Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft, such as boats and barges, used to convey a landing force (infantry and vehicles) from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Production of landing craft peaked during World War II, with a significant number of different designs produced in large quantities by the United Kingdom and United States.
Because of the need to run up onto a suitable beach, World War II landing craft were flat-bottomed, and many designs had a flat front, often with a lowerable ramp, rather than a normal bow. This made them difficult to control and very uncomfortable in rough seas. The control point (too rudimentary to call a bridge on LCA and similar craft) was normally at the extreme rear of the vessel, as were the engines. In all cases, they were known by an abbreviation derived from the official name rather than by the full title.
Craft The World 2
In the days of sail, the ship's boats were used as landing craft. These rowing boats were sufficient, if inefficient, in an era when marines were effectively light infantry, participating mostly in small-scale campaigns in far-flung colonies against less well-equipped indigenous opponents.
In February 1915, orders were placed for the design of purpose built landing craft. A design was created in four days resulting in an order for 200 'X' Lighters with a spoon-shaped bow to take shelving beaches and a drop down frontal ramp.
Despite this outlook, the British produced the Motor Landing Craft in 1920, based on their experience with the early 'Beetle' armoured transport. The craft could put a medium tank directly onto a beach. From 1924, it was used with landing boats in annual exercises in amphibious landings.[3] A prototype motor landing craft, designed by J. Samuel White of Cowes, was built and first sailed in 1926.[4]
It weighed 16 tons and had a box-like appearance, having a square bow and stern. To prevent fouling of the propellers in a craft destined to spend time in surf and possibly be beached, a crude waterjet propulsion system was devised by White's designers. A Hotchkiss petrol engine drove a centrifugal pump which produced a jet of water, pushing the craft ahead or astern, and steering it, according to how the jet was directed. Speed was 5-6 knots and its beaching capacity was good.[5] By 1930, three MLC were operated by the Royal Navy.
In November 1938, the British Inter-Service Training and Development Centre proposed a new type of landing craft.[10] Its specifications were to weigh less than ten long tons, to be able to carry the thirty-one men of a British Army platoon and five assault engineers or signallers, and to be so shallow drafted as to be able to land them, wet only up to their knees, in eighteen inches of water.[10] All of these specifications made the Landing Craft Assault; a separate set of requirements were laid down for a vehicle and supplies carrier, although previously the two roles had been combined in the Motor Landing Craft.
The Landing Craft Assault remained the most common British and Commonwealth landing craft of World War II, and the humblest vessel admitted to the books of the Royal Navy on D-Day. Prior to July 1942, these craft were referred to as "Assault Landing Craft" (ALC), but "Landing Craft; Assault" (LCA) was used thereafter to conform with the joint US-UK nomenclature system.[15]
Design work began at John I. Thornycroft Ltd. in May 1938 with trials completing in February 1940.[5] Constructed of steel and selectively clad with armour plate, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat with a crew of 6, could ferry a tank of 16 long tons to shore at 7 knots (13 km/h). Depending on the weight of the tank to be transported the craft might be lowered into the water by its davits already loaded or could have the tank placed in it after being lowered into the water.
