Made in New Orleans: The boats that helped win World War II
by Kenny Lopez 9 Jun 2018 08:41 PDT
The boats that helped win World War II © wgno.com
On this D-Day, we take a look at a New Orleans connection. Higgins Industries based in New Orleans made several boats during World War II.
News with a Twist Reporter Kenny Lopez takes a tour of one of these Higgins boats at the National World War II Museum.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower said that Andrew Higgins was the man who won the war. It was all because of the boats he built known as Higgins boats.
"New Orleans was the epicenter for the construction of these boats," Galen Wagner, USS Alabama Living History Crew member, said.
Higgins Industries was in New Orleans prior to World War II. Higgins developed some landing craft based on boats that he built for the swamps and marshes.
"He developed the version that we are standing on now. This is called the LVCP or Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel with a ramp, so the troops could run off ramp, raise the ramp, and then go off and on to collecting loads," Wagner said.
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