Amphibious cargo ships wereU.S. Navy ships designed specifically to carrytroops, heavy equipment and supplies in support ofamphibious assaults, and to providenaval gunfire support during those assaults. A total of 108 of these ships were built between 1943 and 1945—which worked out to an average of one ship every eight days. Six additional AKAs, featuring new and improved designs, were built in later years. They were originally calledAttack Cargo Ships and designatedAKA. In 1969, they were renamed asAmphibious Cargo Ships and redesignatedLKA.
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Compared to other cargo ship types, these ships could carrylanding craft, were faster, had more armament, and had larger hatches and booms. Their holds were optimized forcombat loading, a method of cargo storage where the items first needed ashore were at the top of the hold, and those needed later were lower down. Because these ships went into forward combat areas, they hadCombat Information Centers and significant amounts of equipment for radio communication, neither of which were present in other cargo ships.
As amphibious operations became more important inWorld War II, planners saw the need for a special kind of cargo ship, one that could carry both cargo and theLCM andLCVP boats with which to attack the beach, and that carried guns to assist in anti-air defense and shore bombardment. Specifications were drawn up, and beginning in early 1943, the first 16 U.S. attack cargo ships were converted from Navycargo ships that had previously been designated AK. During the course of the war, 108 such ships were built; many of them were converted from non-military ships, or started out as non-military hulls.
Attack cargo ships played a vital role in thePacific War, where many were attacked bykamikazes and other aircraft, and several weretorpedoed, but none were sunk or otherwise destroyed. Nine AKAs were present at thesurrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.[citation needed]
After the war, many AKAs were put into theNational Defense Reserve Fleet. Others were converted for other uses, such as oceanographic surveying, undersea cable laying, and repairing other ships.
Some of the reserve ships were recommissioned for service in theKorean War, and some stayed in service during theVietnam War.
Six more amphibious cargo ships, somewhat faster, larger and of improved design regarding cargo handling, were built between 1954 and 1969: theUSSTulare (APA/LKA-112) and theCharleston-class.
In 1969, the U.S. Navy redesignated all its remaining AKAattack cargo ships as LKAamphibious cargo ships. At the same time, several other "A" designations of amphibious ships were changed to similar "L" designations; for example, all theattack troop transport APAs were redesignated as LPAs.
In the 1960s, both theUnited States Navy and the BritishRoyal Navy developedamphibious transport docks which gradually took on this unique amphibious role and today have assumed it completely. The last amphibious cargo ship in the U. S. Navy,USSEl Paso (LKA-117), was decommissioned in April 1994.