Amphibious LVTs used in European theater?

[hchris]

I read on Wikipedia that the LVTs were used by the U.S. And other allies in the European theater of operations.

Here is the quote from Wikipedia

Although usually associated with the Pacific theatre, toward the end of the war LVTs were employed in Europe as well. The U.S., British and Canadian armies used the Buffalo in the Battle of the Scheldt (1944), during the Operation Plunder crossing of the Rhine, along the Po River in Italy, across the river Elbe, and in a number of other river crossing operations.

I know that Wikipedia is not the best source for historical accuracy, so I wanted to ask the specialists here. Is it true? Were they used?

If yes, which variants were used? Any photos as evidence?

Looking forward to your replies.

[Michael Kenny]

Just Google 'LVT Rhine' and you will be swamped with photos. 79th AD had a couple of LVT Regiments in 1945. Some US LVT were used on the Normandy beaches after the fighting moved inland. There is A photo showing one on a US beach and colour film of another .

[Prosper Vandenbroucke]

Hi Chris,
The British Army used also U.S. "Waterbuffaloes" during operation "Infatuate" (november 1944) at the isle of Walcheren in the Netherlands.


Best regards
Prosper

[Manuferey]

We now know that LVT-1 and -2 were used following D-Day on Utah and Omaha Beach. See this thread:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 0#p1829720

Emmanuel

[Rob Stuart]

Alligator.jpg (100.69 KiB) Viewed 2945 times

This is from the Canadian archives. The caption reads:

Captain W.A. Teed (foreground) of the North Shore Regiment, Embarkation Staff Officer of the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, talking with Captain C.J. Aendry, commanding officer of an Alligator amphibious vehicle, near Terneuzen, Netherlands, 13 October 1944.

[Ironmachine]

In Italy they were also used during the Spring 1945 offensive in the Comacchio lagoon area. See for example:
http://755thtank.net/Operation_Impact.html

[hchris]

Thank you everybody for the replies!

After some more digging through the Internet some more questions please.

I found those photos in one of the links provided here in the thread:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw423uk/ ... otostream/

What Version of the buffalo is this? It looks like a LVT-4 Water Buffalo? I thought because it unloads from the rear and has two .30cal Browning M1919A4 in gunshields? What do you guys think?

Then this one is rather interesting:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajw423uk/ ... otostream/

It has two .30cal Browning M1919A4 and a .50cal M2. Not sure which variant is this, probably a LVT-4 Water Buffalo with different armament Setup?


So what I could gather so far is:

LVT-1:

Used at Utah and Omaha Beach by the US (no weapons?)

LVT-2:

Used at Utah and Omaha Beach by the US (no weapons?)

LVT-4 Water Buffalo:

Used at the Rhine river crossing by the US with the following weapon setups (2x .30cal in shielded mounts facing forward OR 2x .30 cal facing rear, .50cal facing foward)
Used at the Po river crossing by the US (same weapon setups as above)

Used by the British at the isle of Walcheren in the Netherlands. Weapon Setup is one 20mm Polsten AA gun, 2 .303 Vickers MMGs facing rear.

Used by the Canadians (weapon Setup unknown) near Terneuzen, Netherlands.

[Gary Kennedy]

The British Army deployed multiple LVT equipped units in Northwest Europe, all under the auspices of 79th Armoured Division;

5th Assault Regiment, RE (reduced from four Squadrons to three by Dec44, then to a single LVT Sqn during Mar/Apr45, as the other two moved back to AVREs).

11th Royal Tank Regiment (converted from Canal Defence Light)

These two units undertook the workload for amphibians from summer 1944 through to the end of the year and operated with both British and Canadian formations. I'm not aware of any Canadian units operating LVTs in 21 Army Group (Kangaroos as part of 79th Armd yes, but not Buffalos).

In early 1945 the whole of 33rd Armoured Brigade (three Regiments) was converted to LVTs for the Rhine crossing. Two of these Regts moved back to tanks (Shermans) after the op, while 4th Royal Royal Tank Regiment stayed with LVTs.

The British operated both the LVT II and LVT IV in NWE, with a three-man crew of commander, driver-mechanic and gunner-operator. A 20-mm Polsten was fitted as the main weapon, with either two .30-cal Brownings or one .30 and one .50-cal machine guns at the rear of the vehicle.

Gary

[Alanmccoubrey]

Hi Chris,
The British Army used also U.S. "Waterbuffaloes" during operation "Infatuate" (november 1944) at the isle of Walcheren in the Netherlands.


Best regards
Prosper

I've never heard of the British calling them Water Buffaloes, just plain Buffaloes.

[Prosper Vandenbroucke]

I'll think you'r right Alan.
i was writing to quickly here is the link to the website where the picture came from:
http://www.strijdbewijs.nl/landing/landeng3.htm
Sorry for my poor english knowledge.
Prosper
P.S. I'm sure that I read something about waterbuffaloes in British service, but I didn't found the website.