The plane-wave solution found earlier work for the response of a viscoelastic floating plate to a moving line load is evaluated for a variety of conditions that might occur for floating ice sheets. The equivalent wave loading stress produced in a thin ice sheet by a line load moving at the critical speed is found to exceed the applied static loading stress by a substantial factor. As the ice thickness or the modulus increases, or the water depth decreases, the maximum loading factor decreases. The response of a floating ice sheet to a moving vehicle is discussed in the light of this behavior. The results suggest that ice less than 0.25 m thick might be efficiently broken by several relatively light ice breakers, such as air cushion vehicles, operating in a line abreast at the crystal speed.