Andrew Higgins

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For other uses, see Andrew Higgins (disambiguation).
Andrew Higgins
Creighton Prep High School
Occupation(s)Owner of Higgins Industries, boatbuilder
SpouseAngele Colsson Higgins (1889-1965)
Children6

Andrew Jackson Higgins (28 August 1886 – 1 August 1952) was an American businessman and boatbuilder who founded

Dwight Eisenhower is quoted as saying, "Andrew Higgins ... is the man who won the war for us. ... If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different." Adolf Hitler recognized Higgins war efforts in ship production and bitterly dubbed him the "New Noah".[2][3]

Early life and barge/boatbuilding

Andrew Higgins was born on 28 August 1886 in

Chicago attorney and newspaper reporter who had relocated to Nebraska, where he served as a local judge. Higgins' father died after a fall when Higgins was seven years old.[4]

Higgins was raised in

Creighton Prep High School before being expelled for brawling.[2] He served in the Nebraska Army National Guard, attaining the rank of first lieutenant, first in the Infantry, and later in the Engineers. He gained his first experience with boat building and moving troops on the water during militia maneuvers on the Platte River.[5]

He left Omaha in 1906 to enter the lumber business in

bald cypress and pine. He acquired a fleet of sailing ships, said to have been the largest under American registry at that time. To service this fleet, he established a shipyard which built and repaired his cargomen as well as the tugs and barges needed to support them. As part of his work in boat building and design Higgins completed a program in naval architecture through the National University of Sciences in Chicago, an unaccredited correspondence school, which awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree.[6][7][8]

In 1926 he designed the

flotsam
and submerged obstacles could foul the usual types of propellers. He designed a "spoonbill" bow for his craft, allowing it to be run onto riverbanks and then to back off with ease. His boats proved to be record-beaters; and within a decade he had improved the design to attain high speed in shallow water and turn nearly in its own length.

Stiff competition, declining world trade, and the employment of

tramp steamers to carry lumber cargoes combined to put Higgins' Lumber and Export Co. out of business. He kept his boatbuilding firm (established in 1930 as Higgins Industries) in business, constructing motorboats, tugs and barges, for the private market as well as the United States Coast Guard
.

Military boatbuilding

The Marine Corps, interested in finding better ways to get men across a beach in an amphibious landing and frustrated that the Bureau of Construction and Repair could not meet its requirements, expressed interest in Higgins' boat. When tested in 1938 by the Navy and Marine Corps, Higgins' Eureka boat surpassed the performance of the Navy-designed boat and was tested by the services during fleet landing exercises in February 1939 as the LCPL. The design was considered satisfactory except for its offloading process, with men and equipment disembarking over its sides, which would expose them to enemy fire in a combat situation.[9][10]

The Japanese, however, had been using ramp-bowed landing boats in the Second Sino-Japanese War since the summer of 1937. They had been studied by the Navy and Marine Corps observers at Shanghai in particular. When shown a picture of such a craft, Higgins called his chief engineer and arranged for a mock-up to be built and ready for his inspection upon his return to New Orleans.

Within one month, tests of the ramp-bow Eureka boat in

LCM
(Landing Craft, Mechanized).

With the help of the Higgins boat, armies could unload across open beaches instead of at ports, which were heavily guarded. This allowed the troops to spread out and attack from a wide range of areas. These tactics were utilized for many Allied operations, including the Normandy landings.[11]

Higgins Industries work force and contracts

Higgins believed in a diversified workforce for his plants, including all races and genders, and sought highly skilled employees.[12] This type of workforce drew the attention of politicians, including Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, who were frequent visitors.[13]

Higgins Industries was one of the world's largest manufacturers, with over 85,000 workers and $350,000,000 in government contracts.[14] With his first plant built on City Park Avenue, Higgins began to produce LCVPs non-stop. As more and more rail cars were filled and delivered to Bayou St. John, his government contracts increased, allowing him to expand to seven plants with the ability to produce larger landing crafts, PT boats and airplanes. One Higgins Industries plant was built on the Industrial Canal, allowing greater transportation access.[15]

World War II industrialist

Higgins' plants produced a variety of naval equipment in World War II, including

Motor Torpedo Boats (PT Boats), torpedo tubes, gun turrets, and smoke generators. Over 20,000 boats were produced during the war.[3] Operation Torch used three different types of landing craft. The first type were Higgins boats made of plywood and designed for navigating swamps. They were considered unsuccessful, due to rocks damaging the hulls, and requiring over-the-side disembarkment.[16] The second of the Torch operation vessels was the Landing Craft Personnel Ramp. This version of the Higgins boat proved successful unloading onto beaches after testing on Lake Pontchartrain. This design placed machine guns at the bow of the vessel to the side in order to provide access via the center ramp. The third vessel in the operations was the Landing Craft Vehicle. Machine guns were moved to the rear of the boat to accommodate for an increase in supply space. This change maximizes space for transportation of large land vehicles with the use of a new full width ramp.[17]

During the war, Higgins became associated with

Tucker Turret, and had formed the Tucker Aviation Corporation. Higgins acquired Tucker Aviation Corporation in March 1942, and Tucker moved to New Orleans as a vice-president of Higgins Industries, in charge of the Higgins–Tucker Aviation division. This entity produced Tucker gun turrets, armament and engines for Higgins' torpedo boats. This relationship did not work out and Tucker departed in 1943.[18]

Post-war efforts

The federal government began canceling war contracts after Japan surrendered and Higgins' ship building ended on October 11, 1945. This greatly affected Higgins Industries, as did the increased unionizing of his workers. Higgins began losing money due to multiple strikes and sold off most of his plants. The company went on to build more LCVPs, but did not have much success with receiving government grants.[19]

Michoud factory

In 1940,

Korean war, but did not achieve full operation before that conflict ended.[20] In 1961, with impetus from the Space Race, the newly established National Aeronautics and Space Administration determined the facility could be used to manufacture the Saturn V rocket. The plant was upgraded to accommodate the space project, and was renamed as the Michoud Assembly Facility
.

