[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

[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.

[coolbreeze]

If I remember correctly, Higgins made PT boat also.

[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.

[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.

[GATOR NAVY]

I get the feeling this article is mixing up the original Higgins boats with all LCVPs. I was on ships (an LKA and an LST) that still carried papa boats up until the mid-90s. I think what they mean is only a dozen of the original Higgins boats remain. I find it very hard to believe that all of the LCVPs are gone too.

[Mr Inviso]

I saw one of those sitting around at the Royal Navy museum in Portsmouth back in 2004. I was there checking out the museum on the day before the 60th anniversary of D-Day. Didn’t look like they were taking too much good care of the poor thing, either. What a shame.