World War I marked the beginning of the first modern amphibious warfare operations. However, tactics and equipment were still rudimentary and required much improvisation. At the time, British
Royal Marine Light Infantry (merged with the
Royal Marine Artillery in the 1920s to form the
Royal Marines) were used primarily as naval parties onboard
Royal Navy warships to maintain discipline and man ships' guns. The RMLI joined a new
Royal Navy division, the
Royal Naval Division, formed in 1914 (out of those not needed on ships) to fight on land; however, throughout the conflict, army units were depended upon to provide the bulk, if not all, of troops used in amphibious landings. The first amphibious assault of the war was the
Battle of Bita Paka (11 September 1914) was fought south of Kabakaul, on the island of
New Britain, and was a part of the invasion and subsequent occupation of
German New Guinea by the
Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) shortly after the outbreak of the
First World War. The first British amphibious assault of the war ended in disaster in November 1914. A large
British Indian Army force was directed to launch an amphibious assault on
Tanga,
German East Africa. British actions prior to the assault, however, alerted the Germans to prepare to repel an invasion. The Indian forces suffered heavy casualties when they
advanced on the city, forcing them to withdraw back to their boats, leaving much of their equipment behind. A plan was devised to land
British heavy tanks from
pontoons in support of the
Third Battle of Ypres, but this was abandoned. The Imperial Russian
Army and
Navy also grew adept to amphibious warfare in the
Black Sea, conducting many raids and bombardments on Ottoman positions. On 11 October 1917, German land and naval forces launched an amphibious assault, code named
Operation Albion, on the islands of
Saaremaa (Ösel),
Hiiumaa (Dagö) and
Muhu (Moon); they controlled the entrance to the
Gulf of Riga. By the end of the month German forces had successfully overrun the islands forcing the Russians to abandon them with the loss of some 20,000 troops, 100 guns and the
pre-dreadnought battleship Slava. The capture of the islands opened a route for German naval forces into the
Gulf of Finland threatening the city of
Petrograd, a fact that contributed to the cessation of hostilities on the
Eastern front.
Gallipoli about two days after the landing, seen from the bow of the
River Clyde The first large scale amphibious operations, ones that were to heavily influence theorists in the decades to come, were conducted as part of the
Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 against the
Ottoman Empire during
World War I. The
Gallipoli peninsula forms the northern bank of the
Dardanelles, a
strait that provided a sea route to what was then the
Russian Empire, one of the
Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an
amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of
Constantinople (modern-day
Istanbul). Although the naval attack was repelled and the land campaign failed, the campaign was the first modern amphibious landing, and featured air support, specialized landing craft and a
naval bombardment. The seaplane tender supported the landings under the command of
Commander Robert Clark-Hall. Seaplanes were used for
aerial reconnaissance, ground support for the troops
landing at Anzac Cove and the bombing of fortifications.
Ark Royal was augmented by a squadron from the
No. 3 Squadron of the
Royal Naval Air Service, operating from a nearby island. Initial landings, starting on 25 April, took place in unmodified rowing boats that were extremely vulnerable to attack from the shore defences. The first purpose-built landing craft were built for the campaign.
SS River Clyde, built as a
collier, was adapted to be a
landing ship for the
Landing at Cape Helles. Openings were cut in her steel hull as sally ports from which troops would emerge onto gangways and then to a bridge of smaller boats from the ship to the beach.
