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crsutton -> RE: Landing troops (7/8/2013 4:16:55 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: pompack
quote:
ORIGINAL: Roger Neilson 3
However they can be very useful for small scale, cheap landings on close islands that have little or no defences......
Roger
Actually once I crawled the whole length of NG using only small craft: landing craft for troops and PT boats for escort. As long as you can keep DDs away it's slow but fairly safe.
Which is along the lines of what the Allies actually did but with a little more support.
In the medium range is the LST-LCI landing force. These have very good endurance and can put a brigade size force and a tank unit ashore in half a day. Very useful for taking a small island base the is not heavily defended. They get the added benefit of allowing you to add the rocket and gun support LCIs to your invasion force. And, you always should use them as these craft add some nice fire support and suppression to your landings.
LSTs are invaluable as they also allow the Allies to seize and build up dot bases that have no ports but good airfield potential. Landing craft of all sized will drop supply at these bases very quickly where other ships will take too long. In the second half of the war, the ability to base just about anywhere is one of the prime strengths of the Allies over Japan.
The small LCTs and other landing craft are useful for supply at small forward bases. However, later in the war when the Allies control the air, I found them to be less useful as the Allies could easily use LSTs instead.
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