(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Museum Pieces: The Higgins Boat [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-24 The Higgins boat may look small, boxy and unimpressive, but it has been called “the little boat that won the war”. "Museum Pieces" is a diary series that explores the history behind some of the most interesting museum exhibits and historical places. Higgins boat on display at the National World War II Museum Throughout all of military history, one of the most difficult and dangerous operations has been that of landing troops from the sea against a defended beach. When Julius Caesar landed his Legionaries on the shores of Britannia in 55 BC, they had to anchor their transport ships offshore and then jump over the side and wade through the surf, encumbered by their weapons and supplies. Even the horses had to slosh their way to land. Over 2000 years later, when British ANZAC forces landed at Gallipoli in 1915 during the First World War, their methods had not changed very much. Australian and New Zealand troops left their transports in unprotected rowboats and paddled ashore, where they were met by a blizzard of Turkish machine guns. When the United States entered the Second World War in 1941, it was apparent that the war could only be won if Nazi Germany’s “Fortress Europe” could be invaded by sea, while the Japanese in the Pacific would need to be pushed back by amphibious troops one island at a time. And this could only be accomplished by a new type of specialized landing craft that could provide protection for the attacking troops and deliver them right onto the beach. This need had already been foreseen in the 1930s. The Japanese, during their war in China, had already developed the Daihatsu motor boat, a 50-foot craft that had a hinged ramp at the front which could be lowered, allowing up to 70 troopers or 20 tons of supplies to be dropped directly onto a landing beach. The US Navy, meanwhile, was experimenting with several different designs for a similar craft. Some of these, designated Landing Craft Personnel (LCP) were intended to carry troops ashore, and others, known as Landing Craft Vehicle (LCV) carried tanks and armored transports. None of the Navy’s designs worked very well in testing, however. In New Orleans, a civilian boatmaker named Andrew Jackson Higgins was also working on the problem. In the 1920s, Higgins had designed and built a boat he called Eureka. Tailored to the conditions of the Louisiana bayou, the Eureka boat was fast with powerful engines, had a very shallow draft, could haul a large cargo load, and could be run right up onto shore for easy unloading. This was the era of Prohibition, and these boats quickly became a favorite of rumrunners who were smuggling cargoes of booze from the Caribbean through the maze of swamps, sandbars, and bayous and into the city of New Orleans. By 1939 the US Marines had heard about Higgins and his Eureka boats, and did some evaluations. They liked it, but wanted some modifications. The Marines had been carefully watching the Japanese amphibious operations with Daihatsu boats, and they asked Higgins to add a droppable ramp to the front of his design. They also worked with Higgins to combine troop-carrying capacity with the horsepower to haul heavy armored vehicles, and merged the two concepts into one boat. It was dubbed the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel). The Marine Corps asked the Navy to begin producing Higgins boats, but the brass wanted to stick with their own designs instead. So the Marines contracted with Higgins on their own. To save weight, the boats were made with mahogany plywood hulls, though the front ramp was made of steel to provide some protection. It could carry 36 fully-equipped Marines or 4 tons of materiel. By 1941, the Navy, its own attempts having failed during testing, had also adopted the new design, and it was ordered into production. The first combat trial of the Higgins boat came in 1942 when US Marines invaded the Japanese-held island of Guadalcanal. By the time the Allies invaded North Africa during Operation Torch in 1943, the Higgins boat had become the primary method of getting men and armor onshore during an amphibious invasion, and the Higgins factory in Louisiana was turning out over 700 boats a month. Higgins boats carried Allied troops ashore at D-Day and island-hopping US soldiers in the Pacific from Tarawa to Okinawa. Given the crucial role that the Higgins boat played in the Second World War, it was therefore fitting that the nation’s largest World War II museum is located on Andrew Higgins Drive in downtown New Orleans. And the centerpiece of the museum, on display in the main lobby, is a reconstructed Higgins boat. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/24/2129913/-Museum-Pieces-The-Higgins-Boat?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/