Boiler plate and sandbags were mounted on her bow, and behind them a battery of 11 machine guns was installed. The machine gun battery was manned by
Royal Naval Air Service men. Work began on painting
River Clydes hull sandy yellow as
camouflage, but this was incomplete by the time of the landing. It was soon clear that the Turkish defence was equipped with rapid-fire weapons, which meant that ordinary landing boats were inadequate for the task. In February 1915, orders had been placed for the design of purpose built landing craft. A design was created in four days resulting in an order for 200 'X'
Lighters (or X-lighters) with a
spoon-shaped bow to take shelving beaches and a drop down frontal ramp. amphibious landing, on 25 April 1915 The first use took place after they had been towed to the
Aegean and performed successfully in the 6 August
landing at Suvla Bay of
IX Corps, commanded by
Commander Edward Unwin. 'X'
Lighters, known to the soldiers as 'Beetles', carried about 500 men, displaced 200 tons (or 160 tons according to some sources) and were based on London barges being long, wide, and deep. The engines mainly ran on heavy oil and ran at a maximal speed of approximately . The sides of the ships were bullet proof, and was designed with a ramp on the bow for disembarkation. The lessons of the Gallipoli campaign had a significant impact upon the development of amphibious operational planning, and have since been studied by military planners prior to operations such as the
Normandy Landings in 1944 and during the
Falklands War in 1982. The campaign also influenced
US Marine Corps amphibious operations during the
Pacific War, and continues to influence US amphibious doctrine. During the
interwar period the campaign "became a focal point for the study of amphibious warfare" in the United Kingdom and United States, because it involved the four types of amphibious operations: the raid, demonstration, assault and withdrawal. Although the negative perception prevailed among Allied planners in the interwar years, the war situation after 1940 meant that such operations had to be considered. However, despite early successes in North Africa and Italy, it was not until Normandy that the belief that opposed landings could not succeed was completely excised.
Interwar developments One of the first amphibious landings involving armour was conducted by the
Irish National Army in 1922, during the
Irish Civil War. Landings against Republican rebels at
Westport,
Fenit and
Cork all involved armour cars. The Westport and Fenit landings involved light armoured cars and
18-pounder artillery guns being hoisted off the ships by crane. Heavier armoured cars were used at Cork, resulting in some difficulty. While Irish troops could reach the coast in small boats from naval vessels offshore, the ships had to dock to unload the heavy vehicles and artillery guns. These operations were a major success for the Irish government forces, mainly due to the element of surprise and the use of armoured vehicles and artillery. Government forces were able to capture all the major towns and cities in southern
Ireland. The
Alhucemas landing on 8 September 1925, performed by a Spanish-French coalition against rebel Berber tribesmen in the north of
Morocco, was an amphibious landing where tanks were used for the first time and massive aerial and
naval gunfire support was employed by the landing forces, directed by spotting personnel with communication devices. Floating depots were organized with medical, water, ammunition and food supplies, to be dispatched ashore when needed. The barges used in this landing were the surviving "K" boats from
Gallipoli, upgraded in Spanish shipyards. In 1938, Japanese forces attacked Chinese defenders over the
Yangtze River at the
Battle of Wuhan. Soon, the Japanese would later further improve its techniques upon seaborne assaults by the
Second Sino-Japanese War. By World War II, marines such as the
Special Naval Landing Force used amphibious landings to attack and sweep across territories in South East Asia. Their technique of surprise landings with naval support inspired the British and American landings in World War II such as
D-Day and the
Pacific Campaign.
