Posted By RichC on October 15, 2024
Ever since I was a kid in elementary school and heard about John F. Kennedy’s World War 2 story and then read Robert Donovan‘s book “PT-109: John F. Kennedy in WW II” and movie “PT-109,” I’ve admired what innovated boatbuilders 
could do with plywood (besides utility trailer sides, I had a plywood dingy when I was a kid too). Anyway, in the early 1940s, these “mosquito boats” were an amazing small boats especially in South Pacific, both to interrupt Japanese shipping as a 80-foot Elco PT boats (patrol torpedo boat) … or to swiftly move even General MacArthur off the Philippines and to safety as he built up the U.S. military forces in order to defeat Tojo and the Japanese Empire.
The PT boats were not the only “plywood” boat used in World War II … and probably not the “most important” either. That monicker is held for the LCVPs designed 
by Andrew Higgins and used to land troops onto the beaches: think about the thousands of troops who landed on the beaches of Normandy.
General Dwight Eisenhower was 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.” According to the enemy, Adolf Hitler dubbed the boatbuilder as the “New Noah.”
From plywood airplanes and gliders … to the Higgins Boat (LCVP) used to win World War II … plywood deserves far more credit than the disposable 
4 x 8 sheets from big box stores that we purchase to board up windows these days.
See CNN D-Day Gallery of photos
Category: Books, History, Human Interest, Innovation, Millitary, Movies |
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Tags: andrew higgins, boatbuilding, boats, Dwight D. Eisenhower, john f kennedy, plywood, pt-109, robert donovan, war, ww2
