Practicing for Normandy – Camp Gordon Johnston and the Higgins

The LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle or Personnel), otherwise known as the Higgins, was instrumental in the storming of Normandy. While most of the amphibious assaults in the European and Mediterranean Theaters of Operation occurred on the coasts of Northern Africa, Sicily, Italy, and Southern France, the battle we remember, the one that haunts our dreams, the one that made the Higgins boat as mythic as the Trojan horse, was the invasion of Normandy. D-Day.

The Higgins was a homely creature, not unlike a coal car from a cargo train. Made of long-leaf yellow pine for flexibility, mahogany, oak, and steel, the flat-bottomed boat was 36 feet long. It carried 36 troops, plus a three-man crew—coxswain, engineer, and deckhand. Or a three-ton truck, a one-ton truck with 12 troops, or 8,000 pounds of cargo. Flimsy matchboxes. It is hard to imagine they could even float. 

The men lined up three across, two men in the aft with 30-caliber machine guns. It could operate in 18 inches of water, and went up to 12 knots. Loaded in weather, closer to 7 knots. Hardly an object of terror. Yet it was designed to plow through shallow water like a bulldozer onto the sand. Then a steel ramp dropped down, sending soldiers running ashore, guns blazing. 

Landing companies were organised into six boat teams, subdivided into teams of riflemen, BAR men, wire cutters, demolition men, 60mm mortar men, bazooka men, and flamethrower operators. A seventh landing craft carried company command. Anthony Higgins, who manufactured the boat out of New Orleans, designed them to be stackable for transport. A typical transport ship carried 22 of them, 4 LCMs (Landing Craft Mechanised), and 2,000 troops. 

Most soldiers were trained in their use at Camp Gordon Johnston, a WWII amphibious training camp on the desolate coast of the Florida Panhandle. In July 1942, despite what seemed to be insurmountable challenges—swamps, snakes, wild boar, clouds of stinging insects, hurricanes—the Army began building a camp to train up to 20,000 men at one time. Three weeks to survey 155,000 acres, 60 days to build, at a cost of $10 million. A city rose from the swamp.

Clean the Latrine - Singing at Camp Gordon Johnston

Vivian Hess, the real postmaster's daughter, who graciously allowed me to fictionalize her stories for my book, sent me these lyrics to "Clean the Latrine", a parody of "Begin the Beguine".  She writes, "I think this was performed at CGJ by our Headquarters Mess guys."  Taken from the Fort Hamilton Soldier Show "Stars and Gripes".

When we begin to clean the Latrine

We take up a mop in our hands so tender

We scrub all the seats ‘till they shine with splendor

And polish the bowls ‘till they have a sheen

My back starts to creak as I carry on

My palms start to ache…develop a blister’

I long for the days when I was called “Mister”

And not “Private Stink” who cleans the latrine

Tis then I recall with tenderness dreaming

The rooms on Broadway where everything glows

The tile and the stalls and fixtures so gleaming

The hot water steaming, the doors that would close

A short year ago I was green

I didn’t know the word ‘latrine’ existed

But I found out soon enough when I enlisted

Now I know but too well what they mean.

Chorus….Once again I begin to clean the god damn latrine, and I yearn for the time when I’ll be a civilian….Oh, that feeling you get is worth more than a million

Camp Sunshine - The story of Camp Gordon Johnston

As the United States enters World War II, military commanders send their best officers to set up an amphibious training camp on Florida's desolate Gulf Coast.  Major Occam Goodwin anticipates challenges--swamps, snakes, alligators, hurricanes, the daunting task of turning twenty thousand green recruits into warriors.  But when his surveyors discover a murdered black family deep in the forest, he must dance delicately around military politics, and a race war that threatens the entire war effort.

Here, in this harsh but mystically beautiful land, young recruits test themselves to the limit in love and combat; politicos and tycoons offer aid with one eye to profit; women patrol the coast on horseback, looking for German subs; a postmaster's daughter, the only child on base, inspires thousands; a determined woman bravely holds together her family and the emotional soul of the camp.  Amid tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the soldiers and their country hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to find his destiny.

Based on the true story of Camp Gordon Johnston, this epic tale is about young men on the brink of war and a country on the brink of civil rights, a tale of soldiers and officers, daughters and mothers, death and redemption, and a man unyielding in his integrity, compassion, and struggle for justice.