Britain was designed by
Inter-Service Training and Development Centre from 1938 as the first specialized amphibious ship for the transportation of tanks. During the
inter-war period, the combination of the negative experience at
Gallipoli and economic stringency contributed to the delay in procuring equipment and adopting a universal doctrine for amphibious operations in the
Royal Navy. The costly failure of the
Gallipoli campaign coupled with the emerging potential of
airpower satisfied many in naval and military circles that the age of amphibious operations had come to a close. Still, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, animated discussion in
Staff Colleges in Britain and the
Indian Army Staff College at
Quetta surrounded the strategic potential of the
Dardanelles campaign compared with the strategic stalemate of the
Western Front. The economic austerity of the worldwide
economic depression and the government's adoption of the
Ten Year Rule assured that such theoretical talk would not result in the procurement of any large scale equipment. Despite this outlook, the British produced the
Motor Landing Craft in 1920, based on their experience with the early 'Beetle' armoured transport. The craft could put a medium tank directly onto a beach. From 1924, it was used with landing boats in annual exercises in amphibious landings. It was later called
Landing Craft, Mechanized (
LCM) and was the predecessor of all
Allied landing craft mechanised (LCM). The
Army and
Royal Navy formed a landing craft committee to "recommend... the design of landing craft". It weighed 16 tons and had a box-like appearance, having a square bow and stern. To prevent fouling of the propellers in a craft destined to spend time in surf and possibly be beached, a crude
waterjet propulsion system was devised by White's designers. A
Hotchkiss petrol engine drove a centrifugal pump which produced a jet of water, pushing the craft ahead or astern, and steering it, according to how the jet was directed. Speed was 5–6
knots and its beaching capacity was good. By 1930, three MLC were operated by the Royal Navy. , which helped to pioneer modern amphibious warfare doctrine, came under the command of Combined Operations Headquarters in June 1940. Pictured, the badge of Combined Operations. For a short journey, from shore to shore, the cargo could be rolled or carried into the boat over its ramp. On longer journeys, ship to shore, a derrick would lower the MLC into the sea from the transporting vessel. The derrick would then lower the vehicle or cargo load. Upon touching down on shore, soldiers or vehicles exited by the
bow ramp. Although there was much official apathy toward amphibious operations, this began to change in the late 1930s. The
Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich, drafted a document detailing combined operations requirements and submitted it to the
Chiefs of Staff in 1936. The document recommended the establishment of an inter-service 'Training and Development Centre', with a permanent force of
Royal Marines attached to it. Its functions were to "train in all methods for the seizure of defended beaches; develop the materiel necessary for such methods, with special regard to protection of troops, speed of landing, and the attainment of surprise; and develop methods and materiel for the destruction or neutralization of enemy defenses, including bombardment and aircraft co-operation. and brought together representatives from the
Royal Navy,
Army, and
Royal Air Force convened with the portfolio of developing methods and equipment to use in
Combined Operations. The Centre examined certain specific problems, including craft for landing tanks, beach organisation, floating piers, headquarters ships, amphibian tanks, underwater obstacles, the landing of water and petrol and the use of small craft in amphibious raids Divisional-sized amphibious landing exercises were carried out by the
British Army in the 1930s.
United States , known as 'Higgins Boats', were the first specialized landing craft for the US Navy. Pictured, LCVP 18, possibly with Army troops as reinforcements at
Okinawa, 1945. In contrast to the British attitude, the U.S. military, especially the
Marine Corps remained enthusiastic at the possibilities of amphibious warfare. The Marine Corps was searching for an expanded mission after
World War I, during which it had merely been used as a junior version of the Army
infantry. During the 1920s, it found a new mission—to be a
fast-reacting, light infantry fighting force carried rapidly to far off locations by the
US Navy. Its special role would be amphibious landings on enemy-held islands, but it took years to figure out how to do that. The
Mahanian notion of a decisive fleet battle required
forward bases for the Navy close to the enemy. After the
Spanish–American War the Marines gained the mission of occupying and defending those forward bases, and began a training program on
Culebra Island,
Puerto Rico. As early as 1900 the
General Board of the United States Navy considered building advance bases for naval operations in the
Pacific and the
Caribbean. The Marine Corps was given this mission in 1920, but the challenge was to avoid another disaster like
Gallipoli. The conceptual breakthrough came in 1921 when
Major "Pete" Ellis wrote
Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia, a secret 30,000-word manifesto that proved inspirational to Marine strategists and highly prophetic. To win a war in the Pacific, the Navy would have to fight its way through thousands of miles of ocean controlled by the Japanese—including the
Marshall,
Caroline,
Marianas and
