OLDNAVYMCPO
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
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.
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.
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!
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.
