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Britain is an island surrounded
by a cold and unforgiving sea.

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For centuries
it protected us from attack.

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But to prosper and thrive,
we would need to do more

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than just hide behind
her saltwater shield.

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Britain needed brave men, willing
to venture out into the unknown

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and she needed good boats
to take them there.

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I've spent my life at sea.

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Now I'm going to take passage
on six boats that together
tell the story of modern Britain.

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Built for exploration, war, fishing,

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industry and our very survival -

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these are the boats
that built Britain

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and changed the way
we live for ever.

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And this time I'm going to be
aboard an LCVP landing craft,

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the vessel that spearheaded
the D-Day invasion

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and played a vital part in the final
victory of Britain and the Allies

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in the Second World War.

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This is an LCVP - a Landing Craft
Vehicle and Personnel.

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It was built to do a specific job -

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to land troops on a hostile beach
in the teeth of enemy fire.

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Lord knows, she ain't pretty.

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And those sharp corners
make a seaman's heart bleed.

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But she was the right boat
at the right time.

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In our hour of greatest need,
this boat saved Britain!

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And there are not many boats
can claim that.

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Developed from
a Louisiana swamp boat,

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the LCVP is one of the strangest
craft ever to take to the water.

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36 feet long and powered
by a 250hp Detroit diesel,

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she's capable of carrying a platoon
of men and all their kit ashore

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at 12 knots flat out.

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By the end of World War Two,

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over 20,000 of these extraordinary
little craft had been built,

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using production methods that
revolutionised boat building.

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Designing a boat like this
called for radical thinking,

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but cometh the hour, cometh the man,

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and Andrew Higgins,

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a hard-drinking, straight-talking
American shipbuilder,

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proved that this boat was the answer
the Allies had been looking for.

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But just how did this design
come about?

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And what was it about Higgins
that made its creation possible?

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Because make no mistake,
this is an extraordinary boat

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that goes against
almost every rule of design.

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Doing what no boat
really wants to do,

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leave the water
and drive straight up the beach!

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Ask any sailor where he does
not want to be

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and he will tell you on the beach,
where the sea meets the land.

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That's where the real danger is.

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But at the end of World War Two,
that's precisely where he had to be,

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getting thousands and thousands
of troops ashore

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right here on this very beach.

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So, how do you go about designing
a boat that can sail for hours
across the English Channel

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and then deliver a platoon
of almost 40 soldiers

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straight into the teeth
of enemy fire?

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It's a huge challenge,

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and one the Allies could
ill afford to get wrong.

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Nowadays we're so used to
the idea of amphibious landings

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that we take it for granted that
military craft can motor up a beach

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and deliver troops at full speed.

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But between the wars, when military
chiefs first considered the problem,

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they faced a serious hurdle.

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Traditional boats just
couldn't handle the job.

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They were great at sea,

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but when the time came to step off
and fight your way ashore,

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the high sides and V-shaped hulls
of conventional craft

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meant that the men ran into
all sorts of difficulties.

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Back in the early days
of World War Two,

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we took a serious drubbing.

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We managed to get the British
expeditionary force off the beaches
at Dunkirk with a ragtag Navy

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of little boats begged borrowed and
stolen from goodness knows where.

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But if we were going to win the war
a few years later,

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we had to get back onto
those French beaches

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and this time
it was a different story.

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Now the Germans would be waiting.

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Dug in, their machine guns zeroed,
their mines laid,

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just looking for the chance to shoot
up anything that came their way.

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It was a daunting prospect.

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But one that needed addressing
and fast,

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if launching the huge D-Day invasion
was to be successful.

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The problem facing shipbuilders goes
to the very heart of boat design.

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Most ships tended to have
deep V shaped entries,

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great for keeping you upright in the
water and cutting through the waves,

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but a disaster when running aground.

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What was needed
was a whole new type of boat.

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I've come here to meet
an old ship mate, Ian McGilvery.

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Ian is every inch a sailor man,

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but the difference
between him and me,

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is that he is also
an expert boat builder.

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Hello, mate.

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And to help illustrate the problem,

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Ian's going to build a couple
of very basic models

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that will show us the two extremes
of hull design.