Ryukyu island chains. If the Navy could land Marines to seize selected islands, they could become forward bases. Ellis argued that with an enemy prepared to defend the beaches, success depended on high-speed movement of waves of
assault craft, covered by heavy
naval gunfire and
attack from the air. He predicted that the decisive action would take place on the beach itself, so the assault teams would need not just infantry but also
machine gun units,
light artillery,
light tanks, and
combat engineers to defeat beach obstacles and defenses. Assuming the enemy had its own artillery, the landing craft would have to be specially built to protect the landing force. The failure at Gallipoli came because the
Turks could easily reinforce the specific landing sites. The Japanese would be unable to land new forces on the islands under attack. Not knowing which of the many islands would be the American target, the Japanese would have to disperse their strength by garrisoning many islands that would never be attacked. An island like
Eniwetok in the
Marshall Islands, would, Ellis estimated, require two regiments, or 4,000 Marines. Guided by Marine
observer aircraft, and supplemented by Marine
light bombers, warships would provide enough firepower so that Marines would not need any
heavy artillery (in contrast to the Army, which relied heavily on its artillery). Shelling defended islands was a new mission for warships. The Ellis model was officially endorsed in 1927 by the Joint Board of the Army and Navy (a forerunner of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). In 1939, during the annual
Fleet Landing Exercises, the FMF became interested in the military potential of
Andrew Higgins's design of a powered, shallow-
draught boat. These
LCVPs, dubbed the 'Higgins Boats', were reviewed and passed by the U.S. Naval
Bureau of Construction and Repair. Soon, the Higgins boats were developed to a final design with a ramp, and were produced in large numbers.
Second World War '': Troops from the U.S. 1st Division landing on Omaha beach as part of Operation Overlord By the
Second World War tactics and equipment had moved on. The first use of British landing craft in an opposed landing in the Second World War, saw the disembarkation of
French Foreign Legionnaires of the
13th Demi-Brigade and supporting French
Hotchkiss H39 tanks on the beach at
Bjerkvik, eight miles (13 km) above Narvik, on 13 May during the Norwegian campaign. The first major and successful amphibious operation was
Operation Ironclad, a British campaign to capture
Vichy French-controlled Madagascar. The naval contingent consisted of over 50 vessels, drawn from
Force H, the
British Home Fleet and the British
Eastern Fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral
Edward Neville Syfret. The fleet included the aircraft carrier
Illustrious, her sister ship
Indomitable and the aging battleship
Ramillies to cover the landings. The first wave of the
British 29th Infantry Brigade and
No. 5 Commando landed in
assault craft on 5 May 1942, follow-up waves were by two brigades of the
5th Infantry Division and Royal Marines. Air cover was provided mainly by
Fairey Albacore and
Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers which attacked Vichy shipping. Purpose-built
landing craft were among the vessels used at the evacuation from
Dunkirk (
Operation Dynamo) and an amphibious operation was tried out at
Dieppe in 1942. The operation proved a costly failure, but the lessons, hard learned, were used later. Many small-scale operations were conducted by the Allies on the Axis-held coast of Europe, including raids on the
Lofoten Islands,
St Nazaire and
Bruneval.
Specialized infantry landing craft in the
Landing Craft Assault In the run up to
World War II, many specialized landing craft, both for infantry and vehicles, were developed. In November 1938, the
Inter-Service Training and Development Centre proposed a new type of
landing craft. Eight weeks later the craft was doing trials on the Clyde. All landing craft designs must find a compromise between two divergent priorities; the qualities that make a good sea boat are opposite those that make a craft suitable for beaching. The craft had a hull built of double-diagonal
mahogany planking. The sides were plated with "10lb. DIHT" armour, a heat treated steel based on D1 steel, in this case
Hadfield's Resista ". , during training for
D-Day The
Landing Craft Assault remained the most common British and
Commonwealth landing craft of World War II, and the humblest vessel admitted to the books of the
Royal Navy on
D-Day. Prior to July 1942, these craft were referred to as "Assault Landing Craft" (ALC), but "Landing Craft; Assault" (LCA) was used thereafter to conform with the joint US–UK nomenclature system. The
Landing Craft Infantry was a stepped up
amphibious assault ship, developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than the smaller
Landing Craft Assault (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 troops, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to 15 knots. The original British design was envisioned as being a "one time use" vessel which would simply ferry the troops across the
English Channel, and were considered an expendable vessel. As such, no troop sleeping accommodations were placed in the original design. This was changed shortly after initial use of these ships, when it was discovered that many missions would require overnight accommodations. The first LCI(L)s entered service in 1943 chiefly with the Royal Navy (RN) and United States Navy. Some 923 LCI were built in ten American shipyards and 211 provided under lend-lease to the Royal Navy.