Politics

Higgins was an influential part of American history, with his participation in World War II and in national politics. With the rising success of Higgins Industries, Higgins found himself in a position of power and influence. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for his fourth consecutive term alongside vice presidential candidate Harry Truman, Higgins made sure his voice and opinion were heard. Higgins revered them and urged the nation to vote for them during the 1944 presidential election campaign while visiting various cities such as Boston and New York. Roosevelt and Truman won and thanked Higgins for his strong recommendations and for playing a significant role in swaying the nation's opinion in that election.[21]

Death and burial

Statue of Andrew J. Higgins at the Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial in Columbus, Nebraska.
Memorial at Utah Beach, Normandy, France

Higgins died in New Orleans on 1 August 1952, and was buried in Metairie Cemetery.[22] He had been hospitalized for a week to treat stomach ulcers when he suffered a fatal stroke.[23]

Legacy

Higgins held 30 patents, mostly covering amphibious landing craft and vehicles. In 1943

USNS Andrew J. Higgins (T-AO-190) was named in his honor. There is a memorial to Higgins in Columbus, Nebraska, and a seven-mile (11 km) segment of U.S. Route 81
south of Columbus is designated as the "Andrew Jackson Higgins Expressway".

In 2000, a 7-block section of Howard Avenue in the Warehouse District of New Orleans near the newly opened D-Day Museum (now The National WWII Museum) was renamed "Andrew Higgins Street.".[25]

Gerald Meyer, a history teacher at Columbus High School, worked with his students to create the Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial in Higgins' hometown of Columbus, Nebraska, which was dedicated in August 2001.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ Neushul, Peter. "Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Mass Production of World War II Landing Craft". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 39, no. 2 (Spring 1998): 133–166. JSTOR, accessed April 6, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Brinkley, Douglas, The Man Who Won the War for Us, American Heritage, 20000101, Vol. 51, Issue 3
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4
    .
  4. ^ Jerry E. Strahan, Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II, 1998, p. 5
  5. ^ James Ciment, Thaddeus Russell, editors, The Home Front Encyclopedia: United States, Britain, and Canada in World War II, Volume 1, 2007, p. 618
  6. ^ Strahan, p. 11
  7. ^ Ted Liuzza, Miami Daily News, Boat Builder Makes Big Business of Small-Craft Construction[permanent dead link], April 26, 1942
  8. ^ Peter Neushal, Louisiana History magazine, Andrew Jackson Higgins And the Mass Production of World War II Landing Craft], Spring 1998, p. 142
  9. ^ Hearst Magazines (30 September 1937). "Popular Mechanics". Hearst Magazines. Retrieved May 30, 2019 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Kindy, David (June 3, 2019). "The Invention That Won World War II: Patented in 1944, the Higgins boat gave the Allies the advantage in amphibious assaults". Smithsonian. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
  11. ^ Higgins Boats - National World War II Museum (accessed 9 June 2019)
  12. ^ Nightingale, Keith (May 21, 2017). "The Higgins Boat: Wood, Steel, and Purpose". Small Wars Journal. McLean, Virginia: Small Wars Foundation. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
  13. ^ Mullener, Elizabeth. War Stories: Remembering World War II. Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
  14. ^ Neushul, Peter. “Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Mass Production of World War II Landing Craft.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 39, no. 2 (Spring, 1998): 133-166. JSTOR, accessed April 6, 2015.
  15. ^ “1994: Higgins Industries in New Orleans contributes to war effort” The Times Picayune: Greater New Orleans, November 17, 2011. Accessed April 4, 2015.
  16. ^ Morison, Samuel. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 2. Little, Brown and Company, 1947.
  17. ^ Weir, Gary. Review of Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II. Jerry Strahan, The Northern Mariner 5, no. 3 (July, 1995): 114–115. EBSCO, accessed April 5, 2015.
  18. ISBN 978-0-8071-2339-3. Archived from the original
    on 28 May 2010.
  19. ^ Sanson, Jerry. Louisiana during World War II: Politics and society, 1939–1945. Louisiana State University Press, 1999. Ebrary, accessed April 6, 2015.
  20. ^ "History of MAF – MAFspace". mafspace.msfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  21. ^ McGuire, Jack. “Andrew Higgins Plays Presidential Politics.” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 15, no. 3 (Summer, 1974): 273-284. JSTOR, accessed April 6, 2015.
  22. ISBN 978-1-4000-6964-4
    .
  23. ^ International News Services (August 1, 1952). "Andrew Higgins, Boat Builder, Succumbs". Bakersfield Californian. Bakersfield CA. p. 1.
  24. ^ Nebraska State Journal, Higgins Awarded Creighton Degree, May 14, 1943
  25. ^ Marcus, Frances Frank (May 28, 2000). "TRAVEL ADVISORY; A D-Day Museum Opens in New Orleans". Retrieved May 30, 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
  26. ^ Higgins Memorial Project, Home page, Higgins Memorial Project Archived 2005-11-19 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved June 15, 2014

External links

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