Battle Stations: Duck - The Truck That Went To Sea (War History Documentary)

it's official name was the d UK dublin to the American GIs in world war two was the duck this ungainly lumbering truck would never hit the headlines or win any prizes for its looks but it had a special talent which made it a vital part of the Allied and fibia [ __ ] thérèse from Omaha Beach to Hugh Jima the duck could swim whenever there was water to cross this machine did it it crossed rivers in farad's stores in Harbin went to see it carried cargo and it carried men it did weightlifting and climb the only thing it couldn't do was fly although it drive I don't see how you could knock the dock anywhere idiot because there's no place that not good I mean if there's no place you can put it that him work to me it was a marvelous vehicle it was a pleasure to drive it if you couldn't handle it it could kill you you get to be too glad me on sand and that ocean gets deep you say come on go come on come on over come on get going oh yeah but it could also save your life got feeling you were kind of special because you were depended on by so many using archive film and color reconstructions battlestations tells one of the most unlikely success stories of world war ii the story of the duck amphibian trying to land an army on a beach has always been one of the toughest military operations it takes a lot of planning and a lot of luck to pull it off during World War one the British attempted to put an army ashore in Turkey and Gallipoli was a disaster casualties were appalling with more than 23,000 killed and 88,000 wounded after nine months of clinging to a few worthless strips of sand the British withdrew Gallipoli demonstrated that an amphibious assault is arguably the most difficult single operation of war and it's particularly hard if you're coming in against a defended Beach you need some way to bridge the gap between the water and the line some amphibious assets which are going to help your people actually get ashore in the late 1930s special infantry landing crafts were developed in America but the landing supplies the military really needed a machine that could climb out of the water and up the beach to safety before unloading its cargo it sounded like a good idea the only problem was nobody knew how to do it and there was no great sense of urgency about finding a solution in 1940 Germany unleashed its blitzkrieg on Western Europe America hoped to remain neutral but the issue was decided by the Japanese who dreamed of imperial expansion in the Pacific on a quiet Sunday morning in December 1941 Marine Sergeant Arthur Wells was passing the time of day with a friend on board the battleship Pennsylvania at the American naval base in Hawaii Pearl Harbor he heard an explosion someone made him work well that's just like the army two home gunnery practice on Sunday and someone else shell Japs attacking from his battle station high on the mainmast Arthur Welles watched as wave after wave of Japanese torpedo planes launched their low-level attack I could see into the cockpit succeeded expression on the Japanese polished faces and I could see the instrument panels and then when they pull out well then I was literally eyeball to eyeball with the rear Gunners and I watched the Oklahoma roll order watch from West Virginia get decide to tour now toppers torpedo after torpedo hit so all we can do we'll just watch the Japanese attack on its Pacific Fleet instantly catapulted America into World War two most Americans wanted to avenge the victims of Pearl Harbor that Japan was allied with Adolf Hitler's Germany which meant America would also have to fight a European war the British and American allies took stock of the situation to defeat Hitler would mean invading North Africa and mainland Europe Germany's fascist ally Italy would also have to be attacked a whole series of invasions would be needed to dislodge the Japanese from the island chains of the Pacific and all these territories would have to be taken from the sea it would mean an increasingly important role for America's elite force of Seabourn soldiers the US Marines on street corners throughout the United States colorful posters back in young men to the adventure romance an opportunity of the Marine Corps I saw a picture of the Marines in blue uniform and drugstore about normal tall and I fell in love with the uniform that was it I knew nothing about the Rings and the section of the country I came from of course their jobs were very few fact the matter I got $1 Mott raised when I joined the Marine Corps well I grew up on a farm in eastern Colorado and and we were pretty much at home then I saw this big billboard that said they need another good man and and so I thought well I might just do that job you know the recruit gets his hair cut military style and marks the first step in his transition from a civilian into a first class fighting man and during boot camp June Armory you're a boot and that's where they put it it's just a training they put in tremendous skills teach you and you get proud each day it gets harder to work harder to do it you're getting more proud and