From six-pounders to destroyer guns on landing craft

The Army still expected an amphibious force to capture a port before receiving substantial armoured support, leaving the Royal Navy to seek its own close anti-tank firepower. An early Landing Craft Support Large displaced about twenty-four and a half tons and carried a 2-pounder, a Besa machine gun, a smoke mortar, and light weapons. That hull was too small to stand against a forty-ton tank, so the next design grew to about 116 tons and mounted a quick-firing 6-pounder with a much larger crew. Before Sicily, the Navy converted LCTs into Landing Craft Gun armed with 4.7-inch destroyer guns. Doctrine called for them to remain afloat near the shore, but some commanders beached them to obtain direct shots. One craft reportedly closed to about ten metres from its designated pillbox, showing how far crews pushed specialised fire support into the assault zone.