[PDF] American Amphibious Gunboats In World War Ii eBook

Author : Robin L. Rielly
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 407 pages
File Size : 19,40 MB
Release : 2013-05-13
Category : History
ISBN : 078647422X

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As the United States began its campaign against numerous Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, Japanese tactics required them to develop new weapons and strategies. One of the most crucial to the island assaults was a new group of amphibious gunboats that could deliver heavy fire close in to shore as American forces landed. These gunboats were also to prove important in the interdiction of inter-island barge traffic and, late in the war, the kamikaze threat. Several variations of these gunboats were developed, based on the troop carrying LCI(L). They included three conversions of the LCI(L), with various combinations of guns, rockets and mortars, and a fourth gunboat, the LCS(L), based on the same hull but designed as a weapons platform from the beginning. By the end of the war the amphibious gunboats had proven their worth.

Author : Greg H. Williams
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 365 pages
File Size : 43,45 MB
Release : 2014-01-10
Category : History
ISBN : 1476600406

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During World War II, the U.S. Navy swiftly expanded to include an array of vessels, from smaller yachts and fishing boats bought early in the war for patrol work to fast, modern commercial ships built to haul troops and supplies. After the Allied victory, this diverse fleet became unnecessary and the Navy sold many of its vessels. This comprehensive catalog documents the Navy ships and boats sold after the war and registered under the American flag for commercial or recreational purposes. Focusing on those vessels with names or clearly identifiable hull numbers and crew accommodations, it chronicles each craft's prewar ownership, wartime history, and postwar fate. The product of painstaking detective work in a wide range of primary sources, this meticulous directory highlights an unexplored but illuminating aspect of U.S. maritime history.

Author : John A. Lorelli
Publisher : US Naval Institute Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 17,52 MB
Release : 1995
Category : History
ISBN :

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Most other books on the subject have been written from the perspective of the landing forces. This account describes the whole spectrum of modern seaborne assaults. It covers ships and landing craft, ship-to-shore movement, command relationships, air and gunfire support, mine countermeasures, salvage, and much more.

Author : Gary J Ohls
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 21,99 MB
Release : 2017-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1682470903

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American Amphibious Warfare offers analysis of the early amphibious landing operations from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. Through a case study approach, the operational and strategic significance of each action is analyzed and its impact on the development of the United States is assessed. By focusing on seven major campaigns, Gary J. Ohls provides readers with a richer appreciation of the origins of American amphibious warfare. For many Americans, the concept of amphibious warfare derives from the World War II model in which landing forces assaulted foreign shores and faced determined resistance. These actions usually resulted in very high casualty rates, yet they proved uniformly successful. The circumstances of geography coupled with the weapons and equipment available at that time dictated this type of warfare. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no such equipment or weapons existed for assaulting defended beaches. Commanders attempted to land their forces in areas where the resistance would be light or nonexistent. The initiative and maneuverability inherent in naval forces permitted the delivery of combat power to the point of attack faster that the land-based defenders could react. Ohls explains how amphibious traditions began in this era and shows how they compare with modern amphibious forces, particularly the tactics of today’s U.S. Marine Corps. The author makes a compelling case for a continuing tradition of American amphibious warfare learned and honed through a set of key battles and carried forward. Further, Ohls argues that the Marine Corps is the true inheritor of this warfare tradition formed in early America, concluding that weapons and equipment, coupled with new doctrine, actually allow modern forces to return to the sort of amphibious tactics and operations practiced more than two centuries ago. Both a work of history as well as an analysis of operational conflict, this study should please readers looking for a clearer understanding of U.S. amphibious operations. Since the concepts presented in this book continue to serve as excellent tools for both the professional officer and the analytical historian, American Amphibious Warfare as a whole provides a much-needed comprehensive history of naval and military warfare.

Author : Sandra V. McGee
Publisher : Amphibious Operations in the S
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,26 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : 9780970167880

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Award-winning author William L. McGee has gathered under one cover an edited collection of the best works by noted military historians on the importance of military logistics in World War II. "Pacific Express" is on the Marine Corps Commandant's Professional List and is required reading for active duty and reserve Marines on the subject of Logistics.

