Landing Craft Infantry
The Landing craft, Infantry or LCI were several classes of seagoing amphibious assault ships of the Second World War used to land large numbers of infantry directly onto beaches. They were developed in response to a British request for a vessel capable of carrying and landing substantially more troops than their smaller Landing Craft Assault (LCA). The result was a small steel ship that could land 200 troops, traveling from rear bases on its own bottom at a speed of up to 15 knots.
Some 923 were built starting in 1943, serving in both the Pacific and European theaters, including a number that were converted into heavily armed beach assault support ships. Commonly called "Elsie Items," the LCI(L) supplemented the small LCAs/LCVPs as a way to get many troops ashore before a dock could be captured or built. As such, they were the largest dedicated beachable infantry landing craft (the larger Landing Ship Infantry (LSI) was a transporter for troops and small craft such as the British LCA) in the allied inventory.
Read more about Landing Craft Infantry: Development, Variants, LCS(L) Mk.3/LSSL, Surviving LCIs
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