Landing craft tanks played ‘vital role’ in success of D-Day

D-Day landing craft restoration

A vital component in the success of the D-Day landings were the landing craft which carried the tanks and heavy guns across the Channel to back up the thousands of soldiers as they descended on the beaches of Normandy.

A total of 830 landing craft tanks (LCTs) were deployed for landing personnel and tanks but there were a further 90 craft which had been converted to carry guns and rockets to be fired in support of the troops.

The latter were not officially designated as LCTs – they were LCT(R), LCF and LCG(L) – rocket, flak (anti-aircraft guns) and gun (large) – but they were all based on an LCT hull.

The size of the LCTs meant they could carry a substantial number of troops, vehicles and supplies, without being as big a target as the bigger landing ships

Andrew Whitmarsh, of the D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth

Together, they made up nearly a quarter of the 4,000 craft and landing ships involved in the crucial Second World War battle.

Andrew Whitmarsh, curator of the D-Day Story museum in Portsmouth, Hampshire, told the PA news agency: “LCTs played a vital role – there were over 4,000 landing craft and landing ships involved in the Normandy landings, so more than 800 is a significant proportion of that.

“The size of the LCTs meant they could carry a substantial number of troops, vehicles and supplies, without being as big a target as the bigger landing ships.

“Their role after D-Day, was just as important – some made repeated Channel crossings while others remained off the Normandy coast and helped unload bigger ships.”

The first motor landing craft was built by the Royal Navy in 1926 but it was at the insistence of the British prime minister Winston Churchill in mid-1940 that the design was updated further and the LCT was created.

Its speed was 10 knots (19km/h; 12mph) on engines delivering about 700 hp (520 kW) with the first 30 of the Mark 1 model ordered to be built in 1940.

The British first named the vessel the “tank landing craft” or TLC, but they later adopted the US name “landing craft, tank” or LCT.

Four years ago, a major renovation project to conserve LCT7074, the last remaining LCT to have taken part in the D-Day landings, was completed and it was moved to its permanent new home at the D-Day Museum on Portsmouth seafront.

Thanks to a £4.7 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage, the craft was restored from a rusting shell which had once been used as a floating nightclub in Birkenhead, Merseyside, back to its former glory.

Nick Hewitt, head of collections and exhibitions at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN), said: “When she was rescued by the museum, she was rusty, unloved and covered in barnacles, having spent many years submerged at Birkenhead Dock. But now she is transformed.”

Mick Jennings, 98, was a Royal Navy crewman on a different landing craft, LCT 795, which carried American troops from Dartmouth to Utah Beach on D-Day.

He said at the time of the vessel’s restoration: “We couldn’t have landed in France just with troops on foot, and LCTs were very important to carry tanks and other vehicles that could deal with the enemy tanks.

“It is a very good idea to open LCT 7074 to the public, so people can visit and get an idea what conditions were like.

“I was only 18 years old, and most of the crew were 23 or under. The living quarters were next to the engine room so it was noisy, and sleeping in a hammock was uncomfortable, but when you’re young you can tolerate these things.”

LCT 7074 became a floating clubhouse and nightclub from the 1960s to 1980s before falling into disrepair.

It was retrieved from Birkenhead Dock in 2014 and brought to Portsmouth Naval Base, where most of the renovation work took place.

This included new internal and external paint, a fully restored funnel, electrical works and the fitting of replica guns and rocket launchers.

The project has also recreated the bridge, wheelhouse and the crew’s living spaces so visitors can get an impression of life on board the landing craft.

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