"Without these amphibians, landing operations on the islands of the Pacific Ocean would have been impossible," veteran Marine Corps General Holland M. Smith said of the American LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked). Emerging from the rescue tracked transporter "Alligator," the family of American assault amphibians and floating tanks proved itself in every theater of the Second World War — from the Pacific to Europe — and then took part in the fighting in Korea and Vietnam, as well as in the Suez Canal area.
This book, based not only on publicly available materials but also on technical and patent documentation usually accessible only to narrow specialists, offers the most complete account of the development history, mass production, and combat use of these amphibious carriers, which formed an independent class of armored vehicles. For comparison, it also provides data on similar-purpose vehicles created in Japan and the Third Reich. This collector's edition on premium coated paper is supplemented with hundreds of unique diagrams, drawings, and photographs.