Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain. In this modern era amphibious warfare persists in the form of commando insertion by fast
patrol boats,
zodiacs and
mini-submersibles.
In the modern era of warfare, an amphibious landing of infantry troops on a
beachhead is the most complex of all military maneuvers. The undertaking requires an intricate coordination of numerous military specialties, including
air power,
naval gunfire, naval transport,
logistical planning, specialized equipment,
land warfare,
tactics, and extensive training in the nuances of this maneuver for all personnel involved.
History
Recorded amphibious warfare predates the 18th century by a couple of millennia: the Sea Peoples that menaced the
Egyptians from the reign of
Akhenaten as captured on the reliefs at
Medinet Habu and
Karnak, the
Hellenic city states who routinely resorted to opposed assaults upon each others' shores which they reflected upon in their plays and other expressions of art, the landing at
Marathon by the ancient
Persians on 9 September 490 BC which history records as the largest amphibious operation for 2,400 years until eclipsed by
Gallipoli.
More current amphibious landings have been conducted by small commando forces of various states and non-state actors. There exists debate over mainland
China (PRC)'s potential to conduct amphibious operations against
Taiwan (ROC). With the bulk of the world's population concentrated near the sea, chances are high that future conflict may entail the use of amphibious assets.
The
Bayeux Tapestry depicts the 1066 Norman amphibious invasion of England with a force of some 8,000 infantry and heavy cavalry.
16th century
In 1565, the island of
Malta was invaded by the
Turks during the
Siege of Malta. A strategic choke point in the
Mediterranean Sea, the loss was so menacing for the
Western Europe kingdoms that forces were urgently raised in order to recover the island. But it took four months to train, arm, and move a 5,500 man amphibious force to retake the island.
Then,
Philip II,
King of Spain, decided to train and assign amphibious-assault skilled units to the Royal Armada. These units were trained specifically for the fighting on ships and from ships. The
Spanish Marines were born. The idea was to set up a permanent assignation of land troops to the Royal Spanish Navy, available for the Crown.
Thus, countries adopted the idea and subsequently raised their early marine corps too.
The first "professional" Marine units were already task-trained amphibious troops, but instead of being disbanded, were kept for the Crown's needs. First actions took place all along the Mediterranean Sea where the Turks and
pirate settlements were a risk for the commerce and navigation:
Algiers, Malta,
Gelves.
Landings at the "Terceras Landing" in the
Azores Islands 25 May 1583, was a military feat as the planners decided to make a fake landing to distract the defending forces (5,000
Portuguese,
English and
French soldiers); also special sea going
barges were arranged in order to unload
cavalry horses and 700
artillery pieces on the beach; special
rowing boats were equipped with small
cannons to support the landing boats; special supplies were readied to be unloaded and support the 11,000 men landing force strength. The total strength of the amphibious force, was 15,000 men, including an armada of 90 ships.
After an initial
reconnaissance action where the most suitable beaches for the landing assets were chosen, a 4,000–man first assault wave was unloaded while two "Galeras" made a distractive fake landing away from the main beach. The main defensive body ran to defend against the feinted action, but the first wave had set up a firm defensive perimeter, and the second wave was already landing with the heavy artillery.
In this operation we can find documented reports about the detailed planning, the previous reconnaissance of the beaches, the special equipment and training, ship-to-shore movement, naval fire support. Not the first landing, but one of the first amphibious operations.
17th century
This was a century of "expansion". European countries were expanding and creating
colonies. Amphibious operations were mostly oriented to settle colonies and strong points along the navigational routes. Fights among countries to keep or destroy opposing power's capabilities were continuous.
Amphibious forces were fully organized and devoted to this mission, although the troops not only fought ashore, but on board ships.
18th century
Amphibious landings were performed by
Spanish Marines allowing them to conquer
Sardinia (1717) and Sicily (1732).
Not all landings were successful. Mere frontal assaults from the sea against well defended positions could prove a disaster, when they had been planned inadequately. On 13 March 1741, a
British Royal Navy fleet, including 2,000 guns in 186 ships commanded by
Admiral Sir
Edward Vernon, tried to take the Spanish city of
Cartagena de Indias with a 23,600–man force, including 4,000 Virginia recruits, commanded by Lawrence Washington (half-brother of
George Washington).
The defenders lined up almost 4,000 men, including Marines from the six ships based in that port.
After 15 days of bombing, the British started the landings, delayed by the defenders' actions, and manage to scuttle the six Spanish ships attempting to close the access channel to the city. The defenders were decimated, and only 600 remained inside the last bastion: San Felipe Fortress.
San Felipe de Barajas Fortresses.
