LVTs for Overlord

[CJGibson]

Anybody come across a reason why LVTs (Alligators, Buffalos, AMTRACs) were not used in greater numbers for Overlord? The line is that the DD tanks were the best vehicles for beach assaults, but would LVTs have made a difference if they'd been used offensively rather that logistically? (apart from not sinking and reaching the beaches, obviously)

They were introduced for Op Torch and were in use in the Pacific for beach assaults, so why not at Normandy.

Beach defences? Beach geomorphology? Pacific Theatre given priority?

They were famously used on the Rhine crossing (600!) and in the Scheldt Campaign, so would they have made a difference for Overlord?

You might ask. Ah, CJ, why the tangential question?. Not your usual area of interest. Curiosity got the better of me in Kew the other week.

Chris

 

[phil gollin]

.

The standard answer is that the US would not release any.

However, what would they be used for ? The LCAs and LCVPs were more seaworthy, and the LVTs would not be able to take the troops further than the sea walls. The LVT's armour was too poor to act as strongpoints.

The DDs were available in numbers, although in HINDSIGHT the training should have been better and in a perfect world more LCTs with wading equipped tanks would probably been just as good.

 

[Abingdon]

The US Army had about 300 LVT in the UK in early 1944. There were a handful used on D-Day, and there are photos of them on Omaha Beach late in the day. The lack of use was probably due to parochialism among the ETO planners. There was a general lack of knowledge of Pacific Theater tactics, which is why Eisenhower had Collins and Corlett brought back from the PTO (to little avail). Corlett in his memoirs complained bitterly about the lack of interest in Pacific tactics among the COSSAC staff. The use of LVT-1 during Op. Torch seems to have been largely forgotten. They were not used at Sicily/Salerno/Anzio.

 

[CJGibson]

'Not invented here' as usual.

What tweaked my curiosity is a project that was to use a box of HE on hydraulic rams, fixed to the front of an LVT.2. This wss radio-controlled and was intended to drve off an LST, land on the beach, drive up to the beach wall , push the box against it and detonate.

The Admiralty were quite keen.

Chris

 

[Abingdon]

The US Navy didn't use the RC LVT during Operation Dragoon (southern France 15 Aug 44), but they did use at least a dozen of the radio-controlled Apex drones based on LCVP filled with high explosives for clearing beach obstructions. They were not very successful.