The Ill Fated LCT(A) and Royal Marines Tanks of RMASG on D day
- Si Biggs
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
In July 1940, Churchill began to prod the Ministry of Supply – his memorandum of 7th July reads `What is being done about designing and planning vessels to transport tanks across the sea for a British attack on enemy countries?’
The design was given to a young Naval Constructor, Mr. Roland Baker. Fortunately for the Navy, Baker happened to be the ideal man for the job, a constructor with an inventive mind, exuberant spirit and no respecter of rank.
Within three days he had produced a sketch design for Landing Craft Tank, Mark 1. It could carry three forty ton tanks at 10 knots, discharging them through its bows over a ramp.
By November that year the first LCT lay on the slipway at the Fairfield Shipyard, Glasgow.
The whole concept of amphibious warfare was to be revolutionized by the advent of these new landing craft. From this small beginning in late 1940, the number of LCTs constructed in Britain was to swell to a figure of over 1,200 by 1945.
There is a cryptic entry in my diary for December 2nd 1943 – `All British Major Landing Craft dumped on me – LCT1, 2, 3 and 4. LCF, LCT(R), and LCG(L)’. The support craft were all converted LCTs and from the design point of view, the most interesting of the landing craft family; except for the first LCG(L)s they were well designed and were extremely successful.
Immediately after being dumped with all British Major Landing Craft, the entire weekend was spent on the design of an extraordinary improvised support craft using the American LCT5.
For this craft, I had a profound contempt, as it was simply a glorified pontoon with a ramp at one end and the machinery and accommodation at the other.
Actually LCT5's did good service in the Pacific. This support craft, which was a bit of a monster, was known as LCT(A) – the A being for Armoured – which gave no clue to their function whatsoever.
The role of the LCT(A), which was fitted with 50 tons of side armour was to mount two outmoded Centaur tanks, the after one being mounted on a platform. In order to gain more space for ammunition, the engines of the tanks were to be removed.
The tanks carried in LCT(A)s were to be manned by the Royal Marines – the Marines’ task was to man the 95mm howitzers mounted in the Centaurs. Their role was to fire the guns during the run-in, beach and then supply artillery support in the early stages of the landing.
In January 1944 General Montgomery was appointed to the command of the British 21st Army Group and was given operational control of allied land forces in the assault phase. Montgomery very soon started altering the invasion plans; he declared that `the initial landings must be made on the widest possible front’.
This increased the requirement for landing craft and it was therefore decided that the invasion be postponed from May to June, thus gaining another month’s production of landing craft and an additional 70 landing craft were ordered from the traditional shipyards at the expense of warship production.
General Montgomery was not impressed with the role of the RM Support Craft Regiment – he decided that once the tanks had reached Normandy, they must go ashore and fight.
This certainly changed the LCT(A) design idea, but it was nothing compared with the changes Montgomery’s idea caused the Marines. If the tanks were to remain mobile, then the Marines would have to drive them, and fight them ashore as self-propelled artillery.
Liaison with the Marines was made easier by virtue of their headquarters being close to Bath – at one stage, the Marines were anxious to get rid of some of their surplus tanks to the LCT(A)s. I was asked to contact Devonport Dockyard to check if they were ready to receive the four tanks for the two LCT(A)s they were converting.
The Manager of the Constructive Department readily informed me that they would be happy to receive the tanks, so I promptly gave the Marines the green light and the four Centaurs trundled off to Devonport.
The story of the LCT (Armoured), is unfortunately not a happy one, although the Royal Marines showed all their characteristic courage and enterprise. The heavy armour was a bad mistake, and they were unlucky – some foundered on passage, some broke down at sea, others were damaged by underwater obstacles.
On all five beaches, only twenty out of eighty tanks landed within the first quarter of an hour after H Hour, and only twenty eight more landed within the next four hours. The truth is that the LCT(A)s were overloaded, and in the prevailing weather were unseaworthy. [1]
The US Navy LCT(A)'s also had problems;
Sometime in late 1943, the planners of Overlord decided they needed more close in firepower. They may have been influenced by the British, especially General Montgomery.
