COBI D-Day 6 Jun 1944 Set 2058A

COBI's D-Day 6 Jun 1944 set contains 33 blocks making three figures: a landing craft sailor, a paratrooper of the 101st Airborne Division and an infantryman of the 1st Infantry Division. Accessories include an M1 carbine, an M1 Garand, a bazooka, binoculars and a grenade. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

The man at the back of the boat

Two of these figures are the ones everyone pictures. The third is the one who made the day possible.

The landing craft that put the infantry on the Normandy beaches were flat-bottomed plywood boats designed by Andrew Higgins, a New Orleans builder whose shallow-draft hulls had been made for oil exploration in Louisiana swamps. They could run onto a beach, drop a bow ramp and back off again — which meant an invasion no longer needed a captured port. Eisenhower later said plainly that without Higgins the war would have been fought differently.

The coxswain steered for a fixed point on the shore, held the boat straight while the ramp went down, and then reversed out and went back for the next load. He did this repeatedly, under fire, for as long as the landings lasted.

In the COBI range

Part of the Historical Collection WWII figure series, which covers the same war from several sides — German infantry (2060), the Eastern Front at Stalingrad (2061), the Italian campaign at Monte Cassino (2063) and the fall of Berlin (2064).

Specifications

Pieces: 33 · Figures: 3, with accessories