Whenever I read various accounts of different aspects of WWII, I'm constantly amazed at some of the seemingly insignificant events, coincidences, happenstances that end up having results all out of proportion with the original event. I'm not smart enough to say if such things are luck, pre-destination or heavenly influence. Whatever the cause, the Allies were the recipient of some events that were sheer good fortune. One such thing was the Higgins boat and the events and character surrounding it.

One of the greatest difficulties we faced during the war was the problems associated with getting fightingmen from the troopships to the beach. Amphibious assault is a very difficult choreograph and we had a huge learning curve to overcome.

Andrew Higgins, a flamboyant, whiskey swilling, quick tempered, Irish boat builder came along at just the right time. The USMC was looking for just the right design to put men ashore in 1938. The Navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair couldn't meet the USMC's requirements.

Foreseeing the future need for his designs by the Navy, Higgins purchased the entire 1939 crop of Philippine mahogany. Can you envision how fortuitous this was, who knew at the time.

After years of fighting with the Navy over designs, Higgins finally got a contract to develop his LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel ).

With a workforce of 30,000 in New Orleans and with the help of other American factories, Higgins produced 23,398 LCVPs, half wood and half steel boats for the war.

The Higgins boats were deployed in every major amphibious assault of WWII. Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the Higgins boat crucial to winning the war.

They have a WW2 Higgins PT boat you can ride on Lake Ponchatrain. It was restored by the WW2 museum. Lots of fun, but they wouldn't let me shoot anything Impressive to hear and feel those three Packard V-12s fire up! They also have an LCVP on display. Higgins was quite the character. Like Larry the cable guy says "Git 'er done" was his motto!

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PTLAPTA!

Wow - Great video. At the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio (birthplace of Packard) they have a WWII PT Boat V-12 engine on display. Brand new one at that.

Packard also made the Packard-Merlin aircraft engine under license from Rolls Royce for the P-51 Mustangs during WWII.

Hitler called Higgins the " New Noah" because of his boat.
I don't think he appreciated it as much as we did, though.

My father who passed in 1997 served on two Attack Transports in WW2 and piloted both LCM's and LCVP's.He was on an LCM in the second wave of Marines attacking Iwo Jima.
I was privileged to ride a LCVP out to his ship APA 210 and visit the ship in the early 50's.
He did not talk much about what happened on Iwo until many years later.

Higgins LCVP
M1 garand
Sherman with the hedge row cutter
Pt boat

It's innovation at the right time that won the war.

and I would add Jeeps & C-47s to this list.

Be sure to add the LST and the jeep. The C-47 wasn't new technology, but its adaptation from the ten-year-old (plus) DC-3 was absolutely crucial in WWII.

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Oh well, what the hell.

"Foreseeing the future need for his designs by the Navy, Higgins purchased the entire 1939 crop of Philippine mahogany. Can you envision how fortuitous this was, who knew at the time."

Much the same happened with very high grade uranium ore. All the sources were in the Belgian Congo, and of course the Germans had largely cut off that supply when they invaded Belgium. But by a very fortunate turn of events there was 1200 tons of it stored in a Brooklyn warehouse. Later an additional 3000 tons were recovered from storage at the mine, most of which made it to the USA. In addition to benefitting the Manhattan project, that ore was kept out of the hands of the Germans and Japanese, both of which had plans to develop nuclear weapons. I think that plot would have made a good movie.

If I remember correctly, at one point, the Higgins factory ran out of room to finish all the boats. So, they moved as many of the final operations into the streets around the factory.

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Always Stay Strong!

During WWII my father in law, about 19 yrs old, joined the Navy. He got sent by train from his small town, Labadieville in Louisiana, out to California to learn to pilot Higgins landing boats. His group were on a ship in the Pacific heading for action when the A bombs were dropped in Japan. So, they got to spend a couple of months in Hawaii (rather than being shot at) before being sent back home. A few years ago we brought him to the WWII museum in New Orleans he really enjoyed it, it is a fantastic Museum well worth visiting if you have the opportunity.
Steve W

My uncle was on a PT boat in ww2 he said after the war they beached them, stripped them and burnt them. Sad.

Rode a Higgins boat from our ship to the beach for a division party at Gitmo. One genius decided he was going to storm the beach. Yeah right. Ended up face down kissing the beach face first That was good for a bunch of laughs. Frank

The PT boats were actually powered by THREE Packard V-12 engines, supercharged and making 1850HP each by the end of the war. Having those three bad boys open up under your feet would give any gearhead a chubby!

This is a good thread.........Sadly most history dies when the oldsters pass on.......

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S&W Accumulator

You are correct!! Just for that I'll add a few pics. You can see NOLA in the background. One Packard was being worked on when photo taken. It was named "Sudden Jerk" because it did just that on the crews first run in WW2. It did it again in NOLA and they found a transmission problem. It's fixed now.

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PTLAPTA!

As I recall there was a Higgins boat as we came in to the WWII Museum in New Orleans. A gentleman was there to tell us about it, the history etc. and may have said he piloted one in WWII. This was the spring before the "Big One" hit the city.

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TOMBECK

Corsairs, Wildcats, Bearcats, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, B-17s, pure guts and will: as well.

While Higgins did Manufacture PT Boats



What is generally referred to as "Higgins Boats" & by the OP
were Landing Craft to land Amphibious Troops



LCP(L) Landing Craft Personnel (large)



LCVP / Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel

Both of Higgin's Land Craft designs were based on prewar boats
built and used in Louisiana

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Compact 9mm Just my $0.02

Thanks. Those pics explained much.

This is my Father in law (see post #11) standing by the restored Higgins boat PD4-3 "Marvin Perrett", owned by the Regional Military Museum in Houma, La. This picture taken at a shipyard where the boat was being worked on, I am not sure if this boat is an original Higgins, a replica, or a training version, I'll try to find out next time at the museum.
Steve W

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