In the development of a documentary about the great Attack Transports of WWII, this limited edition DVD/VHS was created with the amazing footage from the photographers of the USS Bayfield (APA-33). We, originally, only made this available to the remaining Bayfield crew. I have some extra copies that I would like to make available to other Attack Transport and WWII Naval men and their families.
The video includes 35mm (B/W) and 16mm (color) films taken on and around the historic Attack Transport USS Bayfield (APA-33) during major WWII battles (Normandy and Iwo Jima) and from operations during the Korean and Vietnam wars. See the Bayfield LCVPs hitting the beaches on Normandy on D-Day while enemy fire blasts the beach. See Marines taking communion on ship before the Iwo Jima battle. See the Bayfield and other APAs in the transport area of Iwo Jima with Mount Suribachi in the background. See close-up film of the first Japanese POWs taken from Iwo onto the Bayfield. See Iwo covered with smoke as LCVPs make their way toward the beach.
The Bayfield was a mostly Coast Guard manned vessel and did not have the photographic restrictions that Navy vessels had during combat activities so footage like this is very rare. This video contains 82 minutes of footage just found and acquired from the National Archives in 2004. About half of this footage had never been taken from the National Archives in its decades in storage. It has incredible footage from a ship's perspective as well as footage from the beaches of Normandy, Iwo Jima, Korea, and Vietnam. If you served on a transport ship, these are views you have not seen since your service. Some of the footage (especially the color) looks like it was just shot yesterday. As well as the Bayfield, you will see other ships like LST-48, LST-60, LST-630, LST-641, LST-648, LST-763, LST-764, LST-779, LST-787, LST-1030, LST-1031, LST-1032, CA-26 (USS NORTHAMTON), APA-13 (USS JOSEPH T. DICKMAN), APA-118 (USS HENDRY), LCVP from APA-156 (USS MELLETTE), APA-158 (USS NEWBERRY) and many more. You will see wreckage on the Iwo Jima beach of LCVPs from APA-207 (USS MIFFLIN), and AKA-61 (USS MULIPHEN) and others.
The Korean war footage is from the "Chosen Frozen" operation of late 1950. 15 years later, film of Operation Piranha in Vietnam where the Bayfield's LCVP's were still cutting the waters.
The Normandy, Korean, and Vietnam films are about 10 minutes each and the Iwo Jima film accounts for about 50 minutes. About 1/3 of the Iwo related film is in color. The Normandy and Korean films are all B/W and the Vietnam footage is all color. There was no sound recorded with any of these films but we spent a lot of time selecting and including a good variety of music for the background. I think you will enjoy this.
Below you will find more pictures from the actual frames of the film on this
video from Normandy, Iwo Jima, Korea, and Vietnam.
Click
here to see "The Faces and Boats of the USS Bayfield"
(A project to name
all the Bayfield men that appear in "The Bayfield Archives" Volume 1).
USS Bayfield (APA-33), 1943-1969
USS Bayfield, first of a class of 16,100-ton attack transports, was built at San Francisco, California. Constructed as a C3-S-A2 freighter under Maritime Commission contract, she was acquired by the Navy at the end of June 1943, placed in reduced commission and steamed via the Panama Canal to Brooklyn, New York, where she was converted to an amphibious warfare ship. Completed and commissioned in November 1943, with a U.S. Coast Guard crew, Bayfield engaged in training and received repairs until February 1944, when she sailed for the British Isles. The following three months were spent prepararing for the invasion of France. Her conversion had fitted her with special command facilities, and during the June 1944 Normandy Operation she was flagship for the "Utah" Beach landings. Moving to the Mediterranean in July, a month later Bayfield participated in the invasion of southern France. The transport returned to the U.S. for overhaul in September 1944.
Bayfield went to the Pacific in November and spent the next two months in amphibious training in Hawaiian waters. In February 1945 she landed Marines on Iwo Jima and, at the beginning of April took part in the Okinawa invasion with a force that simulated landing operations in an effort to confuse the island's Japanese defenders. Bayfield was employed for the rest of the Pacific war on logistics functions. During the last four months of 1945 and in early 1946 she supported the occupation of Japan and Korea, as well as bringing war veterans home as part of Operation "Magic Carpet".
In June and July 1946 Bayfield was present for the atomic bomb tests at Bikini, in the Marshall Islands. She remained active in the Pacific until nearly the end of the decade, then went to the Atlantic. However, in mid-1950 the Korean war brought her back to the Far East, where she operated off the embattled peninsula until May 1951. She made a voyage to and from Japan in September 1951 and deployed again to Korea during 1952. Bayfield continued to cruise regularly to the western Pacific during the rest of the 1950s and nearly through the 1960s. Her involvement with events in southeast Asia began with participation in Operation "Passage to Freedom" in August and September 1954, resuming in 1967 when she served as a floating barracks at Danang, South Vietnam, carried Marines to and from the combat zone and took part in landing operations. In late June 1968, after two decades and a half of active service, USS Bayfield was decommissioned. She was sold for scrapping in September 1969.
