landing craft and landing ships were specialized vessels employed in amphibious warfare. The Allies built them in large quantities (see Table), but they were always in short supply.

In 1939 landing craft were small open boats, some of which had ramps fitted in their bows. They were carried aboard landing ships, which were either specially constructed or converted from their peacetime role, and ferried the landing force and its transport and supplies from the landing ships to the beaches. Later, in the Pacific war, where great distances were involved, this ‘ship to shore’ method remained the system of attack. But for the European theatre much larger landing craft were developed by the western Allies for ‘shore to shore’ landings where the landing force was carried direct from the port of embarkation to the beaches.

In 1914 the British built special landing craft for use in the Baltic, in 1916 the Tsarist Navy operated a landing ship in the Black Sea, and during the 1920s the US Marine Corps began developing suitable craft for amphibious landings. But during the 1930s the Japanese, experts in amphibious warfare, were far ahead of other nations in designing both craft and ships. During the China incident they employed the world's first specially constructed landing ship for amphibious landings at Tientsin—the Shinsu Maru, 8,108 tons, 144 m. (472 ft.) long, designed along the lines of a factory whaling ship. They also used the small Dai-Hatsu type, the first landing craft to be built in quantity with a ramp in its bows, a design the British and the Americans copied in the late 1930s.

However, as the war progressed, landing craft and landing ships were primarily developed by the UK and USA to undertake the amphibious operations so central to their strategy, and they eventually constructed 60 different types, many by mass production methods. But in mid-1940, when Churchill ordered Combined Operations to be formed, the British had only a handful of Landing Craft, Assault (LCA), which carried an infantry platoon, and Landing Craft, Mechanized (LCM), designed to ferry ashore a single tank or vehicle; while in the USA only the Higgins boat was in operational use.

Landing craft: UK and US landing ships and craft. Overall war production for use in all theatres

	1939–42	1943	1944	1945 (six months)	Totals
The above totals exclude merchant ships built or converted for employment as HQ ships, troopships, and so on. Over 2,500 of the landing ships and landing craft built in the USA and listed above were transferred to the UK under Lend-Lease and were part of the Royal Navy until the end of the war.
Source: Ellis, L. F., Victory in the West, Vol. I, p. 514 (London, 1962).
UK
Landing Ships	–	3	–	21	24
Major Landing Craft	281	442	418	123	1,264
Minor Landing Craft	644	1,017	887	319	2,867
totals	925	1,462	1,305	463	4,155
USA
Landing Ships	62	344	862	305	1,573
Major Landing Craft	620	479	1,356	31	2,486
Minor Landing Craft	6,276	13,898	15,988	6,362	42,524
totals	6,958	14,721	18,206	6,698	46,583

To carry landing forces on early raids such as those on the Lofoten Islands the British converted three cargo liners, designated Landing Ship Infantry (Large), or LSI(L), and some cross-Channel ferries, designated LSI(M)s. Later, specially designed landing ships like the Landing Ship, Stern-chute (LSS) and the Landing Ship, Gantry (LSG) were constructed. The Americans used purpose-built landing ships for amphibious warfare which they called Auxiliary Personnel Attack Ships (APA), which carried their assault troops, and Attack Cargo Ships (AKA), which carried their minor landing craft and supplies. They also built fourteen of the British-designed Landing Ship, Dock (LSD) a direct successor of the Shinsu Maru. The LSD flooded its hold to discharge landing craft or amphibians from its stem.

With ‘shore to shore’ cross-Channel raids in mind the first British Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) was launched in November 1940. There were eight different marks of this versatile craft which varied in length between 34 m. (112 ft.) and 68 m. (225 ft.) The Mk4, designed specifically for the shallow-grade beaches used during the Normandy landings (see OVERLORD), carried six medium tanks. It was mass produced in the USA and became the Allies' basic vehicle-carrying landing craft.

The Dakar expedition showed the need for an ocean-going tank landing ship that could keep convoy with the LSI(L)s. As a stopgap three shallow-draught Maracaibo oil tankers, which could each carry eighteen Churchill tanks, were converted into Landing Ships, Tank (LST). One was used at Madagascar in May 1942, and all three were employed for the North African campaign landings (TORCH) in November 1942, where it became obvious that many more were needed to put armour and troops speedily ashore in quantity. TORCH also revealed the inadequacy of the wooden Higgins boat and this soon began to be replaced with steel-built types like the Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP).

To solve the problem of producing LSTs in quantity the Americans adopted the design of the first purpose-built British one which the Maracaibo conversions had inspired and this became the 91 m. (300 ft.) 2,286-ton LST Mk2. Over a thousand were built and they played a central role in all major amphibious landings in Europe, from the Sicilian campaign (HUSKY) onwards. In the Pacific war they were first employed during landings on Bougainville, but over the great distances involved they proved too slow to stay in convoy. Instead, an American version, the 62 m. (203 ft.), 12-knot Mk7, known as the Landing Ship, Medium (LSM), began to be built in 1944.

Another important US design was the prefabricated 48 m. (158 ft.) Landing Craft, Infantry (Large) which could accommodate 200 men for a 48-hour voyage. Its bow, unlike other landing craft, did not become a ramp; instead two gangways were lowered either side of it. Used for the first time during HUSKY, the LCI(L) was acquired under Lend-Lease by the British and by the USSR. A smaller, wooden version, the LCG(S), was built by the British but it proved vulnerable under fire during OVERLORD in which 2,470 landing craft were employed in the assault phase alone.

Landing craft were converted for a variety of uses, from hospital ships to those equipped to render emergency repairs. One was even converted into a miniature carrier for launching two spotter aircraft during HUSKY. But the most essential type for a successful assault became the close fire support craft: LCTs were converted into Landing Craft, Flak (LCF), Landing Craft, Gun (Large) (LCG(L)), and the LCT(R) which fired banks of rockets (see rocket weapons). The Dieppe raid had revealed that these were a fundamental necessity after the lightly armed early versions of the Landing Craft, Support (LCS) had proved ineffectual against the German defences. They proved invaluable when first deployed during HUSKY and were first used in the Pacific during landings on New Britain in December 1943. Rocket ships based on the LSM hull were also constructed, and by March 1945, when Okinawa was invaded, these LSM(R), armed with 1,040 rockets which could be reloaded in 45 minutes, had attained the fire-power of some pre-war cruisers.