Andrew Higgins Boats

"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."

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander

LCVPs (Land Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) = Known to Soldiers as “Higgins Boats”

Replica Higgins Boat at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans Continued On Next Page

Who was this man named Andrew J. Higgins? As an Irish-American, when did his ancestors emigrate to the United States from Ireland? These and other questions would require research. I knew he was an Irish descendent that not only changed the course of the war in the Atlantic, but also in the Pacific against Imperialist Japan. Why is it then so few native Irish, Irish-Americans, and non-Irish know little to nothing of his accomplishments?

Through research I first began understanding his ancestry through his surname, Higgins (Ó hUigín). It was present in Counties Donegal and Sligo, and part of what was once called the O’Neill Irish clanns.

Andrew’s Grandparents: John Marcellus Higgins was born in Ballyshannon, Donegal in 1795. He would marry Catherine Gonigal who was born in Ballyshannon, Donegal in 1806. Together they would have six children. They would emigrate to America in the early 1800s arriving in Marseilles, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. Catherine would pass away in 1845 at the age of 39 and is buried in Marseilles. John would move the family further west to Lasalle, Illinois after her passing. John himself would pass in 1877 at the age of 81 and is buried in Ottawa, Illinois. Their son, John G. Higgins would become a first generation Irish-American.

Andrew’s Parents: John G. Higgins was born on April 2, 1841 in Lasalle, Illinois. He would marry Annie Long who was born in Lasalle, Illinois in 1852. Her surname is “Ó Longaig” which was found in Cork/Kerry/Limerick counties in Ireland. Annie also had O’Connor in her ancestry. They would have six children moving their family out west to Columbus, Nebraska. In Nebraska, John would become a newspaperman, attorney and later a Judge. In 1893 at the age of 52, John accidentally fell down a flight of stairs and died. Their son Andrew J. Jackson was born in 1886 in Columbus, Nebraska as a second generation

Irish-American. He joined the Nebraska National Guard according to Lt. Col. Jerry Meyer. Meyer was also a teacher who stated, Higgins caused problems in Omaha H.S. and Creighton Prep (who kicked him out of school). In the Omaha-World Herald in 2014, Meyer was quoted as stating, “Andrew Jackson Higgins would be one of those kids that teachers can’t wait to unleash on the world .. for all the trouble he caused in school, he would be right most of the time. These kids may not go to college, but they make things happen. He was a guy like that.” People say God works in mysterious ways. This would be true with Andrew Higgins.

His mother Annie would move the children and herself to

Omaha after her husband’s death. She passed in 1924 and is buried in Columbus, Nebraska.

Andrew moves to New Orleans: Here he met and married Angele Leona Colsson who was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1889. They would have six children.

It was in New Orleans where Andrew in the back bayous realized he needed to invent a shallow-draft boat with a propeller set in a tunnel to protect it from tree roots and underwater tree stumps.

He opened Higgins Industries a timber business in 1906. He found he needed to harvest hardwood trees back in the coastal bayous. By the 1930s he was manufacturing shallow draft boats for oil and gas exploration. He made a pre-war trip to the Philippines to stock up on ‘mahogany’, believing steel would be in short supply if war ever broke out.

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The Irishman from Columbus, Nebraska who was kicked out of Prep School, found in New Orleans he and his company could manufacture a boat that the U.S. government would buy from him to land troops on beaches in numerous places worldwide.

He was awarded a giant contract beyond his wildest dreams. Which meant his company needed to expand quickly. At this point he employed just 75 workers.

Higgins Boats’ became the mainstay for the Allies in both Europe, North Africa and Asia.

The more he made the more he tinkered with the design perfecting his boats for the locations where needed.

His LCVPs (Land Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) boats were made with a front ramp that would open onto the beach allowing soldiers to depart quickly. The boats then would return to the ships, pick up more

soldiers, and make a return trip to the beaches again and again as needed.

Before they landed on the beaches of Normandy, they landed men and machines in the following locations: Operation Torch in North Africa; Operation Shingle and Operation Avalanche in Italy; plus Operation Dragoon in southern France with American and Free French troops.

By late 1943, his seven plants employed 25,000 workers. They were totally integrated employing whites, african-americans, men, women, senior citizens, and those with disabilities. He offered equal pay per position. They consistently broke their own production records. America was at war and all citizens were needed to do their part to defeat the Axis powers.

They produced 20,000 Higgins Boats — 12,500 that were the same design that was used on D-Day in Normandy.

He even received recognition from his arch-enemy Nazi leader Adolf Hitler who called him “The New Noah”.

Other amphibious landings where the “Higgins Boats” were used: Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Tarawa, the Battle of the Philippines, the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. (In later years his boats were used in Korea and Vietnam.)

His Irish grandparents that emigrated from Donegal in the early 1800s, and his Irish parents in Nebraska who were deceased by the time of WWII - could never, ever have imagined that this man who got into fights as a young boy - would play a role in helping to defeat the Axis powers.

God knew what he had in this Irish-American named Andrew Jackson Higgins, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower would soon find out as well. His adversaries never had a chance. They were up against a man descended from an Ulster clann once associated with Ireland’s O’Neills.