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Scale: 1/24
Model length: 18.75"
Span: 5.75"
Code: MBLCVPT
The craft was designed by Andrew Higgins of Louisiana, United States based on boats made for operating in swamps and marshes. More than 20,000 were built, by Higgins Industries and licensees.
Typically constructed from plywood, this shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a platoon-sized complement of 36 men to shore at 9 knots (17 km/h). Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport; they exited by charging down the boat's bow ramp.
The LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel), or also called as the "Higgins Boat", a landing craft mostly used during the World War II. The "Higgins Boat" was named after Andrew Jackson Higgins who designed and invented it. The LCVP was actually a modification of the Higgins Industries 'Eureka' boat, the Navy version of which was the LCPL (Landing Craft Personnel Large).
LCVP was basically constructed from plywood. This shallow-draft, barge-like boat could ferry a platoon-sized complement of 36 fully armed men (max load is 8,100 lbs) at 9 knots (17 km/h), or a 6,000 pound Jeep, and other equipment and supplies essential to amphibious operations. Men generally entered the boat by climbing down a cargo net hung from the side of their troop transport; they exited by charging down the boat's bow ramp.
It was these boats that made the D-Day landings at Normandy, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and hundreds of lesser-known places possible. Without Higgins' uniquely designed craft there could not have been a mass landing of troops and material on European shores or on the beaches of the Pacific islands, at least not without a tremendously higher rate of Allied casualties.
More than 20,000 were built, by Higgins Industries and licensees. Few Higgins Boats are displayed at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans.