side of the deck, and were hauled to and fro by means of winches. The stowage was filled from fore to aft as each craft was jacked down onto fixed cradles between the rails. The ships completed to this standard were LST-3043/HMS Messina, and LST-3044/HMS Narvik. While these ships were able to carry LCMs, they were only able to carry out loading and unloading operations under nearly ideal weather conditions, and therefore could not be used for assault operations; they also lacked the facilities to maintain the landing craft (which the Dock Landing Ships provided). The Landing Craft Assault were wooden-hulled vessels plated with armour, long overall, wide, and displacing 13 tons fully loaded. Draught was , and normal load was 35 troops with of equipment. A pair of Scripps marine conversions of Ford V8 engines gave it speeds of unloaded, service speed, on one engine. Range was miles on . Armament was typically a Bren light machine gun aft; with two Lewis Guns in a port forward position. The LCM (7)s that were carried on the LST (2) were considerably larger, in length, beam, with a hoisting weight of 28 tons, full load displacement of 63 tons. Beaching draught was , and propulsion was provided by a pair of Hudson Invader petrol engines, later replaced with Grays diesels, both sets providing , giving a speed of . The main requirement of the design was to carry a 40-ton Churchill tank or bulldozer at . 140 had been completed when the war ended, and some saw service through to the 1970s. Variants Some LST (3)s were converted to LST (A) (A for "assault") by adding stiffening so they could safely carry the heaviest British tanks. Two LST (3)s were converted to command vessels, LST (C): LST 3043 and LST 3044. Post war they became HMS Messina (L112) and HMS Narvik (L114). They were better armed with ten 20 mm Oerlikons and four 40 mm Bofors. Two LST (3)s were converted during building into Headquarters command ships LST (Q). These were L3012, which became L3101 (and later HMS Ben Nevis) and LST 3013, which became LST 3102, and then HMS Ben Lomond. They acted as LST "mother ships", similar in most aspects to American ships based on the LST (2) hull. They had two Quonset huts erected on the main deck to accommodate 40 officers. Berths on the tank deck berthed