Author : Walter G. Winslow
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
Page : 307 pages
File Size : 17,92 MB
Release : 2014-08-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1612512933

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The dramatic tale of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet in World War II received little attention prior to the publication of this book in 1982, when Winslow chronicled their short and tragic story of heroism and defeat.Greatly outnumbered by vastly superior forces, and saddled with defective equipment; a lack of supplies, reinforcements, and air cover; and, towards the end, an incompetent and bungled Allied combined command, the Asiatic fleet met the Japanese head-on. Within a matter of three months, however, the beleaguered ships were totally wiped out. Captain Walter Winslow, a naval aviator on board the USS Houston, flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, was in a unique position to tell the riveting story. As an active participant in all the major battles the fleet engaged in, he had an intimate understanding of the calamities that befell it. In addition, he drew upon the his own extensive notes he kept from a POW camp while interviewing other American, British, Dutch, and Australian prisoners from the Allied fleet. Winslow also painstakingly tracked down war documents and battle reports from all the ships assigned to the fleet to paint a complete picture filled with graphic details of the fleet’s only victory at Balikpapan; the disastrous Battle of the Java Sea that broke the back of the combined Asiatic fleet; the ghastly spectacle at Sunda Strait where the Houston struggled to survive; the suspenseful episode in the submarine Perch trapped in the mud at the bottom of the sea; and the daring escape from Corregidor of eighteen crewmembers from the USS Quail who refused to surrender to the Japanese forces.

Author : Gordon L. Rottman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 130 pages
File Size : 12,49 MB
Release : 2012-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1782004564

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The US armed forces were responsible for many tactical innovations during the years 1941–45, but in no field was US mastery more complete than amphibious warfare. In the vast, almost empty battlefield of the Pacific the US Navy and Marine Corps were obliged to develop every aspect of the amphibious assault landing in painstaking detail, from the design of many new types of vessel, down to the tactics of the rifle platoon hitting the beach, and the logistic system without which they could not have fought their way inland. This fascinating study offers a clear, succinct explanation of every phase of these operations as they evolved during the war years, illustrated with detailed color plates and photographs.

Author : Alexandra Lohse
Publisher : U.S. Government Printing Office
Page : 64 pages
File Size : 37,35 MB
Release : 2018
Category : Operation Torch, 1942
ISBN : 9781943604296

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Published as part of an ongoing World War II 75th anniversary commemoration, this monograph succinctly covers Operation Torch, the U.S. amphibious invasion of French North Africa in November 1942. Torch was also the first U.S. amphibious operation in this theater and provided a number of lessons learned for both U.S. Navy and U.S. Army for future joint and combined endeavors. A series of vignettes that accompany the main text gives biographical details of key U.S. commanders and provides background details of significant naval vessels of the Torch invasion fleet. Operation Torch directly led to the defeat of Axis forces in North Africa and set the stage for later landings in Italy and, eventually, German-occupied France. Related products: World War II resources collection: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/world-war-ii Other products published by the U.S. Navy, Naval History and Heritage Command can be found here: https: //bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/naval-history-heritage-command

Author : Theodore R Treadwell
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 35,36 MB
Release : 2013-11-12
Category : History
ISBN : 1612513646

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Hastily built at the onset of World War II to stop German U-boats from taking their toll on Allied shipping, the 110-foot wooden subchasers were the smallest commissioned warships in the U.S. Navy, yet they saw as much action as ships ten times their size. In every theater of war these “expendable” workhorses of the fleet escorted countless convoys of slow-moving ships through submarine-infested waters, conducted endless mind-numbing antisubmarine patrols, and were used in hundreds of amphibious operations. Some subchasers worked as gunboats to search for and destroy enemy barges. Others rescued downed airmen and retrieved drowning soldiers under heavy enemy fire. During the German occupation of Norway, three American-built subchasers and their Norwegian crews came to be known as “The Shetlands Bus” for their clandestine work as ferries—the only link between Norway and the free world. This book, written by the commander of one of the subchasers, defines their place in naval history and gives readers a taste of life on board the wooden warships. Ringing with authenticity, it describes the cramped quarters and unforgiving seas as well as the tenacious courage and close bonds formed by the men as they sought out the enemy and confronted nature. Long overshadowed by the larger, faster warships and more glamorous PT boats of World War II, subchasers have been mostly forgotten. This work restores the plucky little ships to their hard-earned status as significant members of the fleet.

Author : Nicholas A. Veronico
Publisher : Zenith Press
Page : 168 pages
File Size : 27,44 MB
Release : 2001
Category : History
ISBN : 9780760309544

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Battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, PT boats and landing craft are all featured in this look back at U.S. Navy prowess in World War II. Rare color photography from the war years, as well as a selection of black-and-white shots, illustrate a compelling text that features anecdotes and memories from officers and sailors who served with the U.S. Navy in all theaters of the war. In addition to profiling the service histories, specifications, armaments and fate of vessels like the battleship USS Missouri, the cruiser USS Indianapolis and the carrier USS Hornet, to name a few, this book also serves as a valuable chronicle of navy life during the war.