USS LST - 266 USS " Benzie County " ( LST - 266 ) was an built for the United States Navy during World War II . Named for Benzie County , Michigan , she was the only U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . LST - 266 was laid down on 11 November 1942 at Ambridge , Pennsylvania by the American Bridge Company ; launched on 16 May 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs . Joseph B . Barnwell ; accepted and placed in reduced commission on 24 July 1943 ; departed Ambridge on 25 July 1943 ; and commissioned at New Orleans , Louisiana on 4 August 1943 . Service history . After fitting out , LST - 266 carried out her shakedown training in St . Andrews Bay until 28 August when she set out for Key West , Florida . Arriving there on 30 August , she joined coastal convoy KN - 262 on 1 September and reached Little Creek , Virginia soon thereafter for operations in the Norfolk area and at Solomons Island , Maryland . The tank landing ship continued in the Hampton Roads region for the rest of 1943 and well into 1944 . North Africa , March – April 1944 . On 14 March 1944 she sailed for Tunisia as part of Task Force ( TF ) 64 , in convoy UGS - 36 , 72 merchantmen and 18 tank landing ships shepherded by 16 warship s . The escorts drove off a suspected U - boat late on 31 March , but danger from above replaced that from below just six hours later when 22 German aircraft attacked the convoy early on 1 April . In the ensuing action , the screen downed two enemy planes and probably damaged two others . As a result , UGS - 36 reached its destination , Bizerte , on 3 April . LST - 266 then stood out of that port on 12 April and made Oran , Algeria , on the 16th . From there , she sailed for the United Kingdom on 20 April in convoy MKS - 46 , reporting to the 12th Fleet for duty upon her arrival in British waters on 3 May 1944 . Invasion of France , 7 – 17 June 1944 . A little over a month later , LST - 266 ( as LST Flotilla 4 flagship ) took part in Operation Neptune , the invasion of France . On 5 June , the tank landing ship departed Falmouth , England for the assault area in Task Group ( TG ) 126 . 4 made up of 40 LSTs , 35 of which towed pontoon causeways . The Channel ' s characteristic strong winds and heavy tidal currents made station keeping hazardous ; but eventually , at 0800 on the 7th , TG 126 . 4 reached the invasion beaches ; and LST - 266 dropped anchor off the " Fox Green " section of Omaha Beach . Despite a choppy sea , the ship dispatched her first loaded landing craft , an LCM , to the beach at 1120 ; but the rough sea finally forced a pause in unloading at 1345 . With 184 troops and 84 vehicles still on board , LST - 266 persuaded a tank landing craft ( LCT ) to " marry " to her bow so that unloading could resume , an evolution aided by providentially calm wind and sea conditions . After three LCTs had been loaded and dispatched to the beach , more remained on board to send . Her executive officer , Lt . Wilbur H . Lundell , took a small boat out to look for a Rhino Ferry to speed the unloading . His hunt bore fruit ; and , after marrying the Rhino Ferry to her bow at 2323 , LST - 266 completed her unloading at 0130 on the 8th . Later that day , LST - 266 received orders to stand out for onward routing . " Ducking and dodging " convoys of LCTs on the return voyage , LST - 266 , one of 42 LSTs in convoy , reached the Isle of Portland on the morning of the 9th . From there , she accompanied 11 other tank landing ships to Tilbury Docks to load cargo , arriving there early on 12 June . Embarking 273 British troops and 72 vehicles , LST - 266 anchored briefly in the River Thames before joining an out - bound convoy , ETM - 8 , in the late afternoon of the 13th . Arriving off Sword Beach , in the British sector , at 2245 on 14 June , LST - 266 beached herself on " Queen Red " Beach , four miles west of Ouistreham , France at 0830 on the 15th along with five other U . S . tank landing ships . " " Until 0930 , " " wrote Lieutenant Logan A . Bolon , USNR , LST - 266 ' s captain , " " the beach was peaceful and free of enemy action , but at 0930 the peacefulness took a hasty departure , no doubt hurried along by the burst of an enemy shell five hundred yards on the port quarter . " " As the tide receded enough to allow unloading , the Germans increased the tempo of their gunfire accordingly . Over the next few hours , enemy long - range guns methodically sowed the beach with shells . " " I am fully convinced , " " Bolon recounted , " " that those manning the enemy guns were extremely capable and not green horns at the game . The range and deflection was good and salvoes varied from one to four . This vessel received one direct hit . . . and enough near misses to scare the daylights out of us . . . " Shortly before 1130 , the nearby LST - 207 took a direct hit , and immediately requested medical assistance . LST - 266 provided a doctor and 14 pharmacist ' s mates to help the wounded ; soon thereafter , at 1137 , LST - 266 herself took a hit at the normal load waterline , in a main ballast tank . About ten minutes later , the tank landing ships received orders to evacuate all hands save skeleton crews . At 1150 , LST - 266 ' s crew went ashore and sought cover for the duration of the shelling , leaving behind a seven - man repair party , four motor machinist ' s mates , one chief pharmacist ' s mate , a doctor and two other officers . Even British warships , brought into the area a little over a half an hour later , failed to silence the enemy guns which continued to lob shells at the LSTs until 1630 , inflicting damage on five of the six . Although she had dispatched her last vehicle to the beach at 1325 , LST - 266 could not retract from the beach because of the extreme tide conditions . Those men who had been evacuated returned a little over an hour later ; and , at 1600 , the tank landing ship began making all preparations for getting underway . Retracting soon thereafter on the second attempt , LST - 266 proceeded to the out - bound convoy anchorage area and , from there , headed back to England , entering Portsmouth at 0235 on 17 June . Her repeated requests for repairs at British facilities ignored , LST - 266 had to take matters into her own hands , and her own ship ' s force repaired the shell damage within 24 hours . Return to the US , 1945 . LST - 266 remained in European waters , carrying out cross - channel missions , into the spring of 1945 . She then moved to Belfast in Northern Ireland where she joined a homeward - bound convoy , ONS - 50 , on 11 May , with nested on board . Detached from the convoy on the 27th , LST - 266 proceeded to Norfolk , arriving there on the 31st to unload the landing craft and undergo voyage repairs . Although earmarked for Pacific service , LST - 266 never reached that theater , spending the rest of her active days in the Atlantic . Following an availability at Norfolk during the summer of 1945 , the tank landing ship steamed to New York , where she loaded and the stern section of . After carrying that cargo to Hampton Roads and unloading it at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard , she returned to New York immediately to load for transportation to Jacksonville , Florida . Decommissioning and disposal . Arriving at Green Cove Springs , Florida on 2 October 1945 , she reported for duty with the Atlantic Reserve Fleet that same day . On 18 June 1947 , LST - 266 was decommissioned and placed in service , in reserve . A week later , on 25 June 1947 , she was placed out of commission , in reserve . Towed from Mayport , Florida to Charleston , South Carolina by the three weeks later , LST - 266 remained at the Charleston Naval Shipyard until 11 September when the towed her back to Mayport . On 1 July 1955 , the tank landing ship was named USS " Benzie County " ( LST - 266 ) , but never served actively under the name . On 1 November 1958 her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register , and she was sold to the Fleet Storage Company on 4 August 1959 for scrapping . LST - 266 earned two battle star s for World War II service .