you do it faster when you graduate from boot camp I see now you are ring and you are a Marine I felt very strongly that if I could live in a beautiful country like we live in and have all the rights that we have that it was also my obligation to defend this country if it need be with major amphibious operations required on every Battlefront the problem of landing an army on a beach moved to the top of the agenda the research committee was set up by the American government to investigate new ways of fighting an amphibious war in 1937 the racing yacht ranger won the prestigious America's Cup it was the work of yacht designer rod Stevens early in 1942 he was asked by the government research committee to help develop an amphibious vehicle for the American army yacht design is all about creating elegant and streamlined health phones that cut through the water at high speed now Stevens would produce one of the slowest and leasts lovely vessels ever to put to sea but it would prove to be his most important achievement and a triumph of American ingenuity ever try floating a truck across water it needs a whole platoon of men a big tarpaulin tucked up over the sides and she's floated across road Stevens knew that obsolete ideas like this were not going to win a modern war he began designing a seagoing version of the standard American army truck in 1941 the General Motors Corporation had introduced their two and a half ton ax a reliable six wheel drive truck which became the universal American supply vehicle throughout the war GMC would eventually mass-produce some 600,000 of these trucks at the rate of one every three minutes we used haul coal and stuff on GMC to enact 10 trucks neighbor workhorse they were tough grading and six silver in Yonville ton on the 30th of April 1942 rod Stevens and his tiny group of just four GMC engineers began working night and day converting a standard GMC chassis into an amphibian they had to create a hull which would contain the engine and the drivetrain to all six wheels it needed to be seaworthy with watertight seals on all bearings a rudder was needed to steer it in water and of course a propeller to make it go in just 38 days they hadn't made it the new machine was rolled out into the light of day for the first time the strange beasts had no name except its GMC code letters they were D indicating 1942 its year of manufacture you for amphibian K front-wheel drive and W rear-wheel drive the best that the American GI could make of the unpronounceable the ukw was duck and that was the name that stuck this machine was like nothing the army had ever seen and there were plenty who said it would never work but early tests suggested they were wrong in and out of the water the duck performed well and hopes were high the design was cautiously adopted by the army but production would be limited to 2,000 units the duck may have taken to water but it soon became obvious that the military establishment had not taken to the duck there were no immediate plans to use the amphibians or to increase the order and as the new machines came off the production line most went straight into storm some generals were convinced that the amphibian would always be a compromise either a good boat nor a good truck they believed it could actually become a liability on the battlefield and should not be used in combat service war spawns new inventions and they in turn dim our new techniques but the military mind is quite often conservative and and in a way rightly so because nobody wants to take a gamble with people's lives but the problem is this nobody will take a new invention seriously until it's been proven in battle but it can't get proven in battle until it's been taken seriously in a bid to keep the duck project afloat rod Stevens persuaded the army to let him demonstrate its 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 a rescue had failed a duck was sent out and managed to save the seven-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 dramatic rescue of a navy group it was the breakthrough that rod Stevens needed suddenly everybody from the president down thought his machine was a great invention and just what the army needed the United States Army called its newest mobile weapon the duck amphibious 2 and 1/2 ton trucks they operate on land or in water navigating rough seas like Navy barges the Ducks are the last word in mechanized equipment and who better to take the duck to see than the Marie special duck operating companies were formed which quickly became known as the quack or and led to some confusion in the Rex says well I don't know anything about it but it's a duck coming and so I was I ask you mrs. what the hell is the Marine Corps going to do with ducks in training schools along the American seaboard men are learning how to operate and service ducks training is tough but interesting a driver must be a combination truck 'ln stevedore seaman and mechanic once seated in the cab the novice duck driver found himself surrounded by a bewildering array of levers pedals dials and written instructions it is not difficult it's put it in gear just like you would a car or