Skip to content
FREE STANDARD SHIPPING! Use code SHIPNOW at checkout
FREE STANDARD SHIPPING! Use code SHIPNOW at checkout
LVT Diorama
June 22, 2016 Grunt.com Admin

LVT Diorama

I have attached a few pictures of an LVT diorama that I made for a WWII Marine vet who went ashore on Tarawa and got hit and spent 11 months in the hospital. By that time the war was over for him. We became good friends and I built this for him and I must tell you it really touched him and his sweet wife. It made me feel pretty good too that he liked it so much. By the way my wife did the sand and wood and stuff and I did the LVT and Marines. It is in 1/32 scale and toughest parts were the camo on the helmets and the eyeballs.

lvtdioramafullfrontviewbuzzalpert

lvtdioramacloseupviewbuzzalpert

lvtdioramaangledviewbuzzalpert

By the way I am a model builder and I need some pictures of one of the landing craft we used on Guadalcanal. It was the one without a drop down door on the front like the Higgins boats I was on when I was in the Marines. Do you know of anyone I could reach out to for pictures?

Semper Fi,
Buzz

Previous article Lineage of the USMC Eagle, Globe and Anchor

Comments

D.E. Tyre - June 29, 2020

And, if the good Lord wasn’t looking out for us, the Normandy landings would have been a complete rout for the Nazis. If the storm that happened a few days after the landings had happened on D-Day, it would have been a disaster! Providence? Same thing at Tarawa. The Navy didn’t have up to date tide charts and didn’t figure the coral reefs would affect us. The first landings were cut down like wheat! Tarawa is a different story, though. 1st., 2nd. and 3rd. battalions, 2nd. Marines, paid the price.

Bruce Bennett - June 29, 2020

I believe that for some reason the Army planners for Operation Overlord failed to follow the Marine Corps SOP for amphibious operations in the Pacific. From what I have read in an Eisenhower biography that their were intermediate shortages of landing craft for the overall total of landing troops between the U.S., British and Canadian units. Obviously the air cover and naval gunfire missed their targets over looking Omaha Beach and on many of the British landing sites and for sure the air coverage and naval gunfire failed to completely cover the Canadian landing site. Many New Foundlanders were cut down in the water and just entering their beach by German automatic gunfire and tanks. Again, a product of too little naval gunfire coverage and the missing of targets by the air cover.

Paul J. Cassavechia, M.A. - June 29, 2020

The vehicle in your diorama is the Amphibian Water Buffalo or Amtrak. This equipment was used mostly in the WWII Pacific Theatre of Operations and was only used in ETO to liberate Antwerp and cross the Rhine River. This vehicle would have been a great help on D-Day at Omaha Beach instead of the shaky amphibious Shermans that mostly sank. This vehicle would have given the U.S. Army units great protection instead of the carnage that occurred. Why was this vehicle not used?! This was a huge mistake by military planners!

buzz alpert - June 29, 2020

Robert that would be great if you could help me out. I always add details and thus could use a few close ups and maybe a picture or two of the entire craft. This is the one with the kind of rounded, but not exactly, front and our guys had to jump over the sides. I don’t know if it was used after Guadalcanal, but I know it was used there. My email is keelerbarracks@yahoo.com. If you drop me a note I will give you further information. I wrote the last commandant 3 times, respectful letters, and just asked for a Marine Corps office address I could write to for help. I didn’t want a loan or a job, but he never even had one of his staff send me a note to take a hike. Nice! Thanks Buzz

Robert Ratliff - June 29, 2020

What photos would you like? I have access to the type of landing craft you’re referring to. It’s the LCPL – Landing Craft, Personnel, Logistics (or Lught – I can never remember which). Anyways, there’s one in Houston and its sister is in New Orleans. I’d be happy to get you photos of the one in Houston.

Leave a comment

* Required fields