Delta (AR 9) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 7 text:

WESTPAC 1967 4 W ,, y bin fs MFL? Wi ,, ,,. . 4

Page 6 text:

I TABLE OF CO PORTS OF CALL SHIPBOARD LIFE SPORTS PEOPLE AND PLACES FOR THE RECORD -'Y TENTS 4 11 A 59 103 136 150 195

Page 8 text:

si-ups i-HSTQRY DELTA was built as SS HAWAIIAN PACKER and originally designed for commercial use on the vvpineapple 1-un between San Francisco and Honolulu. Before completion she was ao- quired by the Navy. She was commissioned in June 1941 as a Cargo Ship QAK-293 and during her first year of service, made runs to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Iceland, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. On 1 July, 1942, she was placed in a reserve status for conversion to a Fleet Repair Ship at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In her new capacity she sailed on 3 March, 1943, to join a convoy headed for North Africa. The convoy reached Mers-El-Kebir, Oran, on 19 March and DELTA moored alongside the mole where she immediately set to work repairing amphibious craft. During a short three months there she put in a total of 110,800 man-hours working on 467 ships. With the opening of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, DELTA moved to Bizerte, Tunisia, late in July, 1943. The following month, despite a series of air attacks by the Luftwaffe, she worked on 248 ships and amphibious craft. The air raids reached their climax on the night of 6 September. One of the planes shot down on that occasion was definitely credited to DELTA and another was recorded as a possible. As the war moved so did DELTA. She set up shop in Palermo, Sicily, in March 1944 and at Pozzuoli, Italy, that July. At Pozzuoli her job was to get ships and landing craft ready for the invasion of Southern France. From there she went to Naples, Italy, in August to repair the damaged amphibs. On the last day of September, 1944, the hard-working AR steamed for Bizerte, via Palermo, to repair landing craft being returned to the United States. She did that until November, when she was detached from the amphibs and returned to Mers-El-Kebir for duty as a destroyer repair ship for Commander Destroyer Squadron Sixteen. In April, 1945, DELTA arrived back in the States-but not for long. After armament modifications and general repairs, she left Norfolk, Virginia, on 15 June, 1945, for Pearl Harbor, via the Panama Canal. She reached Pearl on 6 July, 1945, worked there for a month and then sailed for Eniwetok on 5 August. . The surrender of Japan was V announced while DELTA was at Eniwetok. She was ordered to rendezvous with Commander Task Group 30.8 off the Islands of Japan and on 28 August she entered the Sagami Sea with advance units. Two days later She moored Off Yokosuka Naval Base' Where She Was A aSSi8HGd,'EO general Fleet repair work. One of the jobs she did there was to get the Japanese battleship NAGATO in shape for the 1946 Atomic Bomb tests at Bikini. She saw China Service in the year following the war's end. I I .9 1 Ei' 0 H 37 rf ,gg if V r .f rf' H I E .if gf J if st ,af ggr ,J 'sf I 4 ' . 5,1 vi Lf' if N asf' aff! 45,91 Lf 1:1 SIB? t ,.,' 2551 bn iii! ill sig, Mg in is 5: 515W in U is x in 'I F is fx N N 'f