truck there's a lever to pull on your propeller to make it go it was built for whatever you're going to use it for whether it be land or sea he didn't have to worry about where you're going you know you get there but overconfident truck drivers soon found that going to see was not as easy as they thought the king of the roads could soon find himself out of his depth my maintenance officer overloaded one of them he overloaded this one with equipment and tools and whatnot parts it went clear to the bottom of the ocean on land to the duck driver could find himself in trouble with the wrong tire pressure sand is a trap as this demonstration will clearly show the duck on the left has tire pressure for road driving the one on the right for San the hard tires make narrow deep tracks while the deflated tires splay out like a camel's foot giving good traction the driver with the hard tires might have gotten through on level ground but now he's in a spot with his wheels digging in deep but the dunk had a whole range of special equipment for awkward situations just like this one lesser vehicles might need the help of a tow truck but the duck could winch itself out of trouble using a ship's anchor also provided as part of the standard kit it's just simple engineering when you get down to it it may seem complicated to some people but in theory most of it is simple what you can't do this guy can and that just keeps going there's always a way no matter what after five weeks of learning to drive navigate tie knots operate winches handle cargo and a score of other tasks the crews were ready to go into combat I was born raised in heels of Kentucky there all you saw was a horse and wagon and buggy and I wasn't too impressed with these matters so how we go anywhere when I got out of Kentucky I could see there is the way a new world that I never knew was out there so let's put the duct company in and read did for me showed me a new world as they set sail for the battlefront the crews of this novel machine were venturing into the unknown rod Stephens felt sure it was a winner but the dark had not yet proved its ability in combat and many of the senior military chiefs still doubted if it was up to the job some called it a lame duck others said it would be a sitting duck and a few predicted it would quickly become a dead duck now they would find out who was right it's become more and more apparent that our strategy from now on in calls for for landings on lots of beaches and in lots of places invasion from the sea America is fighting a modern war so it takes the GI truck adds a little American ingenuity and you got that duck the ducks in full production now and every day more of them show up around the world in Great Britain stories began to circulate among the army transport drivers of a strange new breed of vehicle deep in the heart of North Wales that were reported sightings in the narrow country lanes on the wide deserted beaches of trucks that drove straight into the waves and went out to sea it sounded like just another wartime rumor the driver John Geldart soon discovered it was true it took British orders this is what we call a duck listen we thought it was a tanker soft like him then we could see the rubber wheels on it like what is this a wagon some salt lighting and of course well this toll is that it goes out to sea I couldn't believe it like I thought it was a wider the first main memory I had is when we first went to Thailand in North Wales for therefore for training and that was the real time when we were introduced to the dokkan but I could do what we had to do as they examined their new toy the British drivers found that every compartment and Locker seemed to contain some new gadget clearly this was no ordinary army truck but like their American allies the British soldiers soon adopted the duck and developed an affection and a growing respect for this extraordinary example of Yankee ingenuity Oh fantastic great you're king of the road like a fantastic invention it was great I've got to hand it to the Americans for first and foremost we had to learn seamanship when we were out it seemed earlier time of his seasick many a time morsel isla tides and currents could play tricks on an unwary driver particularly when trying to mount the ramp of one of the big tank landing ships known as LSTs when you placed your front wheels onto the run we find at the back which was still afloat would be pushed to the left and you'd be facing cross the rump which bad thing to be but he eventually got dead gauge of the current was one thing to my gut and enter in such a way that you ended up with the four wheels straight but to me it was a marvelous vehicle it was a pleasure to drive it the Ducks first combat test came with the invasion of Sicily now this was designed to knock Italy out of the war and to do very serious damage the Germans and it brought the Allies to the very edge of mainland Europe it was clear that much would depend not merely on getting troops ashore but then on keeping them supplied and this time the dark was in the spotlight the Allies plan to mount a two-pronged amphibious attack the Americans