landing craft
Sign in to saveAlso known as LC
watercraft designed to transport amphibious forces and cargo to a beachhead from nearby embarkation
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- amphibious warfare vessel
- Image
- The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H19057.jpg
- Has use
- landing operation
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Landing craft
- topic's main category
- Category:Landing craft
- designed to carry
- vehicle
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~37 min read
Encyclopedic overview
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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “landing craft” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.