USS Achilles ( ARL - 41 ) USS " Achilles " ( ARL - 41 ) was one of 39 " Achelous " - class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy during World War II . Named after the Greek hero Achilles , she was the only U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . She was laid down as the unnamed " LST - 455 " on 3 August 1942 at Vancouver , Washington by Kaiser Company ; launched on 17 October 1942 ; and commissioned on 30 January 1943 with Lieutenant Clarence Cisin in command . Service history . World War II . Amphibious assaults on Japanese - held islands in the South and Southwest Pacific Theater had involved virtually hundreds of landing craft of all types and sizes , ranging from small craft to infantry landing craft and tank landing craft ( LCIs and LCTs , respectively ) . Since these specialized assault craft , of comparatively light construction , could not be repaired with the few facilities and men available to them alone , orders went out that several tank landing ships would be converted to special landing craft repair ships ( later classified as ARL ) . However , modifying existing LSTs in stateside yards required time ( a critical commodity in the fairly steady pace of the amphibious island - hopping campaigns ) that the forces fighting at the front did not have . At this point , LST - 455 , then in Australian waters , came under the gaze of these amphibious planners . Experienced personnel , trained in ship repair work , were assigned to the ship and almost doubled the size of her complement . Ready for service by the latter part of May 1943 , the former tank landing ship departed Australian waters , bound for New Guinea , and arrived at Milne Bay on 2 June 1943 . She immediately commenced the work for which she had been converted , repairing LCIs under the guidance of the repair officer of . On 4 September 1943 , Vice Admiral Daniel E . Barbey ' s 7th Fleet Amphibious Forces put Australian troops ashore on the Huon Peninsula , near Lae , New Guinea . " LST - 455 " moved up to support these operations from Morobe Bay and lay anchored there among the Allied ships , presenting a tempting target by virtue of the nest of LCIs alongside . Nine Japanese dive bombers , escorted by nine " Zero " fighters , attacked the shipping in Morobe Bay and singled out " LST - 455 " for attention , scoring a direct hit aft . A large bomb hit the stern , passed through the galley , and exploded in the crew ' s quarters , aft , starting fires and trapping men in the after steering room . Determined sailors battled the blaze and cut through bulkheads to rescue the trapped men . The damage control measures were directed by the ship ' s commanding officer , Lieutenant E . A . Peterson , USNR ( who had relieved Lieutenant Cisin in August ) and won him a Navy Cross for personal heroism . Although she had been heavily hit , " LST - 455 " shot down two of the attackers . By nightfall , her men had extinguished the blaze and commenced initial repairs . She had suffered the loss of 18 men killed ; 11 were wounded ; and six men were missing . then towed LST - 455 to Milne Bay where the repair ship was berthed alongside " Rigel " . However , the need for " LST - 455 " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s services was so urgent that she was soon back to work repairing LCI ' s even though her own severe damage had not yet been fully corrected . On 21 August 1944 , the ship was named " Achilles " and reclassified officially as a landing craft repair ship , " ARL - 41 " . Soon thereafter , she proceeded north to participate in the reconquest of the Philippine Islands . As the invasion proceeded , all Service Force ships were shifted to anchorages off Samar , in San Pedro Bay . There " Achilles " saw daily evidence of a new weapon unveiled by the Japanese in their relentless attempt to disrupt the American offensive : the kamikaze ( " Divine Wind " ) , planes flown by Japanese pilots on one - way missions of destruction . During the first four days of November , the weather provided a respite from the kamikaze , although it came in the form of a typhoon which buffeted the ship . When the clouds finally cleared , the kamikaze returned . Lookouts soon pinpointed three " Zekes " ( Mitsubishi A6M5 " Zero " fighters ) heading on a course that would take them across " Achilles " ` bow . As the landing craft repair ship ' s forward guns commenced firing , one plane passed ahead ; the second , however , turned tightly and commenced a dive straight at " Achilles " as she and the four LCIs moored to her lay immobile . The repair ship ' s gunners scored hits on the diving aircraft , but could not stop it . The aircraft crashed into the ship forward , its motor tearing through the main deck . The aircraft itself hit the forward deckhouse in the carpenter shop , where number one repair party had gathered at its battle station . After the deafening explosion that wiped out the repair party , orange - red flames ( caused by gasoline from the burning aircraft ) swept across the weather deck , while parts of the " Zeke " tumbled through the air , some landing astern . Fires immediately spread , their progress unchecked due to the disruption of the forward fire mains upon impact of the aircraft . The kamikaze crash had killed 19 men and wounded an additional 28 ; 14 men were unaccounted for . In the latter half of February 1945 and early March , " Achilles " returned via Biak to Leyte , but quickly proceeded to Subic Bay and Mindoro , spending a week in each place , tending LSMs and carrying out her vital support work . During the latter part of April , " Achilles " moved down to Morotai , in the Netherlands East Indies , for further tender duty , readying landing craft for the impending invasion of Borneo . Participating in the initial landings at Brunei Bay , Borneo , " Achilles " again came under air attack , when a " Dinah " loosed two bombs that landed off her starboard beam . This attack , on 10 June 1945 , caused no damage to the ship , although shrapnel wounded two men in " Achilles " ` crew . The repair ship remained at Borneo until she returned to the Philippine Islands late in July to join the forces marshalling there for the projected invasion of the Japanese homeland . However , the capitulation of Japan in mid - August obviated " Operation Olympic " ( the assault against the home islands of Japan ) but did not end operations for " Achilles " . She repaired landing craft into the fall of 1945 , relieved on station by . Proceeding to Hawaii , " Achilles " , in company with , reached Pearl Harbor on the last day of October . Decommissioned on 19 July 1946 , " Achilles " was struck from the Navy List on 28 August 1946 . The ship received three battle star s for her World War II service : one as " LST - 455 " and two as " Achilles " . China . On 14 March 1947 , the Navy decided to transfer " Achilles " to China under Lend - Lease ; and , on 8 September 1947 , the repair ship was delivered to representatives of the Chinese Navy at New Orleans . Commissioned as " Hsing An " on 5 November 1947 , she sailed for China two days later . Little is known of the ship ' s active service under the Chinese flag , except that in fleeing the Red Chinese advance in 1949 , she ran aground . Her crew then set fire to the hulk to deny the Chinese communists her use . The veteran of bombing at Morobe Bay and the kamikaze in San Pedro Bay , however , proved tougher ; the communists salvaged her , refitted her , and renamed her " Dagu Shan " ( 大孤山 ; Dàgūshān ; lit . Lonely Mountain ) and was last seen as late as 1985 with the East Sea Fleet of the People ' s Liberation Army Navy . Her ultimate disposition , however , is cloaked in the mystery that usually surrounds ships that come into the hands of the Red Chinese Navy .