Shifters of the busy U.S. Navy maintenance yard at Falmouth, Cornwall, rigged ramp extensions on a LCT for the launching of amphibious tanks. This Landing Craft Tank was supported on a "hard," a concrete apron which extended down below tide level like a boat ramp and approximated the slope of a beach, thus allowing the craft to be loaded while in an otherwise deep-water port. New hards were built in ports throughout southern England for the mammoth task of loading the forces of attack.