WWII US Landing Craft in Action - Warships Number 17 (Squadron/Signal Publications 4017)

Amphibious landing forces are charged with landing enough assault forces and supplies to maintain and reinforce a beachhead on enemy shores. This beachhead would be held until suf­ficient ground troops can land and carry the fight to the enemy and defeat him on his own soil.
The first recorded amphibious landing on enemy soil was carried out by a strong Persian force landing at Marathon, Greece in 490 BC. A much smaller Greek Army eventually defeat­ed the Persian Army and the Persians were forced to withdraw. Julius Caesar of Rome employed amphibious forces when he conquered England in 54 BC. In 1066, Norman ruler William the Conqueror used amphibious forces to cross the English Channel and defeat the English forces at the Battle of Hastings.
During the American Revolution, General George Washington utilized the element of sur­prise and wooden rowboats to cross the Delaware River on 25 December 1776. His forces attacked British (Hessian) forces at Trenton, New Jersey. Washington's crossing of the Delaware marked the first time American forces had utilized amphibious warfare. In 1847, during the Mexican War, US Marines attacked Veracruz, Mexico from the sea. They secured the beach and defeated the Mexican forces. The US War Between the States (Civil War) pro­duced few amphibious landings, with the exception of the Northern forces attacking the Batteries Tracy and Huger, part of the defenses of Mobile, Alabama in 1864.
The last US amphibious landings during the 19th Century occurred in the Philippines Islands, when American troops attacked Spanish forces during the 1898 Spanish-American War. This would not be the last time American forces would have to attack that island group. World War One saw no amphibious landings since American forces landed on friendly territory during that conflict.