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Good bow, that, eh, Tom? Beautiful.

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The first is a flat bottomed boat,

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a box really.

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And the second, its more usual
V-shaped opposite number.

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Each offers advantages
and disadvantages

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compared with the other.

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OK.

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But to understand fully
what these are,

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we'll have to float
these boats in the water,

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starting with the traditional
V-shaped hull.

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Do you want to give it a go?
OK, here we go.

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Oh, look at that! Useless!
Well, that's no good then, is it?

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Its no good for a landing craft,
or anything else.

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Put some ballast in it.

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A few old nuts...

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But once we add a bit of ballast,
as you'd get in a boat of this type,

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things improve dramatically.

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The boat settles in the water,
suddenly she's remarkably stable.

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And with all that boat in the water
she'll also handle well -

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her draught will stop her
being blown off course

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and the V-shaped hull
will chop readily through the waves.

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If it's a landing craft,
it's got everything you want

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except for the fact
when you put it on the beach,

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it falls over.

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No good. No good at all, is it?

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Let's have a look at this one.

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We'll start with it on land,
which is what it's for!

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Can't beat it, can you?

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No, not at all.

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If we put it on the water,

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it's pretty good on the water
as well on the face of things.

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What happens if we put
some weight on the side,

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its absolutely amazingly stable.

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You put a lot of weight on
and it stays stable

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and it's got to go a long way, a
long, long way before it tips over.

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In fact, even then
it comes right the way up.

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So it's not got a stability problem.

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Just as an idea, load carrying
ability, that's a lot of nuts there.

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Lot of weight. Look at that.

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That's huge! It's doing that,

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because its got so much
displacement, isn't it?

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So far, so good.

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But you really wouldn't want
to take this design to sea.

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The problem it has got, I think, is
that if there's a sea running...

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..It's going to pound
something awful...

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Come up over a wave, the bottom
is just going to bang.

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It will be an awful thing to steer
because there's no keel,

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there's nothing to stop it
going sideways. No.

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I mean, that's the shape
a landing craft has to be,

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cos starting from the land
there's no choice.

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But its not going to work like that.

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It's got to be more
sophisticated than that.

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The flat-bottomed boat
has a lot going for it,

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but Ian and I suspect

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there are going to be some serious
disadvantages out on the water.

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To find out what these may be,
we're going to have to test

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our tiny wooden model
on a human scale.

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LAUGHTER

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However, I wasn't
quite expecting this.

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I've sailed on hundreds of boats
over the years,

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but this is the first time
I've ever set sail in a skip.

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But Ian thinks she'll float.

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So here goes.

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It'll be very interesting
to see what happens now.

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I've got my life jacket on
so I'm ready for anything.

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Lot of ballast in the bow here
and we're starting to float.

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And how are we floating?

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She's feeling my weight,

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but she's pretty good
fore and aft actually.

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Just about right

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and she's blowing about like
a crisp packet as predicted.

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Oh!

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LAUGHTER
What do you think?

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I was hoping it wasn't going to start
so we wouldn't have to go,
but never mind.

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It feels more or less OK so far.

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But how's she going
to handle under power?

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We'll give it some more.. Ohhh!

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We've got to be careful
we don't duck the stone under.

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We've got this fore and aft trimish.

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But if I go here
and you put some power on,

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will she squat and work?

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There she goes. That's it.

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So we're off.

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Well, the good news is
the skip floats.

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The bad news is
it handles like a dog!

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Back in World War Two those guys
really had their work cut out.

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The first problem is direction.
There's nothing gripping the water.

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We're just about getting away
with it here on the river,

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but thrown in a few waves

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and our square metal box
will be all over the place.

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But there's another problem -
even worse.

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It's called cavitation.

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Every time we try to open up
the engine we lose power,

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because the flat bottom lifts

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and channels air, not water,
down onto the propeller.

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On a V-shaped boat the propellers
would be deep down in the water

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and you wouldn't get this problem.

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But you can't have them there
on a landing craft,

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they'll snag on the beach.

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It's a catch 22
and it's one the boat designers

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of World War Two were going to
have to solve fast,

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to have any chance of coming up
with a successful landing craft.

