Editing Landing craft (section)

==History==
In the days of sail, the [[ship's boat]]s were used as landing craft. These utility boats were sufficient, if inefficient, in an era when [[Marines]] were effectively [[light infantry]], participating mostly in small-scale campaigns in far-flung [[colony|colonies]] against less well-equipped indigenous opponents.

In order to support amphibious operations during the [[Battle of Pisagua|landing in Pisagua]] (1879) by carrying significant quantities of cargo, and landing troops directly onto an unimproved shore, the [[Government of Chile]] built flat-bottomed landing craft, called ''Chalanas''. They transported 1,200 men in the first landing and took on board 600 men in less than 2 hours for the second landing.<ref name="Urrutia2008">{{cite book|author=Carlos Lpez Urrutia|title=Guerra Del Pacifico|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVaQJp_t_jAC|date=30 June 2008|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4357-1183-9}}</ref>{{rp|40}}

===Origins===
[[File:Anzac Beach 4th Bn landing 8am April 25 1915.jpg|thumb|left|[[Landing at Anzac Cove|Anzac Beach]] amphibious landing, on April 25, 1915]]
During [[World War I]], the mass mobilization of troops equipped with rapid-fire weapons quickly rendered such boats obsolete. Initial landings during the [[Gallipoli campaign]] took place in unmodified ship's boats that were extremely vulnerable to attack from the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] shore defenses.

[[File:Britischer X-Typ Leichter WK 1.jpg|thumb|A British X-lighter, 1916]]
In February 1915, orders were placed for the design of purpose built landing craft. A design was created in four days resulting in an order for 200 'X' ''Lighters'' (or X-lighters)<ref>{{cite web|title=First World War: Britain's surviving vessels|url=https://www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk/vessels/spithead.html|website=National Historic Ships UK|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220513102227/https://www.ww1britainssurvivingvessels.org.uk/vessels/spithead.html|archive-date=May 13, 2022|access-date=February 26, 2025}}</ref> with a [[spoon-shaped bow]] to take shelving beaches and a drop down frontal ramp.

The first use took place after they had been towed to the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] and performed successfully in the 6 August [[landing at Suvla Bay]] of [[IX Corps (United Kingdom)|IX Corps]], commanded by [[Commander]] [[Edward Unwin]].

'X' ''Lighters'', known to the soldiers as 'Beetles', carried about 500 men, displaced 200 tons (or 160 tons according to some sources)<ref>{{cite book|last=Cocker|first=Maurice P.|date=January 1, 1993|chapter=Landing Craft 'X' Lighter, as a Minelayer|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/minewarfarevesse0000cock/page/29|title=Mine Warfare Vessels of the Royal Navy, 1908 – to Date|location=Shrewsbury, UK|publisher=Airlife Publishing Ltd|pages={{nowrap|29–30}}|isbn=1-85310-328-4|id={{ISBN|978-1-85310-328-5}}|url-status=live|access-date=February 26, 2025}}</ref> and were based on [[Thames sailing barge|London barge]]s being {{convert|105.5|ft|ftin|abbr=off|disp=out}} long, {{convert|21|ft|ft|abbr=off|disp=out}} wide, and {{convert|7.5|ft|ftin|abbr=off|disp=out}} deep ({{cvt|105.5|x|21|x|7.5|ft|m|disp=out}}). The engines mainly ran on heavy oil and ran at a maximal speed of approximately {{convert|8|kn}}. The boats had bulletproof sides and a ramp at the bow for disembarkation.<ref>{{cite web|last=Francis|first=Richard|date=n.d.|orig-date=September 2001 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)|title=X-Lighters in WWI and at Gallipoli|url=https://navyhistory.au/x-lighters-in-wwi-and-at-gallipoli/|website=Naval Historical Society of Australia|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213071058/https://navyhistory.au/x-lighters-in-wwi-and-at-gallipoli/|archive-date=December 13, 2024|access-date=February 26, 2025}}</ref>

Spain purchased 26–28 X-lighters. During the [[Rif War]], they were used in the 1925 [[Alhucemas landing]], arguably the first major amphibious landing in which tanks were disembarked in large numbers.<ref name=X-Lighter>{{cite web|url=https://www.keymilitary.com/article/weapons-war-x-lighter-motor-landing-craft |last=Ash |first=John |date=29 October 2020 |title=X-Lighter Motor Landing Craft |series=Weapons of War |via=Key Military |access-date=22 April 2024}}</ref>

