Troopship
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A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a
History
Ships to transport troops were used in antiquity. Ancient Rome used the navis lusoria, a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube.[2]
The modern troopship has as long a history as
Most major naval powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries provided their domestic shipping lines with subsidies to build fast ocean liners capable of conversions to auxiliary cruisers during wartime. The British government, for example, aided both Cunard and the White Star Line in constructing the liners RMS Mauretania, RMS Aquitania, RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic. However, when the vulnerability of these ships to return fire was realized during World War I most were used instead as troopships or hospital ships.
RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth were two of the most famous converted liners of World War II. When they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip. Queen Mary holds the all-time record, with 15,740 troops on a single passage in late July 1943,[3] transporting a staggering 765,429 military personnel during the war.[3]
World War II
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Large numbers of troopships were employed during World War II, including 220 "Limited Capacity"
- The modified Liberties were capable of transporting up to 450,
- 30 Type C4 ship-based General G. O. Squier-class, the largest carrying over 6,000 passengers.
- A class of Victory ship-based dedicated troopship was developed late in World War II. A total of 84 such VC2-S-AP2 hull conversions was completed.[10][11][12][13][14]
- A class of Type C3 ship – comprising mainly C3-S-A2 and C3-S-A3 hulls – was also converted to dedicated troopships, capable of carrying 2,100 troops,[15]was also developed.
- At least 15 classes of attack transport, consisting of at least 400 ships specially equipped for landing invasion forces rather than general troop movement.
Designation
The designation HMT (Her/His Majesty's Transport) would normally replace RMS (Royal Mail Ship), MV (Motor Vessel) or SS (Steamship) for ships converted to troopship duty with the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The United States used two designations: WSA for troopships operated by the
"HMT" was also used, for a while, to designate "Hired Military Transport."[16][17]
Post-World War II
In the era of the Cold War, the United States designed the United States ship so that she could easily be converted from a liner to a troopship, in case of war. More recently, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Canberra were requisitioned by the Royal Navy to carry British soldiers to the Falklands War.[18] By the end of the twentieth century, nearly all long-distance personnel transfer was done by airlift in military transport aircraft.
Some notable troopships
- USS Agamemnon
- HMT Aquitania
- SS Belgenland
- HMS Birkenhead
- SS Cap Arcona (1927)
- RMS Carmania
- SS Dorchester
- HMT Dunera
- HMT Empire Windrush (ex MV Monte Rosa)
- RMS Empress of Britain
- SS Great Eastern
- USS Henry R. Mallory
- SS Justicia
- RMS Laconia
- HMT Lancastria
- USS Leviathan(ex Vaterland)
- HMT Mauretania (Sister ship to Lusitania)
- SS Mendi
- Titanic)
- SS Orontes
- HMS Otranto
- SS Oxfordshire
- HMT Rohna
- HMS Tamar
- USS Von Steuben(ex Kronprinz Wilhelm)
- USS West Point
- HMAS Jervis Bay (first large catamaran to enter naval service)
See also
- List of United States Navy amphibious warfare ships § Attack Transport (APA)
- List of United States Navy amphibious warfare ships § Amphibious Transport (LPA) - APA redesignation
- List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy § Transports (AP, T-AP)
Notes
- ^ "Amphibious Attack Transport (APA)". navource.org.
- ^ Pferdehirt B. "The Museum of Ancient Shipping". Retrieved August 3, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Queen Mary – Ship History and Specifications".
- ^ APPENDIX B: VICTORY TROOPSHIP CONVERSIONS [1] p. 13
- ^ a b Live, 2013 edition, p. 6.
- ^ a b c "S.S. John W. Brown Walk-around". geoghegan.us.
- ^ Live, 2013 edition, p. 4.
- ^ Cooper, p. 5.
- ^ Project Liberty Ship: Armament Aboard SS JOHN W. BROWN Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "HAER for Private Frederick C. Murphy" (PDF). United States Maritime Administration. Retrieved 6 August 2013. "In the summer of 1945, eighty-four VC2-S-AP2 Victory ships, including the Maritime Victory, were converted into troopships by MARITIME VICTORY the U.S. Maritime Commission in preparation for an assault on the Japanese home islands. The ship made several crossings of the Atlantic Ocean and was used to repatriate American troops from Europe after World War II. pp. 1–2
- ^ ww2troopships.com crossings in 1945
- ^ "Troop Ship of World War II, April 1947, Page 356-357" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
- ^ 69th infantry division, newsletter, 1986
- ^ Binghamton NY Press Grayscale 1945 – Fulton History, Oct. 15, 1945
- ^ Isthmian Lines ship S.S. Steel Scientist [2] Troop capacity: 2156
- ^ "1941 Dunera Boys Hay Internment Camp Collection". NSW Migration Heritage Centre. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
- ^ "Troopship".
The designation HMT (Hired Military Transport) ...
- ^ Rebecca Fowler (26 June 1996). "Last voyage for Canberra, the Great White Whale of the Falklands".
Bibliography
- James Dugan, The Great Iron Ship, 1953 (regularly reprinted) ISBN 0-7509-3447-6
- Stephen Harding, Great Liners at War, Motorbooks Int'l, Osceola, WI, USA, 1997 ISBN 0-7603-0346-0
- Goron Newell, Ocean Liners of the 20th Century, Bonanza Books, USA, 1963 ISBN 0-517-03168-X
External links
Media related to Troop ships