As the Battle of Britain came to a close, the Royal Navy began to realize that eventually, the British and her allies would have to return to the European continent in force, and that mean amphibious operations.
Their experience in World War I at Gallipoli had taught some hard lessons. The challenge of an amphibious operation wasn't usually the initial assault waves of infantry, but rather reinforcing the troops ashore with combined and supporting arms, and building up sufficient strength to allow for a breakout from the beachhead. And that meant vehicles. Lots of vehicles. At that time, the only practical landing craft for bringing ashore tanks and similar large vehicles was the Landing Craft, Mechanized. A rather small (roughly 50' long) lighter with a bow ramp, the LCM could land a single medium tank. The problem was, the LCM couldn't cross long distances under her own power.
Faced with that problem, the Royal Navy conceived of a mother ship that could carry a large number of pre-loaded LCMs across an ocean, and put the LCMs into the the waters just offshore of the assault beaches.
But Britain was struggling to build enough merchantmen and small escorts just to keep the lifeline of supplies across the Atlantic open. The British asked the United States to consider building these ships. And we did. The Landing Ship, Dock, was born. That the British got the underlying concept right is reflected by the fact that to this day, LSDs form an important part of today's US Navy amphibious forces.
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