Landing Craft (Gun) Tower

Class overview
Name	Landing Craft (Gun) Tower
Builders	Derman Long & Sir Alexander Gibb
Operators	Royal Navy
Planned	Several
Completed	One, LC(G)T1
Active	None
General characteristics
Class & type	Landing Craft (Gun) Tower
Length	130 ft (40 m)
Beam	13 ft (4.0 m)
Height	50 ft (15 m) from keel to top of structure; 12.5 ft (3.8 m) from keel to main deck;
Draught	Variable
Installed power	circa 300 bhp (220 kW)
Propulsion	2 x shaft diesel engines, one to each hull, Leyland bus pattern
Complement	12
Armament	2 × 6-inch howitzer; 4 × 20mm guns;
Notes

Landing Craft (Gun) Tower, abbreviated as LC(G)T, also known as the Normandy Bombardment Tower, was a unique catamaran built in 1943. It was designed to act as a semi-mobile gun tower which could be used to out-gun any German beach defences during the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. It is described in some sources as a "semi-submersible austerity inshore monitor".^[1]

Several were originally planned, but only one was built as the design had been superseded by the various other support craft in production, such as the Landing Craft Tank (Rocket).^[1]

HMS LC(G)T 1 was never used, and was sold post-war to a company in Hong Kong, who used it as a lifting craft.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 Cocker, Maurice (2006). Coastal Forces Vessels of the Royal Navy from 1865. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-7524-3862-X.

[Cocker-1] 1 2 3 4 Cocker, Maurice (2006). Coastal Forces Vessels of the Royal Navy from 1865. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-7524-3862-X.

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