AMPHIBIOUS SHIPS

Evening Star, Issue 23123, 24 November 1938, Page 18

AMPHIBIOUS SHIPS

BUILT BY JAPAN FASTER TROOP LANDING The amphibious warfare which Japan has had to prosecute in her campaigns against China has led to the production by Japan of two new types of ships, says Lieutenant-commander Kenneth Edwards, R.N., ‘ Sunday Times naval correspondent. , Japan has developed these vessels to carry out rapid landings at a considerable distance from the fleet and milltary bases. The two types are complementary. One fits into the other like the carved wooden hoxes-wmnn boxes which one associated with Japanese craftsmanshp. One typo is a largo motor craft, something like a lighter. It is, however, designed for carrying troops rather than merchandise. Provision is made for these troops to travel under

the protection of light armour plate, capable of withstanding rifle and machine gun bullets. At Gallipoli, the greatest amphibian enterprise of the last war, troops were landed in ordinary boats, in special open lighters towed to the eastern Mediterranean for the purpose, and by running transports ashore on the landing beach. Japan has developed motor lighters with a high speed as well ns protection for troops in transit. Moreover, there are special arrangements for the rapid disembarkation of troops once tho lighter has touched shore. I understand that some of the lighters are fitted with caterpillar tracks as well as screws. As soon as they touch tho beach the tracks carry them up it like tanks and the troops can land dry-shod. The complementary vessels nrc speci-ally-designed ships which can carry both lighters ami troops for long distances. They are, in effect, a compromise between a sort of multiple floating dock and a warship. They mount guns capable of putting up a barrage of firo to help cover the troops’ lauding.

These craft are the strangest-look-ing ships ever built by any country They have great wide and flat afterparts, topped by powerful cranes and derricks. Because so much of their length has been devoted to accommodating the motor lighters they have a queer fore-shortened forecastle. Japan lias kept their design and construction a close secret. Nothing is known of their behaviour in a seaway. It would appear that, in bad weather, there would he danger of the cargo of landing craft “ working,” to the greater danger of the whole composite vessel.