Landing craft mechanized
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The landing craft mechanized (LCM) is a military landing craft designed for carrying personnel and vehicles from ship to shore without requiring a pier or other shore-based structure. Multiple different models with varying size, capacity, and power plants were produced starting in 1920. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops and tanks during Allied amphibious assaults.
Variants
There was no single design of LCM used, unlike the landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP) or landing craft assault (LCA) landing craft made by the US and UK respectively. There were several different designs built by the UK and US and by different manufacturers.
The British motor landing craft (MLC) was conceived and tested in the 1920s and was used from 1924 in exercises. Nine were in service at the start of the war. It was the first purpose-built tank landing craft. It was the progenitor of all subsequent LCM designs.
LCM (1)
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The landing craft, mechanised Mark I, was an early British model. It was able to be slung under the davits of a liner or on a cargo ship boom with the result that it was limited to a 16-ton tank.[1]Template:Clarify
The LCM Mark I was used during the Allied landings in Norway (one alongside the MLCs),[2] and at Dieppe and some 600 were built.
- Displacement: 35 tonnes
- Length: Template:Convert
- Width: Template:Convert
- Draught: Template:Convert
- Machinery: two Chrysler 100 hp petrol engines
- Speed: 7 knots
- Crew: 6 men
- Armament: two .303 in. Lewis guns
- Capacity: one medium tank, or 26.8 tons of cargo or 60 troopsTemplate:Clarify
- 100 men[3]
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LCM (2)
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The first American LCM design, from the US Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair. Approximately 150 were built by American Car & Foundry and Higgins Industries.
- Displacement: 29 tons
- Length: Template:Convert
- Beam: Template:Convert
- Draft: Template:Convert
- Speed: Template:Convert
- Armament: two .50-cal M2 Browning machine guns
- Crew: 4
- Capacity; 100 troops, or one 13.5 ton tank, or 15 tons of cargo
LCM (3)
There were two designs:
- Bureau
Capable of carrying Template:Convert of cargo
- Higgins
In appearance very similar to the LCVP which Higgins Industries also constructed, with a Template:Convert wide load area at the front and a small armoured (1/4 inch steel) wheelhouse on the aft decking over the engine room. A vessel claiming to be a Higgins LCM-3 is on display at the Battleship Cove maritime museum in Fall River, Massachusetts, however this vessel has the superstructure and overall length of an LCM-6.[5] Another Higgins LCM-3 is displayed at the Museo Storico Piana delle Orme in Province of Latina, Italy, 18 miles east of Anzio.[6]
- Displacement: 52 tons (loaded); 23 tons (empty) Template:Clarify
- Length: Template:Convert
- Beam: Template:Convert
- Draft: Template:Convert (forward); Template:Convert (aft)
- Speed: Template:Convert (loaded); Template:Convert (empty)
- Armament: two .50-cal M2 Browning machine guns
- Crew: 4
- Capacity: One 30-ton tankTemplate:Clarify (e.g. M4 Sherman), 60 troops, or Template:Convert of cargo
LCM (4)
In 1943 and 1944, seventy-seven LCM(4)s were built.[7] Externally, the LCM(4) resembled a late model LCM(1) but inside the pontoon special bilge pumps and ballast tanks allowed the LCM(4) to alter trim to increase stability when partially loaded.
LCM (5)
British model of LCM
LCM (6)
The LCM (6) was an LCM (3) extended by Template:Convert amidships.
- Power plant:
- 2 Detroit 6-71 diesel engines; Template:Convert sustained; twin shaft; or
- 2 Detroit 8V-71 diesel engines; Template:Convert sustained; twin shaft
- Length: Template:Convert
- Beam: Template:Convert
- Displacement: 64 tons (65 tonnes) full load
- Speed: Template:Convert
- Range: Template:Convert at Template:Convert
- Military lift: 34 tons (34.6 tonnes) or 80 troops
- Crew: 5
Many LCM-6s were later adapted for the Mobile Riverine Force in the Vietnam War. Some were modified as armored troop carriers (ATCs or "Tangos"), others became "monitors" with 105 mm guns, "Zippos" with flamethrowers or "Charlie" command variants.
A few LCMs were converted to lay and repair hoses for tankers equipped with the offshore petroleum discharge system (OPDS).[8]
LCM (7)
British model of LCM
LCM (8)
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- Power plant: four 6-71 six-cylinder diesels, two hydraulic transmissions, two propeller shafts. (Lighterage Division, Naval Support Activity Danang 1969–1970) crew of 3: coxswain, bowhook, and engineer (aka "snipe")
- Power plant: 2 Detroit 12V-71 diesel engines; Template:Convert sustained; twin shafts
- Length: Template:Convert
- Beam: Template:Convert
- Displacement: 105 tonsTemplate:Clarify (106.7 tonnes) full load
- Speed: Template:Convert
- Range: Template:Convert at Template:Convert full load
- Capacity: 53.5 tons (54.4 tonnes)
- Military lift: one M48 or one M60 tank or 200 troops
- Crew: 5
Operators
- Template:Country data Turkey – Turkish Naval Forces[9]
- Template:Country data United States – United States Navy, U.S. Army 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary
- Template:Country data Thailand – Royal Thai Navy
- Template:Country data Australia – Royal Australian Navy
- Template:Country data Australia – Australian Army
- Template:Country data Spain – Spanish Navy
- Template:Country data El Salvador – Navy of El Salvador
- Template:Country data New Zealand – Royal New Zealand Navy
- Template:Country data Egypt – Egyptian Navy
- Template:Country data Saudi Arabia – Royal Saudi Navy
- Template:Country data Pakistan - Pakistan Navy
- Template:Country data Japan - Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
- Template:Country data Vietnam - Vietnam People's Navy
Former operators
- Template:Country data Khmer Republic – Khmer National Navy
- Template:Country data South Vietnam – Republic of Vietnam Navy
See also
- Motor landing craft
- Landing craft, tank
- LCVP (United States)
- LCM2000
- LCM 25 ton type - Japanese version of LCM-6
Notes
References
- Gordon L. Rottman & Tony Bryan, Landing Ship, Tank (LST) 1942–2002, New Vanguard series 115, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2005. Template:ISBN
- Gordon L. Rottman & Hugh Johnson, Vietnam Riverine Craft 1962–75, New Vanguard series 128, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2006. Template:ISBN
- Gordon L. Rottman & Peter Bull, Landing Craft, Infantry and Fire Support, New Vanguard series 157, Osprey Publishing Ltd, Oxford 2009. Template:ISBN
- Maund, LEH Assault From the Sea, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1949.
External links
- Skill in the Surf: A Landing Boat Manual
- LCM-6 principal characteristics
- History of "Logistics over The Shore" operations
- LCM & LCU fact file
- LCM information
- USS Rankin (AKA-103): LCM
- LCM-6 Xj3D/VRML model
- LCM-6 surface textures required for Xj3D/VRML modelTemplate:Dead link
- LCM 6 Project. French west coast association. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086543887103
Template:Warship types of the 19th & 20th centuries
- ↑ William F Buckingham. D-Day the First 72 hours Tempus Publishing, Stroud. 2004
- ↑ Maund 1949, p. 41
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- ↑ Norman Friedman U.S. Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History Naval Institute Press, 2002 9781557502506
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- ↑ Ladd, 1976, p. 44
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