Windhuk

[john sefton]

The SS WINDHUK (pronounced Vent Hook) was completed at the Blohm and Voss Shipyards in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. She was originally a large passenger liner that operated principally between the Hamburg Shipyards and the South African ports, under the ownership of the Deutsche-Afrika Line.
Information about the WINDHUK can be found in the Lloyd's of London Register. The Register lists the German passenger liner as displacing 16,662 tons, and being 577 feet in length, 72 feet wide and 31 1/2 feet deep. The SS PRETORIAT, the WINDHUK’s sister-ship, is also listed in the Lloyd's of London register, The PRETORIA was a Nazi hospital ship during the final phases of World War II. There are some reports that the Windhuk was a German raider. These reports are not true. Her size and characteristics made her too easy to identify.

Service under the German Navy came to an end for the WINDHUK December 7,1939 when she sailed into a Brazilian port under a hand crafted Japanese flag and the name of SANTOS MARU. Upon reaching Brazilian territorial waters, she raised the German flag and entered Santos Harbor.

After Brazil broke diplomatic ties with Germany, the crew of the Windhuk attempted to scuttle the ship by pouring concrete into her turbines. After this,the crew was rounded up in Santos, and sent to the capitol Sao Paulo, to be held in a detention center. Later they were distributed into five concentration camps located in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo.

The Windhuk remained in Santos until January of 1942, when it was towed to Rio de Janeiro for repairs. In May of 1942, the United States Government purchased the Windhuk for an undisclosed sum from the Brazilian government. The United States Navy immediately went to work to make the newest ship in the U.S. Fleet ready for sea duty.

With a diesel engine and other essential equipment, two hundred officers and enlisted personnel went down to Rio to make the WINDHUK shipshape. In February 1943, their tasks completed they sailed the refitted WINDHUK from Rio through waters infested with enemy submarines to Norfolk Virginia, The voyage took thirty days.

In Norfolk, the WINDHUK was renamed USS LeJeune after former commandant of the Marine Corps, General John A. LeJeune. The newly renamed USS LEJLUNE was given hull number AP74 and was commissioned as a Transport of the Navy Transportation Service on April 15, 1944, The ship's bell was engraved with it's new name and the year,

Wartime service began on June 15, 1944, when she left New York in a convoy for Glasgow, Scotland. She transported 4,460 Army passengers for duty in War-weary Europe. Later on, LEJEUNE was equipped to carry 5,1OO men, including the ship's company of 450 officers and men.

LeJeune's wartime service in the Atlantic Ocean included carrying one of the largest numbers of people to ever cross that body of water by transport. She sailed from New York in July l2 for Glasgow, with 207 officers and 4,307 Naval personnel as a part of a program for controlling the continental seaport taken by Allied Forces. In December 1944, she made another major Atlantic crossing when she carried elements of the 69th Infantry Division to Glasgow. The 69th Infantry Division later linked fronts with the Soviet Armies at Torgau on the Elbe on April 25, 1945.

When she finished War duty in the Atlantic, LEJEUNE sailed for the Pacific Theater, In the Pacific, she earned the Navy occupation medal and the China service medal,

LEJEUNE departed the East Coast 28 September for Naval Transport service in the western Pacific, Shanghai and Tsingtao, China, and Yokosuka Japan, were among her western most destinations during four voyages from San Francisco between 19 October 1946 and 1 August 1947. On her last NTS voyage, she arrived in New York her former homeport, 29 August but returned to San Francisco 25 September.

In all, she transported approximately one hundred thousand troops. Having served the United States well, this ex-German ship sailed 2 October for Bremerton, Washington and inactivation. Decommissioned on February 9, 1948 and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Tacoma, Washington, she was struck from the Navy Register in July 1957o.Transferred to the Maritime Administration, she was later scrapped.

LEJEUNE was scrapped at the Portland OR, Shipyard on August 16, 1966. Only the bell remained it was put into storage at a warehouse and was almost total forgotten, For thirteen years, LeJeune's Bell gathered dust. In 1971, Camp LeJeune's Base Sgt. Maj. John Steely was looking for a way to honor and remember those who had trained at Camp LeJeune during World War II, and those who had died in the war. He remembered that the bell from the USS LEJEUNE still existed in storage somewhere.

Searching through records, Steely discovered the bell's location and through month's of paperwork, he was able to obtain the bell for Camp LeJeune in November, 1971, Before Christmas, 1971, LeJeune's bell was mounted on the Flagstaff at Camp LeJeune's Marine Corps Base Headquarters.

Updated Historical Data provided by Walter Godinho 12/10/2003
http://www.usslejeune.com/History.htm
Namibia

[john sefton]

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 1937. 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