Inside the Chieftain's Hatch: DUKW

"In a bid to keep the dukw project afloat, Rod Stephens persuaded the army to allow him to demonstrate the dukw's ability in a series of sea trials off the New England coast. It looked like his last chance to sell the idea to an unenthusiastic military establishment. Four days before the trials, a violent storm hit the area. A coast guard vessel was wrecked on a sandbar offshore. When all attempts at rescue had failed, a dukw was sent out and managed to save the 7 man crew. A few hours later, the wreck had vanished. Two days later, President Franklin Roosevelt was informed that an army truck had gone to sea and staged the daring rescue of a navy crew. It was the break that Rod Stephens needed. Suddenly, everyone from the president down thought his machine was a great invention." ~Battlestations, DUKW

I have a special place in my heart for the DUKW. When I was a toddler my family was rescued from a flood by a national guard DUKW.

On no the cars on fire. Good job there’s all this water around it.

"If you're one of them" Lmao

About brakes in the water: I have been an avid boater all my life, and I own an Amphicar. Even with my boating experience, the temptation to "hit the brakes" when operating in the water is high. While I agree it seems like it should be unnecessary, the warning that the brakes don't work in the water is really a good thing to emphasize.

I'm glad you are doing other vehicles apart from tanks. I used to have a toy of this vehicle as a young scamp. It spent many hours transporting 00 scale soldiers from chest island to attack troops on sponge island in the bathtub. It fulfilled its role magnificently in this situation.

Well, the Catalina PBY was a truck that flew on water.

The Drake: "that idea didn't float . . " LMAO

The DUKW, a vehicle adopted for it's outstanding abilities capable of driving out to rescue the Coast Guard in rough weather and now rendered dangerous by people chopping them up 75 years later to turn them into under-maintained, fully enclosed, overloaded, and badly captained tourist vehicles. I thought of it's origins when I saw the news on the accident in Branson and thought, "They must've done terrible things to that DUKW in the last 75 years".

This vehicle is a favorite of mine. The river and lake tour companies in Wisconsin Dells usually run these because there's no better way to transport 20 or so people across land, river, and lake in one vehicle. So many fond memories of tours with friends and family in one of the best locations in the state.

A vehicle for when things go fowl.

Yes, us Navy types are authorized to use real words, not just grunts, clicks, and, whistles! :)

Yeah, 18 inches of freeboard in rough waters- I shuddered a bit when you mentioned it. I live outside Branson, Missouri and last summer an original WWII DUKW built in 1944 being used in an attraction called "Ride the Ducks" sank in Table Rock Lake killing 17 people. I remember the storm that rolled through that day and I have never seen such a fast onset of a storm in my life (and I see a lot of thunderstorms where I live). Within minutes, it went from calm and sunny to dark clouds, high winds, rain, & lightning without any warning. I myself had been on Ride the Ducks as a child and I remember think it felt a bit low in the water. They also modified the vehicles and added a hard-top canopy which is partially what contributed to the death toll because it trapped them in the boat (though there were more many more reasons cited which you can read about online if interested). They tried desperately to get to a dock or shore (which you can also see video of on here somewhere and see just how low they were) but sadly never made it. It was a very avoidable and costly tragedy. At one time, I liked to think that those old duck boats had possibly seen enough death in their lifetime coming out of WWII (though I seriously doubt any of those actually got used in the field) and that it was a happy ending to know that they were still going strong as an attraction for old and young alike- but a happy ending was not to be. On a lighter note, I love your videos keep up the good work!

The Brits also had the Terrapin, which was a quite a bit bigger, but had no suspension whatsoever (so not much of a truck). There is a story of a DUKW driver who pushed back when an Ensign tried to pull rank on him as to how much cargo he was going to take. Pointing out to the officer that the DUKW had an anchor, and therefore he was a "Captain".

"Amphibious operations on land, and, on water." In case the reader didn't know what "amphibious" meant.

mr. chieftan did not mention that the army had a dedicated trailer for the duck. to improve hauling capacity. the problem was that the trailer had the bad habit of swamping, and taking down the duck with it. few trailers exist. the armor museum near youngstown,ohio has one of the few trailers that still exist.

Living in a small town on the Ohio River, the city govt. still had one of these in semi-active service up until the mid-1970s. If nothing else, they would get it out and clean it up once a year for the Memorial Day parade.

After surviving the Italian campaign with the British Army in WW2, in 1945 my dad was training on DUKW's for the invasion of Japan. Apparently, there wasn't huge enthusiasm for this project among my dad and his mates, but they would do their duty. Fortunately, that operation never had to take place.

loving that there is no background music the usual music does my head in!

A design of utter genius. de Vinc doodled things that would never, ever, work. Stephens, Speir and Puleston (of DDT ban fame) came up with a design to make an existing truck into something that would sail, not just float; that carried men and material on land and sea reliably; that mounted live artillery that helped clear the D-Day beaches; that looked like nothing that had every existed; that was simple enough for even soldiers to operate; and which were still driving over the 3 mile wide beach at Southport and saving lives almost 60 years after it first floated. All within months. That is true genius.