Editing Landing craft (section)

===Specialized infantry landing craft===
[[File:IJA-ship-pioneers-with-Daihatsu-landing-craft.jpg|thumb|In 1941 a Marine Corps officer showed Higgins a picture of the Imperial Japanese Army practicing landings with the Daihatsu landing craft in 1935, a landing craft with a ramp in the bow, and Higgins was asked to incorporate this design into his Eureka boat. He did so, producing the basic design for the Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP), often simply called the Higgins boat.]]
[[File:Canadian landings at Juno Beach.jpg|thumb|Canadian landings at [[Juno Beach]] in the [[Landing Craft Assault]]]]

The [[Daihatsu-class landing craft|Daihatsu-class]] landing craft was lowered to disembark cargo upon riding up onto a beach. After reviewing photos of a Daihatsu landing craft, this was adopted by American landing craft designer [[Andrew Higgins]] in developing the Landing Craft, Personnel (Large) ([[LCP(L)]]) into the Landing Craft, Personnel (Ramped) ([[LCP(R)]]) and later the Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel ([[LCVP (United States)|LCVP]]). However, the Daihatsu landing craft was more seaworthy than an LCVP due to its hull design. It was constructed of a metal hull and powered by a [[diesel engine]].

[[Victor H. Krulak|Victor Harold Krulak]], a native of [[Denver]], who joined the [[United States Marine Corps|Marines]] after graduating from [[United States Naval Academy|Annapolis]] in 1934, witnessed the Japanese use small vessels like the ''Daihatsu-class''. In 1937, as a lieutenant in an intelligence outfit during the [[Battle of Shanghai|1937 Battle of Shanghai]], when the Japanese were trying to conquer China, he used a telephoto lens to take pictures of Japanese landing craft with a square bow that became a retractable ramp. Krulak noted that the boats' droppable ramps enabled troops to quickly disembark from the bow, rather than having to clamber over the sides and splash into the surf. Envisioning those ramps as answering the Marines' needs in a looming world war, Lieutenant Krulak showed the photographs to his superiors, who passed on his report to Washington. But two years later, he found that the Navy had simply filed it away with a notation saying it was the work of “some nut out in China.” He persevered, building a balsa wood model of the Japanese boat design and discussing the retractable ramp concept with the [[New Orleans]] boat builder Andrew Higgins. That bow design became the basis for the thousands of Higgins landing craft of World War II.<ref name="Neushul 1998 133–166"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=Goldstein|first=Richard|date=2009-01-05|title=Victor H. Krulak, Marine Behind U.S. Landing Craft, Dies at 95 (Published 2009)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/obituaries/05krulak.html|access-date=2020-12-28|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> As according to  Victor H. Krulak "the Japanese were light years ahead of us in landing craft design".<ref>{{Citation|title=First to fight: an inside view of the U.S. Marine Corps|date=2010|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/711183714|place=Solon, Ohio|publisher=Playaway Digital Audio : [Manufactured and distributed by] Findaway World, LLC|language=English|isbn=978-1-61574-926-3|oclc=711183714|access-date=2020-12-28}}</ref>

In November 1938, the British [[Inter-Service Training and Development Centre]] proposed a new type of landing craft.<ref name="Maund">Maund, LEH. ''Assault From the Sea'', Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1949. pp. 3–10</ref> Its specifications were to weigh less than ten [[long ton]]s, to be able to carry the thirty-one men of a British Army [[platoon]] and five [[Royal Engineers|assault engineer]]s or [[Royal Signal Corps|signaller]]s, and to be so shallow drafted as to be able to land them, wet only up to their knees, in eighteen inches of water.<ref name="Maund" /> All of these specifications made the [[Landing Craft Assault]]; a separate set of requirements were laid down for a vehicle and supplies carrier, although previously the two roles had been combined in the [[Motor Landing Craft]].

[[File:British LCA commandos.jpg|thumb|left|[[Royal Naval Commandos|Royal Navy Beach Commandos]] aboard a [[Landing Craft Assault]] of the 529th Flotilla, Royal Navy]]

[[J. Samuel White|J. S. White]] of Cowes built a prototype to the Fleming design.<ref name="Buffetaut, p. 26">Buffetaut, p. 26</ref> Eight weeks later the craft was doing trials on the [[River Clyde]]. All landing craft designs must find a compromise between two divergent priorities; the qualities that make a good sea boat are opposite to those that make a craft suitable for beaching.<ref name="Saunders 1943, p. 11">Saunders 1943, p. 11.</ref> The craft had a hull built of double-diagonal [[mahogany]] planking. The sides were plated with "10lb. D<small>I</small>HT" armour, a heat treated steel based on D1 steel,<ref>[http://www.dstan.mod.uk/data/02/706/00000100.pdf Welding & Fabrication of Ships Structure] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010706183629/http://www.dstan.mod.uk/data/02/706/00000100.pdf |date= 6 July 2001 }} MOD</ref> in this case [[Mangalloy|Hadfield]]'s Resista {{Frac|1|4}}.<ref name="Buff49">Buffetaut 1994, p. 49</ref>

The [[Landing Craft Assault]] remained the most common British and [[British Commonwealth|Commonwealth]] landing craft of World War II, and the humblest vessel admitted to the books of the [[Royal Navy]] on [[D-Day]]. Prior to July 1942, these craft were referred to as "Assault Landing Craft" (ALC), but "Landing Craft; Assault" (LCA) was used thereafter to conform with the joint US-UK nomenclature system.{{r|Bruce|p=10}}

[[File:Invasion Training in England 02.jpg|thumb|{{USS|LCI-326}}, a [[Landing Craft Infantry]], during training for [[D-Day]]]]

The [[Landing Craft Infantry]] was a stepped up [[amphibious assault ship]], developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than the smaller [[Landing Craft Assault]] (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 troops, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to {{convert|15|knots}}. The original British design was envisioned as being a "one time use" vessel which would simply ferry the troops across the [[English Channel]], and were considered an expendable vessel. As such, no troop sleeping accommodations were placed in the original design. This was changed shortly after initial use of these ships, when it was discovered that many missions would require overnight accommodations.

The first LCI(L)s entered service in 1943 chiefly with the Royal Navy (RN) and United States Navy. Some 923 LCI were built in ten American shipyards and 211 provided under lend-lease to the Royal Navy.