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For the United States Navy LSI class created in 1949, see Landing Craft, Infantry.
LCAs leave HMS Rocksand, a Landing Ship, Infantry, for the island of Nancowry in the British occupation of the Nicobar Islands, October 1945
Class overview
NameLanding Ship, Infantry
Operatorslist error: <br /> list (help)
 Royal Navy
United KingdomMinistry of War Transport
Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Indian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
Preceded byAvailable battleships, cruisers, destroyers
Succeeded byLanding Ship Logistics
Built1938–1945
Completed~40
Active0
General characteristics
TypeLanding Ship, Infantry
RangeSmaller ships were short sea vessels while larger ones were transoceanic.
TroopsBetween 150 and 1,500 troops according to size.
CrewBetween 120 to 300 officers and ratings according to size.
ArmamentVarious anti-aircraft guns according to theatre and ships’s size.
ArmourLSIs had no armour, but sometimes employed anti-splinter mattresses and gun shields.

Landing Ship, Infantry or LSI was a designation used for a number of types of vessels used to transport landing craft and troops in amphibious warfare during the Second World War. LSIs were operated by the Royal Navy, British Merchant Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Indian Navy, and Royal Australian Navy. They transported British Commonwealth and other Allied troops in sea assaults and invasions throughout the war.

Typically, a Landing Ship, Infantry would transport its cargo of infantry from its embarkation port to a point close to the coast to be invaded. This location (known as a "Transport Area" in US Navy Task Force, or "Lowering Position" in a Royal Navy Task Force) was approximately 6–11 miles off shore (11 miles was amphibious doctrine for the USN by mid-war, while the RN tended to accept the risks associated with drawing nearer shore). The troops would then transfer to landing craft, most commonly Landing Craft, Assault, for the journey to the beach. A small LSI would displace around 3,000 gross registered tons and could carry up to 800 troops. The largest LSI(L) could carry 1,800 troops and would need 20 or so landing craft for that number.

Origins

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In the years immediately before war was declared, the Inter-Service Training and Development Centre, sought to identify ships suitable to carry Army and Royal Marine formations employed in amphibious assaults. These ships need to be fast and have davits capable of lowering the new Landing Craft Assault fully loaded with troops.[1] Glengyle and her sisters, Glenearn, Glenroy, and Breconshire, then abuilding, were determined to be ideal for infantry landing ships.[2] This class of four fast passenger and cargo liners were intended for the Far East trade route.[3] The Admiralty acquired Glengyle shortly after her launch, and she was converted into a fast supply ship.

Design and conversion

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LSIs were grouped according to their troop capacity and endurance. [4] Initially, all were requisitioned merchant vessels that exchanged carrying lifeboats for landing craft. [5] Glengyle was built by Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Dundee, for the Glen Line. The only vital alterations to the 18 knot “Glengyle” and her sisters, “Glenroy” and Glenearn”, were to assure davits strong enough to lower fully loaded LCAs, and to provide accommodation for the army units to be transported.[6] During April and June 1940, she underwent further conversion into an LSI capable of transporting an embarked force of up to 34 officers and 663 other ranks and carrying 12 LCAs on Welin-McLachan davits and 1 LCM(1) stored in chocks on deck and launched by 30-ton derricks.[7][8][9] She was accepted into service on 10 September and, on 31 January 1941, Glengyle sailed around Africa to the Mediterranean.

Smaller LSI were generally converted cross-channel ferries, a similar ship of that size[10] or a converted passenger ship.[11] Conversion was accomplished by adding davits for the landing craft plus some defensive armament, such as QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval guns, and anti-aircraft guns, such as the 20 mm Oerlikon cannon.

In Canada in the spring of 1943, work was under way on the conversion of HMCS Prince David and HMCS Prince Henry to Landing Ship Infantry (Medium) LSI (M). They were reconfigured to carry 550 infantrymen transported in six LCAs and two LCM(1)s, and have large sick-bay facilities for the anticipated casualties. Their old 6-inch (152 mm) guns were replaced with two twin 4 inch mountings, two single bofors, and ten oerlikons. The rebuilding, which took place at Esquimalt and Vancouver, was completed in December 1943 and shortly after re-commissioning, she left for the U.K. via Cristobal and New York, under Captain T.D. Kelly RCNR, (her final commanding officer) who had supervised the fitting-out of both ships.

