Higgins Boats By Request........

Ultradog requested these photos of the memorial to Andrew Jackson Higgins, the man from Columbus, NE who designed and manufactured the famous Higgins boats of WWII.

YES the result of an item with the "Keep it simple" code. It is funny when you watch the history channel and see how the German were trying to fix up regular canal boats and fishing boats to invade Britain!

I like.

I have heard, don't know if it's true, that much of Canal Street was converted to a make-shift assembly line for the boats during the pre-DDay push.

That's a nice monument. Good to show people the less glamorous but critical parts that go into winning a war.

Interesting how they have two WW2 guys and then a Vietnam guy kind of doing his own thing.

that is very believeable ,, don't doubt that one bit ,.. Higgins was in the CAN DO Generation that Raised the Greatest Generation,,, in those days before the workman could build the boat they had to build the tools to build them and the factory to put them in ..ALL WHILE THEY LIMPED ALONG SIDE BUILDING THE BOATS AND RAMPING UP PRODUCTION WITH EACH IMPROVEMENT TO TOOLS AND METHODS and factories,,. as stated below my Mom built C-46-47 airplanes in a open field in Louisville ky before the building was in place ... they only stopped work for litning

what am I seeing for firearms ? M-60 , BAR, M1? also, not much of a Vee on the bow of those things. Bill

Thanks Goose.
Nice display.
Those are some great bronzes.

I found it interesting that the sand used in the memorial is mixed with sand collected from beaches where the Higgins Boat was used - Normandy, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and several other sites.

I see no mention of it here but I thought he built wooden PT boats too.

(quoted from post at 19:12:31 07/20/15) I see no mention of it here but I thought he built wooden PT boats too.

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From Wikipedia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_boat

Higgins

Higgins Industries of New Orleans, Louisiana produced 199 78 ft (24 m) boats of the PT-71 or PT-235 or PT-625 classes. The Higgins boats had the same beam, full load displacement, engine, generators, shaft power, trial speed, armament, and crew accommodation as the 80 ft (24 m) Elco boats. Many Higgins boats were sent to the Soviet Union and Great Britain at the beginning of the war, so many of the lower-numbered squadrons in the U.S. Navy were made up exclusively of Elcos. US PT boats were organized into Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons (MTBRONs or simply RONs). The first Higgins boats for the U.S. Navy were used in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands (Attu and Kiska) as part of Squadrons 13 and 16, and others (RON15 and RON22) in the Mediterranean against the Germans. They were also used during the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944.

Even though only half as many Higgins boats were produced, far more survive (seven hulls, three of which have been restored to their World War II configuration) than the more numerous Elco boats. Of the Elco boats, only three hulls (one restored) are known to exist at this time.

(quoted from post at 14:27:43 07/20/15) what am I seeing for firearms ? M-60 , BAR, M1? also, not much of a Vee on the bow of those things. Bill

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Probably to represent WW II, Korea and Viet Nam, where the boats were used.

Thanks. I have a model of PT109 and a DUK in my model collection, no landing craft.