User:Saintrain/S2/GCAT4

Gilliam Class Attack Transports were a type of attack transport (APA) serving in the United States Navy during World War II. Built by the Consolidated Steel Corporation in Wilmington, California under a Maritime Commission contract, Type S4 SE2 BD1.

The Gilliam class was a new type of troop carrier to fill the needs for a smaller, faster transport to reduce the chance of being sunk by submarine, and to reduce the losses if one were. Previous to this, cargo-type ships were converted to attack transports by installing landing-boat davits. The Gilliam class was one of the first purpose-built amphibious troop carriers.

Consolidated Steel built its Wilmington yard in 1941 and with four ways, later increased to eight. Novel, assembly-line techniques were employed to reduce build time, (laying down to commissioning), to three months. Thirty-two Gilliam class APAs were built before being supplanted by the Haskell class, also built by Consolidated.

All Gilliams were used in the Pacific war. Iwo to Occupation. 12 LCVPs, 2 Lxxxs & 1 Lyyy.

The ships were a wartime commodity. Eleven of the ships were scrapped within two years of the end of the war. Of the remaining, nineteen were involved in Operation Crossroads in July 1946; sixteen as targets. (All the APAs used in the tests were Gilliam class.) Two were sunk outright by Test Able. Ten suffered radiation damage from the unexpectedly high contamination of the underwater Test Baker and were not re-manned. After testing, they were scuttled in 1948. Most of the rest were sunk as gunnery targets. Only five survived into the 1950s.

The following table shows significant dates for the thirty-two ships of the class. The build times (in days - laying down to commissioning) show the phenomanal rates that were achieved. The life times (in years - measured from commissioning) were, in general, very short.

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