Landing Vehicle Tracked Mark 4 Water Buffalo, M1935, M1940, LVT1, LVT(A)1, LVT2, LVT(A)2, LVT3, LVT(A)4 and LVT(A)5
Type: amphibious carrier.
Crew :3 men.
Armament: a .30 M1919A4 machine gun on ball joint, at the bow; one or two .50 M2 and one or two .30 M1919A4 in the cargo compartment.
Dimensions:
length: 7.97 m;
width: 3.25m; h
author: 3.7 m excluding external armament.
Weight in combat order: 16.5 t including 4 t payload.
Ground pressure: 0.59 kg/cm2.
Power to weight: 15.4 bhp.
Engine :Continental W670-9A 7 cyl. air-cooled gasoline radials, developing 250 hp at 2,400 rpm.
Performance:
road speed: 27 km/h;
speed on water: 10 km/h;
road range: 240 km;
range on water: 120 km;
vertical obstacle: 0.98 m;
clean cut :1.52 m;
slope: 60%.
Service time: the first LVTs were introduced in 1942 and used for logistics missions in Guadalcanal. Delivered to the British Army during the conflict and, after the end of hostilities, to France, Italy and Spain, among other countries. Employees in Korea and Indochina. Superseded by the LVTP 5 series and later by the LVTP 7.
The strategic choice made by the American authorities to consider the European theater as a priority, and Germany as the most dangerous enemy, had the consequence of giving operations in the Pacific theater a slower, yet equally determined character. The so-called "flea jump" tactic resulted in numerous amphibious operations intended to bring the threat of air raids closer to the Japanese archipelago. For the execution of these operations entrusted to the Marine Corps, the landing of the assault units was carried out by means of amphibious transport and fire support vehicles. These machines were listed as "Landing Vehicle Tracked" (LVT), that is to say, tracked landing craft. For those whose mission was fire support, the letter (A) was added for armored =armored.
In September 1939, General Moses, chairing the equipment committee of the U.S. Marine Corps, met a certain Donald Roebling Jr., a native of Clearwater, Florida, who had made and perfected between 1935 and 1937 a light aluminum amphibious vehicle called "Alligator". According to its inventor, this machine was to solve the problem of rescue operations in the Florida swamps, inaccessible to boats and wheeled vehicles.
At the end of this interview, Roebling agreed to remodel his invention for military purposes before January 1940. But it was only in November that the United States Navy received the credits allowing it to purchase a first tranche of 200 steel "tractors", to be manufactured by the workshops in Dunedin (Florida), of the Food Machinery Corporation in San Jose (California), workshops already at the forefront of the very particular sector of amphibious vehicles.
In the spring of 1941, a A small detachment of Marines was assigned to Dunedin to create the first training center for pilots and mechanics. The first version of these "tractors" was called LVT-1 (Landing Vehicle Tracked:tracked landing craft).
Company A of the 1st Marine Corps Amphibious Tractor Battalion was not officially created December 1941, after the United States entered the war.
The production rate increased steadily, so that the first experiments could be carried out in the field from the beginning of 1942 Note that at that time the Alligator was considered a simple logistical support element, intended to transport personnel and equipment from buildings to land. But, from the first American offensive in Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942), the "tractor" also demonstrated its ability to play an effective tactical role in a landing operation on defensively organized beaches, and particularly on the Pacific islands protected from coral reefs that neither buildings nor landing craft could cross.
This is how the Alligator became the main means of landing infantry, and the ancestor of a dynasty of ever more sophisticated amphibians, despite the mediocre reliability of the first models. Confronted with the severe conditions of use of the South Pacific where wear was rapid, the first versions of these machines showed a tendency to untrack in turns and the cushions
net of the rollers wore out very quickly under the effect of sand and salinity.
The studies made to eliminate these defects as well as a few others led to the design of a machine of larger dimensions, developed by the Naval Office in cooperation with the FMC. Nicknamed “Water Buffalo”, more powerful and more efficient, the latter was equipped with a 250 HP 7-cylinder Continental radial engine. It operated the undercarriage through a very long driveshaft which led to the front gearbox (manually operated), and from there to a controlled differential and then to the sprockets. The cargo compartment was centrally located behind the cockpit. Subsequently, this layout was modified by positioning the engine at the rear of the cockpit, which made it possible to eliminate the cumbersome drive shaft, and to perform the loading and unloading of the amphibian on a ramp. rear, with the possibility of transporting light vehicles (reconnaissance vehicles, tankettes, air-transportable armored runway-opening vehicles, etc.). This version received the name of LVT.4 and was the most widespread of all with 8,438 examples built against 1,225 LVT.1 and 3,143 LVT.2.
