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Tarawa-Wasp Class Assault Ships (Warships In Action 4027) By John Gourley

From the earliest days of warfare, attacks from the sea usually were limited and generally ineffective due to logistical problems and a lack of equipment suited to the task. Coastlines were accepted as barriers to any attempts to wage war by using the oceans to stage, assemble, and deploy troops against an enemy.

As technology and tactics evolved, often under fire, invasion from the sea became a useful option, because it forced the enemy to dedicate assets to shore defense. This in turn reduced the number of troops available on shore and inland. Used in combination with land forces, amphibious attacks aided in wearing down the overall resistance an enemy could muster, as he now had to defend on twp fronts.

As the tactics of amphibious warfare evolved in the United States in the late 1930s, the technology also began to improve. Ships were modified or constructed to cam large numbers of troops and the landing craft that would take the troops ashore under hostile fire. Other ships were necessary for the transportation of the ever-increasing supplies required for the effective conduct of modern warfare for sustained periods. Everything had to go by sea — tanks, artillery, ammunition, clothing, food, water — and everything had to be correctly loaded so that the most important items could be unloaded first for deployment in the field. Landing craft were improved with newly designed hull shapes that allowed them to beach on the shore for unloading, then extract themselves to return to the convoy for restocking of equipment and supplies. Landing craft also were given armor plate to protect tnxips against small arms fire as they were taken ashore in waves while the objectives were being neutralized.

The mention of amphibious warfare tactics inevitably reminds one of the images of troops wad­ing ashore under fire at the beaches of Normandy. France, on 6 June 1944 — the famous D-Day' invasion. Such operations in the latter half of the Twentieth Century were a valued and tried method of attacking enemy forces where coastlines existed. After the initial assault secured a toehold on land, the succeeding waves of troops were able to expand deeper inland as transport ships beached themselves to unload heavv equipment under the protection of friendly air and naval fire support. Supplies were then unloaded and rushed to the front-line soldiers in contact with hostile forces.

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