Posted on 06/06/2019 12:05:21 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
bttt
A friend of my father in law drove one of these on D-Day and Iwo Jima. He just passed away a couple months ago.
He was the most mild manner of men.
They have an original Higgins Boat on display at the WWII museum in New Orleans. Ridiculously flimsy but served it’s purpose. That museum is a must visit if you’re ever in New Orleans.
OK, I’m confused: was the Higgins Boat a PT Boat or a Landing Craft?
Yeah, I imagine that after facing the hell on earth of both D-Day and Iwo Jima ... not much else left to get upset about.
Thanks Responsibility2nd. I recall reading that the manufacturing process ended with the paint job, which was applied aboard moving trains as the finished boats headed for the Atlantic ports for shipping overseas.
We kick asses in ways no one else does. :^)
Most other countries are so small that that wouldn’t give the paint time to dry—and in the ones that aren’t that small, the paint would tend to freeze for much of the year.
Higgins Industries built several variants of the landing craft and they also built PT boats along with a couple other manufacturers.
And do not forget the plywood gliders from D-Day.
Just watched a video about Higgins and the one at the museum in New Orleans is a replica built from the original blueprints along with help from some of the workers that constructed them during the war.
Makes a good partner to the plywood Mosquito.
You do know the hull on those things was a double layer of mahogany?
And the “bridge” on the tv show was cardboard? At least the pilot...
Two entirely different boats, and two entirely different missions. "Higgins Boat" was actually a generic name given to shallow draft vessels that could beach and offload men/equipment. Andrew Jackson Higgins and his contribution to to WWII was the reason the WWII Museum is in NOLA. Absolute bucket list museum. I've been many times.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-higgins-boats
Yes.
(They made both)
I stand corrected, but you definitely see how dangerous it would have been to assault a defended beach in one. Replica or not it is still something to behold.
The bravery of those guys in those boats when that front ramp dropped down. Stephen Spielberg did us great favor by giving us at least an inkling of what that must have been like.
Thanks; got it now.
I saw a photo of U.S. soldiers leaving a landing craft and the caption said: “College age men leaving their safe spaces.” The way I heard it was Higgins’ company was in the lumber business before the war, and figured out they (company employees) could design and produce shallow-draft boats for oil industry construction crews to use in the bayous and swamps of Louisiana. The museum in Nuahleens is on Higgins St., of course.
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