{{multiple image
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| width = 250
| image1 = Russud class (Bolinder class).jpg
| caption1 = A Russud-class landing self-propelled barge (the Russian designation is Bolinder class), 1919
| image2 = Russians in Gallipoli (4).jpg
| caption2 = Wrangel's Army troops are being loaded onto the Elpidifor-class landing steamship {{Transliteration|ru|Vera}} (ex-{{Transliteration|ru|Elpidifor No. 410}}) during departure from [[Gelibolu]] to [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes|Serbia]], 1921
}}
The [[Imperial Russian Navy]] soon followed suit, building at the [[Russud Shipyard]] in 1916 a series of similar landing motor barges of the so-called Bolinder class (a.k.a. the Russud class), named in Russia after the [[Bolinder-Munktell|supplier]] of [[semi-diesel engine]]s installed in them.{{sfn|Breyer|1992|pp=97–98}}{{sfn|Apalkov|1998|p=26}} These, however, proved too small and unseaworthy for their intended [[Black Sea]] theater, as they were intended for planned landings on the coast of the [[Marmara Sea]] and [[Turkish straits]]. Instead, a new [[ship class]] was designed, based on a widespread in [[Southern Russia]] merchant ship type of the era which were [[Azov Sea|Azov]]–Black Sea steam schooners – so-called ''Elpidifors'' – [[Ship commissioning|commissioned]] into naval service during World War I and used as landing craft during the [[Trebizond Campaign]], etc. These were typically very light at the bow, having all their machinery concentrated at the stern, which allowed easy [[Beaching (nautical)|beaching]] on any gently sloping coast, and often were equipped with bow [[Gangway (nautical)|gangways]] for fast unloading. This resulted in the 1,300-[[tonne]], {{convert|676|PS|hp|lk=on|adj=on}} Elpidifor class, named after the [[Rostov-on-Don]] merchant Elpidifor Paramonov, whose eponymous ''Elpidifor''-type grain carrier served as a pattern on which they were based. With a {{convert|1.83|m|ft|abbr=on}} loaded mean draft, and equipped with the [[ballast tank]]s and reinforced hull for safe beaching, they were able to land 1,000 troops with their [[Train (military)|train]] at virtually any available beach. While the landings for which they were created never happened, the ship class themself turned out quite useful and ships of the class had a long career, supporting [[Army of Wrangel|Wrangel's Army]] landings [[Ulagay's Landing|in Kuban]] and [[Northern Taurida Operation|in Northern Taurida]] during the [[Russian Civil War]], and later were used by the [[Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic|Russian SFSR]] and [[Soviet Union]] as [[minesweeper]]s, [[minelayer]]s, [[gunboat]]s and merchant ships.<ref>{{cite book|last=Breyer|first=Siegfried|year=1992|orig-year=First published in 1989 under the title {{lang|de|Enzyklopädie des sowjetischen Kriegsschiffhaus}}|title=Soviet Warship Development|volume=1: {{nowrap|1917–1937}}|location=London, UK|publisher=Conway Maritime Press Ltd|pages={{nowrap|97–99}}|translator-last=Magowan|translator-first=Rachel|isbn=0-85177-604-3}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Apalkov|first=Yuri V.|year=1998|script-title=ru:Российский Императорский Флот, {{nowrap|1914—1917 гг.}}: Справочник по корабельному составу|trans-title=Imperial Russian Navy, {{nowrap|1914–1917}}: Guide to the Ship Composition|magazine=Morskaya Kollektsiya|script-magazine=ru:Морская коллекция|trans-magazine=Naval Collection|language=ru|location=Moscow, RU|publisher="Modelist-Konstruktor" Editorial Board CJSC|number=4 #22|pages={{nowrap|25–26}}}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Alekseev|first1=Igor V.|last2=Zablotsky|first2=Vladimir P.|last3=Levitsky|first3=Vladimir A.|date=February 2012|script-title=ru:Десантные пароходы типа «Эльпидифор»|trans-title=Elpidifor-class Landing Steamships|url=https://magzdb.elibrary.keenetic.pro/ul/891/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F%202012%2001.pdf|magazine=Morskaya Kampaniya|script-magazine=ru:Морская кампания|language=ru|location=Moscow, RU|publisher=Isdatelstvo VERO Press|number=1 #46|pages={{nowrap|2–35}}|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231123234323/https://magzdb.elibrary.keenetic.pro/ul/891/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BC%D0%BF%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F%202012%2001.pdf|archive-date=November 23, 2023|access-date=March 3, 2025}}</ref>

