Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT)

The Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), or amtrac, was the US Marine Corps' tracked amphibious assault vehicle of the Second World War. Its development is the subject of Alligators, Buffaloes, and Bushmasters, a history by Major Alfred Dunlop Bailey, USMC (Ret.), held in the archive.

Origins

Between the wars the Marine Corps built up the Fleet Marine Force and a doctrine for amphibious landings in a future Pacific war. Exercises showed that boats alone could not cross shallow water and coral reefs, and that a vehicle was needed which could swim and then climb ashore. Nothing suitable turned up until a Navy admiral noticed the Roebling Alligator, a tracked swamp-rescue vehicle, in a Life magazine article. That design became the LVT(1), first intended only for carrying cargo.

Wartime development

At Guadalcanal and Bougainville the LVT(1) proved very adaptable, but its suspension and tracks were weak. The improved LVT(2) followed, and a limited number took part in the assault on Tarawa, where the vehicle proved itself as a troop carrier. In the Marshalls the cargo LVTs were joined by the LVT(A)1, an armoured amtrac on the LVT(2) chassis with a 37 mm tank gun to give fire support close to the beach.

At Saipan the Marines used six battalions of cargo LVTs and two of armoured amtracs. These included the new LVT(4), with a rear loading ramp, and the LVT(A)4, which had a 75 mm howitzer. Bailey regards the ramp as the biggest single design improvement in the LVT's history. The LVT(4) was the main assault and supply vehicle in the first days at Iwo Jima. At Okinawa the redesigned LVT(3) appeared, and the LVT(3) and LVT(A)4 became the Marine Corps' post-war amtracs. The study ends by looking at post-war progress and suggests the air-cushion vehicle as a possible successor.