would land in the southwest and the British would land on the southeast coast the invasion fleet carried more than 900 ducks to ferrying men and supplies are sure on the 10th of July 1943 the attack was launched while some men waded ashore others had the pleasure of landing in dumps landing craft of logic the landings mostly went well but another new invention the big tank landing ships ran into serious problems many beached on sandbars well away from the shore by evening the weather was deteriorating began to threaten the whole operation but the Ducks were able to mount a shuttle service braving the rough seas to deliver the goods ashore as the weather improved the Allies secured the beachhead but during the critical early days of the invasion 90% of all supplies came ashore by duck some senior officers believe that the Ducks had actually saved the entire operation from failure considerably easing the supplies problem the amphibious vehicles affectionately called ducks have delivered the goods as required all along the east coast advance of the Eighth Army once safely ashore the Ducks operated as regular army trucks transporting troops and supplies along the narrow mountain roads many Sicilians saw the Allies as liberators but the Germans put up stiff resistance and the going was tough at last they reach the Straits of Messina and the Ducks took to water once more for the short swim to the Italian mainland a battle for Sicily had been won the supreme Allied commander General Eisenhower was profoundly impressed by the Ducks performance he reported to Washington amphibious truck 2 and 1/2 ton commonly called D ukw has been invaluable suggests commendation for officer responsible for its development nobody wanted to admit to Ike that the Army's chief contribution to the duck project had been a determined attempt to sink it but for rod Stevens it was a triumph his ugly duckling had finally won its Spurs it's not built for beauty it's built to take the people in the artillery and the ammo and stuff we did the sick back to the ship it's anything you want to put on you can haul that's why you with ducks to do the job of getting it ashore it gets done in a hurry invasions the order of the day an American skill is right there to meet its requirements but the duck also had its share of problems it required constant lubrication and maintenance to resist the destructive combination of salt water and sand the men are thoroughly grounded in maintenance work which is highly important in a truck that goes to sea every vital part should be serviced at regular intervals everyday lubrication is checked and rechecked the need to stop and increase the tire pressure for road driving after a beach landing was also a major drawback the crew engages the tire pump using the control in the driver's cab and gets out the air hose all six tires should register 40 pound inflating and deflating as driving conditions change may take a little time but it prevents injury to tires and keeps the driver from getting stuck and in a combat area that's essential the answer to the tire pressure problem was an ingenious system of pipes and valves which automatically fed air to the hubs of all six wheels from the compressor on the engine in the cab signs told the driver which pressures to use for a whole range of conditions hi brush for paved highways lowest pressure for soft sand soon the duck would be experiencing them all from the sharp coral spikes and soft volcanic ash of the Pacific Islands to the firm sand of the Normandy beaches and the hard road to Berlin this is the day for which three people long have waited this is d-day at the beginning of June 1944 the Allies prepared to launch Operation Overlord the invasion of Normandy it was the greatest amphibious operation in history five thousand vessels 11,000 aircraft tanks trucks jeeps and two thousand ducks with a mixed cargo duck driver Stanley Dobson headed for Juno Beach three hours after the start of the invasion on June the 6th d-day I've been dropped somewhere Novation a 3/4 mile formation our Ducks were all loaded up with stores little of each the idea of course have been one of the first books onto the beach was that we had something for everybody about petrol and Russians and ammunition tongue shells things like this we had a little bit of everything it was amazing I think organizational winter nobody told you that what was gonna be like when you got there and I presume if they had told us what was likely to happen we maybe wouldn't have done what we did not take the chances and things like that with some people did I mean I remember looking over the sand dunes at the time landlord Annette Duggan saw the inventory actually fighting to take a cottage I heard this what I thought was the sound of bees and suddenly realized it was a machine-gun bullets gone the prisoner on the top suddenly realized what am I doing here until Harbor facilities were established the Ducks formed a vital bridge between the supply ships and the invasion beaches 40% of all the tonnage brought ashore was carried by duck the sheer scale of the Normandy operation beggars belief by the end