DD335
King & Country
Although the vast majority of the over 23,000 ‘Higgins Boats’ produced during WW2 went to the US Navy and Coastguard several hundred were also supplied to Britain’s Royal Navy which used them to supplement their own LCA’s (Landing Craft Assault).
Royal Navy LCVPS carried the same number of crew as their American counterparts (usually 3 or 4) and were painted in the distinctive RN camouflage colours of white and cold sea blue.
K&C’s LCVP carries a crew of 3 (1 x cox’n and 2 x gunners manning a pair of .30 cal. machine guns in armoured gun mounts). In addition, the ramp of the LCVP can be raised and lowered as the collector prefers.
In a 1964 interview former President and Supreme Allied Commander of the Normandy invasion, Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke about one of the most important war-winning weapons of the Second World War... the humble ‘Higgins Boat’ and the man who designed it.
“Andrew Higgins is the man who won the war for us. He designed and built those Landing Craft that could put troops onto an open beach anywhere, anytime. Without these LCVPs (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) the whole strategy of the war would have been very different... and much more difficult!”
That is just one of the many reasons why this particular landing craft is such an essential part of any D. DAY collection and forms the central element of King & Country’s latest selection of figures and fighting vehicles that depict the events of 6 June 1944 and the battle for Normandy that followed it...