Specialized vehicle landing craft Following the
Inter-Service Training and Development Centre's (ISTDC) successful development of the infantry carrying
LCA, attention turned to the means of efficiently delivering a tank to a beach in 1938. Inquires were made of the army as to the heaviest tank that might be employed in a landing operation. The army wanted to be able to land a 12-ton tank, but the ISTDC, anticipating weight increases in future tank models specified 16
tons burthen for Mechanised Landing Craft designs. Design work began at
John I. Thornycroft Ltd. in May 1938 with trials completing in February 1940. Designated the LCT Mark 1, 20 were ordered in July 1940 and a further 10 in October 1940. The first LCT Mark 1 was launched by
Hawthorn Leslie in November 1940. It was an all-welded 372-ton steel-hulled vessel that drew only of water at the bow. Sea trials soon proved the Mark 1 to be difficult to handle and almost unmanageable in some sea conditions. The designers set about correcting the faults of the Mark 1 in the LCT Mark 2. Longer and wider, three Paxman diesel or
Napier Lion petrol engines replaced the Hall-Scotts, and 15 and 20 lb. armoured shielding was added to the wheelhouse and gun tubs. LST off-loads an
M4 Sherman during the
Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. The Mark 3 had an additional midsection that gave it a length of and a displacement of 640 tons. Even with this extra weight, the vessel was slightly faster than the Mark 1. The Mk.3 was accepted on 8 April 1941, and was prefabricated in five sections. The Mark 4 was slightly shorter and lighter than the Mk.3, but had a much wider beam () and was intended for cross channel operations as opposed to seagoing use. When tested in early assault operations, like the ill-fated Canadian commando raid on
Dieppe in 1942, the lack of manoeuvring ability led to the preference for a shorter overall length in future variants, most of which were built in the United States. When the United States entered the war in December 1941, the U.S. Navy had no amphibious vessels at all, and found itself obliged to consider British designs already in existence. One of these, advanced by K.C. Barnaby of
Thornycroft, was for a double-ended LCT to work with landing ships. The
Bureau of Ships quickly set about drawing up plans for landing craft based on Barnaby's suggestions, although with only one ramp. The result, in early 1942, was the LCT Mark 5, a 117-foot craft with a beam of 32 feet that could accommodate five 30-ton or four 40-ton tanks or 150 tons of cargo. With a crew of twelve men and one officer, this 286 ton landing craft had the merit of being able to be shipped to combat areas in three separate water-tight sections aboard a cargo ship or carried pre-assembled on the flat deck of an
LST. The Mk.5 would be launched by heeling the LST on its beam to let the craft slide off its chocks into the sea, or cargo ships could lower each of the three sections into the sea where they were joined. During this meeting, it was decided that the Bureau of Ships would design these vessels. The LST(2) design incorporated elements of the first British LCTs from their designer, Sir Rowland Baker, who was part of the British delegation. This included sufficient buoyancy in the ships' sidewalls that they would float even with the tank deck flooded. The LST(2) gave up the speed of HMS
Boxer at only 10 knots but had a similar load while drawing only 3 feet forward when beaching. In three separate acts dated 6 February 1942, 26 May 1943, and 17 December 1943, Congress provided the authority for the construction of LSTs along with a host of other auxiliaries,
destroyer escorts, and assorted
landing craft. The enormous building program quickly gathered momentum. Such a high priority was assigned to the construction of LSTs that the previously laid keel of an
aircraft carrier was hastily removed to make room for several LSTs to be built in her place. The keel of the first LST was laid down on 10 June 1942 at
Newport News, Va., and the first standardized LSTs were floated out of their building dock in October. Twenty-three were in commission by the end of 1942. Lightly armored, they could steam cross the ocean with a full load on their own power, carrying infantry, tanks and supplies directly onto the beaches. Together with 2,000 other landing craft, the LSTs gave the troops a protected, quick way to make combat landings, beginning in summer 1943.
