Windsor class attack transport
USS Windsor (APA-55), lead ship of the Windsor class, 1943
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| Class overview | |
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| Builders: |
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| Operators: |
 United States Navy
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| Preceded by: | Doyen class |
| Succeeded by: | Ormsby class |
| In commission: | June 1943 - June 1946 |
| Completed: | 9 |
| Active: | None |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | attack transport |
| Displacement: | 7,970 tons (lt), 13,132 t. (fl) |
| Length: | 472–492 ft (144–150 m) |
| Beam: | 66–69.5 ft (20.1–21.2 m) |
| Draft: | 25–26.5 ft (7.6–8.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam turbine engine, single propeller, 8,000 shp (6,000 kW) |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Capacity: |
Troops: Officer 94 Enlisted 1,463 Cargo:150,000 cu ft (4,200 m3), 1,600 tons |
| Complement: | 91 officers, 522 enlisted |
| Armament: | Variable, but usually 1 x 5"/38 caliber dual-purpose gun mounts, 2 x Bofors 40mm gun mounts, 2 x twin 20mm gun mounts, 18 x single 20mm gun mounts |
| Notes: | MCV hull types C3-S-A1, C3-S-A3, possibly also C3-S-A2 or C3-S1-A3 |
Troops: Officer 94 Enlisted 1,463
The Windsor-class attack transport was a class of US Navy attack transport. Ships of the class saw service in World War II.
Like all attack transports, the purpose of the Windsors was to transport troops and their equipment to foreign shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of smaller assault boats integral to the attack transport itself. Like all the attack transports, the Windsor-class was well armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect itself and its cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone.
The Windsor class is inconsistently documented in the US Navy's official Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS). Its small class of nine ships were based upon three variants of the Maritime Commission's ubiquitous C3 cargo type; unusually, they appear to be of more than one subtype. This is probably reflects the class entering service in fits and starts, the first two vessels from June 1943 and the remaining seven between July 1944 and January 1945.
The early Windsors were based upon the C3-S-A1 hull, followed by several on the C3-S-A3; however, the last two, USS Griggs (APA-110) and USS Grundy (APA-111), have length, beam and draft specifications which are inconsistent with their listed subtype, but consistent (in larger length and beam) with the C3-S-A2 hull.
Also, Griggs and Grundy were built by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where the large majority of C3-S-A2 based ships subsequently modified to Bayfield-class attack transports were produced. The other seven Windsors were built by Bethlehem Steel at its Sparrows Point Shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland where few if any Bayfields were built.
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