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The ''Gilliam''-class attack transport was a class of attack transport built for service with the US Navy in World War II. Like all attack transports, the purpose of the ''Gilliam''s was to transport troops and their equipment to foreign shores in order to execute amphibious invasions using an array of smaller amphibious assault boats carried by the attack transport itself. Like all the attack transports, the ''Gilliam''-class was heavily armed with antiaircraft weaponry to protect itself and its cargo of troops from air attack in the battle zone. ==History== The ''Gilliam''-class utilized the Maritime Commission (MARCOM)'s Type S4-SE2-BD1 hull. All 32 vessels of the class were built under MARCOM contracts by the Consolidated Steel Corporation of Wilmington, California. The first of the ships, the , rolled off the Wilmington ways on 28 March 1944 and was commissioned on 1 August 1944. The rest rapidly followed, a new ''Gilliam''-class vessel rolling of the shipways at an average of roughly one per week until April 1945. The ''Gilliam''s, with less than half the displacement, were significantly inferior in both troop and cargo carrying capacity to the previous class of attack transport, the ''Bayfields'', and also slightly slower. It is not clear therefore why they were produced but probably it was simply because attack transports were at this time a much-needed type and the Navy chose to utilize any available shipbuilding capacity to acquire them. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gilliam-class attack transport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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