HM LCT 7074 is the last surviving

Landing Craft, Tank The Landing Craft, Tank (LCT) (or Tank Landing Craft TLC) was an amphibious assault craft for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of ver ...

(LCT) in the UK. LCT 7074 is an

amphibious assault ship An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers (and, as ...

for landing

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

s, other vehicles and troops on

beachhead A beachhead is a temporary line created when a military unit reaches a landing beach by sea and begins to defend the area as other reinforcements arrive. Once a large enough unit is assembled, the invading force can begin advancing inland. The ...

s. Built in 1944 by

Hawthorn Leslie and Company R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, usually referred to as Hawthorn Leslie, was a shipbuilder and locomotive manufacturer. The company was founded on Tyneside in 1886 and ceased building ships in 1982. History The company was formed ...

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the south ...

, the Mark 3 LCT 7074 was part of the 17th LCT Flotilla during

Operation Neptune Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

in June 1944. LCT 7074 was decommissioned in 1947, and used by the Master Mariners' Club of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

as their club ship ''Landfall''. She served as a floating

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

in the 60s and 70s and was acquired by the Warship Preservation Trust in the late 1990s. She was moored at

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

for restoration but the Trust went into liquidation and she later sank in the dock. The vessel was raised by the

National Museum of the Royal Navy The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating o ...

in October 2014 and transported by sea to Portsmouth for restoration.

Design

LCT 7074 was one of 235 Mark III LCTs; the Mark III was an extended version of the Mark II design. The vessel was built by Hawthorn Leslie at Hebburn and was powered by two American Sterling Admiral petrol engines owing to a shortage of

Paxman diesels Paxman is a major United Kingdom, British brand of diesel engines. Ownership has changed on a number of occasions since the company's formation in 1865, and now the brand is part of MAN Diesel & Turbo. At its peak, the Paxman works covered and ...

. Launched on 4 April 1944, the vessel was commissioned into the Royal Navy shortly afterwards.

D-Day

LCT 7074 had two officers and 10 ratings and she was first commanded by Sub Lt John Baggot

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

who sailed the vessel to

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

on the East coast where she joined the 17th LCT Flotilla. In the build-up to the invasion of France LCT 7074 arrived at the

River Orwell The River Orwell flows through the county of Suffolk in England from Ipswich to Felixstowe. Above Ipswich, the river is known as the River Gipping, but its name changes to the Orwell at Stoke Bridge, where the river becomes tidal. It broadens into ...

, near

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northeast of London. His ...

where she was loaded with one

Cromwell tank The Cromwell tank, officially Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell (A27M), was one of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War-era military leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was th ...

, two

Sherman tank } The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most widely used medium tank by the United States and Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, and available in great numbers. It w ...

s and seven Stuart light tanks of the 22nd Armoured Brigade. As part of the 17th LCT Flotilla (Assault Group L2), LCT Squadron "H" of the Eastern Task Force, LCT 7074 landed nine of the tanks on

Gold Beach Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was lo ...

. Following the invasion, the craft spent several months ferrying vehicles, troops, supplies and ammunition across the Channel. In 1945 LCT 7074 underwent conversion to become Naval Service Craft (Large) 19 for use in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

. However, the end of the war in the Pacific meant that she was never deployed.

Post-war history

De-commissioned in 1947 she was renamed ''Landfall'' and became the club ship for the Master Mariners’ Club of Liverpool. The craft was later converted into a riverfront nightclub. In the late 1990s, the Warship Preservation Trust acquired LCT 7074 and undertook minor restoration work but when the trust went into liquidation in January 2006, all restoration stopped.

Salvage, restoration and display

LCT 7074 was partly submerged at its mooring at East Float in

, but following a £916,000 grant from the National Memorial Heritage Fund (NHMF), the craft was salvaged by the National Museum of the Royal Navy during a two-day operation on 15 and 16 October 2014. Over 100 dives by Liverpool diving company Salvesen UK Ltd were required to enable her to be refloated. The LCT was raised and floated into the hold of the MV ''Condock'', which transported the LCT to the BAE Systems Naval Dockyard, Portsmouth to undergo restoration. Restoration of LCT 7074 was completed in 2020, and she was moved in August to a permanent display at Portsmouth's The D-Day Story museum.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

LCT 7074 re-float time-lapse at Birkenhead
by Lt-Cdr. Maxwell Miller {{DEFAULTSORT:Landing Craft Tank LCT Ships built on the River Tyne Ships and vessels of the National Historic Fleet Museum ships in the United Kingdom 1944 ships