The Saber and Scroll
the beach in waves of Higgins LCVPs and other craft . It is difficult to surmise how the Allies might have gained a lodgment on the European Continent without the development and employment of these highly-specialized but essential craft .
4,126 landing craft were employed at Normandy on 6 June 1944 . Over 4,000 were of a specialized variety developed for amphibious assaults . 49 291 landing craft of all types were lost or damaged during the assault . Most of those damaged were repairable , a testament to their rugged construction . 50
The success of the landing craft of World War II is also a testament to the designers , engineers , and craftsmen who created them as well as the visionaries who determined the need for them in the first place . Though they never fired a shot during the war , the people responsible for the existence and eventual deployment of the landing craft were in their own way just as vital to eventual victory as those who did .
In a postwar interview , historian Stephen Ambrose was asked by Dwight D . Eisenhower whether he had ever met Andrew Higgins . When Ambrose said that he had not , Eisenhower replied , “ That ’ s too bad . He is the man who won the war for us . If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs , we never could have landed over an open beach . The whole strategy of the war would have been different .” 51
Bibliography Works Cited
Cutler , Thomas J ., “ The Higgins Boat .” Proceedings Volume 141 Issue 1 ( January 2015 ).
Edwards , Kenneth . Operation Neptune . Oxford : Fonthill Media Limited , 2013 .
Harrison , Gordon A . Cross-Channel Attack . Washington , D . C .: Center of Military History , U . S . Army , 2002 .
McKissock , Lt . General Gary S , USMC , “ Finding the Next Higgins Boat .” In Marine Corps Gazette Vol . 85 Issue 6 ( June , 2001 ), 13-15 .
Murray , Williamson and Millett , Allan R ., ed . Military Innovation in the Interwar Period . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 1996 .
Paret , Peter , ed . Makers of Modern Strategy . Princeton : Princeton University Press , 1986 .
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