Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II

by Jerry E. Strahan

Overview

Andrew Jackson Higgins is perhaps the most forgotten hero of the Allied victory. He designed the LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) that played such a vital role in the invasion of Normandy as well as the first effective tank landing craft. During the war, New Orleans–based Higgins Industries produced over twenty thousand boats, including lightning-fast PT boats and the twenty-seven-foot airborne lifeboat. 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 to succeed.

Jerry Strahan’s biography of Higgins reveals a colorful, controversial character—hard fisted, hard swearing, and hard drinking—who was an outsider to New Orleans’ elite social circles. He was also, however, a hardworking boatbuilder who became a major industrialist with a worldwide reputation—even Hitler was aware of Higgins, calling him “the new Noah.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807123393
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1998
Series:	Eisenhower Center Studies on War and Peace
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	262,028
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jerry E. Strahan is the author of Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in the Quarter.

Editorial Reviews

Strahan’s well-written and lucid account of both the climb and the fall [of Higgins] makes illuminating reading—for businessmen as well as history buffs.

Tampa Tribune

Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II is an important book, and Jerry Strahan has performed an admirable service for the city, military, and maritime historians in detailing the engineering and manufacturing innovations of a forgotten pioneer.

New Orleans Times-Picayune

Allied commander-in-chief Dwight Eisenhower called him ``the man who won the war for us''--Andrew Higgins (1886-1952), who designed and mass-produced the landing craft that carried American troops ashore in the Pacific and European theaters of WW II. Strahan's rousing story is about the New Orleans businessman who, while fighting the Navy bureaucracy to assure that U.S. forces had the finest amphibious craft possible, became head of one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. Strahan discusses Higgins's enlightened hiring practices (many of his shipyard workers were black, female or disabled), his long-running battle with the AFL and CIO, and his postwar struggle to stay in business as designer/builder of commercial and pleasure craft. Strahan's biography will appeal both to students of American business and to general readers; Higgins was a brash, colorful, dynamic man. Strahan is a New Orleans businessman; this is his first book. Illustrations. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A biography of the man who designed the LCVP (landing craft vehicle, personnel) that played a vital role in the invasion of Normandy, the landings in Guadalcanal, North Africa, and Leyte, and thousands of amphibious assaults throughout the Pacific. Includes 26 pages of photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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