A plan was devised to land [[Mark IV tank|British heavy tanks]] from [[Pontoon (boat)|pontoons]] in support of the [[Third Battle of Ypres]], but this was abandoned.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Fletcher|first=David|year=2007|title=British Mark IV Tank|magazine=New Vanguard|issue=133|location=Botley, Oxford, UK|publisher=Osprey Publishing|pages={{nowrap|17–18}}, {{nowrap|44–45}}|isbn=978-1-84603-082-6}}</ref>

[[File:Kiska Invasion 01.jpg|left|thumb|US [[Landing Craft Mechanized]] during the invasion of Kiska]]
During the [[inter-war period]], the combination of the negative experience at [[Gallipoli campaign|Gallipoli]] and economic stringency contributed to the delay in procuring equipment and adopting a universal doctrine for amphibious operations in the [[Royal Navy]].

Despite this outlook, the British produced the [[Motor Landing Craft]] in 1920, based on their experience with the early 'Beetle' armoured transport. The craft could put a [[medium tank]] directly onto a beach. From 1924, it was used with landing boats in annual exercises in amphibious landings.{{r|Buffetaut}} A prototype motor landing craft, designed by [[J. Samuel White]] of [[Cowes]], was built and first sailed in 1926.<ref name="Bruce">{{cite book |last1=Bruce |first1=Colin John |title=Invaders: British and American Experience of Seaborne Landings 1939-1945 |date=1999 |publisher=Chatham Publishing |isbn=9781840675337}}</ref><ref name="Buffetaut">{{cite book |last1=Buffetaut |first1=Yves |title=D-Day ships: the Allied invasion fleet, June 1944 |date=1994 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |location=Annapolis, Md |isbn=1557501521}}</ref>{{rp|p=11}} It weighed 16 tons and had a box-like appearance, having a square bow and stern. To prevent fouling of the propellers in a craft destined to spend time in surf and possibly be beached, a crude [[Pump-jet|waterjet]] propulsion system was devised by White's designers. A [[Hotchkiss et Cie|Hotchkiss]] petrol engine drove a centrifugal pump which produced a jet of water, pushing the craft ahead or astern, and steering it, according to how the jet was directed. Speed was 5–6 [[knot (unit)|knot]]s and its beaching capacity was good.<ref name="Fergusson">Fergusson, Bernard ''The Watery Maze; the story of Combined Operations'', Holt, New York, 1961. pp. 38-43</ref> By 1930, three MLC were operated by the Royal Navy.

The United States revived and experimented in [[amphibious warfare (United States)|their approach to amphibious warfare]] between 1913 and mid-1930s, when the [[United States Navy]] and [[United States Marine Corps]] became interested in setting up advanced bases in opposing countries during wartime; the prototype [[Advanced Base Force|advanced base force]] officially evolved into the [[Fleet Marine Force]] (FMF) in 1933.<ref name="Millett, Semper Fidelis">Allan R. Millett, ''"Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps"'', (New York City, NY: The Free Press, 1991). {{page needed|date=June 2014}}</ref>

In 1939, during the annual [[Fleet Landing Exercises]], the FMF became interested in the military potential of [[Andrew Higgins]]'s design of a powered, shallow-[[Draft (hull)|draught]] boat. These [[LCPL]], dubbed the 'Higgins Boats', were reviewed and passed by the U.S. Naval [[Bureau of Construction and Repair]]. Soon, the Higgins boats were developed to a final design with a ramp{{dash}}the [[LCVP (United States)|LCVP]], and were produced in large numbers. The boat was a more flexible variant of the LCPR with a wider ramp. It could carry 36 troops, a small vehicle such as a [[Willys MB|jeep]], or a corresponding amount of cargo.