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You are here: Home / Article topics / Publications / Naval Historical Review / British Landing Craft of World War II

British Landing Craft of World War II

Payne, Alan · Dec 31, 1971 · Print This Page

Author
Payne, Alan
Subjects
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RAN Ships
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Publication
December 1971 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Royal Marine Armoured Support Regiment

The tanks carried in LCT(A)s were to be manned by the Royal Marines – the Marines’ task was to man the 95mm howitzers mounted in the Centaurs. Their role was to fire the guns during the run-in, beach and then supply artillery support in the early stages of the landing.

In January 1944 General Montgomery was appointed to the command of the British 21st Army Group and was given operational control of allied land forces in the assault phase. Montgomery very soon started altering the invasion plans; he declared that `the initial landings must be made on the widest possible front’. This increased the requirement for landing craft and it was therefore decided that the invasion be postponed from May to June, thus gaining another month’s production of landing craft and an additional 70 landing craft were ordered from the traditional shipyards at the expense of warship production.

General Montgomery was not impressed with the role of the RM Support Craft Regiment – he decided that once the tanks had reached Normandy, they must go ashore and fight. This certainly changed the LCT(A) design idea, but it was nothing compared with the changes Montgomery’s idea caused the Marines. If the tanks were to remain mobile, then the Marines would have to drive them, and fight them ashore as self- propelled artillery.

Liaison with the Marines was made easier by virtue of their headquarters being close to Bath – at one stage, the Marines were anxious to get rid of some of their surplus tanks to the LCT(A)s. I was asked to contact Devonport Dockyard to check if they were ready to receive the four tanks for the two LCT(A)s they were converting. The Manager of the Constructive Department readily informed me that they would be happy to receive the tanks, so I promptly gave the Marines the green light and the four Centaurs trundled off to Devonport.

Invasion of Normandy

A few weeks before D-Day I was appointed to one of the Landing Craft Repair Units and so expected to be on the beaches on D-Day. It had occurred to me that emergency repairs on the beaches would be more difficult and hazardous that design work at the Admiralty. While I had doubts on my capability for this task, I had no doubt whatsoever that the invasion could be a complete success.

The Second British Army which sailed for Normandy had been trained and equipped as no other force in British history for the most difficult operation the country had ever undertaken – Operation Overlord, the Liberation of Europe. General Montgomery had insisted on a five division assault – each Division to have its own beach area and Naval assault forces. The three eastern beaches were allocated to the Montgomery’s 21st Army Group and the two western beaches to the US Army. The Naval forces were originally planned to be entirely British, but three months before D-Day, the United States Navy agreed to provide warships for their beaches.

Thirty four British Support Craft were loaned to the United States Navy for the invasion, the highly specialised Rocket Craft were however manned by the Royal Navy.

On the evening of the 5th June, in squally weather, Operation Neptune, the Grand Assault of Normandy, began. At 5.30 am on the 6th June, the British landing ships reached their lowering positions under cover of the massive naval and air bombardment, 7 miles off shore, exactly as planned. They had been guided in by the flashing lights of two midget submarines X23 and X20. The crews of these two tiny craft had achieved a most remarkable feat of endurance due to the postponement of D-Day. By the time the assault craft arrived, they had been submerged for sixty-four of the seventy-six hours they had been at sea. X29 was commanded by an Australian Naval Officer.

At 5.15 a.m., the battleships and cruisers opened fire, engaging the defences as the assault forces ran in. Shortly before landing, the warships shifted their fire to targets inland while the Support Craft engaged the enemy at point-blank range. Finally it was the turn of the rocket ships -20,000 rockets were fired along the British front, and as soon as they had fallen, the first troops of Montgomery’s Army landed in Normandy.

Admiral Vian watched the progress of the assault from his Flagship, HMS Scylla:

`It developed very much as had the rehearsals. Leading in were the Support Squadrons of Landing Craft, Gun, Landing Craft Rocket and Landing Craft, Flak . . . During the day they would be always on call for counter-battery work. By night they were to be anchored in line, as a defence against the enemy’s sneak craft, and were to perform prodigies in this role in the time that lay ahead’.

The Support Craft had played their part well and their RNVR Commanders had shown great initiative – at one point, the Canadians landed ahead of their armour opposite a German strong point – just before the Canadians could attack, an LCF brazenly ran ashore and destroyed the post by gun fire.

The story of the LCTs (Armoured), is unfortunately not a happy one, although the Royal Marines showed all their characteristic courage and enterprise. The heavy armour was a bad mistake, and they were unlucky – some foundered on passage, some broke down at sea, others were damaged by underwater obstacles. On all five beaches, only twenty out of eighty tanks landed within the first quarter of an hour after H Hour, and only twenty eight more landed within the next four hours. The truth is that the LCT(A)s were overloaded, and in the prevailing weather were unseaworthy.

The task of the recovery and repair of landing craft was obviously a difficult problem. Three repair ships were provided, one for each of the British beaches – one of the ships was HMS Albatross, the former Australian seaplane carrier. Twelve Landing Craft Units were formed, each of 30 officers and ratings. I will always regret that I so nearly missed being a member of one of these Units.

Some idea of the magnitude of the operation can be judged from the total number of ships Admiral Ramsay planned to operate:

  • Warships: 1,212
  • Landing Ships and Landing Craft: 4,026
  • Auxiliary vessels: 731
  • Merchant vessels: 864
  • Total: 6,833

It might be of interest to give the figures for British LCTs and Support Craft, excluding the unfortunate LCT(A)s:

  • LCTs: 487
  • LCGs: 25
  • LCT(R): 36
  • LCFs: 29
  • Total: 577
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