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Somehow those guys had to find a way
of feeding water onto that propeller

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without putting the propeller
so low down

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that it was going to graunch
itself onto the beach

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as they were driving in.

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It's clear to me now
that what they needed

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00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:53,640
was to combine the best
of the stability and
load-carrying box design

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with the sea-keeping qualities
of the V-shaped hull.

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MUSIC: THEME FROM THE GREAT ESCAPE

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By 1939, Britain's designers
had already been developing a boat

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00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:24,440
called the LCA
that combined these features.

203
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It did the job,
but it had some serious drawbacks.

204
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With only 130hp under the bonnet,
it wasn't notably fast or powerful.

205
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And with a narrow door at the front

206
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she could only carry men,
not machines.

207
00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:44,560
And with our shipyards under
constant German aerial attack,

208
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Britain would never be able
to build enough of them

209
00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:49,760
to equip a massive
invasion force either.

210
00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:55,640
Luckily our biggest ally, America,
faced no such problems

211
00:12:55,640 --> 00:13:00,400
when it came to building their own
design of landing craft - the LCVP.

212
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:03,520
Jerry Stratham has written

213
00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:06,480
the definitive history
of the American landing craft

214
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,520
and its maverick designer,
Andrew Jackson Higgins.

215
00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,680
Higgins was not your
normal industrialist.

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He was hot tempered,

217
00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:17,400
he was brilliant.

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He had the ability to take wild ideas
and turn them into reality.

219
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He worked hard, he drank hard,
he swore hard,

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he grew up on the docks
in the timber industry.

221
00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:29,680
So he was like the kind of guys

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that he had working for him
in the shipyard.

223
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:34,880
But he was also educated
and articulate enough

224
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so he could go to Washington

225
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:38,960
and have conversations
with President Roosevelt

226
00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:40,400
or with generals and admirals.

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00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:43,640
Higgins was the right man
for the job,

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00:13:43,640 --> 00:13:45,960
but he also happened to have
the right boat,

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which he'd designed himself
to haul timber

230
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in the shallow swamps
around New Orleans.

231
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:53,520
In order to get the timber out,

232
00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:55,600
Higgins built a boat
he called the Eureka,

233
00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,160
which was a shallow draft boat.

234
00:13:57,160 --> 00:14:00,040
This was one of the original
Higgins Eureka work boats.

235
00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:01,840
And it could go over sand bars,

236
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:04,080
it could pull up
on the side of a bayou,

237
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:07,280
it could pull in, turn around, pull
back out again over the sandbars

238
00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:08,680
and leave the same position.

239
00:14:08,680 --> 00:14:11,800
The same qualities that later
would be needed in a landing craft.

240
00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:17,120
As its name suggests, the Eureka
boat was a huge breakthrough.

241
00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:20,240
By shaping a shallow,
but immensely strong keel

242
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:21,840
to the boat's flat bottom,

243
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:23,680
the Eureka managed to combine

244
00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:26,800
the seakeeping qualities
of a traditional boat,

245
00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:31,080
while still being able to take the
ground like a flat-bottomed craft.

246
00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:35,440
And by placing the boat's propeller
into a tube inside the keel,

247
00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:40,400
Higgins also managed to crack
the tricky problem of cavitation.

248
00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:44,520
The Eureka could operate at full
power in only a few inches of water.

249
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:49,600
Higgins knew his design
was the answer.

250
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:51,480
There was only one issue -

251
00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:56,200
the age-old problem of getting the
men off the boat and onto the beach.

252
00:14:56,200 --> 00:15:00,600
Undeterred, Higgins set about
redesigning his whole structure

253
00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:03,400
to turn the entire bow section
into a ramp.

254
00:15:03,400 --> 00:15:07,120
Now the boat could unload
its troops in seconds

255
00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:09,480
and carry jeeps and guns too.

256
00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:13,800
With this problem solved,
the LCVP was born

257
00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,200
and the orders started flooding in.

258
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:21,760
All Higgins had to do was work out
how to build the LCVPs fast enough.

259
00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:27,880
Up till now boat building had always
been done one vessel at a time.