Although the Royal Navy had the Landing Craft Mechanised at its disposal, in 1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded an amphibious vessel capable of landing at least three 36-ton heavy tanks directly onto a beach, able to sustain itself at sea for at least a week, and inexpensive and easy to build. Admiral Maund, Director of the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre (which had developed the Landing Craft Assault[17]), gave the job to naval architect Sir Roland Baker, who within three days completed initial drawings for a 152-foot (46 m) landing craft with a 29-foot (8.8 m) beam and a shallow draft. Ship builders Fairfields and John Brown agreed to work out details for the design under the guidance of the Admiralty Experimental Works at Haslar. Tank tests with models soon determined the characteristics of the craft, indicating that it would make 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) on engines delivering about 700 hp (520 kW).[18] Designated the LCT Mark 1, 20 were ordered in July 1940 and a further 10 in October 1940.[17]
When the United States entered the war in December 1941, the U.S. Navy had no amphibious vessels at all, and found itself obliged to consider British designs already in existence. One of these, advanced by K.C. Barnaby of Thornycroft, was for a double-ended LCT to work with landing ships. The Bureau of Ships quickly set about drawing up plans for landing craft based on Barnaby's suggestions, although with only one ramp. The result, in early 1942, was the LCT Mark 5, a 117-foot (36 m) craft that could accommodate five 30-ton or four 40-ton tanks or 150 tons of cargo. This 286-ton landing craft could be shipped to combat areas in three separate water-tight sections aboard a cargo ship or carried pre-assembled on the flat deck of a Landing Ship, Tank (LST). The Mk.5 would be launched by heeling the LST on its beam to let the craft slide off its chocks into the sea, or cargo ships could lower each of the three sections into the sea where they were joined together.[18]
Congress provided the authority for the construction of LSTs along with a host of other auxiliaries, destroyer escorts, and assorted landing craft. The enormous building program quickly gathered momentum. Such a high priority was assigned to the construction of LSTs that the previously laid keel of an aircraft carrier was hastily removed to make room for several LSTs to be built in her place. The keel of the first LST was laid down on 10 June 1942 at Newport News, Va., and the first standardized LSTs were floated out of their building dock in October. Twenty-three were in commission by the end of 1942. Lightly armored, they could steam cross the ocean with a full load on their own power, carrying infantry, tanks and supplies directly onto the beaches. Together with 2,000 other landing craft, the LSTs gave the troops a protected, quick way to make combat landings, beginning in summer 1943.[21]
Very small landing craft, or amphibians, were designed. The U.S.-designed Landing Vehicle Tracked, was an amphibious (and sometimes armored) personnel carrier. These were operated by Army personnel, not naval crews and had a capacity of about three tons. The British introduced their own amphibian, the Terrapin.
The Landing Ship Dock, came as a result of a British requirement for a vessel that could carry large landing craft across the seas at speed. The first LSD came from a design by Sir Roland Baker and was an answer to the problem of launching small craft rapidly. The "Landing Ship Stern Chute", which was a converted train ferry, was an early attempt. Thirteen Landing Craft Mechanized (LCM) could be launched from these ships down the chute. The Landing Ship Gantry was a converted tanker with a crane to transfer its cargo of landing craft from deck to sea - 15 LCM in a little over half an hour.
The design was developed and built in the US for the USN and the Royal Navy. The LSD could carry 36 LCM at 16 knots. It had a large open compartment at the back. Opening a stern door and flooding special compartments opened this area to the sea so that LCI-sized vessels could enter or leave. It took one and a half hours for the dock to be flooded down and two and half to pump it out. When flooded they could also be used as docks for repairs to small craft.
It was soon realized that battleships, cruisers and destroyers could not necessarily provide all the fire support (including suppressive fire) that an amphibious assault might need.[citation needed] Therefore, specialized vessels were developed that incorporated various direct and indirect fire weapons. These included guns and rockets which could be mounted on landing craft and landing ships. As part of the final barrage before an assault, the landing area would be plastered by these types.
Amphibious landing craft of WWII were generally fitted out with minimal weaponry. LCA crews were issued with .303 inch Lewis Guns, which were mounted in a light machine gun shelter on the forward-port side of the craft; these could be used both as anti-aircraft protection and against shore targets. Later models were fitted with two 2-inch mortars, and two Lewis or .303 Bren light machine guns. LCM 1 crews were issued with Lewis guns, and many LCM 3s had .50 in (12.7 mm) Browning machine guns mounted for anti-aircraft protection.[23] Opportunities for troops on board to use their own weapons presented themselves.
The LCA(HR) was a converted British LCA. It carried a battery of 24 spigot mortars, the Royal Navy's Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon, instead of personnel. The mortars were fired as a barrage onto the beach to clear mines and other obstructions. Having discharged its mortars and its duty, the LCA(HR) would leave the beach area. They were towed to the beach by larger craft, such as the LCTs that carried the Royal Engineer assault teams with their specialist vehicles and equipment, who would complete the beach clearance.
"The training of landing craft crews under the direction of Captain W.P.O. Clarke began at the end of June 1942," according to Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison.[30] Clarke was given orders to "secure, organize, and train crews for approximately 1,800 landing craft" including LSTs and LCIs, which at that time were still in the design phase.[31] 2ff7e9595c
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