DON’T CALL ME ROSIE
The Women who Welded the LSTs
and the Men who Sailed on Them
a book by Kathleen Thomas
In 1941, Winston Churchill realized that if the Allies were to win the war, a new type of ship needed to be designed and constructed. A ship that could land directly on the beaches of Africa and Europe and discharge troops and equipment. This ship became the Landing Ship, Tank or LST.
But the United States was already at war and there was a shortage of men in the shipyards. It was the women that went to the shipyards and built the LSTs.
These women were not riveters — they were welders.
These are the stories, remembered 60 years later, of the women welders who built the LSTs and the men who sailed on them.