Landing craft

A landing craft is a type of boat used to convey infantry and vehicles on to a shore during an assault from sea to land. Most renowned are the amphibious mechanized assault landing craft used to storm the beaches of Normandy during WWII.

Related Topics:
Boat - Infantry - Vehicles - Assault - Amphibious - Normandy - WWII

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Landing Craft are ships or smaller vessels whose primary purpose is to place elements of an army on an (enemy held) beach.

Related Topics:
Army - Enemy

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In the days of sail the normal ship's boats were used, but the introduction of steamships led to the provision of boats of lesser capacity forcing the creation of specialist designs for landing purposes.

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The High Summer of the landing craft was the latter half of WWII when a large number of different designs were produced in large quantities by the United Kingdom and USA.

Related Topics:
WWII - United Kingdom - USA

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Because of the need to run up onto a suitable beach they were flat-bottomed, and many designs had a flat front rather than a normal bow. This tended to make them very difficult to control and very uncomfortable in rough seas.

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The control point (bridge was far too fancy a description for the facilities of the LCA and DUKW) was normally situated at the extreme rear of the vessel as were the engines.

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In all cases they tended to be known by an acronym derived from the official name rather than the full title.

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