The Most Important Boat of WWII

thousands of vessels were manufactured by both the axis and allied powers during the second world war many of these were built for long Journeys across the vast oceans aircraft carriers battleships and cargo ships all played a vital role in the conflict but there's one particular vessel which was arguably the most important boat of World War II in today's video we look at the Higgins boat and why it was so pivotal to Allied victory during the War if you enjoy this video and want to see more hit that subscribe button it's free and really helps the channel reach more history lovers like you prior to the war the US Marine Corps were trying to identify a suitable boat to allow for troop Landings on beaches Andrew Higgins the president of Higgins Industries was contracted to create a suitable craft following his success in boats over shallow Waters his creation would lead to the LCP known as the landing craft Personnel this initial design which appears much more like a small boat could carry up to 12 men although a larger version was created which held up to 24 some of these initial vessels made their way to the British who used them for Commando raids on the European Mainland further the United States would use these to Ferry troops ashore at guad Canal but its huge drawbacks were the time it took for the men to exit the boat they were heavily exposed to enemy fire thus a new design was sought the lcvp or landing craft vehicle and Personnel was much larger it sat at 11 M or 36 ft in length and 3 m or 10 ft in width a 225 horsepower engine allowed for a top speed of a fully laden vessel of 10 m or 16 km an hour fuel capacity gave it a range of 100 m or 160 km although many wouldn't need to travel that kind of distance it was designed to carry up to 4 tons of varying cargo this included up to 36 fully armed soldiers or a Jeep with additional soldiers a small truck loaded with troops or even just a large amount of supplies which could be pulled directly onto the invasion Beach it was mostly of Wood Construction however the sides and the ramp at the front were reinforced with steel to protect the crew and troops from enemy fire the crew itself consisted of four men the coxen was responsible for its movement an engineer was also on board with two additional men one for the bow and one for the stern at its rear were two large holes which allowed for mounting of two 30 cal machine guns if needed the main advantages for the Higgins boat over many other designs lay in two areas the shape of the vessel in which its Stern rides much higher due to weight displacement allowed for it to be grounded very high onto the shore the propellers were also fixed higher than usual and were able to operate in very shallow water this meant that when it was time to leave the beach it could easily travel backwards into deeper water and get away with relative ease additionally the second Advantage was the ramp this design meant that the soldiers on board were protected from the enemy right up until the ramp was dropped with such a wide space the men could then disembark rapidly and get up to the beach and to cover quickly once fulls scale production was underway the Higgins boat was deemed a huge success some 23,000 were manufactured across the war compared to only a couple of thousand of its predecessor these landing craft were used in some of the most pivotal amphibious Landings of the war across the Pacific in okanawa Sian and Aima and in Europe they were seen in The Landings of Sicily the Italian Mainland southern France and of course most notably on D-Day during the invasion of northern France they were responsible for bringing hundreds of thousands of soldiers from Troop carriers onto Invasion beaches without the use of these boats it's likely Invasion strategies would need to have been altered to find a much better way to protect and bring troops ashore although it's not the most stri king or fully armed craft of the war even Dwight Eisenhower deemed it to be the most important vessel of the second world war do you think the Higgins boat was the most important creation of the second world war if not what do you think was let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below as always guys thanks for watching be sure to hit that subscribe button if you want to expand your knowledge and join the GR growing Premier history community