260
00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,920
But Higgins had a better idea.

261
00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:32,880
Taking his cue from Henry Ford,

262
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:36,200
he decided to build
on four construction lines.

263
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:40,200
This meant his factory could
turn out over 100 boats a week!

264
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:48,480
Higgins went from 50 employees
in 1937 to 20,000 by 1943.

265
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:51,920
He was the design
and production genius.

266
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:54,600
War, you didn't worry about the cost
and he didn't,

267
00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,160
he was worrying about the product.

268
00:15:56,160 --> 00:15:58,680
He wanted to make sure that
the soldiers hitting the beaches

269
00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:02,640
had the best available boat
that they could possibly have.

270
00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,680
This is from the inside
of one of his plants

271
00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:06,760
showing the landing craft
being produced.

272
00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:07,800
I don't believe this!

273
00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:09,360
This is four across.

274
00:16:09,360 --> 00:16:11,840
It's called a bay, a production bay.

275
00:16:11,840 --> 00:16:14,880
And they would move on
a moveable assembly line.

276
00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:16,520
It's like a car.

277
00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,160
Like a little tiny motor car.
Absolutely.

278
00:16:19,160 --> 00:16:22,320
And once they got to the end of
the bay, at the end of the plant,

279
00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:24,960
they would be loaded on railroad cars
and taken away.

280
00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,560
He was mass producing them just like
you'd produce an automobile. Wow!

281
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,200
Actually I rather like
this picture because you can see

282
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,800
exactly the shape of the hull
here and how it is working.

283
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:36,720
You can see it's almost
a three-point landing, isn't it?

284
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:39,520
And you can see how each individual
has a specific task

285
00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:41,800
that they have to do
as the boat moves along.

286
00:16:43,680 --> 00:16:46,520
Higgins also covered
the factory with slogans

287
00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:48,240
to encourage the workers.

288
00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:51,880
The message - "The guy
who relaxes is helping the Axis"

289
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,520
hanging in the main production hall.

290
00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,960
With the boss's production genius
and forceful personality,

291
00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:04,200
Higgins Industries turned out
over 20,000 LCVPs.

292
00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,680
But today there are less
than five still functioning

293
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:09,880
and only one in the UK.

294
00:17:12,120 --> 00:17:16,280
She's here, 100 miles
from the sea in Nottingham.

295
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,240
Boat builder Nick Gates
is one of the few men

296
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:25,080
who actually knows
how to handle an original LCVP

297
00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:28,640
and I'm keen to hear his thoughts
on this strangest of craft.

298
00:17:31,520 --> 00:17:32,760
Well, here it is.

299
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:35,680
Yep, here it is, an LCVP.

300
00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:38,520
Yeah, it's a funny thing, you know.

301
00:17:38,520 --> 00:17:43,040
I know it does the job, but it just,
it does offend my eye as a seamen.

302
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:44,960
Well, you're right. It's not pretty.

303
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:47,240
It's not pretty, but
it's a fantastic piece of kit.

304
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:52,280
My first impressions are of
the box-like nature of the craft.

305
00:17:52,280 --> 00:17:54,360
But that was how it had to be.

306
00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:58,440
It was designed to carry 36 troops
or small fighting vehicles

307
00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:02,440
and for the D-Day landings these
boats were packed to the gills.

308
00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:07,280
It still looks very square in the
water, just like the skip we tested,

309
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,080
but Nick assures me there's
a lot more subtlety to the design.

310
00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,680
Although you think
it's just a basic box,

311
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,560
a basic box is actually
a very hard shape to keep strong.

312
00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,160
If you imagine an empty shoe box, you
take the lid off, it's quite floppy.

313
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,200
If you cut the end out,
it's even worse.

314
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:24,880
So this is actually very clever.

315
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,480
There's a lot of reinforcing
in the corners,

316
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:29,240
on the deck and below the hull.

317
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:32,120
It's actually a very hard shape
to keep stiff.

318
00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:33,600
It does look like an ugly box,

319
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:37,440
but actually it's a very, very
fine piece of marine design. Yeah.

320
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:40,640
Nick's clearly a fan.

