Several fast fleet tankers were converted into landing ships, including crane ships with large scaffolding structures for launching many landing craft quickly. The choice appeared workable while fighting centered on the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Once the fleet had to move across the Indian Ocean and Pacific, those tanker hulls were no longer available to carry fuel. An apparent failure to procure fleet tankers was therefore a wartime allocation problem: useful hulls had been reassigned to an urgent amphibious role.
Notable Point · 6:38-8:18
Amphibious conversions consume scarce fast fleet tankers
Converting fast Royal Navy tankers into landing and crane ships met an immediate need in 1940 and 1941 but reduced mobile fuel support when the war expanded into the Indian Ocean and Pacific.