The Commander of the landing force, General Woork, tried to advance but due to the heavy equipment his forces made only slow progress towards the fortress. The defending artillery focused on the ships supporting troops and the ship-to-shore traffic, while the defenders decimated the advancing troops out in the open. The landing force advance ended abruptly when the attackers found the ladders and engineer equipment was not suitable for the fortress assault.
During that very night a carnage took place among the landing force, and with the first light of the morning, a surprising
bayonet charge from the defenders finished off the landing force and their supplies.
For 30 more days the attackers bombed the fort with no results, and they fell back to
Jamaica.
In 1759, during the
siege of Quebec, the British troops attempted on a number of occasions to cross the
Saint Lawrence River in force. An attempt to land some 4,000 troops in the face of resistance failed. Ultimately a landing was managed at a relatively-undefended site, and British troops gained a foothold allowing 5,000 to take part in the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham which led to the surrender of the city.
In 1762 Royal Navy troops & marines succeed in taking the capitals of the Spanish West & East Indies
Havana in Cuba &
Manila by sea respectively.
In 1776,
Samuel Nicholas and the
Continental Marines, the "progenitor" of the
United States Marine Corps, made a first successful landing in the
Battle of Nassau.
In 1781, the Spanish field marshall
Bernardo de Gálvez, successfully captured British controlled Fort George by amphibious assault in the
Battle of Pensacola. In 1782, he captured the British naval base at
New Providence in the
Bahamas.
19th century
During the
Mexican-American War an amphibious assault was against
Veracruz in what could be considered the first amphibious assault made by the
United States Army. General
William J. Worth jumped from the boat and waded to shore in chest deep water and thus could be considered the first U.S. Army soldier to make an amphibious assault.
During the
American Civil War, the United States made several amphibious assaults all along the
Confederate states coastline.
Hatteras Inlet and Port Royal,
South Carolina were the first of many attacks. Along with others on
Roanoke Island, NC,
Galveston, TX,
Morris Island and
James Island, SC,
Fort Sumter, SC and several others. The largest was at
Fort Fisher, which was the largest and most powerful fort in the world at the time, protecting the entrance of
Wilmington, North Carolina. The assaulting force of over 15,000 men and 70 warships comprising of over 600 guns, was the most powerful amphibious assault in world history (and was not surpassed until the large scale landings of World War Two).
An early form of amphibious warfare was employed during the
War of the Pacific in 1879, and saw coordination of army, navy and specialized units.
The first amphibious assault of this war took place as 2,100
Chilean troops successfully took
Pisagua from 1,200
Peruvian and
Bolivian defenders on 2 November 1879.
Chilean Navy ships bombarded beach defenses for several hours at dawn, followed by open, oared boats landing Army
infantry and
sapper units into waist-deep water, under enemy fire. An outnumbered first landing wave fought at the beach; the second and third waves in the following hours were able to overcome resistance and move inland. By the end of the day, an expeditionary army of 10,000 had disembarked at the captured port.
In 1881 Chilean ships transported approximately 30,000 men, along with their mounts and equipment, in order to attack Lima. Chilean commanders were using purpose-built, flat-bottomed landing craft that would deliver troops in shallow water closer to the beach, possibly the first porpouse-built amphibious landing craft in history:
"These [36 shallow draft, flat-bottomed] boats would be able to land three thousand men and twelve guns in a single wave".
Landing tactics and operations were closely observed by neutral parties during the war: two
Royal Navy ships monitored the
Battle of Pisagua;
United States Navy observer Lt. Theodorus B.M. Mason included an account on his report
The War on the Pacific Coast of South America. The
U.S.S. Wachusett with
Alfred Thayer Mahan in command, was stationed at Callao, Peru, protecting American interests during the final stages of the War of the Pacific. He formulated his concept of sea power while reading a history book in an English gentleman’s club in Lima, Peru. This concept became the foundation for his celebrated
The Influence of Sea Power upon History.
World War I era
V Beach, viewed from the SS River Clyde on 25 April 1915.
An
amphibous assault took place at the beaches of
Veracruz, Mexico in 1914, when the
United States Navy attacked and occupied the city as result of the
Tampico Affair.
During
World War I, amphibious warfare was still in its infancy: tactics and equipment were rudimentary and required much improvisation.
During this period, British
Royal Marine Light Infantry (merged with the
Royal Marine Artillery in the 1920s to form the
Royal Marines) were used primarily as naval parties onboard
Royal Navy warships to maintain discipline and man ships' guns. The RMLI joined a new
Royal Navy division—the
Royal Naval Division—formed in 1914 to fight on land; however, throughout the conflict, army units were depended upon to provide the bulk—if not all—of troops used in amphibious landings.
The first amphibious assault of the war ended in disaster in 1914. A large
British Indian Army force was directed to launch an amphibious assault on
Tanga,
German East Africa. British actions prior to the assault, however, alerted the Germans to prepare to repel an invasion. The Indian forces suffered heavy casualties when they
advanced on the city, forcing them to withdraw back to their boats, leaving much of their equipment behind.
