Oceanus ARB-2

Oceanus
(ARB-2: dp. 1,781,1. 327'9", b. 50' dr. 11'2", s. 12 k., cpl. 286; a. 1 3", 8 40mm.; cf. Aristaew)

Oceanw was laid down ae LST-S£8, 12 November 1942, at the Navy Yard, Philadelphia; redesignated ARB-2, 25 January 1943; launched 11 February 1943; and commiesioned 22 May 1943, Lt. Comdr. W. B. Studley in command.

Following shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, the battle damage repair ship Oceanw departed Norfolk, 23 July 1943, for the Pacific, arriving at Noumea, New Caledonia, 18 September. She remained there, converting LCIs to shoaldraft gunboats and making emergency repairs to damaged vessels. On 28 October she shifted to Espiritu Santo, thence in 1944, to Florida Island. On 9 September 1944 she departed the Solomons in TG 31.4 and on the 20th arrived at Kossol Roads, Palaus. There she repaired, often while underway, craft and vessels damaged m the assaults against those islands and against the Philippines. In February, 1945, she steamed to Guam to join TG 51.5 for the Iwo Jima invasion, arriving on the 20th and remaining until 17 March.

The Okinawa campaign next took Oceanus to Kerama Retto, where work on chips damaged by kamikazes and bomhs kept her on a round-the-clock schedule into mid-May. On 14 May she shifted to the Hagushi anchorage for emergency repairs to New Mexico (BB-40). Completing the work and returning to Kerama Retto's "Scrap Iron Row" on the 21st, she remained until early June when she steamed to the Philippines.

Arriving at Leyte 15 June, she remained in San Pedro Bay until after the end of the war. Post war duties took her to Okinawa, thence to China. At Shanghai from October into December she serviced landing and patrol craft assigned to China Group. On 25 December she headed back to the United States to prepare for inactivation. Decommissioned as of January 1947, she was berthed at San Diego as a unit of the Pacific Reserve Fleet until struck from the Navy List 1 July 1961 and scrapped.