In the 1930s, Andrew Higgins is just a small shipyard owner with a predilection for swear words. Ten years later, he ensures that Germany and Japan lose World War II. Because he builds a boat that changes everything: It renders harbors unnecessary. It has a ramp in its bow, so it can drop troops directly on the beach. The landing in Normandy? Not possible without Higgins. Not the island hopping in the Pacific, either. Hitler calls him the "new Noah;" Eisenhower honors him as the man "who won the war for us."
To this day, the Higgins boat is the only piece of U.S. military equipment that bears the name of its inventor.