The propulsion on water of the LVT was ensured by the movement of the tracks, which were equipped, on all versions, with the exception of the first, of sorts of W-ribs.
The technique
The LVT.4 Mk.4 was an amphibious transport vehicle, equipped with light protective armor for the crew (6 men including the pilots installed in a closed cabin at the front, with two hatches in the roof fitted with side-hinged doors) and 25 passengers.
The side hatches had been raised to allow safer navigation in rough seas, and in some cases proper armament had been given to it in the form of a 7.62 mm Browning machine gun under a spherical casemate installed to the right of the cockpit. On this model, visibility remained assured even when the hatches were closed, thanks to four protected sighting slots. At the front, the craft was equipped with a robust bumper made of a metal tube.
Its powertrain (GMP) included an air-cooled Continental,
like that of the LVT.2, with five-plate dry clutch and synchronized gearbox with always-mesh gears, five forward gears plus reverse gear.
The Change steering was done by braking on the semi-axes, by two control levers. The tracks were made of 73 steel shoes that rolled on two rubberized support rollers at the upper center, an idler pulley at the rear, a sprocket at the front, plus eleven rubberized track rollers. Each suspension was independent, each roller being mounted on its arm, the pivot of which was formed by a hollow tube mounted on another smaller one fixed to the chassis. The interval between these two tubes was filled with a thickness of vulcanized rubber which acted as a return spring.
The armament generally consisted of four Browning machine guns on circular mounting, two of 12, 7mm and two 7.62mm, plus any chassis machine guns.
Evolution
From the first landing operations, the need appeared to have an amphibious vehicle capable of providing close fire support. It was decided to equip the LTV.2 with armor by adding a shield and an armored superstructure supporting a turret armed with a 37 mm gun; soon after, the turret was that of the M.3 light battle tank. This new machine was called LVT (A) 1 (A for Armored =armored).
The 37 mm gun of the Stuart tank quickly proved ineffective. In March 1944, its turret was replaced by that of the self-propelled M.8 armed with the 75 mm howitzer, in the open air, which was equipped with mounts for 12.7 mm machine guns against aircraft. The new variant received the designation LVT (A) 4. In 1945, it was the LVT (A) 5 version equipped with a gyrostabilized turret, with assisted rotation and which benefited from protection at its upper part.
This latest version could not enter service before the cessation of hostilities. Also the last specimens of LVT (A) 4 already in service, they were modified by addition of stations of additional automatic weapons or a cylindrical cupola on the turret to place a machine-gun of 12.7 mm there with its mask.
To complete this overview of the evolution of the LVT, we must mention the LVT.3, produced in 1944 on an initiative of the Borg Warner Co. This variant was powered by two Cadillac V.8 , mated to the same “hydramatic” transmission.
This twin-engine formula proved to be far superior to that of the LVT.4. The "Bushmaster" (master of the bush) was immediately ordered in large series - 2,962 copies were manufactured. It demonstrated its excellent operational qualities from its first engagement, in April 1945 in Okinawa. Two weeks of rain succeeded in immobilizing the Water Buffalos, also engaged in large numbers, but not the Bushmasters, thanks to their automatic gearbox.
The LVT.3s continued to serve after the war in the Marine Corps units. In 1949, they were modernized by adding aluminum hatch covers and a machine gun turret. This version received the acronym LVT.3C (C for Couvert). The amphibious armored LVT (A) 5 also received a covered turret and a false bow intended to improve its performance at sea.
Employment
As we have recalled, the LVT.1 made its debut at Guadalcanal in 1942, and the LVT.2 at Bougainville in November 1943. When it had proven itself in the Pacific, the British army resolved to equipping them for crossing waterways in the European theatre.
At the end of the war, France received a certain number of LVT.4 and (A) 4 which were engaged, from 1948, in the Indochinese peninsula. Some had been re-armed with the Bofors 40/56 automatic cannon.
A few years later, it was Marine Corps LVT.3s that supported the famous landing at Inchon, Korea,
amphibious operation still considered a model of its kind today.
Retired "from the United States forces in 1955, following the adoption of the new LVTP.5, these amphibious vehicles equipped the forces of several NATO countries, including France and Italy.
It should be remembered that the Water Buffalo was capable of operating on extremely soft ground and that he excelled in swampy terrain, but his movements on hard surfaces were limited because of the risk of serious damage to the track shoes. long journeys, it was preferable to transport the machine on a trailer.
The Armored Museum of Saumur has two examples of this family:the L.V.T. 4 A4 and Alligator.