Ashland continued her duty of carrying and tending landing craft in the Far East until January 1946.
Many of these and the other heavier transports carried smaller landing craft for the actual beach assault--more than fifteen hundred of them.
Her task was to carry and land amphibious landing craft and other equipment and to recover and repair landing craft when possible.
In addition, she could carry 27 Daihatsu class landing craft.
Unlike other contemporary designs, it was planned that the ship would not carry smaller landing craft, but rather discharge her cargo via a ramp fitted to her bow.
The army also carried landing craft to lend verisimilitude to the idea.
Most of these ships can also carry or support landing craft, such as air-cushioned landing craft (hovercraft) or LCUs.
Other amphibious assault tank-landing ships carried air-cushion landing craft, but they always called on Colonel Yang to lead any assault.
Compared to other cargo ship types, these ships could carry landing craft, were faster, had more armament, and had larger hatches and booms.
She was designed to carry military cargo and landing craft, and to use the latter to land weapons, supplies, and Marines on enemy shores during amphibious operations.