321
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,160
But what about the men
who actually had to drive
these boats back on D-Day?

322
00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:50,560
Roy Nelson was 19 when he skippered
an LCVP during the Normandy landings

323
00:18:50,560 --> 00:18:54,600
and I've invited him back
to drive this LCVP today.

324
00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:58,920
This must bring back
some memories for you, Roy?

325
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:01,600
Oh, you can say that again. It's...

326
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:06,800
I've got mixed emotions.

327
00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:10,720
I'm excited, apprehensive... Yeah.

328
00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:13,880
And of course - nostalgia.

329
00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,880
How long's it been since
you were on one of these boats?

330
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:22,840
I've not actually been on
one of these LCVPs for 65 years.

331
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,080
The end of 1944.

332
00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,720
So it's a long time.

333
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:33,240
And I think of the chaps
who aren't around any more. Yeah.

334
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:41,320
On June 6th 1944,

335
00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:46,880
175,000 troops set out across
the Channel to recapture Europe,

336
00:19:46,880 --> 00:19:49,880
with 1,500 of Higgins' boats
in the front line.

337
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,720
Obviously, we knew we were training
to land on some beaches somewhere.

338
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,800
Presumably France.

339
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:02,640
But we didn't know where.

340
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,600
We didn't know up until
nearly the time.

341
00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,640
When we finally did set sail,

342
00:20:12,640 --> 00:20:16,160
it was amazing.

343
00:20:16,160 --> 00:20:19,440
I'd never seen anything like it
before or since.

344
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:25,360
The vast armada
of all types of shipping.

345
00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:27,600
All shapes and sizes.

346
00:20:27,600 --> 00:20:29,680
All going across the Channel.

347
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,520
Ships as far as the eye could see.

348
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:40,320
You'd think, "Well, this is big.
This is it". My word!

349
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:41,360
You are finally...

350
00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:44,360
When you're actually on the way,
you realise this is it.

351
00:20:48,720 --> 00:20:53,760
It was a mixture of excitement
and apprehension. Of course.

352
00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:56,440
"What's going to happen?" etc.

353
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,520
But generally, it was accepted.

354
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:02,520
You knew you were trained for a job

355
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,280
and this was the job
and you were going to do it.

356
00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,200
Now, after all those years
of development,

357
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:20,560
the LCVP was facing the ultimate
test of its ability.

358
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:34,760
And today we're going to
discover for ourselves

359
00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,520
how this boat really handles.

360
00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:47,320
As soon as we pull away

361
00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:50,480
and the throaty Detroit
two-stroke diesel starts to roar,

362
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:54,640
all of my preconceptions
about this vessel are blown away.

363
00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,640
She's got effortless power
from her 250hp engine

364
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,400
and in a unique way,
she's graceful too.

365
00:22:02,400 --> 00:22:06,320
A testimony to Mr Higgins
and his revolutionary hull.

366
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:11,920
And so simple to drive
with a steering wheel

367
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:13,800
that can be operated with one hand

368
00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:17,360
while you control the gearshift
and throttle with the other.

369
00:22:17,360 --> 00:22:19,880
The driver can perform
complex manoeuvres

370
00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:22,280
with speed and confidence.

371
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:31,640
This boat really is
a truly wonderful vessel.

372
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,240
There is so much racket
from that diesel back there

373
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:49,240
that I've had to come forward
to talk.

374
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:51,400
But the amazing thing
about this boat

375
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:53,320
is that she really does manoeuvre

376
00:22:53,320 --> 00:22:55,360
and I'm astonished
at the acceleration.

377
00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:56,960
There's a lot of power there.

378
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,240
You could take a lot of men in here,
vehicles, push them up the beach.

379
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:05,200
I can see how it's going to happen
now and what really does impress me,

380
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:09,800
is the way Nick was able to spin
the boat round, in the river.

381
00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,040
Higgins had taken his Eureka boat

382
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,720
and transformed it into a perfect
amphibious landing craft.

383
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:29,520
From humble beginnings,

384
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,680
the Allies now had a boat
they could absolutely trust

385
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,640
to do the job
it was specifically designed to do.

