I'm looking for more information about this landing craft that the USN Higgins Boat [LCVP] was based on. Can any one tell me when it was built?
Quote:
“Daihatsu Landing Craft “
The 46 ft type
Dimensions: 47 3/4 X 11 X 2 1/2 ft
Machinery: Type A; 1-60 H.P. Army Diesel = 7 knots
Type AB; 1-60 H.P. high speed diesel = 7 1/2 knots
Type B; 1 -80 H.P. Navy petrol motor = 8 knots
Type C; 2-Automobile 40 H.P. petrol motors = 8 knots
Type D; 1 -60 H.P. high speed diesel = 8 knots
Type E; 1 - 150 H.P. diesel = 8 1/2 knots
Armament 2 - 7.7 mm, or 2 - 25 mm A.A. (1 X 2) or 3 - 25mm A.A. (1 X 3)
Cargo: 1 tank or 70 men or 10 tons of cargo
Number Built: 3229
There is also a 42 1/2 ft type, a 33 ft type and a 49 ft type.”
http://www.merriam-press.com/mono_200/m214-ex.htm
Preface
Japanese landing craft consisted in the main of small motor propelled boats. The Dai Hatsu type, a fourteen-meter boat with double bow and raised ramp, constituted about eighty-five per cent of the total number. It was used for landing small tanks, guns, material or troops. With other variants of the type, these boats were used for ferrying from transports anchored in deep water to beachheads. For a large scale landing, they were carried in a Dai Hatsu transport, similar to and probably used as an escort carrier at other times.
The Japanese Navy had special fast landing craft for sporadic raiding and supply purposes, via the Nito Yusokan, a fast tank landing craft capable of 22 knots which carried four Dai Hatsu on the stern.
The Japanese Army had in addition a number of freak assault craft, which do not appear to have played any significant part in World War II, and have not, therefore, been covered.
The division of responsibility between the Japanese fighting services in landing operations was unusual. The Navy provided escort craft and conducted the invasion force to the pre-selected anchorage. From then on the Army took over completely. All the landing craft and ships used for landing troops and their equipment were designed and built under Army supervision, and were wholly manned by Army personnel. The Army maintained a special design and experimental staff at the Tenth Technical Research Laboratory, Murotsu, which, in addition to designing landing craft and ships, produced submarines for transport and minelaying, underwater forts, special assault craft and other strange vessels and devices.
The naval landing craft were, in the main, improved copies of Army types and were for the specific use of a special naval landing force for purely naval purposes, the assault of enemy strong points, or the capture of a base. An appreciation of this point is essential in reading this report.
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