Ship used to carry soldiers
This article is about troops transported by ship. For troops transported by helicopter, see
transport helicopter
.
A
troopship
(also
troop ship
or
troop transport
or
trooper
) is a
ship
used to carry
soldiers
, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a
seaport
or onto smaller vessels, either
tenders
or
barges
.
Attack transports
,
[1]
a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, carry their own fleet of landing craft.
Landing ships
beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore.
History
[
edit
]
Ships to transport troops were used in antiquity.
Ancient Rome
used the
navis lusoria
, a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube.
[2]
The modern troopship has as long a history as
passenger ships
do, as most maritime nations enlisted their support in military operations (either by leasing the vessels or by impressing them into service) when their normal naval forces were deemed insufficient for the task. In the 19th century, navies frequently chartered civilian
ocean liners
, and from the start of the 20th century painted them gray and added a degree of armament; their speed, originally intended to minimize passage time for civilian user, proved valuable for outrunning
submarines
and enemy
cruisers
in war.
HMT
Olympic
even rammed and sank a
U-boat
during one of its wartime crossings. Individual liners capable of exceptionally high speed transited without escorts; smaller or older liners with poorer performance were protected by operating in
convoys
.
Most major naval powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided their domestic shipping lines with subsidies to build fast ocean liners capable of conversions to
auxiliary cruisers
during wartime. The British government, for example, aided both
Cunard
and the
White Star Line
in constructing the liners
RMS
Mauretania
,
RMS
Aquitania
,
RMS
Olympic
and
RMS
Britannic
. However, when the vulnerability of these ships to return fire was realized during
World War I
most were used instead as troopships or
hospital ships
.
RMS
Queen Mary
and
RMS
Queen Elizabeth
were two of the most famous converted liners of
World War II
. When they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip.
Queen Mary
holds the all-time record, with 15,740 troops on a single passage in late July 1943,
[3]
transporting a staggering 765,429 military personnel during the war.
[3]
World War II
[
edit
]
Large numbers of troopships were employed during World War II, including 220 "Limited Capacity"
Liberty ship
conversions, 30
Type C4 ship
-based
General G. O. Squier
-class
, a class of 84
Victory ship
conversions, and a small number of Type-
C3-S-A2
ship-based dedicated transports, and 15 classes of
attack transports
, of which some 400 alone were built.
- The modified Liberties were capable of transporting up to 450,
[5]
550,
[6]
or 650
[7]
(sources vary) troops or
prisoners-of-war
. Modifications included installation of bunks stacked five deep on the forward
tweendeck
, additional shower and
head
facilities, two additional diesel-powered generators,
[6]
and installation of two more Oerlikon 20-mm automatic cannons.
[5]
[6]
[8]
[9]
- 30
Type C4 ship
-based
General G. O. Squier
-class
, the largest carrying over 6,000 passengers.
- A class of
Victory ship
-based dedicated troopship was developed late in World War II. A total of 84 such VC2-S-AP2 hull conversions was completed.
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
- A class of
Type C3 ship
? comprising mainly C3-S-A2 and C3-S-A3 hulls ? was also converted to dedicated troopships, capable of carrying 2,100 troops,
[15]
was also developed.
- At least 15 classes of
attack transport
, consisting of at least 400 ships specially equipped for landing invasion forces rather than general troop movement.
Designation
[
edit
]
The designation HMT (Her/His Majesty's Transport) would normally replace RMS (Royal Mail Ship), MV (Motor Vessel) or SS (Steamship) for ships converted to troopship duty with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The United States used two designations: WSA for troopships operated by the
War Shipping Administration
using
Merchant Marine
crews, and USS (United States Ship) for vessels accepted into and operated by the United States Navy. Initially, troopships adapted as attack transports were designated AP; starting in 1942 keel-up attack transports received the designation APA.
"HMT" was also used, for a while, to designate "Hired Military Transport."
[16]
[17]
Post-World War II
[
edit
]
In the era of the
Cold War
, the United States designed the
United States
ship so that she could easily be converted from a liner to a troopship, in case of war. More recently,
Queen Elizabeth 2
and
Canberra
were requisitioned by the Royal Navy to carry British soldiers to the
Falklands War
.
[18]
By the end of the twentieth century, nearly all long-distance personnel transfer was done by airlift in
military transport aircraft
.
Some notable troopships
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"Amphibious Attack Transport (APA)"
.
navource.org
.
- ^
Pferdehirt B.
"The Museum of Ancient Shipping"
. Retrieved
August 3,
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
"Queen Mary ? Ship History and Specifications"
.
- ^
APPENDIX B: VICTORY TROOPSHIP CONVERSIONS
[1]
p. 13
- ^
a
b
Live
, 2013 edition, p. 6.
- ^
a
b
c
"S.S. John W. Brown Walk-around"
.
geoghegan.us
.
- ^
Live
, 2013 edition, p. 4.
- ^
Cooper, p. 5.
- ^
Project Liberty Ship: Armament Aboard SS JOHN W. BROWN
Archived
2013-10-15 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
"HAER for
Private Frederick C. Murphy
"
(PDF)
.
United States Maritime Administration
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 9 May 2013
. Retrieved
6 August
2013
.
"In the summer of 1945, eighty-four VC2-S-AP2 Victory ships, including the Maritime Victory, were converted into troopships by MARITIME VICTORY the U.S. Maritime Commission in preparation for an assault on the Japanese home islands. The ship made several crossings of the Atlantic Ocean and was used to repatriate American troops from Europe after World War II. pp. 1?2
- ^
ww2troopships.com crossings in 1945
- ^
"Troop Ship of World War II, April 1947, Page 356-357"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2020-10-30
. Retrieved
2016-12-24
.
- ^
69th infantry division, newsletter, 1986
- ^
Binghamton NY Press Grayscale 1945 ? Fulton History, Oct. 15, 1945
- ^
Isthmian Lines ship S.S.
Steel Scientist
[2]
Troop capacity: 2156
- ^
"1941 Dunera Boys Hay Internment Camp Collection"
. NSW Migration Heritage Centre
. Retrieved
8 March
2020
.
- ^
"Troopship"
.
The designation HMT (Hired Military Transport) ...
- ^
Rebecca Fowler (26 June 1996).
"Last voyage for Canberra, the Great White Whale of the Falklands"
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- James Dugan,
The Great Iron Ship
, 1953 (regularly reprinted)
ISBN
0-7509-3447-6
- Stephen Harding,
Great Liners at War
, Motorbooks Int'l, Osceola, WI, US, 1997
ISBN
0-7603-0346-0
- Goron Newell,
Ocean Liners of the 20th Century
, Bonanza Books, US, 1963
ISBN
0-517-03168-X
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Troop ships
at Wikimedia Commons