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UNITED STATES NAVY
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I
TEMPORARY AUXILIARY SHIPS
WORLD WAR I
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --
USS Neville (AP-16, later APA-9), 1941-1946.
Previously USS Independence (ID # 3676), 1918-1919
USS Neville, a 7475 ton transport, was built at Alameda, California, in 1918 as the civilian steamship Independence. She briefly served as USS Independence (ID # 3676) in late 1918 and early 1919 and was modified to become the merchant ship City of Norfolk in 1930. The Navy acquired her late in 1940. After conversion to a troopship, she was commissioned in mid-May 1941 as USS Neville. During the rest of 1941 and into 1942, she operated in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas. Neville made two trans-Atlantic voyages to the British Isles in February and March 1942 and was sent through the Panama Canal a month later to help build up the defenses of the south Pacific.
Neville participated in the Tulagi landings in early August 1942. This operation represented the first serious Allied offensive of the Pacific War and set off a lengthy fight to hold Guadalcanal and Tulagi against Japanese efforts to take them back. Neville supported this campaign until December 1942, when it was approaching its conclusion, then returned to the United States.
Reclassified as an attack transport, with the new hull number APA-9, at the beginning of February 1943, Neville was soon transferred to the Atlantic theater and went on to the Mediterranean Sea in June to take part in the Sicily invasion. The ship returned to the U.S. in August and was ordered back to the Pacific, where she was employed in the amphibious assaults on Makin Island, in the Gilberts, in November 1943 and on Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, in February 1944. Her final combat assignment was the invasion of Saipan, in June 1944.
After the Saipan operation, Neville became an amphibious training ship, serving in that role until the Pacific War's end in August 1945. She spent the rest of the year transporting service personnel to and from the former war zone. Steaming back to the Atlantic in January 1946, USS Neville was decommissioned at the end of April and stricken from the Navy List in August 1946. She was scrapped in 1957.
This page features all available views relating to USS Neville (AP-16, later APA-9).
For pictorial coverage of this ship during her service as
USS Independence, see:
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
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Photo #: 80-G-2408 Convoy out of Brooklyn, New York, February 1942 USS Neville (AP-16) is in the foreground. Other ships present include at least six other transports, a light cruiser and a battleship. This is probably the convoy that left the east coast on 19 February 1942, bound across the Atlantic to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photographed from a Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, blimp. Note the extensive use of Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage on these ships. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 600 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-2411 Convoy out of Brooklyn, New York, February 1942 USS Neville (AP-16) is in the foreground. Other ships visible include at least seven other transports, an oiler and a battleship. This is probably the convoy that left the east coast on 19 February 1942, bound across the Atlantic to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Photographed from a Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, blimp. Note the extensive use of Measure 12 (Modified) camouflage on these ships. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 505 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-31372 Guadalcanal-Tulagi Operation, 7-9 August 1942 Brigadier General William H. Rupertus, USMC, (center) on board USS Neville (AP-16) during the landings on Tulagi, circa 7-8 August 1942. BGen. Rupertus, Assistant Division Commander of the First Marine Division, was in charge of combat operations on Tulagi and the other nearby Japanese-held islands. Note landing craft moving past in the background. The destroyer in the center distance is probably USS Buchanan (DD-484). Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Online Image: 84KB; 740 x 615 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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Photo #: 80-G-215086 Invasion of Sicily, July 1943 Shipping off the Scoglitti beaches on the first day of the invasion, 10 July 1943. Among the ships present are: USS Calvert (APA-32), second from left; USS Neville (APA-9), left center; USS Frederick Funston (APA-89), far right. An LST is in the right center, with a light cruiser in the distance beyond. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 600 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Neville (AP-16 and APA-9). The following list features some of these images:
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USS Neville (AP-16) in a harbor, in 1942. The original photo is dated 6-7-8 August 1942, but was almost certainly taken some months earlier. Starboard bow surface view. The ship is wearing pattern camouflage. As 80-G-31358, but starboard broadside view. USS Neville (APA-9) off San Diego, California, 19 February 1943. The ship is painted overall dark grey or blue-grey. Starboard bow surface view. USS Neville (APA-9) underway off the U.S. east coast, 8 June 1943. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-14, based at NAS Weeksville, North Carolina. The ship is painted in camouflage Measure 22: dark below the main deck line, lighter above. Fairly high aerial view, taken from off the ship's port broadside. Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
For pictorial coverage of this ship during her service as
USS Independence, see:
Return to WWI Auxiliaries.Page made 9 March 2002