WW2 117th regiment landings at Normandy and what boats did they use.
With my analysis, the entire of thirtieth division landed on Normandy on D-day +4.
They landed after the seaside was taken however earlier than the unreal docks.
So with the seaside being largely safe apart from artillery hearth, what boats would they’ve landed with?
No journals mentions the particular boat and that i simply must assume the Higgins was pointless because the seaside was taken, however they’d nonetheless want a flat backside vessel proper?
I’ve been getting a majority of my data from
[darrel-betty-hagberg](http://darrel-betty-hagberg.com/117th_Infantry_Regiment/117th.html)
and from the e book “The combating thirtieth”. [Fighting 30th](https://www.google.com/search?q=the+combating+thirtieth&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS994US994&oq=the+combating+thirtieth&aqs=chrome..69i57.3907j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8)
Neither of those assets mentioning the touchdown craft.
Any concepts?
Comments ( 8 )
I also would assume Higgins boats as they seem to be the only landing craft used. Barges are a possibility, but frankly it would have been more important to put supplies and heavy equipment on those, and there would have been potentially hundreds of empty higgins boats available to ferry them to the shore.
If it wasn’t a combat wave, and it was a secured landing site… probably a LCi(L) .. this would allow entire battalions to land together. [American landing craft](https://www.britannica.com/study/american-landing-craft-comparsions)
117th arrived DDay + 6 on Omaha.
Maybe not relevant, but on D-Day, Americans landed on Omaha in: LCVP, LCM, LCT and LCA (the British landing craft) as well as a handful of DD tanks.
There were more options than just the two commonly known Higgins variants.
Probably LSTs, flat bottomed ships that could be beached. The ship would float free at the next high tide and carry wounded back to England. The tidal range in the English Channel is the highest in the world ISTR, about ~~12~~ 23 feet.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Ship,_Tank#Service_in_World_War_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Ship,_Tank#Service_in_World_War_II)
Nevil Shute, the novellist & aeronautical engineer, was then working in weapons development in the Royal Navy and went to Juno Beach on a US LST on D-Day. [His account is here.](https://www.nevilshute.org/normandy1.php)
He states the tidal range was 23 feet there.
*”The normal way to unload an LST on to a beach is by means of a Rhino Ferry. The Rhino Ferry is a long, wide raft, perhaps two hundred feet in length and seventy feet beam, and drawing when loaded about three feet of water, It is built of square steel N.L. pontoons joined together by steel angle irons to make the raft, and it is powered by two sixty horsepower engines driving their propellers through vertical shafts like outboard motors. Those Rhino Ferries can carry about forty vehicles so that in two trips they can unload an LST, but their speed to the shore is only about three knots. They take their vehicles on board ln this manner. The LST anchors by the stern and opens her bow doors, and lets down her ramp. The Rhino Ferry approaches up wind to her bow and secures to the LST by cables to each bow, so that the ramp can lie upon the deck of the Rhino. The vehicles then drive off on to the Rhino and are ferried to the beach, where the Rhino grounds in about three feet of water. The vehicles drive through this water, and up the sand.”*
Some of his experiences were used in his novels, especially ‘Requiem for a Wren’.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_(United_States)
This is what they used to land on the beach. I’d imagine it’s what they’d keep using. It’s called a Higgins.
Direct your question to the North Carolina Army National Guard. The State HQs should be able to answer your question. The 30th Division was comprised of units from North Carolina and the 30th BCT, Army National Guard is the legacy unit of the 30th Division.
I would guess at that point they were using the larger types of landing craft. The weather was crappy and they were more stable, and they were trying to get as many troops landed as quickly as they could.
I don’t know how many of the smaller craft – the Higgins Boats – were up and running after the landing. My father’s unit went in on six or seven. One was a total loss. Another grounded and couldn’t get loose. God bless the Coast Guard and the Royal Marines.
The answer to this question will probably require quite a bit of digging the operational orders of the 117th Reg and 30th Div. That should say that they will embark on ships of whatever naval designation on whatever date and location.
From there you can jump over to that naval groups organization and see what their TOE (or whatever the Navy calls their version of it) shows for them.
You can also come at it from another direction and see if you can find how other units went ashore on the same day in the same general area.
Having said that, there are quite a few archives out there that may have what you are looking for.
I would go straight to the [Military Records](https://www.archives.gov/research/military) of the Library of Congress but that can be daunting as not everything there is digitized and may require someone to actually go there and locate the information. This requires that you get a Reader ID card and make an appointment with a reference librarian.
You can also use the [Ask a Librarian](https://ask.loc.gov/) service at the LOC.
The final question I have is (and please do not take this wrong): How does knowing the type of boat used for landing the 117th aid you in the point(s) you are trying to make in what you are writing?