Why did no one tell me ?

[Alanmccoubrey]

That the US Army used the LVT 4 in Europe ?

The first pic is at 6.13 and then later there is much more of it.

[Fire at Will]

Nice find Alan, and an LVT-2 just after 14:00

[Scruton]

I think the Alligators were originally allocated to the US 6th Armored Division for trials, but 6AD never used the vehicles in action. Instead, as I understand it, the LVT-2s and LVT-4s were penny-packeted out to to engineering units (e.g., the 234th Engineer Battalion supported both the 29th and 30th Infantry Divisions and had 17 Alligators available for the Roer Crossing near Julich -- see Balkoski's The Last Roll Call for several long snippets on the use of 7 of the 17 amphibians by Company 'C' under 1st Lt. Norman Cusick; they also get a single mention in this postwar report (https://mcoecbamcoepwprd01.blob.core.us ... ossing.pdf, as well as being captured in this painting: https://library.uncw.edu/capefearww2/ve ... 40005b.htm). The tank unit supporting the Roer Crossing -- the 747th Tank Battalion -- was itself withdrawn from the line and converted to amphibians to support the Rhine crossing in March; unfortunately, the copy of their after action report for the period (https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital ... 3838/rec/5) was in terrible shape when scanned and appears to be missing the most relevant pages . . . page 63 in the PDF starts up mid-sentence in the final few paragraphs on the Rhine Crossing; I don't know if anyone has a better copy of the original?).

For the use of Alligators in the Roer crossing, the most extensiver discussion I've found is in engineering report on the crossing (https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital ... 1956/rec/1); Balkoski's The Last Roll Call had the most extensive anecdotal record of Alligators in use in that operation. In contrast, the engineering report on the Rhine crossing https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital ... 3192/rec/3) devotes far less attention to the use of LVTs, although it does make specific reference to the units to which the 747th TB was attached and other useful snippets.

I hope that helps!

Best,

Chris

[Alanmccoubrey]

Thanks Chris, so you were part of the conspiracy to keep me in the dark too I had always thought that 747 Tank Battalion were converted to DD Tanks but I can't rememebr where I read that.

Elsewhere I have been shown two photographs claiming to be LVT 2 on Omaha Beach on D-Day which came as a surprise. However the weather in these two photographs is extremely sunny which makes me doubt their date.

[sandsmodels]

Thanks Chris, so you were part of the conspiracy to keep me in the dark too I had always thought that 747 Tank Battalion were converted to DD Tanks but I can't rememebr where I read that.

Elsewhere I have been shown two photographs claiming to be LVT 2 on Omaha Beach on D-Day which came as a surprise. However the weather in these two photographs is extremely sunny which makes me doubt their date.

those colour pics are from a film which is on youtube, some pics are also of lvt1 as well.
there is also videos of terrapins and neptunes on walcheren which are rarer!