Ships · United Kingdom · 1940-1945
Landing Craft Tank
tank landing craft
A bow-ramped shallow-draft craft designed to beach directly and disgorge tanks under their own power, the LCT was created at Winston Churchill's insistence in mid-1940, after the Norway campaign showed armour had to land with, not after, the first infantry waves. It became a standard fixture of every major amphibious landing from Sicily to Normandy.
| displacement | Mk 4 (UK): 586 tons; Mk 5 (US): 143 tons (standard), 286 landing |
|---|---|
| crew | ~12 |
| capacity | 3-9 tanks (mark dependent) |
| top speed | 8-10 knots |
| produced | ~2,600 (all marks, British and US built) |
Western Europe, Mediterranean and North Africa, Pacific