The Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) (or tank landing craft, TLC)[1] [2] was an amphibious assault craft for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "tank landing craft" (TLC) by the British, they later adopted the U.S. nomenclature "landing craft, tank" (LCT). The United States continued to build LCTs post-war, and used them under different designations in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
In 1926, the first motor landing craft (MLC1) was built by the Royal Navy. It weighed 16 tons, with a draught of 6inchesft6inchesin (ftin), and was capable of about . It was later developed into the landing craft mechanised.
It was at the insistence of the British prime minister Winston Churchill in mid-1940 that the LCT was created. Its speed was on engines delivering about 700hp.[3] Designated the LCT Mark 1, 20 were ordered in July 1940 and a further 10 in October 1940.[4])
After World War II, eleven were used in 1950-1960 by the Polish Navy amphibious forces, with BDS, later ODS prefixes.[7]
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See main article: Landing Ship Medium. The Mark 7 was an even larger LCT that could carry troops. In 1944, when the Mk.7 design reached a length of 203 feet, its designation was changed to landing ship medium (LSM). The new variant could attain speeds of up to 12 knots and saw usage in the Pacific. 558 were built.[3]
See main article: Mark 8 Landing Craft Tank. The 225-foot LCT Mark 8, intended for service in the Pacific, was developed by the British in 1944. One hundred and eighty-six Mk.8s were ordered; however, when the war ended, most were cancelled and scrapped, or sold directly into civilian service. Only 31 entered service with the Royal Navy.[3] Twelve were later transferred to the British Army; these were initially operated by the Royal Army Service Corps, then by the Royal Corps of Transport. Between 1958 and 1966, the other 19 ships were transferred to foreign navies or civilian companies, converted for other uses, or otherwise disposed of.
An even larger LCT Mark 9 was considered in 1944, but the design was never finalised and none were built.[3]
The LCTs had a variety of weapons, with the British (40mm) QF 2-pounder "pom-pom" mounts being gradually replaced by the faster firing 20 mm Oerlikon cannon. The Bofors 40 mm was also widely used, and proved that the LCT was an excellent gunfire support vessel.[3] Various machines guns were often mounted for self-defence from aircraft and small boats, often two to four in the .30-calibre (7.62 mm) and .50-calibre (12.7 mm), range depending on the operating country. Some models were fitted with a pair of 'Fast Aerial Mine' launchers near the bow.
Several special purpose versions were created for use during the Normandy landings. The British created the Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) (LCT(R)) modified to fire salvoes of three-inch RP-3 rockets,[3] while the Landing Craft Guns (Large) (LCG(L)) was armed with two QF 4.7 inch guns, eight Oerlikon 20 mm AA guns and two 2-pounder pom-poms.[10] These ships did not beach; their mission was close-in gunfire support.[11]
The Landing Craft Tank (Armoured) (LCT(A)) was designed for use by the first wave and was equipped with additional armour protection for the crew stations and on the bows, while a heavy wooden ramp allowed the two forward tanks to fire forward. These were all U.S-built LCT Mk.5s, which had been provided under Lend-Lease to the British for Mediterranean operations, then "reverse lend-leased" back to the U.S. for the invasion.[11]
The Landing Craft Tank (self-propelled) (LCT(SP)) carried self-propelled guns for fire support; in U.S. vessels these were 155 mm, while the British used M7 105 mm self-propelled guns and called them "Landing Craft Tank (High Explosive)" (LCT(HE)). A related variant was the British Landing Craft Tank (Concrete Buster) (LCT(CB)), which carried three British Sherman Firefly tanks fitted with the 17-pounder high velocity gun, specifically deployed to attack fortifications.[12] Other variants included the Landing Craft Tank (Hospital) (LCT(H)) for casualty evacuation, and one LCT served as a floating bakery at Normandy.[3]
Some LCTs with specialised weaponry were used as floating anti-aircraft batteries. These were often manned by mixed army and navy crews. Others were modified after the war for uses such as dredging.[3]
Unlike most wartime landing craft, the LCT remained in active duty with the U.S. Navy after the war, and many LCTs were also loaned or given to the post-war navies of Allied countries.[3] In early 1949, their designation was changed to landing ship utility (LSU), and changed again in late 1949 to landing craft utility (LCU). New landing craft (the LCU 1466-, 1610-, 1627-, and 1646-classes) were also built to a modified Mark 5 design. Some were later reclassified during the Vietnam War as harbor utility craft (YFU) as they no longer served in an amphibious assault role, but were used in harbor support roles such as transporting goods from supply ships; however, the YFU-71-class were 11 "Skilak" lighters purchased as 'commercial off-the-shelf', and so were not originally LCUs.[13]
In 1964, NASA converted an LCT Mk.5 for astronaut recovery training as MV Retriever.
