page_title: Landing craft
section_title: Landing Craft Flak
hierarchical_section_title: Landing craft / Second World War / Special craft / Landing Craft Flak
caption_attribution_description: English: Lcf (4) 24 At a buoy in the Clyde.
context_page_description: 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.
  Because of the need to run up onto a suitable beach, World War II landing craft were flat-bottomed, and many designs had a flat front, often with a lowerable ramp, rather than a normal bow. This made them difficult to control and very uncomfortable in rough seas. The control point was normally at the extreme rear of the vessel, as were the engines. In all cases, they were known by an abbreviation derived from the official name rather than by the full title.
context_section_description: The Landing Craft Flak (LCF) was a conversion of the LCT that was intended to give anti-aircraft support to the landing. They were first used in the Dieppe Raid early in 1942. The ramp was welded shut, and a deck built on top of the Tank deck. They were equipped with several light anti-aircraft guns—a typical fitting was eight 20 mm Oerlikons and four QF 2 pdr "pom-poms" and had a crew of 60. On British examples, the operation of the craft was the responsibility of RN crew and the guns were manned by Royal Marines. They carried two naval officers and two marine officers.
caption: Landing Craft Flak were equipped with 20 mm Oerlikons and four QF 2 pdr "pom-poms" to defend against aircraft.
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