amphibious warfare

Military operations directed against hostile shores and characterized by attacks launched from the sea by naval and landing forces. It has been conducted since ancient times. The Greeks attacking Troy (1200 BC) had to make a shore landing, as did the Persian invaders of Greece prior to the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). The British-led landings at Gallipoli (1915) were the main amphibious assault in World War I. The Allies of World War II found amphibious tactics essential in the island-hopping Pacific campaign and in the famous D-Day of the Normandy campaign, which still ranks as the greatest amphibious assault in history. Amphibious warfare's greatest advantage is its mobility and flexibility; its greatest limitation is that the attacker must start from nothing to build up strength ashore. Modern amphibious forces attempt to overcome this by fielding larger and more efficient landing vessels and also by using helicopters and short-takeoff and -landing airplanes to deploy troops beyond the hostile shore.

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• Amphibious warfare, warfare carried out on both land and water
• Amphibians, vertebrate animals of the Class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water)
• Amphibious insects, invertebrate animals of the Class Insecta (many of which live in the air and breed in water, such as Odonata and the mosquito larvae their larvae eat.)
• Amphibious vehicle, a vehicle capable of being driven on both land and water
• Amphibious aircraft, an aircraft capable of landing on water
• Amphibious fish, fish that are able to leave water for extended periods of time

Amphibious may also incorrectly (or humorously) refer to someone who is ambidextrous. See ambidexterity