Assault Landing Craft by Brian Lavery

Author:Brian Lavery
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473811997
Publisher: Seaforth

PREPARATIONS FOR LANDING

A landing craft had to be ‘tactically loaded’, so that everything was available in the right order.

The greatest care must be taken in the stowage of ships of the assaulting force. Mistakes once made cannot be rectified afterwards. The rule ‘last in first out’ must be strictly adhered to and the stowage of tanks, guns, transport stores, etc., must be strictly in accordance with the tactical requirements of the landing.8

This was less of a problem with LCAs, which usually carried men rather than stores and were not expected to take long to unload in any case.

As the landing ship approached the area to be attacked, the troops were given a meal an hour before they were due to stand to. As soon as it was finished, in the case of a night operation, white lights were replaced with red to accustom their eyes to the dark. The troops were issued with rations for the attack, with a view to making each self-sufficient for forty-eight hours if necessary. There was a double issue of the ‘standard ration’ consisting of dehydrated meat, tea and oatmeal, plus biscuits, sweets and chocolate. If the sea voyage in the LCA was relatively long, the men might also be issued with tins of‘self-heating’ soup which could be lit by a match or cigarette and would come to the boil in four minutes. Emergency rations were also carried, only to be opened on the orders of an officer if other means of supply failed, but it was hoped that the men would be replenished by the normal organisation long before that was necessary.

Soldiers in the first wave of a landing usually embarked in the LCAs while they were suspended from the side of the LSI and were understandably wary during the process. Since not all LSIs were fully converted, there might be a gap of up to three feet between the ship and the boat, which was disturbing to a fully loaded infantryman in the dark and in heaving seas. A naval officer gave advice on how to handle it.

The first thing upon which everybody remarks with horror is the width of the gap between the ship’s side and the perilously swinging boat, although you have a bowsing in tackle doing its best at either end. Try and comfort them, but do not bring the boat into the ship’s side with slip wires, it interferes with the lowering and makes your ultimate get-away so slow.

Even if it is pitch dark, blowing half a gale, and frightfully cold, the bridging of this gap can be achieved quite simply, and without the loss of (m)any soldiers if you carry out a simple drill.

One sailor should stand on the gunwale and take each soldier’s weapon, he then passes it down to his chum standing in the well of the boat. The sailor on the gunwale then emits soft alluring cries of encouragement to the terrified soldier, and should catch him as he jumps across. The soldier then walks

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