Higgins expected his Eureka boat to be a big hit with Gulf of Mexico oil drillers, Mississippi trappers and even whiskey bootleggers. (Image source: WikiCommons)Ī groove in the underside of the hull partially enclosed the propeller, enabling the vessel to operate in little more than three feet of water without damaging the blades. The Eureka boat’s ‘spoonbill’ bow allowed it to be driven right up onto a beach or riverbank to unload cargo, after which the pilot could throw the engine into reverse and effortlessly pull back into the water. The hard-drinking, eccentric New Orleans shipping magnate designed the craft in 1926 as a manoeuvrable, shallow-draught motor barge for hauling cargo through the Louisiana bayou. Originally known as the Eureka boat, it was the brainchild of Andrew Jackson Higgins. (Image source: WikiCommons) It began as a bayou barge for bootleggers Andrew Jackson Higgins, the shipbuilder who designed the LCVP. To mark the 75 th anniversary of D-Day, Here are some essential facts about the LCVP, the little boat that won the war. 30 caliber machine guns.Īnd they served everywhere - from the wind-swept coastlines of Northern France to the far-flung tropical shores of the Pacific - ultimately changing the very nature of amphibious warfare. Higgins boats were typically operated by a crew of four and armed with a pair of. Powered by a 225-horsepower diesel engine, it could cruise at 12 knots (14 mph) and unload 36 fully armed combat troops or a 6,000-pound vehicle. The typical model was 36 feet long and nearly 11 feet in the beam. More than 23,000 Higgins boats were manufactured during the Second World War. “The whole strategy of the war would have been different.” “ we never could have landed over an open beach,” Ike said. Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. In fact, the entire Operation Overlord plan, and by extension the liberation of Europe itself, depended on vessels like the LCVPs. Instantly recognizable by its droppable bow-ramp, thousands of these small, shallow-draught motor barges famously landed American GIs and Commonwealth troops on the beaches of France on June 6, 1944. ONE WOULD BE hard-pressed to come up with a piece of military hardware so closely associated with the Allied invasion of Normandy as the LCVP (landing craft, vehicle, personnel), also known as the “Higgins boat.” (Image source: WikiCommons) “They served everywhere - from the wind-swept coastlines of Northern France to the far-flung tropical shores of the Pacific - ultimately changing the very nature of amphibious warfare.” Without them, it’s unclear if the Allies could have liberated Europe. Thousands of landing craft like this took part in the famous Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944.
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