of d-day the Allies had put a hundred and thirty thousand men ashore in Normandy by the end of June they'd landed eight hundred and fifty thousand men a hundred and fifty thousand vehicles and five hundred thousand tons of supplies this was a tremendous logistic undertaking it was rather like trying to supply the population of a very small country or a decent-sized city it was estimated that every fighting man would need up to 30 pounds of fresh supplies every day a ton for every hundred men ten tons for a thousand thousands of tons to shift in boxes of every shape and size each one labeled and listed checked and signed for canned goods canons machine guns rifles pistols and you nishan bombs and grenades mines mortars uniforms clothing medicine bandages pointman soon the Ducks were also performing another vital role after unloading their cargoes they became floating ambulances able to evacuate the wounded straight from the battlefield to the hospital ship in one operation but the driver did was pick up anyone on the shore he'd take him there get him aboard ship to get him to the sickbay or whatever do what they could for people had your leg shot off a lot of things for designer rod Stevens it had been a long hard battle persuading the military to adopt the duck but by now even the most hidebound commanders had learned to appreciate the value of the floating truck its versatility had been proved beyond any doubt and its lumbering shape became a familiar and welcome sight on every Battlefront we got to feeling your Akane special because you know that you were depended on by so many I and most cement fell in love with the thing pretty quick because you can just do so many things so well it's built to take the people in the artillery and then now what we're going to do got house animals so we got to go back to the chip another load of a I'm going bring it back now we've got to have food for the men's we've got to do that and you just constantly go back and forth that ship is setting out there for of everything if they need something heavier they'll go get and that was it well I think as fast it tooks concerned if it hadn't had the duck we wouldn't have had nobody it's simple isn't I don't think that the normally lambs would be successful without them on June the 12th six days out of the invasion Prime Minister Winston Churchill became the first of three very important passengers to arrive on the Normandy beaches by duck next it was the turn of France's future President General to go for the French nation his first step onto the newly liberated soil of France remains a truly historic moment it was hardly a dignified entrance but thanks to the duck at least he kept his feet dry two days later the duck again helps to make history on the 16th of June just 10 days after the opening of the invasion His Majesty King George 6th paid a visit to the fighting front in Normandy the King went ashore in one of the now famous amphibious vehicles known as ducks the duck had finally achieved the ultimate status it really was a vehicle fit for a king Normandy was another child for the amphibians but it was not their toughest assignment that would come on the other side of the world in the Pacific no great port facilities in the savage jungle lands of the Far Pacific and Barrier Reef's of coral blocking off 85% of the tropical shores from boat landings but the Ducks can ride over barrier reefs which suggests how large a part they will play in future operations in this part of the world and elsewhere Pacific Islands could scarcely be more different to Normandy beaches sometimes there were Barrier Reef's offshore this meant that your landing craft couldn't actually get to the beach and all of the Germans always fought very hard the Japanese fought with unprecedented philosophy unwounded prisoners have almost never taken this was a very different war against a very different enemy the attack on Saipan was launched on June the 15th 1944 all the ships as far as we could see were shelling the land there's a site that you'll never see anywhere else it was beautiful still it was horrifying you know that's when you're proud of the Navy because they're blowing those people off that Island and you're just a little man down a little duck and you said I hope they get them all shortly after the first infantry had landed on Saipan the Marine Corps duck crews had the dangerous task of delivering the assault artillery Thank You ferret more when you're on ship say I'm going to be there in a few minutes I got to go out there and I see what's going on at sea little fish up and down the water only they're not fish they're mortar [ __ ] I see there are only a few inches apart there's millions of them and I see it's going on all the weight is from the beats of the ship gasps turn loose on us with the rockets and mortars and ocean got the rough you can hardly stay in your duck and finally you just weathered the storm the ones that don't get knocked out just go on in that's the way we did it you hit the beach you're glad to be on sand that ocean gets deep as the Japanese resistance intensified the battle for Saipan grew more bitter