by Dan Blade

Created on: July 16, 2010

In many popular tourist cities, such as Washington D.C. and London, the immortalized military DUKW vehicle now shuttles tourists around the local sights and has become known as the “Duck”. The WWII vehicles are able to give the city visitors a unique view of landmarks, from both the road and waterways.

With the increased occurrences of accidents, the safety concerns about the Duck have become prominent and many are wondering if these vehicles are safe fun or whether they have become tourist death traps.

*Development of the DUKW

The World War II “Duck” was an innovation that would revolutionize close land-water (beach) operations. General Motors Corporation (GMC) designed and started production of the amphibious truck in the1941-1942 timeframe. The vehicle measures 38 foot long, 8 ft wide and nearly 9 ft high, weighing in at over 7 tons and has a range of 240 miles on land and 50 miles at sea. The duck was based on the standard production line Model 270, 10 ton truck powered by a 269.5 cubic-inch six cylinder engine, with a boat skin addition making it buoy enough to maneuver in and out of the water and be essential in maintaining a beach or river head. 

*Function of the DUKW

The DUKW function was to reduce the time it took to move supplies from large cargo ships stations off a beach, in deep water and shuttle it right onto the beach were it could be unloaded with easy. This vehicle also worked well supporting in the many river crossing operations across the European theater.

The term Duck was the only logical name for this vehicle with an acronym of DUKW, a little gangly on land and slow on the water. What DUKW means “D” is the initial production year of 1942; “U” standard designation for Utility Vehicle; “K” Signifies the vehicle has front wheel drive; and “W” identify that both of the rear axles are linked to the drive train. By the end of the war just over 21,000 DUKWs were produced.

During WWII, the DUKW serviced well in both theaters, and with the US Army and the US Marine Corps as well as many other allied nations. While the axis had some tough and unique vehicles, they never built a vehicle like the Duck. US Coast Guard integrated the durable vehicle as an amphibious rescue vessel as soon as it started to roll of the production line and continued to use the tough, versatile vehicle through to 1970 for coastal duty.

*Problems

Being over 65 years old, no longer in production and

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