The Man Who Saved the World by Thinking Small

There are a handful of "hinge" moments in world history. June 6, 1944, or D-Day, was one of those moments. On that day hung the balance of power in World War II—and the fate of the world. One of the mostly unknown heroes of D-Day was a man who never set foot on a Normandy beach, never commanded a single troop and never wore a uniform—Andrew Jackson Higgins.

Higgins was the man responsible for designing and building the LCVP, the small landing boats that ...