and more deadly the Marines suffered heavy casualties and we went in you know the first wave already been in and so there were obviously a lot of bodies lying everywhere you know I mean it was it was a quite horrifying that's what war is I guess you hate to see that people their arms my head blowing off and that's hard to take but you keep going and then have initial ships coming onto the shoreline so mixing that smell of the bodies and the diesel I couldn't stand diesel smell four years after I got out it was just dead noxious to me and every time I smell it I get the same picture of all these fellas layin out of the grime and blood of Sipan emerges America's greatest single victory in the Pacific control of the Marianas Saipan cost fifteen thousand American casualties but the [ __ ] garrison of 20,000 was virtually wiped out one Japanese survivor told his captors that it was the site of the amphibians climbing over the Barrier Reef's and coming up the beaches which convinced him that the island was lost by the start of 1945 the Americans have scored a string of victories in the Pacific but the attack on Iwo Jima was quite unlike the others the largest American naval force ever assembled in the Pacific heads for one of Japan's strongest defenses the island of Iwo Jima Iwo Jima is dominated by the dormant volcano Mount Suribachi the beaches of this desert island are composed not of golden sand but of soft black volcanic ash Iwo Jima is only 660 miles from Tokyo the American marines were ordered to capture the island as a base for air operations against the Japanese mainland after a heavy naval bombardment the Marines went in just after 9 a.m. on the 19th of February 1945 as the first waves landed there was little opposition and it looked as if the operation might be fairly easy but then the Japanese opened up a murderous barrage of crossfire from their well defended positions and the Marines were soon suffering heavy casualties it began to look like another Gallipoli when the Ducks reached the shore many became stranded their wheels spinning in the south - that black sand it's hard to breathe at the farm you couldn't walk through it hardly you can get your vehicles through it hard it was tough only by lowering their tire pressures to a mere 5 pounds were they able to clamber out at a few points with the beach sloped more gently all around them Japanese gunfire kicked up the ash and many machines were knocked out and then not Suribachi standing there looking at you down your throat that was tough took them three days to get up the top of the thing those three days were long and precious man laying there just eatin bullets as faster they could Rockets artillery shells everything the Japs had to through at last the summit was reached and the American flag was raised he would Jima had been won but the experience had left many in a state of numbed show 6821 Americans were dead of more than 20,000 Japanese defenders barely 200 survived to be captured the suicidal determination of the Japanese and more horrific casualties taking the island of Okinawa convinced the Allies that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would mean slaughter on an unacceptable scale it was decided to unleash the ultimate weapon on August the 6th 1945 an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima after a second bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki a Japanese delegation boarded the American battleship Missouri and signed the formal surrender document on the 14th of August 1945 the war was over at last the Allied victory was won by military force and mass production it was won by the fighting machines the tanks battleships and bombers and by the unarmed machines the transport planes trucks and landing craft it was also won by the ingenuity imagination and determination of men like rod Stevens these were the qualities which hatched his ugly duckling which so nearly didn't make it to the battlefield but managed to prove its critics wrong without your ingenuity afford you be it's just something number that's installed in us I think it's great the duck great it was a privilege to drive it and work it it was I know it was under awkward times to drive it and use it but I enjoy this I don't really I would have done it without tell you the truth squirts machine invasions the order of the day an American skill is right there to meet so it takes the gi truck it's a little American ingenuity and you got that there

Channel: Military Learning

Views: 137,762

Keywords: duck, truck, amphibious, aircraft, b17, bomber, bombers, d-day, normandy, tank, tanks, battle, war history, war, history, documentary, history documentary, ww2, wwii, world war, world war 2, germany, united states, educational, warfare, military, army, navy, air force, firepower, weapons, guns, technology, electricity, degree, credit, claim, classes, online, software, mortgage, lawyer, attorney, loans, loan, donate, rehab, soldier, soldiers, general, generals, greatest, best, coolest, awesome, world, time, historic

Id: Ko_P4EcVJIg

Length: 43min 58sec (2638 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 27 2014