D-Day crosses the
English Channel on 6 June 1944. The most famous amphibious assaults of the war, and of all time, were the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, in which British, Canadian, and US forces landed at
Utah,
Omaha,
Gold,
Juno and
Sword beaches in the largest amphibious operation in history. The organizational planning of the landings (
Operation Neptune) was in the hands of
Admiral Bertram Ramsay. It covered the landing of the troops and their re-supply. Many innovative elements were included in the operation to ensure its success.
Operation Pluto was a scheme developed by
Arthur Hartley, chief engineer with the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, to construct an undersea
oil pipeline under the
English Channel between
England and
France to provide logistical support to the landed armies. Allied forces on the European continent required a tremendous amount of fuel. Pipelines were considered necessary to relieve dependence on oil tankers, which could be slowed by bad weather, were susceptible to
German submarines, and were also needed in the
Pacific War.
Geoffrey William Lloyd, the Minister for Petroleum gained the support of
Admiral Mountbatten, Chief of
Combined Operations for the operation. Two types of pipeline were developed. The first type was the flexible
HAIS pipe with a () diameter lead core, weighing around 55
long tons per
nautical mile (), was essentially a development by
Siemens Brothers (in conjunction with the
National Physical Laboratory) of their existing
undersea telegraph cables, and known as HAIS (from Hartley-Anglo-Iranian-Siemens). The second type was a less flexible steel pipe of similar diameter, developed by engineers from the
Iraq Petroleum Company and the
Burmah Oil Company. Pump from Sandown on the
Isle of Wight In June 1942 the Post Office cable ship
Iris laid lengths of both Siemens' and Henleys' cable in the Clyde. The pipeline was completely successful and PLUTO was formally brought into the plans for the invasion of Europe. The project was deemed "strategically important, tactically adventurous, and, from the industrial point of view, strenuous". After full-scale testing of an 83 km (45 nautical mile) HAIS pipe across the Bristol Channel between
Swansea in
Wales and
Watermouth in
North Devon, the first line to France was laid on 12 August 1944, over the 130 km (70 nautical miles) from
Shanklin Chine on the
Isle of Wight across the English Channel to
Cherbourg Naval Base. A further HAIS pipe and two HAMELs followed. As the fighting moved closer to Germany, 17 other lines (11 HAIS and 6 HAMEL) were laid from
Dungeness to
Ambleteuse in the
Pas-de-Calais. In January 1945, 305 tonnes (300 long tons) of fuel was pumped to France per day, which increased tenfold to 3,048 tonnes (3,000 long tons) per day in March, and eventually to 4,000 tons (almost 1,000,000 Imperial gallons) per day. In total, over 781 000 m3 (equal to a cube with 92 metre long sides or over 172 million imperial gallons) of
gasoline had been pumped to the
Allied forces in Europe by
VE day, providing a critical supply of fuel until a more permanent arrangement was made, although the pipeline remained in operation for some time after.
