Osprey

Landing Craft, Infantry and Fire Support New Vanguard Series 157

by  Gordon L. Rottman

Reviewed By  Luke R. Bucci, IPMS# 33459

MSRP: $17.95 ISBN: 978-1-84603-435-0 Pages: 48 Website: Osprey Publishing - Military History Books Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd., Osprey Direct, c/o Random House Distribution Center, 400 Hahn Road, Westminster, MD 21157. Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review sample. The author, Gordon Rottman, was a Special Forces ground pounder who served in Vietnam. Who better to write a book about ships that were described as "a metal box designed by a sadist to move soldiers across the water." Mr. Rottman does an excellent job covering a very large class of unheralded auxiliary warships that contributed more to winning World War 2 than big-gun ships. There is plenty of info to know the genesis of these strange little boxes, their many permutations, some of their exploits, and even what is was like to serve on and be transported by the sadistic little ships. Like other Osprey New Vanguard books, this one is paperbound, 7¼ by 10¾ inches, with high quality paper. Black and white photos abound, and the highlight of the book is the color plates by Peter Bull. The subject is complex, but the reader comes away with a good primer on this fascinating and almost forgotten large group of warships. The Elsie Items (LCIs) evolved from a British design to ferry troops across the Channel for raids and eventual invasion of Europe (Giant Raiding Craft) to ocean-going versions large enough to carry (barely) a rifle company and deliver them to the beach with ramps on either side of a blunt bow. The accommodations were cramped, leading to the nickname "Floating Bedpans." American ingenuity made the design feasible by strapping eight small but trusty General Motors diesels to two variable-pitch propellers. Mass production built 299 LCI(L) to British plans, sending them 211 and 25 more to the Russians. Improvements were made, and 595 LCI(L) and LSM hulls were built – almost 900 ships for the basic type, all built in a roughly two-year period. LCIs filled the gap between the larger LSTs and smaller landing craft, and were intended as the follow-on landing craft once a beachhead was started, although many times LCIs were first in. As such, LCIs had light cannons, which led to the natural progression to gunships, rocket ships and mortar ships converted from the troop carriers. As the variants became larger than the original 160 foot length, the ships longer than 200 feet were called Ships, not Crafts – thus the confusing LCI/LSM designations. At the end of the war, purpose-built rocket gun ships were being produced, some of which served in Korea and Vietnam. The book details the development history, the characteristics of each class, with special attention to major variants, and a short operational history. Out of almost 900 vessels, only one (LCI(L)-713 in Vancouver, WA) is preserved as a museum ship. The illustrations showing some of the green camouflage schemes are rare and precious for modelers of these forgotten warhorses (or rather, war mules). This book is very highly recommended for modelers of landing craft, and makes for an interesting read on how a class of ships developed during wartime. This book makes a great companion to Osprey’s Landing Ship, Tank (LST) New Vanguard 115 book, also by Rottman.