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Landing Craft Utility
A landing craft is a
type of boat used to convey landing force
(infantry and vehicles) on to a shore during
an assault from sea to land. Most renowned
are the amphibious mechanized assault landing
craft used to storm the beaches of Normandy
during WWII. Landing Craft are ships or smaller
vessels whose primary purpose is to place
elements of an army on an (enemy held) beach.In
the days of sail the normal ship's boats were
used, but the introduction of steamships led
to the provision of boats of lesser capacity
forcing the creation of specialist designs
for landing purposes.
The High Summer of the
landing craft was the latter half of WWII
when a large number of different designs were
produced in large quantities by the United
Kingdom and USA.Because
of the need to run up onto a suitable beach
they were flat-bottomed, and many designs
had a flat front rather than a normal bow.
This tended to make them very difficult to
control and very uncomfortable in rough seas.The
control point (bridge was far too fancy a
description for the facilities of the LCA
and DUKW) was normally situated at the extreme
rear of the vessel as were the engines.
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