Portable harbours were also prefabricated as temporary facilities to allow rapid offloading of cargo onto the beaches during the
Allied invasion of Normandy. The
Dieppe Raid of 1942 had shown that the
Allies could not rely on being able to penetrate the
Atlantic Wall to capture a port on the north French coast. The problem was that large ocean-going ships of the type needed to transport heavy and bulky cargoes and stores needed
sufficient depth of water under their
keels, together with
dockside cranes, to off-load their cargo and this was not available except at the already heavily defended French harbours. Thus, the Mulberries were created to provide the port facilities necessary to offload the thousands of men and vehicles, and tons of supplies necessary to sustain
Operation Overlord and the
Battle of Normandy. The harbours were made up of all the elements one would expect of any harbour:
breakwater,
piers, roadways etc. "Port Winston" in September 1944 At a meeting following the
Dieppe Raid, Vice-Admiral
John Hughes-Hallett declared that if a port could not be captured, then one should be taken across the
Channel. The concept of Mulberry harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the
Overlord planners. The proposed harbours called for many huge
caissons of various sorts to build breakwaters and piers and connecting structures to provide the roadways. The caissons were built at a number of locations, mainly existing ship building facilities or large beaches like Conwy Morfa around the British coast. The works were let out to commercial construction firms including
Balfour Beatty,
Costain,
Nuttall,
Henry Boot,
Sir Robert McAlpine and
Peter Lind & Company, who all still operate today, and
Cubitts,
Holloway Brothers,
Mowlem and
Taylor Woodrow, who all have since been absorbed into other businesses that are still operating. On completion they were towed across the English Channel by
tugs to the Normandy coast at only 4.3 Knots (8 km/h or 5 mph), built, operated and maintained by the Corps of Royal Engineers, under the guidance of Reginald D. Gwyther, who was appointed CBE for his efforts. By 9 June, just 3 days after D-Day, two harbours codenamed Mulberry "A" and "B" were constructed at
Omaha Beach and
Arromanches, respectively. However, a large storm on 19 June destroyed the American harbour at Omaha, leaving only the British harbour still intact but damaged, which included damage to the 'Swiss Roll' which had been deployed as the most western floating roadway had to be taken out of service. The surviving Mulberry "B" came to be known as
Port Winston at Arromanches. While the harbour at Omaha was destroyed sooner than expected, Port Winston saw heavy use for 8 months—despite being designed to last only 3 months. In the 10 months after D-Day, it was used to land over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tonnes of supplies providing much needed reinforcements in France.
Other Other large amphibious operations in the
European theatre of World War II and the
war in the Pacific include:
Europe: Pacific: Korean War on 15 September 1950, covered by the U.S. Navy
destroyer (bottom center). During the
Korean War the U.S.
X Corps, consisting of the
1st Marine Division and
7th Infantry Division landed at Inchon. Conceived of and commanded by U.S.
General Douglas MacArthur, this landing is considered by many military historians to have been a tactical jewel, one of the most brilliant amphibious maneuvers in history (See
analysis in main article). The success of this battle eventually resulted in link up with U.S. Army forces that broke out of the Pusan perimeter, and led by the 1st Cavalry Division and its Task Force Lynch, cleared much of South Korea. A second landing by the Tenth Corps on the east coast approached the Chosin Reservoir and hydroelectric plants that powered much of Communist China's heavy industry, and led to intervention by
Chinese forces on behalf of
North Korea. Amphibious landings also took place during the
First Indochina War, notably during
Operation Camargue, one of the largest of the conflict.
Suez Crisis and Falklands War The British
Royal Marines made their first post-World War II amphibious assault during the
Suez Crisis of 1956 when they successfully landed at
Suez on 6 November as part of a joint seaborne/airborne operation code-named
Operation Musketeer. Despite all the progress that was seen during
World War II, there were still fundamental limitations in the types of coastline that were suitable for assault. Beaches had to be relatively free of obstacles, and have the right
tidal conditions and the correct slope. However, the development of the helicopter fundamentally changed the equation. The first use of helicopters in an amphibious assault came during the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956 (the
Suez War). Two British light fleet carriers were pressed into service to carry helicopters, and a
battalion-sized airborne assault was made. Two of the other carriers involved, and , were converted in the late 1950s into dedicated "commando
carriers." Nearly 30 years later in the
Falklands War, the 1st Marines Brigade of the
Argentine Marine Corps along with
Navy's Special Forces performed
Operation Rosario landing at
Mullet Creek near
Stanley on 2 April 1982, while later the Royal Marines'
3 Commando Brigade, (augmented by the
British Army's
Parachute Regiment) landed at
Port San Carlos on 21 May 1982 during
Operation Sutton.
