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The boats that took soldiers to the D-day beaches
DILLSBURG, Pa. (WHTM)– Their official designation was Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel, or LCVP. Usually, they were just called Landing Craft. Sometimes they were called Higgins boats after their creator. By any name, they changed the way war was fought, shuttling troops to beaches across the Pacific – and across the English Channel on D-Day.
In 2006 Reporter Rob Dixon and I did a story about a business in Dillsburg restoring three Higgins boats to their WWII condition, and got to meet some veterans who built and piloted the boats.
The boats were the brainchild of Andrew Jackson Higgins of New Orleans, who was building shallow-water boats for old and gas exploration in the bayous of Louisiana when World War II broke out. He adapted his designs for landing craft. The first versions were not that great; the designs called for soldiers to jump over the sides of the boats, exposing them to enemy fire.
But the LCVP had a ramp at the bow. When the boat 'hit the beach,' the ramp dropped and soldiers dashed out as fast as possible.
Christian Lamb made maps to guide the crews landing crafts at Normandy on D-Day
Until the Higgins boat, invasions involved navies attacking heavily defended ports. But Higgins' landing craft made it possible to unload entire armies on open beaches, forcing defenders to stretch resources to cover areas that wouldn't have been considered danger points before.
Many of the LCVPs were built at the Higgins factories and then disassembled. Shipped in pieces, they took up less space in freighters, which meant the freighter could carry more of them. They were then reassembled at their destination.
WWII-era landing craft emerging from Lake Mead
Andrew Higgins was not only ahead of his time in boat design, but in the workplace as well. Higgins Industries had the first racially integrated workforce in New Orleans. He hired African Americans, undrafted white males, women, the elderly, and the handicapped, all of whom were paid equal wages according to their job rating.
By the war's end, Higgins Industries had produced over 20,000 ships, including various types of landing crafts and PT boats.
General Dwight Eisenhower called him 'The man who won the war for us.'
Adolf Hitler (probably not very happily) called him 'The new Noah.'
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