Landing Craft Tank - Development - Mark 6

Mark 6

The LCT Mark 6 had the same engines, equipment and crew as the Mk.5, but was a slightly longer, at 120-feet. The main difference was the addition of a stern gate that allowed the LCT to moor in front of larger LSTs to become a bridge for tanks and vehicles disembarking the deeper draft vessel. In practice, this method of use was more difficult to carry out than the vessel's designers anticipated. Strong tidal currents in the uncharted reef shoals of the Pacific limited the employment of this form of beaching to heavy armoured vehicles. To allow for the passage of traffic, the small wheelhouse was moved to the starboard side of the fourteen-foot wide passageway. The winch for the stern kedge anchor was relocated atop the port side deckhouse, just aft of the port side 20 mm mount. Nine hundred and sixty Mk.6s were built. One hundred and sixty Mk.5 and Mk.6 LCTs were lend-leased to the Royal Navy, and a small number to the Soviet Union.

Though never designed to cross the Pacific under their own power, several flotillas of LCTs did make the journey from Pearl Harbor to forward areas. Success in towing strings of LCTs behind LSDs led to the decision to let Flotilla No. 31, comprising 24 Mk.6s, make an island hopping voyage under their own power. The passage was slow and breakdowns numerous, however the flotilla safely arrived at its destination. Three months later, Groups 91 and 92 of this flotilla encountered six days of high seas during a typhoon off Okinawa. Fighting 50 foot swells and hurricane force winds the craft made only 26 miles in nine hours, and were almost impossible to steer or control. When the typhoon finally abated, all the LCTs had survived and took stock of the damage. Halyards, antennas and masts were blown away, guns ripped from their mounts, and the craft had been so severely overstressed that each had to replace the stripped bolts or welds holding their sections together before they could proceed to their destination.