Item:
ON4187

Original U.S. WWII Operation Overlord Assault Landing Craft Technician Named Grouping

Item Description

Original Items: One-of-a-kind grouping. Arthur T. Baynes US Navy Technician was sent to England in early 1944 as part of Operation Overlord to assemble landing craft, vehicle, personnel (LCVP) or Higgins boats which would be used on D-Day June 6th, 1944.

Including in the incredible grouping are the following items:

• Original U.S. WWII McCord M1 Fixed Bail Helmet with Firestone Liner offered in excellent condition and named to BAYNES in the shell.
• Original U.S. WWII 1941 dated Musette Bag manufactured by CRAWFORD MFG. CO named to A.T. BAYNES TECHNICIAN USN on external cover.
• Original U.S. WWII M3 Fighting knife by Case with M8 scabbard both in near mint condition.
• Original U.S. WWII Navy Ensign Epaulettes in near mint condition still contained in GEMSCO cardboard box.
• Original U.S. WWII 48 star flag measuring 58 x 114. We were told by the veteran’s family that this was flown on one of the smaller ships used to aid the (LCVP) on D-Day.
• Original U.S. WWII Eisenhower D-Day letter given to the troops on the eve of the invasion. The letter has some damage, holes, but 95% is legible.
• Multiple postcards one written to Arthur T. Baynes U.S.N. and addressed to him in England dated July 29th, 1944.
• 1944 dated English newspapers, two just days after D-Day and one showing Anglo-American workmen assembling invasion craft.
• If The Invader Comes leaflet produced by the Ministry of Information. This outlines six rules on what to do if Germany invaded the UK.
• Five manuals including- Invasion Craft, Lookout Manual, Protection of your Home Against Air Raids, Air Raid Precautions in Lloyd’s Building and Royal Mail House, Survival on Land and Sea.
• Pamphlet- Lest We Forget- The Detroit News Exhibit of German Atrocity Pictures (June 28-July 8, 1945).
• USN Patch and another set of Epaulettes

A really nice grouping of one soldier’s life in England in preparation for D-Day and its aftermath. Some of the paper articles are incredibly rare with comparable examples being very difficult to locate.

The Supreme Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, declared the Higgins boat to have been crucial to the Allied victory on the European Western Front and the previous fighting in North Africa and Italy:

Andrew Higgins ... is the man who won the war for us. ... If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different.

The Higgins boat was used for many amphibious landings, including Operation Overlord on D-Day in NSDAP German-occupied Normandy, and previously Operation Torch in North Africa, the Allied invasion of Sicily, Operation Shingle and Operation Avalanche in Italy, Operation Dragoon, as well as in the Pacific Theatre at the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Tarawa, the Battle of the Philippines, the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa.

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