USS LST - 288 USS " Berkshire County " ( LST - 288 ) was an built for the United States Navy during World War II . Named for Berkshire County , Massachusetts , she was the only U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . LST - 288 was laid down on 6 September 1943 at Ambridge , Pennsylvania by the American Bridge Company ; launched on 7 November 1943 ; sponsored by Miss Virginia M . Plofchan ; placed in reduced commission on 4 December 1943 ; ferried down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans , Louisiana ; and placed in full commission at New Orleans on 20 December 1943 with Lieutenant Edwin L . McCloud , USNR , in command . Service history . Invasion of France , 1944 . LST - 288 commenced her shakedown training on 19 January 1944 and returned to New Orleans for her post - shakedown availability on 4 February . On 14 February , the tank landing ship set sail for New York where she loaded ammunition . A week of preparation for a transatlantic passage at Boston ensued , and then she departed for Halifax , Nova Scotia on 10 March . She joined convoy SC - 155 and departed for the United Kingdom on the 14th . The convoy reached Milford Haven , Wales on the 29th and two days later , LST - 288 stood out for Plymouth . She remained at Plymouth throughout April and May readying herself for " Operation Overlord " , the long - awaited , cross - channel invasion of Europe . On 31 May she loaded 425 soldiers and 116 vehicles and " sealed up " in order prevent any news of the invasion preparations from leaking . The tense week of waiting that followed seemed to be at an end when she set sail on the 4th . However , abominable weather conditions obliged the Allied command to recall the invasion flotilla and postpone the operation for at least 24 hours . Fortunately , the weather cleared in the interim , and the 4 , 000 ships and landing craft assembled for the assault on the beaches of Normandy departed for the real thing on the 5th . LST - 288 stood out of Plymouth as a unit of Western Naval Task Force ' s follow - up Force " B " , to which the assignment of reinforcing the beachheads established during the early hours of the attack belonged . LST - 288 anchored approximately 2 , 000 yards off Omaha Beach at 1830 on D - Day , 12 hours after the initial assault . By 8 June , the troops and vehicles on board had left the ship , and she joined a convoy returning to England . During the four weeks following the invasion , LST - 288 completed seven cross - channel trips , transporting 1 , 534 Allied officers and men and 627 vehicles to France while returning 601 casualties to England . On 7 July she disembarked men and material at Normandy for the final time and returned to Falmouth , England . Mediterranean , 1944 . On 18 July she departed England as part of a Mediterranean - bound convoy , arriving on the North African coast at Bizerte 10 days later . After a three - day stopover at the Tunisian port at the end of July , she moved on to Naples where she unloaded her cargo on 2 August . Except for a brief excursion on the 6th and 7th to carry troops , vehicles , and provisions down the Italian coast to Salerno , she remained at Naples readying herself for " Operation Dragoon " , the invasion of southern France . On 9 August the tank landing ship embarked elements of the Army ' s 45th Division and awaited the order to depart for southern France . The order came on 12 August , and she left Castellamare Bay as a unit of Task Force ( TF ) 85 , under the command of Rear Admiral Rogers . The task force reached Bougnon Bay during the early morning hours of 15 August . By 0742 , LST - 288 had dispatched her LCVP s and DUKW s , which brought her infantrymen to Delta Beach at 0930 . Two hours later , she began transferring vehicles to attending LCTs by marrying the landing craft to her bow . The last vehicle rolled into an LCT at 1525 , prompting the landing ship to raise the ramp , close the bow doors and join a convoy bound for Ajaccio , Corsica . Before she departed the area for Bizerte on 29 October , LST - 288 made nine voyages to southern France and two to Livorno , Italy . During this period , she transported over 3 , 100 soldiers and 600 vehicles and removed 1 , 000 German POWs from France . Return to the US , 1944 – 1945 . On 31 October LST - 288 put in at Bizerte for eight days of repairs and maintenance . In company with and , she set out for Oran , Algeria on 8 November . After pausing at La Maddalena , Sardinia to load cargo and soldiers , she reached Oran on the 18th and commenced six days of replenishment . On the 24th , she joined a convoy of 28 LSTs , 35 LCI ( L ) s , eight minesweepers , and two destroyer escort s and set course for the United States , reaching Norfolk , Virginia on 11 December . Three days later , the tank landing ship shifted north to the Navy ' s ammunition depot at Earle , New Jersey where the ship underwent a month of yard availability while most of her crew enjoyed leave . On 18 February 1945 she loaded construction supplies at Davisville , Rhode Island , then returned to New York to take on board , before steaming to Norfolk on 2 March . Pacific , 1945 – 1950 . On 7 March LST - 288 departed for the Pacific , making a brief stop at Guantanamo Bay en route to Panama . A steering failure while transiting the canal necessitated two days of repairs before she left Panama on the 23rd . On 12 April , she entered Pearl Harbor and began 10 days of replenishment before embarking on a seven - week voyage to Okinawa that included visits to Eniwetok , Guam , and Saipan . When LST - 288 anchored off Okinawa on 30 May , the Japanese defenders had just over three weeks of determined resistance left in them . The landing ship disembarked over 1000 officers and enlisted men on the 31st , but waited to unload the vehicles on board until 15 June . After that , she operated off Okinawa for two weeks and then headed for Saipan . Arriving at Saipan on 6 July , she spent two days in drydock to repair hull damage suffered during the Okinawa beaching . In all , LST - 288 stayed at Saipan nearly three weeks before setting out for the Philippines on the 24th in company with an LST convoy , The tank landing ship remained there beyond the Japanese surrender on 15 August into early September . On the 3rd , she set sail for Tokyo Bay where she disembarked elements of the 808th Engineer Aviation Battalion . She departed Tokyo on 19 September for Leyte where she took on board Japan - bound soldiers and supplies and arrived at Otaru on 19 October . After another six months of duty in the Far East , LST - 288 was decommissioned at Yokohama on 6 March 1946 and transferred to the Shipping Control Administration , Japan ( SCAJAP ) . She served with SCAJAP until the spring of 1950 , at which time she sailed back to the United States to be returned to the Navy . Decommissioning and transfer to Korea , 1950 – . Turned over to the Commandant , 13th Naval District at Bremerton , Washington on 14 June 1950 she remained under his cognizance until berthed with the Pacific Reserve Fleet ' s Bremerton Group on 15 November 1950 . On 1 July 1955 the tank landing ship was named USS " Berkshire County " ( LST - 288 ) , but never saw active service under the name . She was later transferred to the Republic of Korea on 5 March 1956 and commissioned as ROKS " Ke Bong " ( LST - 810 ) . On 15 November 1974 , while she was still on loan to South Korea , her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register . Her final fate is unknown . LST - 288 received three battle star s for her World War II service .