386
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:41,080
Now I'm keen to see for myself

387
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,280
just how this boat delivers
in the ultimate test.

388
00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:49,320
Leaving the safety of deep water
and running up the shore.

389
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,960
Well, the boat's impeccable.

390
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,080
A masterpiece of design.

391
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:06,600
But this isn't the sort of shore
she was built to come up.

392
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:09,280
She was designed for sterner stuff,

393
00:24:09,280 --> 00:24:15,080
the beaches of Normandy under
heavy fire, driven by men like Roy.

394
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:21,200
65 years on, Roy is clearly enjoying
being back on an LCVP.

395
00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:23,160
But on the eve of D-Day,

396
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,000
the emotions he and the other
soldiers were feeling

397
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,320
would have been very different.

398
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:33,040
Now the landing craft
were on their way.

399
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:39,240
The weather forecast for the day
was good, a force three westerly,

400
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,080
but of course as so often happens

401
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,760
that wasn't what was served up.

402
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,320
Instead, it blew a lot harder

403
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,680
and as the LCVPs came into shore

404
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,240
they had 5ft slammers coming
in right under their bows.

405
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,520
Horrible conditions
that would test any boat,

406
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,560
let alone one charged
with putting men ashore

407
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:02,720
onto a beach under a hail of lead.

408
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:14,760
Right here on this beach

409
00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:17,880
is where the Allies were finally
going to find out the truth

410
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,720
about the Higgins landing craft.

411
00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:21,400
Was it going to work under fire?

412
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,240
The official record
of that day states -

413
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,240
"Within ten minutes
of the ramps being lowered,

414
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:33,440
"the leading companies had become
almost incapable of action".

415
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,960
"Every officer and sergeant
killed or wounded".

416
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:43,240
But in the face of such
desperate adversity,

417
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:47,280
the LCVPs kept on
pushing up the beaches

418
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:50,360
and gradually the men
they brought ashore

419
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:52,560
overcame the German positions.

420
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,080
Looking out at this
peaceful beach today,

421
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,880
it's hard to imagine
thousands upon thousands

422
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,080
of these brave little landing craft

423
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:16,000
coming in from England
over the horizon in the morning,

424
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:18,120
loaded up with what to the defenders

425
00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:21,880
must have looked like a whole
population of soldiers on board.

426
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,960
The boats did their job,
my word they did.

427
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,280
And now it was up to the guys.

428
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,360
Almost 5,000 British,
American and Canadian troops

429
00:26:38,360 --> 00:26:40,160
lost their lives that day.

430
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:44,520
And the cemeteries of Normandy
still bear witness

431
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:48,840
to the sacrifice they made
on the windswept beaches below.

432
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,880
No war is without its losses.

433
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,240
But these brave men
and the LCVPs that carried them

434
00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,320
had launched the attack
that would ultimately bring about

435
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,840
the defeat of Germany
and the liberation of Europe.

436
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:14,000
And today, the LCVP
is still going strong.

437
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:18,080
It's faster and better equipped
with a 21st century design,

438
00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:21,000
but it's still recognisably based
on the boat

439
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:24,000
produced by Andrew Higgins
all those years ago.

440
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:31,320
In fact, the LCVP
is such an essential part
of Britain's modern armed forces

441
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,040
that huge ships are now built

442
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:35,680
to launch them from anywhere
in the world.

443
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:38,840
This is HMS Bulwark,

444
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:43,560
one of the Royal Navy's biggest
and best equipped ships.

445
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:48,640
She's almost 600ft long
and displaces over 20,000 tonnes.

446
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,360
But the real reason
for her existence

447
00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:54,680
is hidden deep inside her hull.

448
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,880
A huge dry dock that can be flooded
at the touch of a button,

449
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:04,160
ready to launch an armada
of LCVPs towards the shore.

450
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,920
65 years old and still going strong,

451
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:18,800
the basic LCVP design
has never been bettered.

452
00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:23,200
A boat perfectly designed
for the job in hand.

453
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:27,400
A little ship that saved Britain
in our hour of greatest need.

454
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:31,040
And you can't ask more
of a boat than that!

455
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,680
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

456
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:57,240
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