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Posted on 03/26/2004 5:35:39 AM PST by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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 AND THE BOATS THAT WON WORLD WAR II In September, 1943, when the United States Fifth Army landed at Salerno, Italy, and General Douglas MacArthur's forces captured Salamaua in New Guinea, the American navy totaled 14,072 vessels. Of these boats, 12,964, or 92% of the entire U.S. Navy, were designed by Higgins Industries, Incorporated; 8,865 were built at the Higgins plants in New Orleans, La. Founder and president of this remarkable company was Andrew Jackson Higgins, an outspoken, rough-cut, hot-tempered Irishman with an incredible imagination and the ability to turn wild ideas into reality. He hated bureaucratic red tape, loved bourbon, and was the sort who tended to knock down anything that got in his way. To the Navy's Bureau of Ships, which favored the big Eastern-seaboard shipyards, Higgins was an arrogant small boat builder from the South - a thorn in its side. To the Marine Corps, which desperately needed an effective amphibious assault craft, he was a savior. Higgins rose to international prominence during World War II for his design and mass production of naval combat motorboats - boats that forever changed the strategy of modern warfare. Thanks to Higgins, the Allies no longer had to batter coastal forts into submission, sweep harbors of mines, and take over enemy-held ports before they could land an assault force. "Higgins boats" gave them the ability to transport thousands of men and hundreds of tons of equipment swiftly through the surf to less-fortified beaches, eliminating the need for established harbors.  Higgins designed and produced two basic classes of military craft. The first class consisted of high-speed PT boats, which carried antiaircraft machine guns, smoke-screen devices, depth charges, and Higgins-designed compressed-air-fired torpedo tubes. Also in this class were the antisubmarine boats, dispatch boats, 170-foot freight supply vessels, and other specialized patrol craft produced for the Army, Navy and Maritime Commission. The second class consisted of various types of Higgins landing craft (LCPs, LCPLs, LCVPs, LCMs) constructed of wood and steel that were used in transporting fully armed troops, light tanks, field artillery, and other mechanized equipment and supplies essential to amphibious operations. It was these boats that made the D-Day landings at Normandy, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Leyte and Guam and hundreds of lesser-known assaults possible. Without Higgins' uniquely designed craft there could not have been a mass landing of troops and material on European shores or on the beaches of the Pacific islands, at least not without a tremendously higher rate of Allied casualties.  As late as 1930 Higgins was involved in the lumber importing and exporting business. By 1940 he was producing workboats and prototype landing craft in a small warehouse located behind his St. Charles Avenue showroom. When the government began ordering his craft for military purposes, Higgins expanded into eight separate plants in the city, employing more than 20,000 workers. At the peak of production, the combined output of his plants exceeded 700 boats a month. His total output for the Allies during World War II was 20,094 boats, a production record for which Higgins Industries several times received the Army-Navy "E", the highest award that the armed forces could bestow upon a company.  Higgins was the ideal person for the needs of the time. In World War II, with its massive contracts, his strengths - design and rapid production - were all-important. Administrative weaknesses were suddenly irrelevant - the war offered him opportunity. Had the Japanese not bombed Pearl Harbor, Higgins probably would have remained a successful, but small, southern boat builder. Because of the war, he rapidly became an internationally known figure (even Hitler was aware of Higgins, calling him the "new Noah"). In his 1944 Thanksgiving Day address to the nation, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said "Let us thank God for Higgins Industries, management, and labor which has given us the landing boats with which to conduct our campaign." Andrew Jackson Higgins' influence on amphibious warfare and his contribution toward the Allied victory in World War II cannot be overstressed.      |
Perhaps you'd better keep an eye on her, at least 'til the 2004 election, and then the war continues, loose cannons could be a national security threat. (^:
Could be God allowed the internet to break so Freepers would see His beautiful world.
(It's springtime! Who knew? Lol.)
LOL SAM!!!!
Now you can watch me even closer. ;-)
LOL. That's just one reason I'm leaving. I have a long list though. ;-)
Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP aka: "Higgins Boats"
Henry Taves, site manager at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum in Long Leaf near Alexandria, recently discovered original files related to business between Higgins and the Crowell Long Leaf Lumber Co., which operated from 1892 until 1969. Crowell mills at both Long Leaf and Alco cut pine to specification for Higgins boats, and shipped to New Orleans.
“As you well know, the Higgins Industries have always preferred the use of Crowell Long Leaf Yellow Pine. In fact, we find that with your lumber, it helps us to cut down our handling and reworking time, and increase production,” states a May 17, 1943 letter from Nelson P. Brown, Jr., lumber purchasing agent for Higgins Industries, to R.D. Crowell, Jr. A letter from Crowell to the federal Office of Price Administration in 1942 makes the point that the Higgins’ orders were atypical for the sawmill, “...not only the various restrictions placed on these timbers but most of the sizes are not practical to manufacture and we only produce these grades for the Higgins Industries as a patriotic measure...”
An October 1942 letter from Crowell to several of his superintendents instructed them to begin saving high-grade lumber for later use in anticipated orders from Higgins. One October 1942 requisition sheet from Higgins to Crowell specifies 300 pieces of 12 in. x 12 in. x 8 ft. timbers for use as head logs.
“The ramp boats required very high grades of timber, often Select #1 with 90% or higher heart content. This material was found in original growth virgin trees, though not in unlimited quantity. The sawmill workers squeezed all high-grade lumber they could out of each log, sometimes sacrificing a greater volume of a lower grade... “ notes an article in the Southern Forest Heritage Museum newsletter.
Phil's note: This detailed essay relates the fact that the D-Day Museum replica Higgins boat uses two timbers joined to duplicate the original 40-foot piece.
The original 40-foot piece--Uh, Home Depot is temporarily out of that, yeah, right.
Louisiana Memorial Pavilion of the National D-Day Museum.
A brass shoe for the steering rudder similar to local shrimp boat and other vessel rudder design. The hole in these rudders is there so that the propellor shaft can be removed easily.
Thank God for Andrew Jackson Higgins.
Ever work with yellow pine? There is just nothing like it.
When we spank Richard Clarke, we'll use a paddle of yellow pine.
Auditioning spaceshipspankentruppen
Live long, prosper, retire in Oregon
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