USS Bayfield ( APA - 33 ) USS " Bayfield " ( APA - 33 ) was a built for the United States Navy during World War II , the lead ship in her class . Named for Bayfield County , Wisconsin , she was the only U . S . Naval vessel to bear the name . Construction . " Bayfield " was originally laid down as SS " Sea Bass " under a Maritime Commission contract on 14 November 1942 at San Francisco , California by the Western Pipe and Steel Company . The hull was assigned to the Navy as naval transport AP - 78 and was redesignated attack transport APA - 33 on 1 February 1943 . APA - 33 was launched on 15 February . The Navy acquired the vessel on 30 June , renamed it " Bayfield " , and placed it in reduced commission the same day . " Bayfield " left San Francisco on 7 July and arrived in Brooklyn , New York on 29 July , where it was decommissioned and converted by the Atlantic Basic Iron Works to an attack transport . The completed ship was then commissioned USS " Bayfield " ( APA - 33 ) on 20 November 1943 with Captain Lyndon Spencer , USCG , in command . Following a shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay and subsequent repairs at Norfolk Navy Yard , she conducted amphibious training in January 1944 , underwent additional repair , and was declared ready for sea on 3 February . Amphibious operations in Europe . Invasion of Normandy . She received orders to New York to embark troops for service in Europe . On 11 February the ship departed New York with a convoy bound for the British Isles and arrived at Glasgow , Scotland on 22 February . From there she moved south to the Isle of Portland , England to await orders . On 11 March " Bayfield " made the short run to Plymouth and joined a group of amphibious ships that then set course for western Scotland . The ships reached the River Clyde on 14 March and carried out landing exercises there through 21 March in preparation for the European invasion at Normandy . On 29 March she bore the flag of Commander , Force " U " ( Rear Admiral Don Pardee Moon ) and served as headquarters for planning the landings on " Utah Beach . " She joined with other Normandy - bound ships in practicing a variety of maneuvers and tactical operations during short underway periods until 26 April , when full - scale rehearsals took place through 4 May . " Bayfield " anchored again at Plymouth on 29 April and on 7 May began embarking troops of the 8th Infantry Regiment ( U . S . 4th Infantry Division ) and the 87th Chemical Battalion . By 5 June the invasion force completed all preparations and got underway for the Bay of the Seine . Passing along a swept channel marked by lighted buoys , " Bayfield " and the other transports reached their designated positions early on the morning of 6 June and debarked their troops . After disembarking her troops , " Bayfield " began service as a supply and hospital ship in addition to continuing her duties as a flagship . Those assignments kept her off the Norman coast while other transports rapidly unloaded troops and cargo and then returned to England . On 7 June she shifted to an anchorage five miles off the beach and made smoke that night to protect Utah anchorage from Luftwaffe attacks . Invasion of Southern France . On 25 June " Bayfield " returned to port , and on 5 July joined Task Group ( TG ) 120 . 6 bound for Algeria . Upon its arrival at Oran on 10 July the group was dissolved , and " Bayfield " continued on to Italy . At Naples , Rear Admiral Moon assumed command of Task Force 8 or " Camel " Force , for the invasion of southern France . Plans and procedures were refined , and full - scale rehearsals were held off beaches near Salerno between 31 July and 6 August . Following the suicide of Rear Admiral Moon , a victim of what would become known as " battle fatigue " on 5 August , Rear Admiral Spencer Lewis took command of TF 87 on 13 August , and " Bayfield " sailed for the southern coast of France . Early on 15 August , she put troops of the U . S . 36th Infantry Division ashore east of Saint - Raphaël in the Golfe de Fréjus . As its target , " Camel " Force assaulted the best defended section of the coast , an area where the Argens River flows into the Mediterranean , and the hard fighting there kept " Bayfield " in the vicinity of the Golfe de Fréjus for almost a month . She returned to Naples on 10 September and three days later received orders to join a transatlantic convoy at Oran . The attack transport steamed by way of Bizerte to embark passengers for transportation back to the United States and left Oran with her convoy on 16 September . She arrived in Norfolk on 26 September , disembarked her passengers , and entered the Norfolk Navy Yard for overhaul . Operations in the Pacific . The attack transport spent the first week of November preparing for duty in the Pacific . She loaded supplies and got underway on 7 November for the Panama Canal , in transit to Hawaii . " Bayfield " arrived at Pearl Harbor on 26 November . The next day , she broke the flag of Commander , Transport Squadron ( TransRon ) 15 , Commodore H . C . Flanagan . Between 6 December and 18 January 1945 the ship participated in five practice amphibious landings at Maui . Invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa . " Bayfield " departed Pearl Harbor on 27 January and touched at Eniwetok for fuel before arriving at Saipan on 11 February . Following rehearsal off Tinian on 12 and 13 February , the Joint Expeditionary Force ( TF 51 ) got underway on 16 February for Iwo Jima . " Bayfield " debarked troops from the 4th Marine Division on D - Day , 19 February , and while anchored off Iwo Jima for the remainder of the month served both as a hospital and a prisoner - of - war ship . " Bayfield " returned to the Marianas on 1 March to prepare for the Ryukyu Islands campaign . On 6 and 7 March she loaded supplies and equipment of the 2nd Marine Division and got underway on the 11th for rehearsal exercises preparatory to the invasion of Okinawa . Her task force left the Marianas on 27 March and hove - to off the southeastern coast of Okinawa on Easter morning , 1 April . As part of TG 51 . 