 USS George Clymer (APA-27), a ship of the Arthur Middleton class | |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Arthur Middleton-class |
| Builders: | Ingalls Shipbuilding |
| Operators: |  |
| Preceded by: | John Penn class |
| Succeeded by: | Frederick Funston class |
| Built: | 1 Jul 1940 - 7 Sep 1942 |
| In commission: | 13 Jun 1942 - 31 Oct 1967 |
| Completed: | 3 |
| Retired: | 3 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | MCV hull type C3-P&C |
| Displacement: | 9,000 tons (lt), 16,725 t.(fl |
| Length: | 489-491 ft |
| Beam: | ~69 ft 6 in (21.18 m) |
| Draft: | ~26 ft 6 in (8.08 m) |
| Propulsion: | General Electric geared turbine drive, 2 × Foster Wheeler D-type boilers, single propeller, 8,500 hp (6,300 kW) |
| Speed: | 18.4 knots (34.1 km/h) |
| Capacity: |
|
| Complement: | 29-37 officers, 448-501 enlisted |
| Armament: | Variable - 0-1 × 5"/38 caliber gun, 4 × 3"/50 caliber dual-purpose guns, 8 × 40mm guns, 0-10 × single 20mm guns, 0-4 × .50 cal. MG's |
The Arthur Middleton-class attack transport was a class of three US Navy attack transport that saw most of its service in World War II. Ships of the class were named after signatories of the American Declaration of Independence.
Attack transport is a United States Navy ship classification for a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore. Unlike standard troopships – often drafted from the merchant fleet – that rely on either a quay or tenders, attack transports carry their own fleet of landing craft.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Contents
Like all attack transports, the purpose of the Arthur Middleton class was to transport troops and their equipment to hostile shores in order to execute amphibious invasions. To perform this task, attack transports were equipped with a substantial number of integral landing craft, and heavily armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect themselves and their vulnerable cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone.
Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted using ship's boats as the primary method of delivering troops to shore. Since the Gallipoli Campaign, specialised watercraft were increasingly designed for landing troops, materiel and vehicles, including by landing craft and for insertion of commandos, by fast patrol boats, zodiacs and from mini-submersibles.
Landing craft are small and medium seagoing watercraft such as boats, and barges, used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. The term excludes landing ships, which are larger. Production of landing craft peaked during World War II, with a significant number of different designs produced in large quantities by the United Kingdom and United States.
