Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company
Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, was a major shipbuilder for the Great Lakes. It was founded in 1902, with the purchase of the "Burger & Burger Shipyard," a predecessor to The Burger Boat Company, and made mainly steel ferries and ore haulers. During World War II, it built submarines, tank landing craft (LCTs), and self-propelled fuel barges called "YOs". Employment peaked during the military years at 7000. The shipyard closed in 1968, when Manitowoc Company bought Bay Shipbuilding Company and moved their shipbuilding operation to Sturgeon Bay.
Launching of USS Robalo 9 May 1943, at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, WI.
One of the 28 Manitowoc submarines produced, used in the Pacific Theater, from 2 April 1943 to the end of the war, on 15 August 1945. Two lookouts are posted next to the periscope shears. Her bow planes are rigged in, main gun visible on deck aft. Notice the limber holes and saddle ballast tanks.
Landing Craft Tank LCT(5)-25 built by Manitowoc, abandoned at Normandy with a destroyed half-track in June 1944
The landing craft, tank (LCT) was an amphibious assault craft for landing tanks on beachheads. They were initially developed by the Royal Navy and later by the United States Navy during World War II in a series of versions. Initially known as the "tank landing craft" (TLC) by the British, they later adopted the U.S. nomenclature "landing craft, tank" (LCT). The United States continued to build LCTs post-war, and used them under different designations in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Landing craft tank
LCT-202 off the coast of England, 1944
LCT-1141 unloading at Saint-Raphaël in southern France during Operation Dragoon, August 15, 1944
A Crusader I tank emerges from the tank landing craft TLC-124, 26 April 1942