The West Loch incident
On May 21, 1944, 73 years ago yesterday, sailors in Pearl Harbor were loading ammunition onto several Landing Ship Tankers (LSTs) in preparation for the US invasion to take back the Marianna Islands from the Japanese when tragedy struck;
At 15:08, LST-353, moored at Tare 8, exploded, sending a large fireball into the sky. The noise was heard miles away at Pearl Harbor Headquarters. More explosions of increasing intensity followed, sparking fears of a Japanese attack or even an earthquake. Fire and debris raining down on the fuel and munitions stored on the decks of other LSTs had caused an explosive chain reaction. Within minutes, 200 men had been blown into the water. Eleven wooden buildings on the shore were destroyed and vehicles blown on their side. In all, 20 buildings were damaged.
Initial efforts by the crews to fight the fires were impeded by the heat, although some ships further away managed to muster damage control parties. Many of the LSTs tied together at Tare 8 began to sink. Within the hour, Admiral Richmond K. Turner was directing fire-fighting efforts from a launch.
ABC7 News spoke with a local survivor of the blast, 91-year-old Rod Plaisted;
Plaisted was an 18-year-old sailor in May of 1944, stationed at Pearl Harbor’s West Loch area, three years after the Japanese attack.
Plaisted was one of many men moving bullets and bombs amid hundreds of ships getting ready for the invasion of Saipan when he looked up and saw flames on one ship, then a huge explosion launched tons of metal into the air.
“I looked at it thinking, wow, that is really something to see. That’s something to remember, then it occurred to me what goes up comes down,” said Plaisted.
That’s when he made a run for it dodging white hot debris the entire way.
“Finally stuff was starting to hit and I went down and curled up like that.” Said Plaisted, while imitating a fetal position.
Once Plaisted finally got up he ran to a bomb shelter, just in time to see a fellow sailor killed by white hot metal.
According to Wiki, 163 sailors lost their lives and another 395 were injured in the explosion that burned for twenty-four hours. The Pentagon issued a press blackout order that lasted until 1960 when details were finally released. Wiki summarizes the conclusions of the resulting investigation.
A subsequent Naval Board of Inquiry never determined the exact cause of the disaster but concluded that the initial explosion was caused when a mortar round aboard LST-353 detonated during an unloading operation because it was either dropped or went off when gasoline vapors ignited. The incident – together with the Port Chicago disaster two months later – led to major changes in weapon handling practices within the United States Navy.
Category: Historical
LSTs were such a crucial asset and always in such short supply during WWII that loss of a single one affected operational and logistical planning right up to theater level. The loss of the LSTs during the pre-D-Day Slapton Sands disaster noticeably affected logistical planning for the D-Day landings almost two months later.
It was a stirring tribute to American war production and amphibious planning acumen that the loss of up to nine LST’s at the West Loch disaster delayed the execution of Operation FORAGER in mid-June 1944 by only a single day…
Another reminder that those who serve “in the rear” also serve and, on occasion, give their lives in service.
Well said, Graybeard.
Well said indeed.
And along those lines, hopefully we’ll never again see any more of that ‘if you ain’t _____, you ain’t shit’ kind of disparaging garbage on these pages that we have been subjected to in the past.
Everyone who dons the cloth of this nation and serves has a critical role to play, regardless of branch of service, MOS or duty station. And as we’ve seen countless times, everyone who serves can find themselves in extremis at any time, whether we are at war or during peacetime.
Sometimes preparing for war can prove to be just as deadly as war itself.
Thank you Mick.
There is a time and place where we can, in good fun, engage in some friendly trash talk, knowing that it isn’t entirely serious.
Unfortunately, it is hard to convey the tone of good-natured teasing across the interwebz and it is sometimes taken seriously when it was not intended to be. We have to be careful.
Concur, Mick. As a callow youth, I indulged in some of that.
After a while, I realized how bogus that was and decided the only Just view was to never denigrate anyone’s service. Whether it was as a wrench, pilot, grunt, spoon, it doesn’t matter.
All gave a few years of their youth, or a career, or came home in a flag draped box, or missing body parts.
With a Honorable discharge, that’s good enough for me.
103 Coasties lost off the Escanaba on 18 Jun 43, only 2 survivors. Single ship loss. USS LEOPOLD (DE-319)171 lost, USS Serpens AK 97, 196 Lost off a Cargo Vessel. Just want to remind folks of our brothers and sisters in the Coast Guard,,,,They Always Go Out.
While I was stationed aboard USCGC Jarvis we would load ammo over at west loch and the remains of an lst was visible. I would always make sure the crew knew what happend there.
Any job related to handling explosive stuff is dangerous. This only took a fraction of a second, not even carelessness, to set off a chain reaction event.
Rest in peace, all who passed.
God rest all of your soles! BZ to all who served!!
You just blessing their feet? “soles”/ how about their “souls”? 😉
Many of the sunken LST’s are still there, moored to the shore and the harbor mud. Google Earth will give you a great view of them, plus the Ohio and Arizona.
Many of the sunken LST’s are still there, moored to the shore and the harbor mud. Google Earth will give you a great view of them, plus the Utah and Arizona.
TAH really needs and edit button…
That guy’s comments make me remember stepping off on a patrol in Iraq and his fireballs at least 100 feet in the air goes off and I turn to the guy next to me saying “look at that. That is some Hollywood explosion shit”.
The stuff US troops say when explosions occur.
Yup. Very good reason 1–weapons handling procedures exist, 2–we did them over at West Loch, even if just loading up “practice” torpedoes.
Yes ammunition is dangerous. Here is an excellent report about the women who made it. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39434504
I can remember being on an ammo detail in Basic where I was in an ammo bunker surrounded by everything from 5.56 to 155mm. The DA civilian in charge was moving a pallet of 105 with a forklift when he jerked the controls and one round fell off onto the ground. I didn’t know then that you needed a fuse to detonate – I thought all they were going to find of us was a red mist. As a former artilleryman, he got a kick out of that. 🙂
Away back when while serving on the Okinawa LPH 3, we were anchored out in Hampton bay, Norfolk, Va. with an ammo barge tied up next to us loading munitions. I was on a working party in the hanger bay passing canistered 3″50 rounds to the sailor next to me when I sort of lost the timing for a split second and dropped the canister as it was passed to me and it fell on the deck. Of course these are not fused and I think some of the guys had skid marks on their skivvies. Also handled mark 48 hand grenades which we kept on board in those years. whenever we were anchored out in Gitmo Bay, a case of 48’S were always in the motor whale boat while it circled the ship and if any bubbles were seen, the pins were pulled and over they went.