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LVT(A)1 -- Landing Vehicle, Tracked (Armored) (Mark I)
("Water Buffalo," Turret Type)

The armored amphibian LVT(A)1 boasted a 37mm gun and five .30 caliber machine guns. One machine gun was located atop the turret, one was mounted coaxially with the cannon, a third was located in a ball and socket mount in the forepart of the hull, and the other two were placed on ring mounts to the rear of the turret. Protection for the crew of six was provided by 1A to 1/2inch of armor plate and by small shields fixed to the exposed machine guns. Neither the LCI(G)s nor the LVT(A)1s were troop carriers.

Unlike the troops who were seizing Roi, the men of the 24th Marines got little benefit from the support of the armored amphibians. These vehicles stopped at the beaches and attempted to support by fire the advance inland. The actions of the LVT(A)1s confounded Colonel Hart, the regimental commander, for he had planned that the armored amphibians would precede the assault waves to positions 100 yards inland of the Green Beaches. On the evening prior to the Namur landings, after he discovered that LVT(A)1s had supported the landings on the outlying islands from positions offshore, the colonel sent a reminder to his attached armored amphibian unit. To guard any error, he told the unit commander: "You will precede assault waves to beach and land, repeat land, at W-Hour, repeat W-Hour, as ordered."

Explicit as these orders were, the LVT(A)1s nonetheless could not carry them out. The antitank ditches backing the lagoon beaches and the cut-up jumble of trenches and debris proved to be an impassable barrier for the LVT(A)1s in the short time that elapsed between the touchdown of the armored amphibians and the landing of the first waves of Marines. As the infantry moved inland, the LVT(A)s furnished support with all guns blazing until their fire was masked by the advance of the assault troops.

The 22d Marines, assault force for the Engebi landing, was directed to load its assigned LVTs with ammunition and water before the convoy sailed from Kwajalein Atoll. The tractors were to be carried to the target area in LSTs. LVT(A)s, manned like the troop carriers by Army crews, had the mission of helping neutralize the beaches and then supporting the advance inland by landing on the flanks of the assault battalions.