2 , the attack transport and other units of Demonstration Group " Charlie " simulated a landing on the south coast to draw attention away from the actual landings at the Hagushi beaches . Although the ruse failed to fool the Japanese , TG 51 . 2 received more Japanese air attacks than did the real landings . The and were both severely damaged by kamikaze s . The group continued the demonstration the next day and then retired seaward to await orders . " Bayfield ' s " troops were not required at Okinawa , and on 11 April she got underway for Saipan , where they were disembarked on the 14th . She then remained at Saipan undergoing maintenance and repairs until 4 June . " Bayfield " sailed for the Solomons on 4 June to load cargo and move it closer to the fighting . She stopped at Tulagi on the 12th and at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides on the 17th . She sailed on 1 July for the Marianas and unloaded at Tinian on 9 July and Saipan on 13 July . After taking on passengers , Bayfield got underway for Guam where she arrived on 14 July . Two days later , the transport set course for California . Occupation and demobilization cruises . In San Francisco on 30 July , " Bayfield " went into drydock for a major overhaul before the expected invasion of the Japanese home islands . However , hostilities ended on 15 August while the transport was still undergoing repairs . Ten days later , " Bayfield " departed San Francisco , bound via Eniwetok , Marshall Islands for Subic Bay and Zamboanga in the Philippines . At Eniwetok on 7 September , revised orders directed her to Tacloban , Philippines , where she arrived on 14 September and reported to Commander Amphibious Group 3 for duty in the occupation of Aomori , Japan . On 17 September " Bayfield " embarked soldiers and equipment of the U . S . 81st Infantry Division . The landings at Aomori took place according to schedule on 25 September . After discharging the troops , " Bayfield " returned to the Marianas on 4 October and joined the " Operation Magic Carpet " fleet . She embarked a full complement of returning veterans at Saipan and at Tinian before heading home on 7 October . Upon her arrival at San Pedro , California on 20 October , she disembarked passengers including the TransRon 15 staff . Following repairs , the ship carried occupation troops to Korea in November 1945 and January 1946 , returning from each voyage with a full contingent of veterans . Post - World War II service . Atomic testing . In March , the attack transport was ordered to Pearl Harbor for " Operation Crossroads " , the atomic bomb tests scheduled to take place at Bikini Atoll in July . She set sail from Oahu on 2 April and proceeded via Kwajalein and Eniwetok to Bikini with supplies and equipment . She returned to Pearl Harbor early in May to take on more cargo and arrived back at Bikini on 1 June . " Bayfield " then served as a barracks ship for the crews of the target ships . On 30 June she took station 22 miles from the site of the initial Test " ABLE " , an airburst detonated at 09 : 00 on 1 July 1946 . After the explosion , " Bayfield " reentered the lagoon and anchored at 17 : 28 that day . She remained there until 18 July providing berthing spaces for members of the survey and monitoring teams until they were able to return to their own ships . She then got underway to participate in a one - day rehearsal for test " BAKER " . On 24 July " Bayfield " again departed the lagoon and at 08 : 35 on the 25th , observed the underwater detonation from a distance of 15 miles . She returned to the anchorage at dawn the following morning and remained until 3 August . She stopped at Kwajalein to check contamination levels , resumed her journey on 8 August , and arrived at San Francisco on the 20th . 1946 - 1960 . The transport continued to serve with the Pacific Fleet making two more cruises to China until joining the Atlantic Fleet in November 1949 . Based at Norfolk , Virginia she operated along the eastern seaboard and in the West Indies until mid - August 1950 , when the outbreak of hostilities in Korea on 25 June called her back to the Pacific . " Bayfield " arrived in Kobe , Japan , on 16 September and , the next day , got underway for Inchon , Korea . She spent the next seven months providing logistic support to the United Nations forces in Korea . She returned to San Diego on 26 May 1951 and , except for a cruise to Japan and back in September 1951 , did not return to the Far East until March 1952 , again to support troops in Korea . During the next two years , " Bayfield " made three more cruises to the Orient and performed special duty in August and September 1954 , assisting in the evacuation of refugees that resulted from the partition of Vietnam into a communist north and a democratic south . As one of more than 40 amphibious ships employed in " Operation Passage to Freedom " , the transport provided food , shelter , and care to the evacuees as she carried them south to Saigon . She returned to San Diego on 9 October and commenced a routine of alternating local training operations along the West Coast with deployments to the Far East . On 26 March 1955 , " Bayfield " arrived at the site of the Pan Am Flight 845 / 26 ditching in the Pacific Ocean and rescued the 19 survivors . 