British landing craft
Motor landing craft prints from 1942
|
Class overview
|
Name
| Motor landing craft
|
Builders
| J. Samuel White of Cowes
|
Operators
|
Royal Navy
|
Preceded by
| Lighters and Horse Boats
|
Succeeded by
| LCM (1)
|
Built
| 1926?1938
|
Completed
| 9
|
Lost
| all (1939?1945)
|
General characteristics
|
Type
| Landing craft
|
Displacement
| 20 long tons (20,321 kg)
|
Draught
| 4.5 ft (1.4 m)
|
Ramps
| 1
|
Propulsion
| 1x
Hotchkiss
petrol engine,
water jet
propulsion
|
Speed
| 5?6 kn (9.3?11.1 km/h; 5.8?6.9 mph)
|
Capacity
| 10 long tons (10,160 kg)
|
Armament
| None
|
Armour
| None 1926. In 1936, bulletproof plate added to steering shelter
[1]
|
The
motor landing craft (MLC)
was a vessel used in the 1920s and 30s. It was specifically designed to deliver a tank to shore
[2]
and may be considered the predecessor of all
Allied
landing craft mechanised
(LCM). The MLC also saw action in the first year of the
Second World War
. Its primary purpose was to ferry tanks, troops and stores from ships to shore. The craft derived from discussions of the Landing Craft Committee; the prototype was designed by
J. Samuel White
of
Cowes
.
Manufactured of steel, this shallow-draught,
barge
-like boat could ferry its cargo to shore at a speed of up to five knots. For a short journey, from shore to shore, the cargo could be rolled or carried into the boat over its ramp. On longer journeys, ship to shore, a derrick would lower the MLC into the sea from the transporting vessel. The derrick would then lower the vehicle or cargo load. Upon touching down on shore, soldiers or vehicles exited by the
bow
ramp.
Design and development
[
edit
]
In Britain, the need for a purpose-built landing craft had been apparent to military and naval staff officers since the
Gallipoli Campaign
of the First World War.
[3]
Unfortunately, a good deal of argument between the
Army
and
Royal Navy
had not settled whose budget should fund landing craft construction. Both Army and Navy finally agreed to form a landing craft committee comprising "representatives of all the authorities interested and that they should make recommendations on the design of landing craft."
[3]
After pooling the desired attributes the committee wished to see in a landing craft, the
Director of Naval Construction
was requested to draw up a design. However, because of fiscal stringency no landing craft was built for some years.
A prototype motor landing craft (
MLC1
) was built and first sailed in 1926,
[4]
[5]
finishing trials in 1927. It weighed 16 tons,
[6]
with a draught of 6.5 ft (2 m). The MLC was box-like in appearance, having a square bow and stern. It was also extremely noisy. In order to prevent fouling of the propellers in a craft destined to spend time in surf and possibly be beached, a simple
waterjet
propulsion system was devised by White's designers. A
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
knots
and its beaching capacity was good.
[7]
By 1930, three MLC were operated by the Royal Navy.
[3]
Early MLCs were powered by single Hotchkiss petrol engines. Later craft were powered by single Gill petrol engines.
[2]
Service history
[
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]
At the outbreak of the Second World War, six MLCs were based in Britain and three more were with British forces in
Malta
.
[7]
Norwegian Campaign
[
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]
On 29 April 1940, in the
Norwegian Campaign
, three MLCs accompanied a
Landing Craft Mechanised Mk 1
(LCM) Mark I and four
Landing Craft Assault
(LCA)s to the
Narvik
area.
[8]
[9]
Shortly afterwards, two more MLCs arrived.
[10]
In early May, one of the first tasks accomplished by an MLC was landing French 75mm guns to support
Chasseurs
in the
Gratangen
area.
At Hol, on or about 11 May, one MLC sank due to a loading accident when a 13-ton
Hotchkiss H39
tank drove off a jetty directly into the cargo well. Both went to the bottom.
[11]
The first use of British landing craft in the Second World War, in an opposed landing, saw the disembarkation of
French Foreign Legionnaires
of the
13th Demi-Brigade
(13e DBLE) and supporting French
Hotchkiss H39
tanks on the beach at
Bjerkvik
,
eight miles (13 km)
above Narvik, on 13 May during the Norwegian campaign.
