Niagara VIII APA-87

Niagara VIII
(APA-87: dp. 7,080 (lim.); 1. 426'; b. 58'; dr. 15'; s. 16 k. cpl. 849)

The eighth Niagara (APA-87) was laid down 20 November 1944 under Maritime Commission contract by Consolidated Steel Corp., Wilmington, Calif.; launched 10 February 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Fred G. Gurley; acquired by the Navy 26 March 1945; and commissioned at San Pedro, C5alif., 29 March 1945, Lt. Comdr. Allan C. Hoffman, USNR, in command.

Following amphibious warfare training out of San Diego, Niagara sailed 26 May 1945 with cargo and 887 Marines, whom she landed at Pearl Harbor 1 June. In the following weeks she transported troops, cargo, ammunition, and mail between the various Hawaiian Islands. She stood out of Pearl Harbor 1 July bound, via the Marshalls and Carolines, for Okinawa, arriving Buckner Bay 5 August. After debarking 903 Army troops and their combat support weapons and eargo, she departed 8 August with 40 officers and 771 men of the 31st Naval Construetion Battalion for debarking at Guam in the Marianas. She arrived Apra Harbor on the morning of 15 August, the day of Japan's capitulation.

Niagara transported Navy passengers from Guam to the Philippines, arriving San Pedro Bay 20 August. She then set course for Cebu to embark the Army's 164th Regimental Combat Team, sailed 1 September, arrived Yokohama the 8th, and landed her occupation trooDs. She again headed for the Philippines 16 September to embark men of the Armv's 305th Infantry, 77th Division, landed at Otaru, Hokkaido,

Japan, 5 October. From there, she oarried men of the Navy's 128th Construetion Battalion to Apra Harbor. She stood out from Apra Harbor 22 October with an Army signal battalion bound for China. The attack transport reached Tientsin 29 October and sailed 10 November for the Marianas. Joining the "Magic-Carpet" fleet, she embarked Army troops in Tanapag Harbor, Saipan, Marianas; sailed the 20th; and reached San Francisco 4 December.

Niagara departed San Francisco 20 December for Samar Philippine Islands, arriving 10 January 1946. While there, she received word that she would participate in the atomic bomb tests of Operation "Crossroads" as a unit of Joint Task Force 1. She put to sea 3 February to prepare at Pearl Harbor, then sailed to Bikini Atoll in the Marshalls, arriving 31 May. A target ship, she survived the atomic explosions of 1 July and 25 July. She departed Bikini 21 August for Kwajalein and Pearl Harbor en route to San Francisco, arriving 16 September.

Niagara remained on the west coast until she departed San Diego 7 November, steaming via the Panama Canal to Hampton Roads, Va. She arrived Norfolk 2 December and decommissioned there 12 December 1946. After serving to test the effcets of special conventional explosives in the Chesapeake Bay, Niagara was sold for scrapping 5 February 1950 to the Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia, Pa.