Amphibious operations

[PMN1]

US Amphibious Ships and Craft: An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman

Page 624

The British had actually considered converting merchant ships to carry tanks for a projected 1918 assault on Zeebrugge in Belgium. According to Lt. Comdr. The Hon. J. M. Kenworth, Sailors, Statesmen – And Others: An Autobiography, the Admiralty war staff proposed 'to fit out old merchant ships too carry a dozen tanks each in their holds. The bows were to be reconstituted in such a way that they would run up on the beach in the known state of the tide….Slung up in the forepart of each vessel was to be a kind of drawbridge which would be lowered into the shallows and the tanks would trundle into the shallow water and ashore'. This proposal was ultimately rejected, but it was surely widely known within the war staff, and to the commander of the Zeebrugge attack, Adm. Sir Roger Keyes.

Has anyone seen any kind of plans for the conversion?

[PMN1]

From 'Amphibious Operations: The Projection of Sea Power Ashore' by Colonel M.H.H. Evans - one of the Brassey's Sea Power series of books

Admiral Fisher contemplated the establishment of a flotilla of suitable craft for landings, but few were built. There was no support for a proposal in 1905 that the Royal Marines should form a force in readiness, trained to disembark rapidly on a hostile shore.

Does anyone have any idea what kind of ships were proposed?

[SiegeGunner]

The proposal was for a landing north of the existing front line and south of Ostend (around Middelkerke). The plan was devised by Admiral Bacon, commanding the Dover Patrol, in conjunction with the BEF's plans for a breakout beyond Passchendaele, and was not rejected but was never implemented because the Army was unable to reach its objectives on land.

The source you quote seems to describe a mixture of Bacon's plans for a direct assault on the port of Zeebrugge, which involved, inter alia, butting a modified monitor with a ramp onto the head of the Mole and discharging assault troops, and his plans for the 'Great Landing' on the open shore some miles to the south, which involved enormous landing pontoons loaded with tanks, troops and other equipment, each pushed by two monitors. A division went into secret training on the French coast for this proposed operation and one of the landing pontoons was constructed and tested. Trials were also carried out with specially-designed ramps to enable tanks to climb the sea wall. This project would, of course, have been known to Roger Keyes, but pre-dated his involvement and command in that theatre.

Pics from Bacon's 'Dover Patrol':

[PMN1]

From John Terraine's 'Business in Great Waters'

'In September 1916, he (Sir Reginald Bacon) had been highly receptive to Haig's idea of 'special flat-bottomed boats for running ashore and landing a line of Tanks on the beach.'

Does anyone know what Bacon proposed, the use of the word 'boats' suggests something other than the pontoons that were built for Operation Hush.

[PMN1]

The Great Landing shows some very interesting ideas, there is a good article on it here

http://www.ijnhonline.org/volume1_number1_...02/pdf_page.pdf

[SiegeGunner]

From John Terraine's 'Business in Great Waters'

'In September 1916, he (Sir Reginald Bacon) had been highly receptive to Haig's idea of 'special flat-bottomed boats for running ashore and landing a line of Tanks on the beach.'

Does anyone know what Bacon proposed, the use of the word 'boats' suggests something other than the pontoons that were built for Operation Hush.

I think it should be 'Haig was highly receptive to Bacon's idea ...' Haig was certainly enthusiastic about the idea of getting tanks up onto the esplanade. The 'boats' referred to were the landing pontoons - their design, in particular their graduated draught (and the research that went into calculating it for the conditions), is described in Chris Page's excellent article. An important part of the plan was concealing the true purpose of the pontoons by representing them as additions to the port facilities at Dunkirk - something that could not have been done with a fleet of smaller landing lighters (landing craft).

[PMN1]

From D K Brown's 'The Grand Fleet'

In February 1915 an urgent requirement was stated for a shallow-draft, self-propelled lighter to land troops, guns and horses over a shelving beach. The design was completed in four days for a craft 105ft 6in long and a draught light of 3ft 6in, deep 6ft 6in (1ft stern trim in each case) with corresponding displacements of 160 and 310 tons. They were powered by any diesel available, mostly Bolander with power ranging from 40 to 90bhp and giving speeds of 5-7kts.

The hold was 60ft long with a full-length hatch 8ft wide with a ramp 7ft wide at the fore end. Two hundred were ordered and the first were completed 10 weeks later, 50 per cent by the end of March and almost all by the end of August. Twenty more of a modified – smaller – design was ordered in February 1916 together with twenty-five similar dumb lighters. The X-lighter was regarded as very successful and used for a variety of tasks until well after the Second World War.

Weblink to piccies here

http://xlighter.org/index.html

With spoon-shape bow to take the steep shelving beaches, and a drop down brow (ramp). Dimensions were length 105-6" breadth 21'-0" (ex rubbers) depth 7'-6" with a light displacement of 135 tons, internal cubic capacities @ 1 ton = 100 cubic feet. Hull construction was based on River Thames, barge building, and was of a parallel bottom, over 60% of its length. Wooden supports, halter ropes etc were fitted to those vessels arranged to carry horses, a separate plan was for the hold and disembarking gangways and another plan for the carpenter for the gun platform, on completed vessels, the portable gun screens were supplied but the .303 Vickers Maxim gun of Army pattern was not fitted, due to shortage of supply.

Heavy oil engines, mainly Bolinder, with Skandia, Avance and Campbell were fitted depending on availability. Pollocks were the British agents from 1910 for the Swedish J & C.G. Bolinder engines for over 20 years. Most lighters were single screw, but to use the available lower power units, some were twin screw, total brake horsepower per lighter varied between 40 and 92, giving a speed of 5-7 knots. 27 yards in the N.E. England and 3 on the Clyde were appointed to construct the 200 lighters.

Does anyone know if anyone thought about using the ramp used in WW2 landing craft rather than the spoon-shaped bow?