![]() Having previously approached the Marine Corps, however, Higgins now offered the Navy his Eureka. In 1936, the Navy conducted trials for new landing craft, without satisfactory results. With a semi-tunnel hull protecting its propeller, the boat could operate in shallow waters with a “spoonbill” bow, it could also beach itself and back off with relative ease. LANDING CRAFTIn 1926, Andrew Jackson Higgins designed a shallow-draft boat, the “Eureka,” for oil drillers and trappers along the Gulf coast. Something more nimble was needed-fast, shallow draft, yet capable of embarking troops in adequate numbers and delivering them with equipment to landing beaches. But where control of the air and sea were contested, as in the Solomon Islands, ponderous transports and cargo ships carrying conventional Navy boats for landing were not a complete solution. ![]() THE NEED: FOR AN AMPHIBIOUS WARThe island-to-island nature of the Pacific war was a “three-legged stool,” requiring control of land, sea and air. The complete story is captured in Secretary-Treasurer Curt Clark’s book “The Famed Green Dragons.” Active until 2010, American APD Corporation ran joint reunions for all 32 four-stack APD shipmates, sometimes exchanging visitors with Marine Raider reunions.
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