HMS Boxer, pennant F121, was built as a Landing Ship, Tank (LST) at Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....

. Launched in December 1942 and commissioned the following April, she saw service as part of the Allied

Allies

In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...

 invasion of Italy

Allied invasion of Italy

The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on September 3, 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign...

.

Design and devleopment

HMS Boxer was the next in development of the Landing Ship, Tank following the conversion of the Maracaibo tankers into landing ships capable of carrying vehicles. The requirement was for a ship that could carry 13 Churchill tank

Churchill tank

The Tank, Infantry, Mk IV was a heavy British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles. It was one of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war...

s, 27 other vehicles and 193 men. As it was expected to have a high speed even when laden for the assault (about 18 knots) it could not have a shallow draught. This in turn meant that a extra long bow ramp had to be added. At 140 ft (42.7 m) this took up a lot of room inside the ship.

Boxer had only two sister ships, as plans to build more in the United States led instead to a simpler though slower design capable of similar capacity but with a much shallower draught.

Service

In 1944, she was refitted as a "Fighter Direction Ship", for use during the Normandy landings, then as a "Action Information Organisation" tender (a radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 training ship) in 1946. She was placed in reserve in 1956, and scrapped at Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

 in 1958.

HMS Boxer carried the writer/comedian Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

from North Africa to Italy when he served with the 56th Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery.