LCVP

In 1941, a version, most familiar to World War II veterans, was introduced which had a bow ramp which allowed men and vehicles to exit onto a beach or at least into knee-high, not neck-high water.

This was the 36-foot landing craft, vehicle and personnel, LCVP, which was fitted to the boat davits on every amphibious transport and cargo vessel.

Its companion boat, the 50-foot ramped landing craft mechanized, LCM, also a development of Andrew Higgins, provided the means for landing tanks, artillery, and heavy vehicles.

The variety of landing craft that eventually evolved and the tasks to which they were put was limited only by the ingenuity of those who planned their uses and the seamanship of the sailors who manned them.

But for most pre-war Marines, the memories of practice landings featured the rampless Higgins boat, various tank lighters which made each beach approach an adventure, and all sorts of make-do craft of earlier years which were ill-suited for surf or heavy seas.

One amphibious craft development of the pre-war years, equal in its impact on amphibious landings to the LCVP and the LCM, was the tracked landing vehicle, the LVT.

Developed in the late 1930s by Donald Roebling for use as a rescue vehicle in the Florida Everglades, the LVT, or the Alligator as it was soon popularly named, could travel over land or water using its cup treads for propulsion.

The stories of the discovery of Roebling's invention and of its subsequent testing and development are legion.