landing ship, tank

landing ship, tank (LST), naval ship specially designed to transport and deploy troops, vehicles, and supplies onto foreign shores for the conduct of offensive military operations. LSTs were designed during World War II to disembark military forces without the use of dock facilities or the various cranes and lifts necessary to unload merchant ships. They gave the Allies the ability to conduct amphibious invasions at any location on a foreign shore that had a gradually sloped beach. This ability permitted the Allies to assault poorly defended sectors, thereby achieving operational surprise and, in some cases, even tactical surprise.

Specially designed landing ships were first employed by the British in Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in 1942. The British recognized the need for such ships after the debacle at Dunkirk in 1940, when they left behind tons of badly needed equipment because no vessels were available with the capability to bridge the gap between the sea and the land. Following the evacuation, Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent his minister of supply a memorandum posing the question,

What is being done about designing and planning vessels to transport tanks across the sea for a British attack on enemy countries? These must be able to move six or seven hundred vehicles in one voyage and land them on the beach, or, alternatively, take them off the beaches.

As an interim measure, three shallow-draft tankers were converted to LSTs. The bows were redesigned so that a door, hinged at the bottom, and a 68-foot- (21-metre-) long double ramp could be fitted to the vessels. These modifications made it possible for vehicles to disembark directly from the ship to the beach. Both the new design and the vessel were considered unsatisfactory, but the concept was sound.

At the request of the British, the Americans undertook the redesign and production of LSTs in November 1941, and John Niedermair of the Bureau of Ships designed a ship with a large ballast system. Deep-draft ships were necessary to cross the ocean, and shallow-draft vessels were required to bridge the water gap. A newly proposed ballast system gave one ship both capabilities: when at sea the LST took on water for stability, and during landing operations the water was pumped out to produce a shallow-draft vessel. The American-built LST Mk2, or LST(2), was 328 feet in length and 50 feet wide. It could carry 2,100 tons. Built into the bow were two doors that opened outward to a width of 14 feet. Most Allied vehicles could be transported on and off-loaded from LST(2)s. The lower deck was the tank deck, where 20 Sherman tanks could be loaded. Lighter vehicles were carried on the upper deck. An elevator was used to load and off-load vehicles, artillery, and other equipment from the upper deck; in later models a ramp replaced the elevator. The vessel was powered by two diesel engines, and it had a maximum speed of 11.5 knots and a cruising speed of 8.75 knots. LSTs were lightly armed with a variety of weapons. A typical American LST was armed with seven 40-mm and twelve 20-mm antiaircraft guns.

The first mass-produced American LST, the LST-1, was commissioned on December 14, 1942. A total of 1,051 LST(2)s were produced in American shipyards during the war. Construction time declined so that by 1945 it took approximately two months to construct an LST—half the time it took in 1943. Through lend-lease the British were provided with 113 LST(2)s. LSTs were in great demand in both the Pacific and Europe. They were used in the invasions of Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and southern France. At Normandy the Americans’ employment of LSTs enabled them to meet their off-loading requirements following the destruction of their Mulberry artificial harbour in a storm. In the Southwest Pacific theatre, General Douglas MacArthur employed LSTs in his “island-hopping campaigns” and in the invasion of the Philippines. In the Central Pacific, Admiral Chester Nimitz used them at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. LST(2)s served as troop ships, ammunition ships, hospital ships, repair ships, and numerous other special-purpose vessels. A number of LST(2)s were even fitted with flight decks for small reconnaissance aircraft. During the war, 26 LSTs were lost in action, and 13 more were lost in accidents and rough seas.

Numerous other types of landing ships were produced by the British and Americans during the war. Examples are the Landing Ship, Infantry (Large), or LSI(L), named Auxiliary Personnel Attack Ship (APA) by the U.S. Navy; the Landing Ship, Headquarters, or LSH, named Command Ship by the U.S. Navy; the Landing Ship, Dock, or LSD; and the Landing Ship, Medium, or LSM. Some vessels called “landing ships” did not have the capability to off-load troops and supplies onto beaches; they were in fact simply transports or command-and-control vessels.

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During the Korean War, LSTs were employed in the Inch’ŏn landing. Limited numbers of LSTs were produced in the 1950s and ’60s. The most prominent were the diesel-powered Newport LSTs, which were built for the U.S. Navy in the 1960s. These vessels displaced more than 8,000 tons fully loaded and transported amphibious craft, tanks, and other combat vehicles, along with 400 men, at speeds of up to 20 knots. Such speeds were made possible by abandoning the bow doors of their World War II predecessors in favour of an extendable ramp supported by huge projecting derrick extensions on each side of the bow. As the ship beached, the ramp would shoot forward hydraulically 112 feet. Vehicles and troops would land over the ramp, while amphibious craft in the tank deck would disembark from stern gates.