Landing Craft, Infantry and Fire Support

Description

Described by one soldier as "a metal box designed by a sadist to move soldiers across the water," the Landing Craft, Infantry was a large beaching craft intended to deliver an infantry company to a hostile shore, once the beachhead was secured. The LCI and its vehicle-delivery counterpart, the Landing Ship, Medium were widely used by the allies during World War II. Later, the hulls of these ships were used as the basis for a fire support ship. While the landing ships were phased out after the Korean War, some fire support craft remained in use throughout the Vietnam War. This book tells the developmental and operational history of this important tool of American amphibious military strategy that spanned three wars.

Gordon L Rottman entered the US Army in 1967, volunteered for Special Forces and completed training as a weapons specialist. He served in the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam in 1969-70 and subsequently in airborne infantry, long-range patrol and intelligence assignments until retiring after 26 years. He was a special operations forces scenario writer at the Joint Readiness Training Center for 12 years and is now a freelance writer, living in Texas.

"Rottman tells the developmental and operational history of these important amphibious craft. Although the British requested the initial craft from American shipbuilders for use in the European Theater, the Americans used them to great effect in the Pacific Theater (of course, the Americans also used them in the European Theater). Rottman explores the transition of the use of the craft from a purely transport of men and equipment to a platform of significant firepower (they were used as close-in support where larger naval vessels could not go because the water depth was too shallow)... Finally, the illustrations by Peter Bull in the book are excellent. They are full of detail and provide the color schemes of the craft that black and white photographs obviously can't provide." --Jeff Grim, Collected Miscellany, www.collectedmiscellany.com "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....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." --Luke R. Bucci, IMPS/USA (September 2009) "Expanding of their ever growing range of fine reference books, Osprey Publishing has announced the latest release in their Vanguard range -- Landing Craft, Infantry and Fire Support... Written by Gordon L. Rottman this book within its 48 pages tells the developmental and operational history of this important tool of American amphibious military strategy that spanned three wars. Illustrated by Peter Bull this promises to be a fine addition to any reference library." --Sean Ford, www.modelshipwrights.com (May 2009) "Author Gordon Rottman covers the full story of the LCI and its many different variants. This is further enhanced by a superb choice of period photos as well as cut-aways of the craft and the outstanding illustrations of Peter Bull... All of this and more are contained within the pages of this excellent reference book that is also a great read. It is one of those that your editor found to be particularly engaging and I give it my highest recommendation." --Scott Van Aken, Modeling Madness, www.modelingmadness.com (July 2009)