USS Lejeune ( AP - 74 ) USS " Lejeune " ( AP - 74 ) was a German cargo liner that was converted to a US Navy troop transport during the Second World War . Her original name was TS ( Turbine Ship ) Windhuk . Civilian liner . " Windhuk " was built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg , Germany and completed in 1936 . She was one of a pair of sister ships completed that year for Deutsche Ost - Afrika Linie : the other being TS " Pretoria " . In peacetime Deutsche Ost - Afrika Linie operated " Windhuk " mainly between Hamburg , South - West Africa and South Africa . Reports that she operated as a German raider in the Second World War are said to be false . ( Her sister ship , SS " Pretoria " , later served as a German hospital ship during the closing stages of the War . ) Internment in Brazil . After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 , " Windhuk " evaded the Royal Navy for two months and then took refuge in harbour at Santos , São Paulo , Brazil on 7 December 1939 . " Windhuk " was still in Santos in 22 August 1942 when Brazil broke ties with Germany and interned the ship . When her crew learned that she was to be interned , they sabotaged most of her machinery . They poured concrete into the main turbine engines . They drained the boilers of water and then lit the furnaces , which melted the boilers beyond repair . They cut her main shafts and bearings with high temperature metal cutting torches . They damaged all electric generators , refrigeration equipment , steering gear , small motors , " etc . " beyond repair . However , they made no attempt to scuttle the ship . " Windhuk " remained in Santos until January 1943 when she was towed to Rio de Janeiro for repairs . In 1942 the US Government bought " Windhuk " from Brazil and sent two hundred US Navy personnel to Brazil to fit her with a new diesel engine . The work was not completed until March 1943 , when she made a thirty - day voyage to Norfolk , Virginia for further work and conversion to a troopship . When she arrived in Norfolk , she had been stripped of most of her elegant furnishings such as mahogany and teak wood paneling . She was refitted as a troop transport , which took about a year to rectify all the sabotage by the German crew . While at Norfolk she was named USS " Lejeune " ( AP - 74 ) , after USMC General John Archer Lejeune . Transatlantic troop ship . " Lejeune " was fully commissioned in April or May 1944 . On 11 June 1944 , she began her wartime service in her new role as a US Navy troop transport with a voyage from Norfolk to Glasgow , Scotland with 4 , 460 soldiers aboard . Her troop capacity would later be increased to 4 , 650 . Beginning on 12 July , she then made a trip from New York to Glasgow , with 207 officers and 4 , 307 Navy personnel . In December , she made an Atlantic crossing with elements of the 69th Infantry Division , which was destined to meet Soviet troops on the banks of the Elbe River deep within Germany five months later , in April 1945 . " Lejeune " made a total of ten round - trip transatlantic crossings before the end of the war , and a further nine crossings were made to the United Kingdom , France or Africa in the months immediately after , until she returned to Norfolk 9 May 1946 for overhaul . Postwar troop service . On 28 September 1946 " Lejeune " resumed service . From 19 October 1946 to 1 August 1947 , she made a total of four trips to the Pacific , from San Francisco to Shanghai and Tsingtao , China , and to Yokosuka , Japan . She then sailed back to New York , reaching her destination 29 August , and from there returned to San Francisco 25 September . Decommissioning . USS " Lejeune " departed San Francisco for Bremerton , Washington on 2 October 1947 , where she was decommissioned 9 February 1948 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Tacoma , Washington . She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1957 and scrapped at Portland , Oregon 16 August 1966 . Her ship ' s bell however was preserved , and in 1971 it was mounted on the flagstaff at Marine Base HQ " Camp Lejeune " . During her US Navy career " Lejeune " transported more than 100 , 000 troops . German former crew . During internment in Brazil , the crew was interned ( in stables converted into internment camps ) in small towns far inland . They were used as a workforce , and during times off were able to play soccer and perform musical presentations . Many married Brazilian women and decided to stay in Brazil . After the war , some of the remaining crewmembers , especially older ones , returned to Germany . One group of former crew who stayed in Brazil after the war opened a restaurant in São Paulo named after the ship , serving dishes from her former passenger menus .