 
A second section of infantrymen preparing to go ashore from H.M.C.S. PRINCE DAVID off Bernières-sur-Mer, France, 6 June 1944.

In Australia in mid-1942, HMAS Manoora was marked for conversion into the Royal Australian Navy's first Landing Ship, Infantry at Garden Island Dockyard.[12] Her armed merchant cruiser armament was removed and replaced with a single 12-pounder gun, six 40 mm Bofors, and eight 20 mm Oerlikons.[13] The Walrus amphibian was removed, and the ship was modified to carry landing craft: 17 LCVPs, and two LCM(3)s.[13][14] Manoora was initially able to accomadate 850 soldiers, but later modifications increased this to 1,250.[13] The ship was recommissioned on 2 February 1943 with the pennant number C77, and after spending six months on amphibious warfare training in Port Phillip, was deployed to New Guinea.[15]

Manning the Landing Ship, Infantry

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Some of the LSIs were commissioned into the Royal Navy, received navy crews, and flew the White Ensign, while most retained their civilian crews and flew the Red Ensign. [16] Royal Navy LSIs had Royal Navy landing craft flotillas assigned to them until 1943, when a proportion of landing craft flotillas were manned by Royal Marine crews. Merchant Navy LSIs would have Royal Navy gunners for the anti-aircraft equipment, and Royal Navy officers and ratings operating the ship’s flotilla of landing craft. [17] Generally, these divisions of personnel did not cooperate or share in each others’ work responsibilities.

LSIs in Royal Canadian Navy service were crewed by Canadians and, by late 1943 on, were assigned RCN landing craft flotillas. The crews intermingled, lent a hand as needed in one another’s work, and messed together.

Ship designations

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LSI(S) Landing Ship, Infantry (Small)
LSI(M) Landing Ship, Infantry (Medium)
LSI(L) Landing Ship, Infantry (Large)
LSI(H) Landing Ship, Infantry (Hand-hoisting)

Ships

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See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Landing Ship, Infantry.

Notes and Citations

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  1. ^ Maund, p. 9.
  2. ^ Maund, p. 9
  3. ^ Fergusson, p. 41
  4. ^ Bruce, p. 16.
  5. ^ Bruce, p. 16.
  6. ^ Maund, p. 10.
  7. ^ Ladd,1976 p. 78
  8. ^ Maund, p. 66
  9. ^ Ladd, 1978, p. 245
  10. ^ "The Heritage Coast: Landing Craft". theheritagecoast.co.uk. 2003. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  11. ^ Mason, Geoffrey B. (2010). "HMS Royal Scotsman, LSI(L)". naval-history.net. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  12. ^ Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, pp. 218–9
  13. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Bastock217 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference SPCA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, pp. 218–9
  16. ^ Bruce, p. 17.
  17. ^ Bruce, p. 17.
  18. ^ "SS EL HIND". clydesite.co.uk. 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  19. ^ "HMS Nemesis". scribd.com. 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  20. ^ Groenenberg, Joanne (24 November 2004). "Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Press Releases". mcanet.mcga.gov.uk. Retrieved 13 February 2011.

References

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  • Bruce, Colin J. Invaders, Chatham Publishing, London, 1999. ISBN 1-84067-533-0
  • Buffetaut, Yves. D-Day Ships, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1994. ISBN 1-55750-152-1
  • Fergusson, Bernard. The Watery Maze; The Story of Combined Operations, Holt, New York, 1961.
  • Ladd, JD. Assault From the Sea: 1939–1945, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, 1976. ISBN 0-88254-392-X
  • Ladd, James D. Commandos and Rangers of World War 2, Macdonalds and Jane's, London, 1978. ISBN 0-356-08432-9.
  • Ladd, JD. Royal Marine Commando, Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., London, 1982. ISBN 0-600-34203-4
  • Lavery, Brian. Assault Landing Craft, Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, UK, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84832-050-5
  • Lund, Paul, and Ludlam, Harry. War of the Landing Craft, New English Library, London 1976. ISBN 0-450-03039-3
  • Maund, LEH. Assault From the Sea, Methuen & Co. Ltd., London 1949.
  • Saunders, Hilary A. St. George. Combined Operations: The Official Story of the Commandos, New York: Macmillan, 1943.
  • US Navy ONI 226. Allied Landing Craft and Ships, US Government Printing Office, 1944.
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Category:Ship types Category:British Commando Transport Ships Category:1940s ships

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