Landing at Cyprus The
Turkish Armed Forces launched an amphibious assault on 20 July 1974, on
Kyrenia, following the
1974 Cypriot coup d'état. The
Turkish naval force provided naval gunfire support during the landing operation and transported the amphibious forces from the port of
Mersin to the island. The Turkish landing forces consisted of around 3,000 troops, tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery pieces.
Iran-Iraq war During the
Iran–Iraq War, the Iranians launched Operation Dawn 8 (
Persian: عملیات والفجر ۸), in which 100,000 troops comprising 5 Army divisions and 50,000 men from the
IRGC and the Basij advanced in a two-pronged offensive into southern Iraq. Taking place between 9 and 25 February, the assault across the Shatt al-Arab achieved significant tactical and operational surprise. The Iranians launched their assault on the peninsula at night, their men arriving on rubber boats. Iranian Navy SEALs spearheaded the offensive despite a shortage of gear. Prior to this action Iranian Naval Commandos performed reconnaissance of the Faw Peninsula. The Iranian SEALs penetrated an obstacle belt and isolated Iraqi bunkers whose troops had taken cover from the heavy rains inside or were sleeping. Iranian demolition teams detonated charges on the obstacles to create a path for the Iranian infantry waiting to begin their assault. Not only did the amphibious landings provide a significant lodgement behind Iraq's tactical front, but they also created a psychological shock wave throughout the
Persian Gulf region. Soon after the initial landings, Iranian combat engineers were able to construct bridges to improve the flow of ground troops into the lodgement area. Iran managed to maintain their foothold in Al-Faw against several Iraqi counter-offensives and chemical attacks for another month despite heavy casualties until a stalemate was reached. The Faw Peninsula was later
recaptured by Iraqi forces, by the massive and illegal
use of chemical weapons, the same day as the US launched
Operation Praying Mantis on Iran, destroying their navy.
Persian Gulf War During the
Persian Gulf War,
Assault Craft Unit 5 was able to position U.S. Marine and naval support off the coast of
Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia. This force was composed of 40
amphibious assault ships, the largest such force to be assembled since the
Battle of Inchon. The objective was to fix the six Iraqi divisions deployed along the Kuwaiti coast. The purpose behind this amphibious maneuver (known as an amphibious demonstration) was to prevent 6 Iraqi divisions poised for the defense of the littorals from being able to actively engage in combat at the real front. The operation was extremely successful in keeping more than 41,000 Iraqi forces from repositioning to the main battlefield. As a result, the Marines maneuvered through the Iraq defense of southern Kuwait and outflanked the Iraqi coastal defense forces.
Elem War boat. During the
Sri Lankan civil war the
LTTE used amphibious warfare in some of their successful battles such as
Battle of Pooneryn in 1992 and
Second Battle of Elephant Pass in 2000 to overrun and capture Sri Lankan Army bases.
Iraq War An amphibious assault was carried out by
Royal Marines,
U.S. Marines and units of the Polish
special forces when they
landed at the
Al-Faw Peninsula on 20 March 2003 during the
Iraq War.
Invasion of Anjouan On 25 March 2008,
Operation Democracy in Comoros was launched in the
Comoros by government and African Union troops. The amphibious assault led to the ousting of Colonel Bacar's government, which had taken over the autonomous state of Adjouan.
Battle of Kismayo (2012) From 28 September to 1 October 2012, the Kenya defence Force launched an assault in conjuncture with allied forces from Africa to liberate the city of Kismayo from insurgent control in a first of its kind by an African military. The operation, known as
Operation Sledge Hammer, started with the landing of Somali and Kenyan troops outside the city of
Kismayo. By 1 October, the coalition forces were able to push
Al-Shabaab out of the city. ==See also==