Eisenhower National Historic Site

1st Infantry Division at Omaha Beach, D-Day
June 6, 1944

The Higgins Boat was the invention of Andrew Jackson Higgins, a New Orleans businessman who owned Higgins Industries, a company that specialized in constructing shallow draft boats. The boats came in several different sizes. Most common were ones designated LCVP, Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel. The standard length was 36 feet long and 10 1/2 feet wide. The LCVP could carry a platoon of infantrymen or several Willys Jeeps.

General Eisenhower said of Andrew Higgins, who was a civilian, “He is the man who won the war for us.” Without Higgins’ landing craft the Normandy Invasion and other large Allied amphibious operations would not have been possible.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES # 26-G-2343, Credit U.S. Coast Guard.



1st Infantry Division at Omaha Beach, D-Day June 6, 1944 The Higgins Boat was the invention of Andrew Jackson Higgins, a New Orleans businessman who owned Higgins Industries, a company that specialized in constructing shallow draft boats. The boats came in several different sizes. Most common were ones designated LCVP, Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel. The standard length was 36 feet long and 10 1/2 feet wide. The LCVP could carry a platoon of infantrymen or several Willys Jeeps. General Eisenhower said of Andrew Higgins, who was a civilian, “He is the man who won the war for us.” Without Higgins’ landing craft the Normandy Invasion and other large Allied amphibious operations would not have been possible. NATIONAL ARCHIVES # 26-G-2343, Credit U.S. Coast Guard.
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