Currently, tanks are mostly transported via Airlift or National Defense Reserve Fleet freighters (as during the Persian Gulf War[14]) over long distances, but can be delivered by Landing Craft Air Cushion.
As of August 2007,[15] at least one wartime LCT is still in use, the Mark 5 LCT-203, now renamed Outer Island, and operating on Lake Superior as a dredge and construction barge.[16]
As of August 2016, the Mark 6 LCT-1433 was also in use as a fishing/merchant vessel in Kodiak, Alaska, having been renamed Cape Douglas.
The British Mark 2, converted to LCT rocket LCT(2)(R) 147 served in the North Africa landings, then as a clandestine immigration ship post-war. She is now at the Clandestine Immigration and Naval Museum in Haifa, Israel.[17]
The British Mark 3 LCT 7074 served in Normandy and was decommissioned in 1948 and presented to the Master Mariners' Club of Liverpool to be used as their club ship and renamed Landfall. Later converted to a floating nightclub, in the late 1990s the vessel was acquired by the Warship Preservation Trust and was moored at Birkenhead. In January 2006, the Trust went into liquidation[18] and the ship was left to rot, and by April 2010 had sunk at her berth. The craft was refloated in East Float on 16 October 2014 and moved to Portsmouth for renovation.[19] [20] LCT 7074's renovation was completed in summer 2020 and she was moved to her new home at The D-Day Story museum in Southsea on 24 August 2020.[21]
A D-Day veteran and the last known Mark 4, LCT 728, was rediscovered rotting at the Port of Poole alongside another unknown Mark 3, possibly LCT(4) 510.[22] They were used as barges in the 1950s.[23] [24]
In 2020, the wreck of an LCT was discovered off Bardsey Island, Wales at a depth of 90m (300feet). The vessel is thought to be LCT 326, which disappeared on 31 January 1943 in heavy weather with the loss of all 14 crew.[25] The wreck is in two parts, separated by 130m (430feet). This suggests the vessel was broken in two by the weather and the two halves remained afloat long enough to allow them to drift slightly apart.[26]
A Mark 1 Landing Craft, A6, has been visible a few meters from the shore of the archaeological site of Phalasarna, West Crete, since it was sunk in 1941 during the Battle of Crete. The history of the vessel, partly based on interviews of the captain, John Sutton, was investigated by Michael Bendon.[27]
Hammond Innes' 1946 adventure novel Dead and Alive describes the recovery of an LCT that had been washed up and wrecked on a Cornish coastal inlet. This is probably meant to be a Mark 3 because it is said to have had a pair of Paxman engines with two shafts and had previously been fitted with Pom-poms. Once recovered, the craft is used to trade between the UK and Italy; useful because of its ability to load and unload lorries on beaches rather than in the many Italian harbours destroyed in WW2.[28]
Hammond Innes' 1962 adventure novel Atlantic Fury describes the hasty late-season evacuation, on LCTs, of equipment and personnel from a military radar station on an island called Laerg (based on Hirta, in the St. Kilda Archipelago, about 40 miles west of Scotland's Outer Hebrides), while a severe storm bears down. The author details the vulnerabilities of the LCTs in heavy seas and shifting winds, and the difficulties of landing and disembarking on the small rugged island.[29]