Museum resurrects legendary WWII boat (Ike said the simple Higgins boat was the key to victory)

The News & Observer ^ | Jay Price

[NormsRevenge]

Never rode in one..

Higgins
Bump!

[Mike Fieschko]

Higgins Boat plan

[Oldsailor]

It is hard to think there are only so few of these left in the world. I have a lot of experience driving the LCVP and have seen them tied up in huge nests in Japan during the occupation there.
The VP was how all the landing troops got ashore in every island assault that I know of and no telling how many were present in either the Pacific or the Atlantic.

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[jazusamo]

LCVP

[snippy_about_it]

It was one of those right person, right time, right place things that happens in history. Thanks.

[goldstategop]

It was a classic of design and economy... and built tough. It ain't pretty to look at but it did the job!

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Selmore]

Abkhazian separatist regime together with units of the Russian regular army

I don't understand why we aren't fighting these people.

Or at least the people that we trained could be fighting these people.

It doesn't look like Russia is worried about an "escalation."

[max americana]

>> Many people think they were heavily armored, but they were made almost entirely of wood, <<

I actually didnt know about that. Judging by the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, the boat was simply made for speedy transport duties. As for protection, forget about it.

[21twelve]

I’ve recently become friends of an older couple. The husband sports a navy tattoo and I mentioned that my dad had been on a Mine Sweeper in the Pacific during WWII. The gentleman said that he had been a Higgins Boat driver - on D-Day. Wow. I mentioned that he didn’t seem old enough. His wife replied “He signed up the day after Pearl Harbor. He was only sixteen but lied about his age”. Wow again. I started to ask another question but his wife said he doesn’t like to talk about it.

[coolbreeze]

If I remember correctly, Higgins made PT boat also.

[okie01]

Many got seasick from the combination of diesel exhaust and ocean swells,...

Between the diesel exhaust, the ocean swells and gathering fear, most LCVPs were awash with vomit by the time they reached the beach.

Lord knows I wouldn't have wanted to be there...

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I was born in ‘46. I remember going to Miami Beach when I was about 6. There was one beached and rusting away on the beach in front of the hotels. As a kid, I was fascinated by it.

[coolbreeze]

oh my, none of them talked about it....my dad would never talk about the war, I found out from my aunt that he was at Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Leyte Gulf, and who knows where else...all I know is he would never curse without “Japanese” as a pre-fix ( Japanese SOB, Japanese bastid, ect.).

[Question_Assumptions]

My father joined the Navy at the end of the war but he was trained on these. Three bits of trivial he told me. First, their flat bottoms made them easy to capsize and they had to be careful about crossing wakes or they could go over. Second, the ramp had a crank wheel and if you didn't get out of the way when it dropped and started spinning, it could rip your jaw off. Third, you had to drive them up as far as possible onto the beach because as people got off, the boat would get lighter and drive up further on to the beach. If it did that too quickly, it could hit and break the legs of the people getting off. Safe they weren't.

[tanknetter]

It is hard to think there are only so few of these left in the world. I have a lot of experience driving the LCVP and have seen them tied up in huge nests in Japan during the occupation there.

Weekend before last I saw three of them sitting in a parking lot along Rt.15 in PA (not sure if it was North or South of Gettysburg. Wife wouldn't allow me to turn the car around to go back and gawk. Not sure what they were doing there, from the second or two glance I had of them it looked like they were either restored or being restored.

[rdax]

[BallyBill]

A Mahogony Higgins boat! I knew they didn't make plywood any better back then.

[rockinqsranch]

GEEEZZZ!! As a kid growing up in Post WWII Long Beach, my father was in the scrap business. After the war Military Scrap was big business along Los Angeles’s Alameda St. Seems there were scrap yards occupying most every foot of property along that route.

These LCVP Boats were everywhere. I saw them stacked in yards up and down Alameda amongst all sorts of other very interesting Amphibious craft as well Captains Gigs, and Life Boats.

Hard to imagine only six are left.