Andrew Jackson Higgins and the boats that won World War II

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 25, 2024 | History

Andrew Jackson Higgins and the boats that won World War II

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Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II, by Jerry E. Strahan, is the first biography of perhaps the most forgotten hero of the Allied victory. It was Higgins who designed the LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) that played such a vital role in the invasion of Normandy, the landings in Guadalcanal, North Africa, and Leyte, and thousands of amphibious assaults throughout the Pacific. It was also Higgins who, after twenty years of failure by the U.S.

Navy's Bureau of Ships, designed and constructed an effective tank landing craft in sixty-one hours - a feat that caused the bureau to despise him.

In 1938, Higgins owned a single small boatyard in New Orleans employing fewer than seventy-five people. Through exceptional drive, vision, and genius, his holdings expanded until by late 1943 he owned seven plants and employed more than twenty thousand workers. Because of his reputation for designing and producing assault craft in record-breaking time, Higgins was awarded the largest shipbuilding and aircraft contracts in history.

During the war, Higgins Industries produced 20,094 boats, ranging from the 36-foot LCVP to the lightning-fast PT boats; the rocket-firing landing craft support boats; the 56-foot tank landing craft; the 170-foot FS ships; and the 27-foot airborne lifeboat that was dropped from the belly of a B-17 bomber.

Higgins dedicated himself to providing Allied soldiers with the finest landing craft in the world, and he fought the Bureau of Ships, the Washington bureaucracy, and the powerful eastern shipyards in order to succeed.

Strahan's portrait of Higgins reveals a colorful character - a hard-fisted, hard-swearing, and hard-drinking man whose Irish background and Nebraska birthplace made him an outsider to New Orleans' elite social circles. Higgins was also hard working, quickly progressing from an unknown southern boatbuilder to a major industrialist with a worldwide reputation. He was featured in Life, Time, Newsweek, and Fortune magazines, and appeared frequently on the front pages of the country's major newspapers.

Even Adolf Hitler was aware of Higgins, calling him the "new Noah.".

Through Higgins' example, we see the way technological innovations, politics, labor unions, changing military agendas, and personalities worked together - and sometimes at odds - for an Allied victory. Strahan has based his work on extensive personal interviews with family members, key employees, and other close acquaintances of Higgins, as well as on previously inaccessible Higgins Industries archives.

The result is an extremely informative account of one of the key players, and industries, of World War II.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
382

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II
Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II
October 1998, Louisiana State University Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Andrew Jackson Higgins and the boats that won World War II
Andrew Jackson Higgins and the boats that won World War II
1994, Louisiana State University Press
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 357-368) and index.

Published in
Baton Rouge
Series
Eisenhower Center studies on war and peace

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
338.7/6238256/092, B
Library of Congress
VM140.H54 S73 1994, VM140.H54S73 1994

The Physical Object

Pagination
xvi, 382 p. :
Number of pages
382

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1430184M
Internet Archive
andrewjacksonhig0000stra
ISBN 10
0807119032
LCCN
93041552
OCLC/WorldCat
29600423
Goodreads
3793327

First Sentence

"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."

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History

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July 25, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
August 15, 2020 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
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December 4, 2010 Edited by Open Library Bot Added subjects from MARC records.
December 9, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page