Allied Landing Craft of World War Two

by U.S. Department of the Navy

Reprint of Official Navy Catalog from 1944. Includes landing craft of British and American forces during WW2 This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870210645
• ISBN13: 9780870210648
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
• Length: 77 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A definitive work

It has been said that among the most difficult military missions to execute is a resisted landing on an enemy shore. There are few of us who have not seen a documentary or movie depicitng such an assault; most recently, it was the opening minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan,' that showed a quite realistic and gory recreation of the Omaha Beach landings of 6 June, 1944, concentrating on the individuals and what they experienced after debarking from their landing craft Allied Landing Craft of World War Two: ONI 226: Allied Landing Craft and Ships by A.D. Baker III takes a step back from the personalized to present a virtually all encompassing compendum and description of landing craft. Beginning with the earliest and smallest attempts to move men and equipment to the enemy shore, Baker takes contemporary intelligence documents and presents the creation and evolution of Allied landing craft in World War Two. We see how design became influenced by necessity, most notably providing elemental protection from small arms fire and rapid egress. Once the concept of a slightly armored vessel with a ramp was embraced, the next round of developmental thrusts were aimed at the objevtive of delivering vehicles to the shore in the same manner. The landing of personnel and vehicles perhaps reached its apex with the tracked landing vehicle that had as its final destination not the shoreline, but a point inland. The book also presents the later-starting but similar development of support craft, ranging from artillery and rocket carriers through command and control vessels to anti-aircraft and fighter control ships. Each type of craft is shown with both lioe drawings and photographs, as well as the needed statistical information relating to dimensions, load capacities, armament, motive power and crewing. It should be noted that this is not a narrative. It is a highly detailed, immensely important source of information on a 'weapons systems' without which Normandy - or any other sea/river attack - could not have occurred.