As a result the U.S. Navy Gunfire Support Group was formed. The group consisted of LCGs, LCRs, and LCT(A)s. The LCGs and LCRs were converted British landing craft, respectively, fitted with various guns and rocket launchers. These did not beach; their mission was close in gunfire support. The LCT(A)s were US built LCTs, which were lend-leased to the British for the Mediterranean operations. They were "reverse lend-leased" to the US for Normandy.
These LCTs were returned to the UK and sent to various British shipyards to be converted to LCT(A)s-the "A" for "Armored". A "2" was added to the original hull number-therefore my built in Manitowoc, WI, USS LCT124 became USS LCT(A) 2124.
Armor was added so these LCT(A)s could go into the beach at H Hour with firepower from two tanks. A wooden ramp of heavy timbers was built so the two tanks side by side up forward could fire going into the beach. The ramp raised them high enough so they could fire over the bow ramp. A last minute problem developed when ramp extenders were added that in an extended position would prevent firing over the ramp. If retracted during the run to the beach, crewmembers (under fire) would need to flip them to the extended position upon landing. With Yankee ingenuity the 2124 had some wooden wedges made so that the bow ramp could be lowered sufficiently-yet secured-to allow the tanks to fire over the bow ramp extensions.
A third tank was fitted with a bulldozer blade to knock down low masonry wall on the beach.The armor consisted of a two-inch armor plate across the crew quarters aft of the tank deck. The Mark 5 LCT had a hatch from the tank deck to the crew quarters. On these 26 LCT(A)s this hatch was covered by the armor plate so that all access to the crew quarters was by a hatch and ladder from the wheelhouse.
To protect crewmembers stationed forward during the landing, one-inch armor plating was wrapped around the bows. Some concrete type armor was placed around the wheelhouse.The three tanks plus the added armor made for very little freeboard while crossing the channel.
We also carried the Army Engineers and the Navy Combat Demolition crew who were responsible for clearing a path through the obstacles on the beach. We towed their LCM across the channel and transferred them to it a few miles from the beach.We also streamed some makeshift minesweeping gear-paravanes tethered to our stern with manila lines-to clear a mine free path for the landing crafts that would follow.
We carried a radar reflector so that the gun-fire support ships could monitor the first wave's progress to the beach We also switched on a device that was supposed to jam the German fire control radar.
The tanks we carried were attached to Company A, 743rd Tank Battalion.My belief that the Gunfire Support Group was a somewhat late addition
To the Normandy invasion plan is supported by the fact that our small boat flotilla at Little Creek ATB, my original assignment, had practically completed its training when we were suddenly given a few days familiarization with LCTs and sent to the US Navy Base II in Scotland in January, 1944.
We waited in Scotland while our respective crafts were being refitted In the UK. My LCT(A) 2124 was converted in a shipyard on the Thames near London. We accepted the craft from the British on April 5, 1944. Neither my crew nor I had seen a LCT(A) before then.
Other of the ~6 LCT(A)s were completed sooner and some later--some made it just in time for the invasion. I was fortunate that I could participate in both the dress rehearsals at Slapton Sands. I substituted for another craft that was not completed in the 1Tiger" rehearsal for Utah beach and took my assigned spot in "Fabius", the rehearsal for Omaha beach.
16 of the LCT(A)s were assigned to Omaha beach and eight to Utah beach.
While on the beach, a shore battery placed at least 10 shells of about 57mm caliber into the 2124. The most serious problem was punctured fuel wing tanks and loss of the anchor as a shell severed the anchor cable. We did retract but lost power about a mile from the beach because of saltwater in the fuel. Switching fuel tanks got us going again, and with a strong list to starboard, we spent the next week in unloading operations. [3]
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References/ Further Reading:
[1] British Landing Craft of World War II - Naval Historical Society of Australia
[3] LCT(A)s In Normandy at H-Hour on D-Day - By Edwin L. Kaufmann, Ensign Officer-in-Charge US LCT(A) 2124 (WW2 LCT.Org)
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