1961 - 1968 . In February 1961 " Bayfield " changed home port from San Diego to Long Beach where she served as the flagship for the Commander Amphibious Squadron ( PhibRon ) 7 . Her first assignment saw her underway for a major amphibious exercise in Hawaii . During that operation , the transport received orders dispatching her to the western Pacific to bolster the 7th Fleet during the Laotian crisis . The tension soon subsided , however , and " Bayfield " returned to Hawaii to finish the interrupted training exercise before continuing on back to the West Coast . The ship deployed to the Far East again in January 1962 and spent most of the overseas tour participating in exercises and showing the flag . Near the end of the assignment , " Bayfield " received orders to Buckner Bay , Okinawa , where she stood by during another crisis in Laos . Late in July 1962 she returned to Long Beach and resumed operations out of her home port . In October she had to forego another major amphibious exercise in Hawaii because of the Cuban missile crisis . The transport embarked elements of the 1st Marine Division and headed through the Panama Canal to support forces engaged in the quarantine of Cuba . With the end of that crisis , " Bayfield " returned to Long Beach on 15 December . Following a regular overhaul at Willamette Shipyard in Richmond , California and refresher training out of San Diego until 6 June 1963 , the attack transport resumed local training operations . On 17 September she embarked from Long Beach on another deployment to the western Pacific . " Bayfield " made a port call in Hawaii for three weeks , then resumed her cruise west on 16 October and arrived at Subic Bay in the Philippines on 31 October . She made a visit to Hong Kong during the latter part of November , returning to Subic Bay near the end of the month . The ship spent December operating in the waters between Okinawa and Japan , stopping in Numazu , Yokosuka , Nagoya , and Sasebo . " Bayfield " also carried cold weather training in Korean waters and joined the Nationalist Chinese in exercises near Taiwan during the first two months of 1964 . She disembarked her Marine contingent at Buckner Bay , Okinawa , in mid - March and headed back to the West Coast , arriving in Long Beach on 6 April . " Bayfield " operated out of Long Beach for more than a year and then deployed to the Far East again in May 1965 . " Bayfield " returned to the West Coast in December and resumed local training missions in the Long Beach and San Diego operating areas early in 1966 . Later that spring , she began a five - month overhaul at the Todd Shipyard in Alameda , California . Getting underway from Todd Shipyard " Bayfield " sailed to Mare Island to take on ammunition then proceeding on to Hunters Point Naval Shipyard ( San Francisco ) . " Bayfield " was in Hunters Point during the 1966 Hunters Point Race Riots and crew members were escorted back to ship under police escort from Market Street in San Francisco . The ship left the yard on 26 September and spent several weeks at San Diego for amphibious maneuvers and refresher training . " Bayfield " embarked on another tour of duty in the Far East on 28 December , refueled at Pearl Harbor early in January 1967 , and continued on westward . She touched at Okinawa on 19 January and continued on to the Philippines . At Subic Bay , ComPhibRon 7 shifted his flag to the transport and she got underway for Vietnam on 31 January Vietnam War . The ship served as a floating barracks at Da Nang until 15 February 1967 and then sailed for Okinawa to take on Marines and equipment for rotation to the Vietnamese combat zone . During that operation , " Bayfield " anchored at the mouth of the Cua Viet River , and her embarked Marines went ashore to rotate with units that had been serving eight miles upriver at Dong Ha . " Bayfield " returned to Okinawa on 13 March . In April , she loaded troops for another landing and put them ashore south of Da Nang on 28 April . The transport continued to serve off the coast of Vietnam until 28 May , ferrying troops between points as needed and transporting casualties to the hospital ship . Relieved by the , " Bayfield " headed home , via Sasebo , Hong Kong and Pearl Harbor . " Bayfield " earned four battle star s for World War II service , four for Korean service , and two for service in Vietnam . Decommissioning . USS " Bayfield " carried out exercises until 27 December , at which time she was placed in a reduced readiness status . Berthed next to the at Long Beach , " Bayfield " prepared for inactivation . She was placed out of commission , in reserve , on 28 June 1968 . A board of inspection and survey found the transport to be " unfit for further service " , and her name struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 October 1968 . She was sold to the Levin Metals Corporation of San Pedro , California on 15 September 1969 and scrapped .