Amphibious Ships and Landing Craft

Amphibious operations, which are so much a feature of modern war, came fully of age only when suitable craft from which to launch seaborne assaults had been built. In 1899, a French staff officer designed an armoured landing craft fitted with a detachable landing ramp, of about 80 tons displacement. As he had designed it for an invasion of England (Anglo-French relations were appalling due to the Fashoda incident), no notice was taken of his sensible proposal. Adm Fisher, the British First Sea Lord, had also foreseen the importance of amphibious operations in modern war, but no appropriate craft were developed. On the Gallipoli peninsula, seaborne landings were made in 1915, despite the fact that no specially designed craft were available, troops transferring from seagoing vessels to lighters to be ferried ashore. In 1917, specialist landing craft had been designed to land British troops engaged in an amphibious operation on the Flanders coast, intended to form part of the third battle of Ypres but never actually mounted.

The Japanese first used a purpose-designed landing craft with a hinged bow ramp in 1938, in landings along the Yangtse river. Their success sent a ripple of interest around the world, and the British designed two similar craft. A total of ten plywood Landing Craft, Assault (LCA), capable of landing infantry, and Landing Craft, Motor (LCM), for vehicles and material, were first used at Narvik in late April 1940 in the Norwegian campaign. This was the first use of landing craft in European war and before their arrival in Norway troops had to be landed from destroyers or merchantmen in ports, without any heavy equipment or tanks. Britain's lack of landing craft was underlined at Dunkirk, where the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had to abandon most of the 63, 400 vehicles, 20, 500 motorcycles, and 2, 500 heavy guns it took to France, because there was no way of quickly re-embarking them. The Wehrmacht belatedly started to convert some of its River Rhine barges for the invasion of England in July 1940, but the failure to win the battle of Britain brought such designs to a premature halt.

Modern landing craft were really developed in the USA, where the Marine Corps experimented with the several designs of assault craft throughout the 1930s. A private contract marine engineer, Andrew Higgins, produced the best of these. By combining his 36 foot Eureka boat with the Japanese hinged bow-ramp, the basic landing craft of today was born. Able to carry an infantry platoon (36 men), 8, 000 lb (3, 600 kg) of cargo, or a 3 ton truck, his plywood design was known as the Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or ‘Higgins Boat’. The ramp and sometimes the sides were armoured, and the British used many, which were superior to their own LCAs. From 1941, some 23, 400 LCVPs were manufactured in the US. There was also a less satisfactory wooden Landing Craft Personnel, Large (LCP-L) which likewise carried a platoon, but had no ramp, the assault force jumping from the prow.

Higgins was also commissioned to design a larger craft capable of carrying a single 30 ton Sherman tank. He responded in 1942 with the 50 foot (15 metre) Landing Craft, Mechanised (LCM) of which 11, 400 were produced, replacing the earlier British LCM. A larger tank landing craft was designed separately in Britain in 1940. The Landing Craft Tank (LCT) could carry six tanks, or thirteen trucks, and nearly 1, 500 were mass-produced in the USA for Britain. These were flat-bottomed craft with a shallow draft, and were lowered from the davits of larger troop-carrying merchantmen, like lifeboats. With a cross-Channel invasion always in mind, the British also needed larger assault vessels that could travel from port direct to the invasion beach. As a result, the seagoing 158 foot (55 metre) Landing Craft Infantry, Large (LCI-L) was produced, capable of carrying up to 200 soldiers (over a company) ; three of these could land a whole battalion. Just over 1, 000 of these craft were constructed, being used mainly by the Canadians and British. Of a different design to the smaller craft, the LCI-L carried two gangways either side of the bow, instead of a front ramp.

To complement the LCI-L, the British and Americans designed a small ship capable of carrying twenty Shermans on a lower deck and lighter vehicles on an upper, an elevator connecting the two. The Landing Ship Tank (LST), of which 1, 050 were eventually built, was 328 feet (100 metres) long, 50 feet (15 metres) wide, and had a displacement of 2, 100 tons. As a seagoing vessel, it had a ballast system that enabled it to take on seawater and sail with a deep draft, for stability; on approaching land, it pumped out the water, becoming a shallow-draft vessel, and beached directly onto the shore. Several cross-Channel ferries had earlier been converted to a similar design, by way of experiment, and there were several Landing Ship, Hospital, Anti-Aircraft, and Headquarters variants.

This range of landing craft were first employed in the TORCH landings in French North Africa, November 1942. A few LCAs had been used before in minor commando raids, for example on the Lofoten Islands, at Spitzbergen and Vaagso in 1941, and LCP-Ls in the unsuccessful Dieppe raid of August 1942, when a few Churchill tanks were landed from LCMs. Thereafter, these craft were used at Salerno, Anzio, in southern France, and in the Normandy invasion, where 4, 126 of all types were used. LSTs, particularly, were in short supply, the European and Pacific theatres vying for the same vessels, as they were a vital ingredient in MacArthur's island hopping Pacific campaign. As the smaller craft could only do 2-3 knots in heavy seas, the effect on the assault troops usually resulted in seasickness. Landing craft were converted to a wide range of support functions, being equipped with rockets, artillery, anti-aircraft guns, and there was even a Landing Craft, Kitchen (LCK).

Equally important came to be amphibious craft, capable of driving ashore with troops or supplies, such as the Landing Vehicle, Tracked (LVT). It was 8 feet (2.4 metres) tall, weighed 12 tons when empty, and could travel at 20 mph (32 km/hr) on land and 7 mph (11.2 km/hr) in water. First used at Guadalcanal as an armoured ship-shore ferry, it was subsequently used in a direct assault role. Some of the 18, 620 variants produced carried a turret that converted it into an amphibious tank. It was known to the British as Buffalo, who used it to clear the Scheldt and to cross into the Rhineland. Also relevant was the six-wheeled amphibious truck, DUKW. Developed in 1942, some 21, 000 were built, and could carry 25 troops or 5, 000 lb (2, 200 kg) of supplies, and there was also an amphibious jeep.

Various river assault craft were used in Vietnam, as were hovercraft, which may be included in this category. Landing craft were used also at the Inchon landing in the Korean war, to unload troops at Suez and in the Falklands, and remain a vital item in the inventory of modern armies, while roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) ferries have replaced the concept of the LST.

Bibliography

• Chandler, David G., and Collins, James Lawton (eds.), The D-Day Encyclopaedia (London, 1994)

— Peter Caddick-Adams