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00:00:00Its official name was the DUKW.
00:00:24To the American G.I.s in World War II, it was the duck.
00:00:29This ungainly lumbering truck would never hit the headlines or win any prizes for its looks,
00:00:35but it had a special talent which made it a vital part of the Allied amphibious victories from Omaha Beach to Iwo Jima.
00:00:46The duck could swim. Whenever there was water to cross, this machine did it.
00:00:53It crossed rivers. It ferried stores in harbor. It went to sea. It carried cargo. And it carried men.
00:01:11It did weight lifting and climbing. The only thing it couldn't do was fly, although it tried.
00:01:19I don't see how you could knock the duck anywhere it is, because there's no place that duck's not good.
00:01:25I mean, there's no place you can put it that it won't work.
00:01:28To me, it was a marvelous vehicle. It was a pleasure to drive it.
00:01:34If you couldn't handle it, it could kill you.
00:01:38If you hit the beach, you'd grab me on the sand.
00:01:41If that ocean gets deep.
00:01:43You would say, come on, I'll go. Come on. Come on, I'll go.
00:01:46Come on, get going. Oh, yeah.
00:01:50But it could also save your life.
00:01:53You got the feeling you were kind of special, because you were depended on by so many.
00:01:58Using archive film and color reconstructions, Battle Stations tells one of the most unlikely success stories of World War II.
00:02:07The story of the duck amphibian.
00:02:10Trying to land an army on a beach has always been one of the toughest military operations.
00:02:25It takes a lot of planning and a lot of luck to pull it off.
00:02:29During World War I, the British attempted to put an army ashore in Turkey and Gallipoli.
00:02:41It was a disaster.
00:02:43Casualties were appalling, with more than 23,000 killed and 88,000 wounded.
00:02:49After nine months of clinging to a few worthless strips of sand, the British withdrew.
00:02:56Gallipoli demonstrated that an amphibious assault is arguably the most difficult single operation of war.
00:03:05And it's particularly hard if you're coming in against a defended beach.
00:03:12You need some way to bridge the gap between the water and the land.
00:03:18Some amphibious assets which are going to help your people actually get ashore.
00:03:23In the late 1930s, special infantry landing crafts were developed in America.
00:03:30But for 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.
00:03:39It sounded like a good idea.
00:03:42The only problem was, nobody knew how to do it and there was no great sense of urgency about finding a solution.
00:03:48In 1940, Germany unleashed its blitzkrieg on Western Europe.
00:03:58America hoped to remain neutral, but the issue was decided by the Japanese, who dreamed of imperial expansion in the Pacific.
00:04:10On 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.
00:04:30We heard an explosion, someone made the remark, well that's just like the army, the whole gunnery practice on Sunday.
00:04:37And someone else yelled, Japs are attacking.
00:04:43From his battle station high on the main mast, Arthur Wells watched as wave after wave of Japanese torpedo planes launched their low level attack.
00:04:55I could see into the cockpits, I could see the expression on the Japanese pilots faces and I could see the instrument panels and then when they pulled out, well then I was literally eyeball to eyeball with the rear gunners.
00:05:08And I watched the old performer roll over, I watched West Virginia get the side torn out of her, torpedo after torpedo together.
00:05:27So all we could do was just watch.
00:05:31The Japanese attack on its Pacific fleet instantly catapulted America into World War II.
00:05:39Most Americans wanted to avenge the victims of Pearl Harbor.
00:05:43But Japan was allied with Adolf Hitler's Germany, which meant America would also have to fight a European war.
00:05:50The British and American allies took stock of the situation.
00:05:57To defeat Hitler would mean invading North Africa and mainland Europe.
00:06:02Germany's fascist ally Italy would also have to be attacked.
00:06:09A whole series of invasions would be needed to dislodge the Japanese from the island chains of the Pacific.
00:06:15And all these territories would have to be taken from the sea.
00:06:28It would mean an increasingly important role for America's elite force of seaborne soldiers, the U.S. Marines.
00:06:35On street corners throughout the United States, colorful posters beckon young men to the adventure, romance and opportunity of the Marine Corps.
00:06:44I saw a picture of the Marines in the blue uniform in the drug store, about normal tall.
00:06:49And I fell in love with the uniform, and that was it. I knew nothing about the Marines.
00:06:54And the section of the country I came from, of course, their jobs were very few.
00:06:58In fact, the matter, I got a dollar a month raised when I joined the Marine Corps.
00:07:02Well, I grew up on a farm in eastern Colorado, and we were pretty much at home.
00:07:08Then I saw this big billboard that said they need another good man, and so I thought, well, I might just do that job, you know.
00:07:15The recruit gets his hair cut military style and marks the first step in his transition from a civilian into a first-class fighting man.
00:07:25And during boot camp, you're not a Marine. You're a boot. And that's the way they put it.
00:07:29It's just the training they put in you, the tremendous skills they teach you, and you get proud.
00:07:41Each day it gets harder to work, harder to do it, and you get more proud, and you do it faster.
