Amphibious Warfare

The use of a combination of land and sea units to undertake tasks such as attacking or defending a military objective, withdrawing troops, or creating diversions for enemy forces. In the U.S. military, amphibious warfare is a joint operation involving naval vessels and personnel in an amphibious task force (ATF). The task force is often under the protection of an aircraft carrier battle group, as well as Marine Expeditionary Units and, on occasion, Army units. An ATF typically consists of command ships, [Page 22]assault ships, transport ships, landing ships, and smaller landing craft.

Two U.S. Navy Special Warfare Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boats deployed in the Arabian Sea to pick up Navy Seals during Operation Enduring Freedom, the war in Afghanistan that began in October 2001. The two boats were launched from the amphibious warship USS Shreveport. Such amphibious support is a crucial element of modern warfare.

U.S. Navy.

History of Amphibious Warfare

Amphibious warfare has been practiced for centuries. Early forms of amphibious combat can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. In 490 BCE, the Greeks defeated a Persian amphibious landing at Marathon, and in 415 BCE, the Athenians launched an amphibious assault on the Sicilian city-state of Syracuse. In 1066, the Norman king William the Conqueror led a large amphibious invasion of England. Shortly after landing, William's forces defeated the Saxon king Harold at the battle of Hastings, and the Normans seized control of England.

The first amphibious landing by U.S. troops occurred in the Bahamas during the American Revolution (1775–1783). The U.S. Marines conducted significant amphibious invasions at Veracruz, Mexico, during the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) and at San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the Spanish-American War (1898). During World War II, U.S. forces participated in some of the largest and bloodiest amphibious operations in military history. In the Pacific theater, the first U.S. offensive amphibious operations took place at Guadalcanal Island in August 1942. This was the first step in an allied “island hopping” campaign that witnessed bloody, prolonged, yet ultimately successful assaults at Tarawa (1943), Saipan (1944), Iwo Jima (1945), and Okinawa (1945). These attacks cut off the Japanese mainland from supply and isolated Japanese garrisons on outlying islands.

The European theater of World War II, however, was the scene of the largest amphibious invasion in history. On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed at Normandy, supported by 6,000 ships, 13,000 aircraft, and several elite airborne divisions. The invasion was the first major step in the liberation of Europe from Nazi control. The so-called D-Day landings, known as Operation Overlord, remain a textbook example of a joint operation that successfully combined land, sea, and air forces.

From the Cold War to the Present

Amphibious strategy was employed by the United States at Inchon in 1950 during the Korean War, by the French and British during the Suez Crisis of 1957, by the United States during the Vietnam War, and by the British in the retaking of the Falkland Islands in 1982. Of these, the landing at Inchon in September 1950 was by far the largest and most daring use of amphibious forces since World War II.

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