Eighty-two years ago today, the largest armada in history crossed the English Channel. The sea made it possible — and the men who crossed it changed the world.

On June 6, 1944, more than 5,000 ships and landing craft crossed the English Channel in Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed along fifty miles of fortified French coastline. More than 9,000 were killed or wounded that day. Their sacrifice purchased a foothold that liberated a continent and, within a year, ended the war in Europe.

Historians have long called D-Day the beginning of the end of World War II, and eighty-two years on, that judgment has only deepened.

The Higgins Boat: Born on the Bayou, Proven in Battle

For those of us along the Gulf Coast, D-Day carries a particular pride. The craft that made it possible — the LCVP (Land Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) or “Higgins boat” — was the invention of Andrew Jackson Higgins, a New Orleans boatbuilder who spent years designing shallow-draft vessels for Louisiana’s trappers, oil drillers, and timber cutters. His signature Eureka boat featured a spoon-shaped hull, a tunnel stern that protected the propeller in shallow water, and a rugged simplicity built for punishment.

The Navy’s Reluctant Convert

The Navy was not initially enthusiastic, preferring its own Bureau of Ships designs. Higgins spent years lobbying and competing against them. The turning point came in 1939, when the Marine Corps formally evaluated the Eureka against the Navy’s standard landing craft. Higgins’s boat won decisively. Further sea trials in 1940 and 1941 — off North Carolina and in Louisiana waters — confirmed what the Marines already believed: the Eureka could beach itself, drop a ramp, discharge troops in seconds, and retract under its own power. Previous designs often left troops wading ashore; Higgins got them to dry ground.

The Boat That Broke the Wall

By 1942, the Navy had standardized the design as the LCVP. At peak production, Higgins Industries ran seven plants across New Orleans with over 25,000 workers — many of them women and African Americans previously excluded from industrial work. By war’s end, the company had built roughly 20,000 of the more than 23,000 LCVPs produced, about 92 percent of all U.S. Navy landing craft.

On D-Day, Higgins boats carried the first waves onto all five Normandy beaches. At Omaha, Coast Guard-crewed LCVPs made run after run from transport ships anchored eleven miles offshore, threading mines and wreckage to deliver soldiers to a beach that was already a killing ground. Eisenhower’s verdict, made years later, has never been improved upon: Higgins was “the man who won the war for us.” Without the LCVP, he said, a successful landing on any defended beach would have been impossible. Bayou-bred ingenuity helped crack Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.

The Sea and the Price of Freedom

On this 82nd anniversary, those of us whose lives are bound to the water have a special claim on that memory. What those men crossed the Channel to defend — freedom, the rule of law, the right to live without fear — is not self-sustaining. It requires maintenance, vigilance, and, on days like today, gratitude.

We at the Herd Law Firm are proud to fight for seamen, maritime workers and passengers in all types of personal injury and death claims. As maritime personal injury attorneys (and sailors ourselves!) located in northwest Houston, we never waver in our commitment to help these maritime workers, passengers, and their families when they are injured or mistreated.

The information in this post is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For questions specific to your maritime law issue, please contact us at 713-955-3699 or at Charles.Herd@HerdLawFirm.com.

SOURCES

• U.S. Army, D-Day Heritage Site — army.mil/d-day

• Imperial War Museums, “The 10 Things You Need to Know About D-Day” — iwm.org.uk

• Encyclopædia Britannica, “Facts and Statistics about the Normandy Invasion” — britannica.com

• War History Online, “Highins Boat: The Landing Craft That Helped the Allies Win WWII”

• Naval History and Heritage Command, “Higgins Boats” — history.navy.mil

• Smithsonian Magazine, “The Invention That Won World War II” — smithsonianmag.com

• Military.com, “The Critical Role the Coast Guard Played in the D-Day Invasion”