USS Benzie County (LST-266) was an LST-1-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II.

Arriving there on 30 August, she joined coastal convoy KN-262 on 1 September and reached Little Creek, Virginia soon thereafter for operations in the Norfolk area and at Solomons Island, Maryland.

On 14 March 1944 she sailed for Tunisia as part of Task Force (TF) 64, in convoy UGS-36, 72 merchantmen and 18 tank landing ships shepherded by 16 warships.

The escorts drove off a suspected U-boat late on 31 March, but danger from above replaced that from below just six hours later when 22 German aircraft attacked the convoy early on 1 April.

On 5 June, the tank landing ship departed Falmouth, England for the assault area in Task Group (TG) 126.4 made up of 40 LSTs, 35 of which towed pontoon causeways.

With 184 troops and 84 vehicles still on board, LST-266 persuaded a tank landing craft (LCT) to "marry" to her bow so that unloading could resume, an evolution aided by providentially calm wind and sea conditions.

Embarking 273 British troops and 72 vehicles, LST-266 anchored briefly in the River Thames before joining an out-bound convoy, ETM-8, in the late afternoon of the 13th.

Even British warships, brought into the area a little over a half an hour later, failed to silence the enemy guns which continued to lob shells at the LSTs until 1630, inflicting damage on five of the six.

Retracting soon thereafter on the second attempt, LST-266 proceeded to the out-bound convoy anchorage area and, from there, headed back to England, entering Portsmouth at 0235 on 17 June.

After carrying that cargo to Hampton Roads and unloading it at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, she returned to New York immediately to load LCT-766 for transportation to Jacksonville, Florida.