Prewar amphibious auxiliaries could have brought trained units, exercises, and doctrine with them instead of leaving Britain to improvise after 1939. Treaty limits would have shaped any such ships, although the auxiliary category may have left room for workable designs. Some vessels might have been lost during evacuations such as Dunkirk, but an existing force could also have accelerated the response in Norway. Building specialized shipping would have forced an institutional decision about who supplied the permanent assault formation. The Army, Royal Marines, a combined brigade, or the Royal Navy's mobile-base organizations would each have tied amphibious capability to a different strategic purpose.
Notable Point · 53:12-58:23
What a prewar British amphibious force might have changed
A closing counterfactual asks whether purpose-built auxiliaries would have produced a standing British amphibious formation before 1939.