Service History
On 16 December Prince Georges departed Pearl Harbor on her first Navy operation, which took her to the bloody shores of Tarawa, where she spent Christmas 1943 and New Year's Day of 1944, before returning to Pearl Harbor. In February she steamed from Pearl Harbor to disgorge men and material on Kwajalein Atoll, Makin Island and Abamama, Kiribati. After a return to Pearl Harbor, Prince Georges was back in the Gilberts and Marshalls in April. She participated, as part of TF 51, in her only invasion — Saipan, 20 to 25 June, returning to Pearl Harbor in July.
Reclassified AK–224, on 20 August 1944, Prince Georges departed Pearl Harbor again in early September to back up the invasion of the Palaus, anchoring in Kossol Roads on 31 October. In December she delivered troops to Nouméa, then put into Auckland before heading north and west reaching the Solomons and Marianas in January 1945. She was employed as a troop carrier in the Central Pacific until June.
Returning to Pearl Harbor in June, she proceeded on to San Francisco. The end of the war found her back in Hawaii, whence she carried occupation troops to Saipan and Japan. Then reporting for "Magic-Carpet" duty, at the end of October, she steamed for the United States with a load of returning veterans, arriving Seattle on 10 November. She then proceeded to Okinawa on another "Magic-Carpet" run.
Reaching San Francisco on 13 February 1946, she decommissioned and was returned simultaneously to the War Shipping Administration on 12 April 1946. Her name was struck from the Navy List on 1 May 1946.
Read more about this topic: USS Prince Georges (AK-224)
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