How did a World War II boat end up at the bottom of a California lake?

[C C]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wo...ghost-boat

EXCERPTS: . . . Dunsdon wasn’t exactly surprised. After all, he had been the one to discover the boat on the shores of Shasta Lake in fall 2021, and he had been planning to retrieve it in the months since.

[...] The boat is, indeed, from World War II. It is an LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel), known as a Higgins boat, for its designer, Andrew Higgins. These 36-foot-long wooden boats, which could maneuver in just 10 inches of water and land on beaches, had been a vital part of the Allied strategy. ... Once ubiquitous, Higgins boats are now rare, with fewer than 20 known to have survived...

[...] As the salvage crew he assembled ... prepared to refloat the 80-year-old boat in December 2021, they first lifted and secured its open ramp. That gave Dunsdon a clear view of the bow and the still-bold white numbers painted there: 31-17.

With that clue, part of the boat’s history immediately became clear. Higgins boat 31-17 was assigned to USS Monrovia, a Navy ship that was General George S. Patton’s headquarters when the Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943.

The boat was later involved in the Battle of Tarawa in the Pacific. With additional archival research, Dunsdon is sure he’ll discover more about the boat’s wartime engagements. “The Monrovia had seven D-Day invasions in World War II—every invasion was known as D-Day in World War II—so potentially this boat went through seven D-Day landings, survived all of that and somehow came back,” he says.

The mystery that will be harder to solve is how the boat made its way to Shasta Lake, 100 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and thousands of miles and eight decades away from the Pacific Theater of World War II. Dunsdon speculates that 31-17 may have been refitted at a West Coast naval base after the war and sold for surplus. “We really don’t know,” he says. “It’s as simple as that.” (MORE - missing details)

LCVP Higgins boat 1944 U.S. Navy landing craft training film ... https://youtu.be/4Mx8HDJx4ZI

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/4Mx8HDJx4ZI

[stryder]

Could of been used in a film, anything with John Wayne riding in one?

[Kornee]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/wo...ghost-boat

EXCERPTS: . . . “The Monrovia had seven D-Day invasions in World War II—every invasion was known as D-Day in World War II—so potentially this boat went through seven D-Day landings, survived all of that and somehow came back,” he says.....

That much is news to me. Thought there was one and only D-day - Normandy landing 6am, 06/06/1944. Some folks see Satanic significance in that repeated digits. Well at least it was a Tuesday not Friday (or Saturday, depending on calendar convention).
Anyway has there ever been a movie or TV documentary referring to any other WWII D-day?

[C C]

Could of been used in a film, anything with John Wayne riding in one?

Ernest Hemingway was in a Higgins boat on D-Day, and at the worst possible spot: Omaha Beach. ("All he could see were the dead")

But fictionally, apparently not one of Wayne's characters riding in one. Though an LCVP appearance is certainly possible in some scenes, with respect to any stock footage used in his war films.

---

[...] Anyway has there ever been a movie or TV documentary referring to any other WWII D-day?

I doubt it. Since via those countless movies, docs, and series episodes about June 6, the industry itself seems responsible for having inculcated in us the idea that the D-Day label was only applied once. Though it was the over-celebrated, narrowed focus of journalistic accounts during the middle of 1944 that doubtless contributed to decision-makers choosing different letters for a few later campaigns of the war.

- - - - - - - -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Day_(military_term)

In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated.

The best-known D-Day is during World War II, on June 6, 1944—the day of the Normandy landings [...] However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after that operation.

[...] Because of the connotation with the invasion of Normandy, planners of later military operations sometimes avoided the term to prevent confusion. For example, Douglas MacArthur's invasion of Leyte began on "A-Day", and the invasion of Okinawa began on "L-Day". The Allies' proposed invasions of Japan would have begun on "X-Day"...

[Kornee]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Day_(military_term)

In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated.

The best-known D-Day is during World War II, on June 6, 1944—the day of the Normandy landings [...] However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after that operation.

[...] Because of the connotation with the invasion of Normandy, planners of later military operations sometimes avoided the term to prevent confusion. For example, Douglas MacArthur's invasion of Leyte began on "A-Day", and the invasion of Okinawa began on "L-Day". The Allies' proposed invasions of Japan would have begun on "X-Day"...

Thanks. Nice to know. A knowledge expansion of WWII allied operations coding, and narrow focused media application post WWII.