Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel (LCVP)

Marine Lieutenant Victor Krulak recognized the need for a swift and safe landing craft after observing a Japanese amphibious landing in China. In March 1941, he met with Andrew Higgins, an experienced builder of shallow-draft boats, who used Krulak's photographs and sketches to modify his plywood Eureka boat with a retractable bow. By December 1941, the first prototypes of the LCVP, or Higgins Boat, were completed. Built mainly of wood with quarter-inch steel plate on the bow and side for protection, the LCVP was inexpensive and simple to build. It could land on beaches and unload up to 36 fully equipped troops, and its retractable bow created a full-width ramp that made loading and unloading more efficient. Its V-shaped keel and semi-tunnel beneath the hull protected the shaft and screw from underwater obstacles, allowing the craft to beach itself, unload, and then retreat safely without damage. LCVPs served with Army Engineer Special Brigades and the US Navy and Coast Guard, operating from assault ships and LSTs. By the end of the war, Higgins had produced more than 20,000 boats for Allied forces. General Eisenhower said that without Higgins's LCVP, landing over an open beach would not have been possible and the whole strategy of the war would have been different. The Army began phasing out its LCVPs and slightly larger LCM-6s in the 1950s when the LCM-8s were produced, while the US Navy continued using the LCVP in small numbers for several more decades, with fiberglass replacing plywood as the main hull material. The lineage of this LCVP is unknown, but when it was last restored, US Navy markings PA-33-21 were applied for boat number 21 assigned to the attack transport USS Bayfield (APA-33).

Newport News, Virginia · United States