. All were able to accommodate two LCA flotillas; a total of 24 craft. The Empire Broadsword was lost at the Normandy Invasion, to a mine. Empire Javelin was sunk by a U-boat torpedo 28 December 1944. All these ships had davits fitted to accept LCAs and the other appropriate British manufactured landing craft for LSIs.
Normally British converted LSIs were fitted with heavy-duty power-operated davits.[22] Early landing ships were fitted with Welin-McLachlin davits – these being generally in use in the Merchant Navy for standard 99 man lifeboats.[23] As the weight of LCAs increased through the war (eventually approaching 14 tons) heavier davits were required. Later LSIs and those being refitted were provisioned with luffing davits of a crossbeam type.[24] The davits themselves provided a demarcation between the responsibilities of the LSI crew (either Royal Navy or Merchant Navy) and the members of the LCA flotilla.
Manning the landing ship, infantry[edit]
Some of the LSIs were commissioned into the Royal Navy, received navy crews, and flew the White Ensign, while most retained their civilian crews and flew the Red Ensign.[25] Royal Navy LSIs had Royal Navy landing craft flotillas assigned to them until 1943, when a proportion of landing craft flotillas were manned by Royal Marine crews. Merchant Navy LSIs would have Royal Navy gunners for the anti-aircraft equipment, and Royal Navy officers and ratings operating the ship’s flotilla of landing craft. [26] Generally, these divisions of personnel did not cooperate or share in each other's work responsibilities.
LSIs in Royal Canadian Navy service were crewed by Canadians and, by late 1943 on, were assigned RCN landing craft flotillas. The crews intermingled, lent a hand as needed in one another’s work, and messed together.
Ship designations[edit]
LSI(S)
Landing ship, infantry (small)
LSI(M)
Landing ship, infantry (medium)
LSI(L)
Landing ship, infantry (large)
LSI(H)
Landing ship, infantry (hand-hoisting)
Ships[edit]
SS Ben-my-Chree – Isle of Man Steam Packet Company passenger ferry. Served at Pointe du Hoc with 2nd US Rangers, 6 June 1944
TSS Duke of York
SS El Hind – hired as LSI(L) in 1943, destroyed by fire in Bombay docks, April 1944[27]
HMS Cicero
HMS Empire Battleaxe
SS Empire Broadsword – LSI(L)
HMS Sansovino
SS Empire Javelin – LSI(L)
HMS Empire Spearhead
HMS Glengyle – LSI(L), 10,000 tons, 700 troops
HMS Glenearn – LSI(L)
HMS Glenroy – LSI(L)
HMS Invicta – LSI(S)
HMAS Kanimbla
SS Karanja – LSI(L), sunk off Algeria, 1942
SS Llangibby Castle
SS Llanstephan Castle
HMAS Manoora
HMNZS Monowai – formerly an ocean-going passenger ship
Belgian ferry SS Princesse Marie-José
HMS Prince Charles
HMCS Prince David – LSI(M), 500 troops
HMCS Prince Henry – LSI(M) former passenger liner
HMS Prince Leopold – LSI(S), former Belgian cross channel ferry, torpedoed in 1944 by U-621[28]
HMS Princess Astrid – LSI(S)
HMS Princess Beatrix – LSI(M)
HMS Princess Josephine Charlotte – LSI(S)
HMS Prince Albert
HMS Queen Emma – LSI(M)
HMS Rocksand – formerly Cape Argos then Empire Anvil
HMS Royal Scotsman – LSI(H), former passenger ferry operating in the Irish Sea
HMS Royal Ulsterman
HMS Sainfoin – formerly Empire Crossbow
HMS St Helier – LSI(H) former Channel Island ferry
MS Sobieski with LCP(L)s
HMS Ulster Monarch – LSI(H), former passenger ferry operating in the Irish Sea
HMAS Westralia

[Mark Keever]

For OMAHA Beach, the U.S.S. ANCON - AGC-4 was the flagship for the amphibious forces. Some detail as noted...

[Mark Keever]

More detail on the 16 transports...

[Mark Keever]

I keep digging. As held from my website, as noted, FORCE OMAHA had two British L.S.I. assault flotillas attached. S.S. Empire Anvil & S.S. Empire Javelin as flagships...

[Mark Keever]

And finally, what I believe is to be a cruising diagram for the 16 merchant ships for convoy "O"-1.

[Mark Keever]

Not quite done. Here are the other six BRITISH Landing Ship Infantry vessels and their associated assault flotillas: S.S. Princess Margaret, H.M.S. Prince Charles, H.M.S. Prince Leopold, H.M.S. Prince Baudouin, S.S. Ben My Chree and S.S. Amsterdam.