The Allied invasion against the
Ottoman Empire at the
Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 proved even more disastrous than Tanga, in part due to incompetence at the high command strata.
Soldiers were landed via open, oared
whaleboats and
tugs at
Anzac Cove and
Helles. At V Beach, Helles, the landing troops—inexperienced at amphibious landings—were effectively slaughtered by the Ottoman defenders, most not even making it out of their landing craft. The
Royal Dublin Fusiliers, for example, lost almost all their officers, including their commander, and suffered over 500 casualties.
In a second landing at
Suvla in August, the forerunner of modern landing craft—the armoured 'Beetle'—was first used by the British.
Interwar period
The Alhucemas Landing on 8 September 1925, performed by a Spanish-French coalition against rebel
Kabilas in the north of
Morocco, was a landing where tanks were used for the first time; air
naval gunfire support were employed by the landing forces, directed by spotting personnel with communication devices.
Floating depots were organized with medical, water, ammunition and food supplies, to be dispatched ashore when needed. The barges used in this landing were the surviving "K" boats from
Gallipoli. But in this case, the landings were performed against a prepared, defended in force positions.
World War II
Troops from the U.S. 1st Division landing on Omaha beach as part of the Allied military campaign to free France from the stranglehold of Nazi Germany.
By the
Second World War tactics and equipment had moved on. Purpose built
landing craft were used at the evacuation from
Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) and an amphibious operation was tried out at
Dieppe in 1942. The operation proved a failure but the lessons, hard learned, were used later.
Arguably the most famous amphibious assault was the
Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, in which British, Canadian, and US forces were landed at
Utah,
Omaha,
Gold,
Juno and
Sword beaches. The organizational planning of the landing itself (
Operation Neptune) was in the hands of
Admiral Bertram Ramsay. It covered the landing of the troops and their re-supply.
Other large amphibious actions in the
European Theatre in WWII include:
In the
Pacific Theatre, almost every campaign involved "
island hopping" assaults from the sea. Some of the famous ones include:
Post-World War II
During the
Korean War the US 10th Corps, consisting of the 1st Marine Division and 7th (Army) Division
landed at Inchon. Conceived of and commanded by
US General Douglas MacArthur, this landing is considered by many military historians to have been a tactical jewel, one of the most brilliant amphibious maneuvers in history . The success of this battle eventually resulted in link up with US Army forces that broke out of the Pusan perimeter, and led by the 1st Cavalry Division and its Task Force Lynch, cleared much of South Korea. A second landing by the Tenth Corps on the east coast approached the Chosin Reservoir and hydroelectric plants that powered much of Communist China's heavy industry, and led to intervention by
Chinese forces on behalf of
North Korea. Amphibious landings also took place during the
First Indochina War, notably during
Operation Camargue, one of the largest of the conflict.
The British
Royal Marines made their first post-WWII amphibious assault during the
Suez Crisis of 1956 when they successfully landed at
Suez on 6 November as part of a joint seaborne/airborne operation code-named MUSKETEER. It was the first amphibious operation that employed helicopters in the assault. Nearly 30 years later in the
Falklands War, the Argentine 1st Marine Brigade of the
Argentine Navy along with Naval Special Forces, landed at
Mullet Creek near
Stanley on 2 April 1982, while later the Royal Marines'
3 Commando Brigade, (augmented by the
British Army's
Parachute Regiment) landed at
Port San Carlos on 21 May 1982.
In the
Sri Lankan Civil War, the
Sri Lanka armed forces carried out several successful amphibious assault against the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, that included landing code named
Operation Sea Breeze and
Operation Balavegaya.
During the Persian
Gulf War, a large amphibious assault force, composed of
USMC and naval support, was positioned off the coast of
Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia. This force was composed of 40
amphibious assault ships, the largest such force to be assembled since the
Battle of Inchon. The object was to fix the six Iraqi divisions deployed along the Kuwaiti coast. The purpose behind this amphibious maneuver (known as an amphibious demonstration) was to prevent 6 Iraqi divisions poised for the defense of the littorals from being able to actively engage in combat at the real front. The operation was extremely successful in keeping more than 41,000 Iraqi forces from repositioning to the main battlefield. As a result, the Marines maneuvered through the Iraq defense of southern Kuwait and outflanked the Iraqi coastal defense forces.
An amphibious assault was carried out by
Royal Marines,
U.S. Marines and units of the
Polish special forces when they landed at the
Al-Faw Peninsula on 20 March 2003 during the
Iraqi War.
The most recent amphibious
assault was launched in the
Comoros by government and African Union troops in March 2008.
See also
