I went on a little run on a DUKW on the beach of the Hague , in 1950. What amazes me is the resourcefulness of the brits to keep such a large fleet in good shape. The all made itno problem. And the channel can be pretty wild with those ocean freighters going full speed. Whaty I admire most though is the american engineering behind it. Put one of those Schwimmwagen next to a DUKW, the ones with their cord operated propeller. Pathetic.
Thank you for your comment. I would point out a couple of things that you may find interesting. Not all the DUKWs, or the crews were British - The fleet was a real mixture on Nationalities from many countries and every one of those DUKWs is privately owned and maintained. In my opinion the Porsche designed, VW built Schwimmwagen that you refer to was not “Pathetic”, it was a completely different vehicle, designed to do a completely different job, and was hugely successful in that role. The DUKW was designed primarily for logistical supply and it was amazing in that field of work. The Schwimmwagen was a light reconnaissance and combat assault vehicle. I am currently in the process of rebuilding one, and they are very complex and well engineered piece of equipment. The propellor is not driven by a piece of cord, it is a direct drive from the engine crankshaft to a dog clutch mechanism that rotates a system of sprockets and triplex chain inside a cast aluminium casing.
Outstanding! What an adventure it might have been! How many trucks you were? Did all of them make the trip? Are you going to repeat this year? Thanks for posting and sharing the experience!
They are always a very good machine to have for peace and natural disasters hurricanes and floods as well i will be very happy to be sending down a bunch of them to Florida in the next 4 hours if i had a bunch of them
Great video.
Thanks for the video, pretty cool.
Nice job !
That's probably the largest military force France has seen since 1945
I went on a little run on a DUKW on the beach of the Hague , in 1950.
What amazes me is the resourcefulness of the brits to keep such a large fleet in good shape.
The all made itno problem. And the channel can be pretty wild with those ocean freighters going full speed.
Whaty I admire most though is the american engineering behind it. Put one of those Schwimmwagen next to a DUKW, the ones with their cord operated propeller. Pathetic.
Thank you for your comment. I would point out a couple of things that you may find interesting. Not all the DUKWs, or the crews were British - The fleet was a real mixture on Nationalities from many countries and every one of those DUKWs is privately owned and maintained.
In my opinion the Porsche designed, VW built Schwimmwagen that you refer to was not “Pathetic”, it was a completely different vehicle, designed to do a completely different job, and was hugely successful in that role.
The DUKW was designed primarily for logistical supply and it was amazing in that field of work.
The Schwimmwagen was a light reconnaissance and combat assault vehicle.
I am currently in the process of rebuilding one, and they are very complex and well engineered piece of equipment.
The propellor is not driven by a piece of cord, it is a direct drive from the engine crankshaft to a dog clutch mechanism that rotates a system of sprockets and triplex chain inside a cast aluminium casing.
Outstanding! What an adventure it might have been! How many trucks you were? Did all of them make the trip? Are you going to repeat this year? Thanks for posting and sharing the experience!
At least some of them had the good sense to wear life preservers.
They are always a very good machine to have for peace and natural disasters hurricanes and floods as well i will be very happy to be sending down a bunch of them to Florida in the next 4 hours if i had a bunch of them
went on one of these on the london duck tours just google it they r so much fun
I did it too I think they called it the Ugly Duckling
that would have taken about 5 hrs
How many gallons were used to cross the English channal?
about 20
@@pianodad4251 - Imperial Gallons???