[12]
[13]
The army commander,
General de brigade
Antoine Bethouart
, responsible for capturing the area north of
Rombaksfjorden
, realized that a landing behind German lines, in
Herjangsfjorden
, a part of
Ofotfjorden
north of
Narvik
was required to force the enemy to retire. The plan agreed involved a pre-landing naval bombardment, followed by the landing of three tanks - two from MLCs, and one from the new LCM(1), then the landing of an initial wave of infantry from LCAs, and lastly a follow-on force carried in barges and towed by
motor torpedo boats
.
[14]
[15]
On 12 May, at about 23:40,
Royal Navy
destroyers commenced a bombardment of the town intending to destroy all buildings on the foreshore. The plan became somewhat frustrated by the slow deployment of the MLCs (and their tank cargoes), from the davits of the battleship
Resolution
, then serving as their transport ship. The LCAs landed after the LCM(1) had delivered a tank to the beach. The LCA crews manoeuvred their craft in the small hamlet to the vest of the village of
Bjerkvik
, the intended landing place, and under a slight rise in the ground in order to spare the soldiers casualties from opposing machine gun fire. Although touchdown was in the early hours of the new day the
midnight sun
illuminated the battle-field. Once ashore, the 13e DBLE's companies deployed to seize the high ground to the north and south of the town.
The MLCs, along with towed ship's boats and other landing craft types, then turned to landing the rest of 13e DBLE and its supporting elements.
The small flotilla of MLCs, LCAs and an LCM(1) had added greatly to the Allies' tactical latitude.
[16]
All the MLCs used at Narvik were lost in operations, fell victim to the sea and weather, or were destroyed and abandoned before the Allied withdrawal.
[2]
Dunkirk
[
edit
]
Two motor landing craft participated in
Operation Dynamo
, evacuating soldiers of the
British Expeditionary Force
off the beaches to the east of Dunkirk harbour. The MLCs worked alongside an LCM(1) and a number of LCAs. MLC12 was abandoned at Dunkirk on 2 June 1940, and a day later MLC17 met the same fate.
[17]
See also
[
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]
Notes
[
edit
]
- Notes
- Citations
- ^
Maund, p. 5
- ^
a
b
c
Buffetaut, p. 33
- ^
a
b
c
Maund, p.4
- ^
Buffetaut, p 33
- ^
Bruce, p. 11
- ^
Buffetaut, p.34
- ^
a
b
Fergusson, p.43
- ^
Ladd, 1976, p.18
- ^
Maund, p. 37
- ^
Maund, p. 17
- ^
Maund, p. 33
- ^
Buffetaut 1994, p. 27
- ^
Maund 1949, p. 41
- ^
Maund, p. 41
- ^
Porch, p. 469
- ^
Maund, p. 42
- ^
"British vessels lost at sea in World War 2 - landing ships and craft, LSI, LST, LCT, LCG, LCV, LCVP etc"
.
References
[
edit
]
- Bruce, Colin J
Invaders
, Chatham Publishing, London, 1999.
ISBN
1-84067-533-0
- Buffetaut, Yves
D-Day Ships
, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1994.
ISBN
1-55750-152-1
- The Chief of Combined Operations
Combined Operations Staff Notebook
,
HMSO
, 1945.
- Fergusson, Bernard
The Watery Maze; the story of Combined Operations
,Holt, New York, 1961.
- Ladd, JD
Assault From the Sea: 1939-1945
, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, 1976.
ISBN
0-88254-392-X
- Ladd, James D.
Commandos and Rangers of World War 2
Macdonalds and Jane's, London, 1978.
ISBN
0-356-08432-9
.
- Ladd, JD
Royal Marine Commando
, Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., London, 1982.
ISBN
0-600-34203-4
- Lavery, Brian
Assault Landing Craft
, Seaforth Publishing., Barnsley, UK, 2009.
ISBN
978-1-84832-050-5
- Lund, Paul, and Ludlam, Harry
War of the Landing Craft
, New English Library, London 1976.
ISBN
0-450-03039-3
- Maund, LEH
Assault From the Sea
, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1949.
- Saunders, Hilary A. St. George
Combined Operations: The Official Story of the Commandos
. New York: Macmillan, 1943.
- US Navy ONI 226
Allied Landing Craft and Ships
, US Government Printing Office, 1944.
External links
[
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]