totalnavy.com Online Resource for all things Navy navalbasehobbies.com, navyshopping.com & modelshipbuilding.com PO Box 207    Cedarhurst, NY 11516 Phone: 718-471-5464    Email click here   Fax 718-337-7115
	Ship Catalogue		Paints & Displays	How to Build a Ship!	Navy Ball Caps
	Books	Decals	Photo- Etching	Ship Art Prints	Main Website
Our Customer Service is open from 9:00 am to 8:30 pm EST time call us if you need help. 718-471-5464

If you have any questions or need help email us, call us or click here for HELP

US PT- 212 Class Higgins Boat Models

1/96 scale Kit# PT102   $GONE   9" long this is a special run kit.

In 1939, he finally managed to get an invitation to bid for the 81-foot PT boats. He bid below cost and was awarded the contract for PT5 and PT6 In 1940, when the war had begun in Europe, the Marine Corps General Holland Smith foresaw that Japan would be a future enemy of the United States. He recognized the need for more landing craft, and craft of another kind than those presently in use. He saw the superiority of the Higgins’ PT boats as the "best all around boat for the purpose," which was to land on the beaches of the Pacific. This was the beginning of the Higgins story.

Higgins produced 199 78-foot boats. The Higgins boats, built by Higgins Industries in New Orleans, Louisiana, were 78-foot (24 m) boats of the PT-71 class. The Higgins boats had the same beam, full load displacement, engine, generators, shaft power, trial speed, armament, and crew accommodation as the 80-foot (24 m) Elco boats. Numerous Higgins boats were sent to the USSR and Great Britain at the beginning of the war, so many of the lower-numbered squadrons in the USN were made up exclusively of Elcos. The first Higgins boats for the US Navy were used in the Battle for the Aleutian Islands (Attu and Kiska) as part of Squadron 13 and 16, and others (RON15) in the Mediterranean against the Germans. They were also used during the D-Day landings in the English Channel on 6 June 1944. A somewhat odd footnote is that even though only half as many Higgins boats were produced, far more survive (seven hulls, 3 of which have been restored to their WWII configuration), than do the more numerously-built Elco boats; of which only two hulls (one restored) are known to exist at this time.