The US Navy converted large infantry landing craft into heavily armed LCI(G) gunboats and stationed them near invasion beaches to intercept Japanese suicide boats. This was exactly the coastal-defence and small-craft interception mission suited to a motor gunboat. Purpose-built boats were present in insufficient numbers, so slower amphibious vessels had to absorb the task. British planners studying Okinawa consequently prepared to send Fairmile D motor gunboats to the Far East for a projected invasion of Japan. A shortage of small combatants forced amphibious vessels into a specialist defensive role.
Chapter · 55:00-57:31
Okinawa exposed a shortage of motor gunboats
At Okinawa, landing craft had to become improvised gun platforms because too few purpose-built small combatants were available to stop Japanese suicide boats near the beaches.