USS Buncombe County (LST-510) was an LST-491-class tank landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II.
After fitting out, LST-510 carried out an abbreviated shakedown cruise to the vicinity of Panama City, Florida, returning to New Orleans in February for post-shakedown availability.
Like most passages of the North Atlantic during World War II, this one proved hazardous and chilling, both in the physical and the psychological sense.
All on board shared the certain fear that a torpedo would soon set off her explosive cargo until successful repairs allowed her to resume her harried voyage.
At 0337 on 4 June, LST-510 weighed anchor and got underway, bound for the coast of France, but put about to return to Plymouth when foul weather compelled postponement.
The three doctors on board performed their work in a "magnificent" manner, "in the face of existing conditions," laboring throughout the night on the ship's tank deck where an operating room had been set up.
In the next three months, LST-510 shuttled between the Isle of Portland and Weymouth, England, and Utah or Omaha Beach, transporting troops and vehicles eastward and casualties westward across the English Channel.
In late September, on her 21st passage across the channel, LST-510 beached over a hollow on the bottom which produced abnormal stresses on her hull, throwing her starboard shaft out of alignment.
On 5 February 1945 while returning from Le Havre in a dense fog, she collided bow-to-bow with SS Chapel Hill Victory south of the Isle of Wight, demolishing her own bow as far aft as frame 10.
After touching at Norfolk, Virginia, the tank landing ship proceeded via New Orleans to Galveston, Texas, where she prepared for Pacific service.
USS LST-510 received the following awards for its service in World War II - This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.