The Influence of History

This is the continuation of my overview of American amphibious warfare ships of the Cold War. Part I, which covered 1950-1960, can be found here . As mentioned in the previous part, 1960 marked an inflection point for the amphibious fleet. First, the slow decline in numbers that had begun with the end of the Korean war was halted and the fleet entered several years of rapid growth. Second, new types of large amphibious ships were beginning to be introduced, marking the end of the WWII fleet architecture that had relied on converted cargo ships. The most important of these new ships were the purpose-built Amphibious Assault Ships (LPH). Three WWII-era carriers had been converted to interim LPH's during the late 1950's, and a fourth - USS Valley Forge (LPH-8) - joined the fleet in 1961. However, these conversions were rather austere and only intended as stopgaps until a purpose-built ship could be designed. This took the form of USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2), a truly revolutionary v...

When the Cold War began, the American amphibious fleet consisted entirely of ships built for World War II. The vast majority of these were just six or seven years old at the beginning of the Korean War and, at the time, represent the most capable amphibious warfare ships ever devised. Despite the massive post-war drawdown, the fleet of 1950 still consisted of 154 ships, including 29 attack transports (APA), 30 attack cargo ships (AKA), 18 landing ships dock (LSD), and 77 landing ships tank (LST), as well as numerous smaller craft. USS Haskell (AKA-117) - note the large number of landing craft on davits and alongside In this force each type of ship performed a specific task. The APA’s carried the soldiers and their equipment as well as small landing craft to put them ashore. They were a somewhat eclectic mix of  ships from five different class, the most numerous of which were the eighteen members of the  Haskell -class. These were modified Victory ships, 139 meters in le...