00:07:48And when you graduate from boot camp, they say, now you are a Marine, and you are a Marine.
00:07:53I felt very strongly that if I could live in a beautiful country like we live in, and have all the rights that we have,
00:08:04that it was also my obligation to defend this country if it need be.
00:08:08With major amphibious operations required on every battlefront, the problem of landing an army on a beach moved to the top of the agenda.
00:08:18The research committee was set up by the American government to investigate new ways of fighting an amphibious war.
00:08:24In 1937, the racing yacht Ranger won the prestigious America's Cup.
00:08:34It was the work of yacht designer Rod Stevens.
00:08:39Early in 1942, he was asked by the government research committee to help develop an amphibious vehicle for the American army.
00:08:48Yacht design is all about creating elegant and streamlined hull forms that cut through the water at high speed.
00:08:58Now, Stevens would produce one of the slowest and least lovely vessels ever to put to sea.
00:09:04But it would prove to be his most important achievement, and a triumph of American ingenuity.
00:09:19Ever try floating a truck across water?
00:09:22It needs a whole platoon of men.
00:09:25A big tarpaulin tucked up over the sides, and she's floated across.
00:09:29Rod Stevens knew that obsolete ideas like this were not going to win a modern war.
00:09:34He began designing a seagoing version of the standard American army truck.
00:09:38In 1941, the General Motors Corporation had introduced their two and a half tonner, a reliable six-wheel drive truck,
00:09:50which became the universal American supply vehicle throughout the war.
00:09:54GMC would eventually mass-produce some 600,000 of these trucks at the rate of one every three minutes.
00:10:02We used to haul coal and stuff on GMC two and a half tonne trucks, and they were a workhorse.
00:10:10They were tough. Great engines, six-cylinder engines, but tough.
00:10:15On the 30th of April 1942, Rod Stevens and his tiny group of just four GMC engineers began working night and day,
00:10:25converting a standard GMC chassis into an amphibian.
00:10:29They had to create a hull, which would contain the engine and the drivetrain to all six wheels.
00:10:37It needed to be seaworthy, with watertight seals on all bearings.
00:10:45A rudder was needed to steer it in water, and, of course, a propeller to make it go.
00:10:52In just 38 days they had made it. The new machine was rolled out into the light of day for the first time.
00:11:02The strange beast had no name except its GMC code letters.
00:11:10They were D, indicating 1942 its year of manufacture,
00:11:16U, for amphibian,
00:11:18K, front-wheel drive,
00:11:22and W, rear-wheel drive.
00:11:26The best that the American GI could make of the unpronounceable D-U-K-W was...
00:11:33Duck.
00:11:35And that was the name that stuck.
00:11:37This machine was like nothing the Army had ever seen,
00:11:42and there were plenty who said it would never work.
00:11:45But early tests suggested they were wrong.
00:11:49In and out of the water the Duck performed well, and hopes were high.
00:11:54The design was cautiously adopted by the Army,
00:11:56but production would be limited to 2,000 units.
00:12:06The Duck may have taken to water,
00:12:09but it soon became obvious that the military establishment had not taken to the Duck.
00:12:14There were no immediate plans to use the amphibians, or to increase the order.
00:12:19And as the new machines came off the production line,
00:12:24most went straight into storm.
00:12:33Some generals were convinced that the amphibian would always be a compromise,
00:12:38neither a good boat, nor a good truck.
00:12:43They believed it could actually become a liability on the battlefield,
00:12:46and should not be used in combat zones.
00:12:50War spawns new inventions,
00:12:53and they in turn demand new techniques.
00:12:56But the military mind is quite often conservative.
00:13:00And in a way, rightly so.
00:13:02Because nobody wants to take a gamble with people's lives.
00:13:06But the problem is this.
00:13:08Nobody will take a new invention seriously,
00:13:11until it's been proven in battle.
00:13:13But it can't get proven in battle,
00:13:14until it's been taken seriously.
00:13:18In a bid to keep the Duck project afloat,
00:13:21Rod Stephens persuaded the Army to let him demonstrate its ability
00:13:25in a series of sea trials off the New England coast.
00:13:28It looked like his last chance to sell the idea to an unenthusiastic military establishment.
00:13:33Four days before the trials, a violent storm hit the area.
00:13:42A Coast Guard vessel was wrecked on a sandbar offshore.
00:13:46When all attempts at a rescue had failed,
00:13:49a duck was sent out and managed to save the seven-man crew.
00:13:54A few hours later, the wreck had vanished.
00:13:56Two days later, President Franklin Roosevelt was informed that an Army truck had gone to sea,
00:14:07and staged the dramatic rescue of a Navy crew.
00:14:10It was the breakthrough that Rod Stephens needed.
00:14:14Suddenly, everybody, from the President down, thought his machine was a great invention,
00:14:21and just what the Army needed.
00:14:22The United States Army calls its newest mobile weapon the duck.
00:14:32Amphibious two-and-one-half-ton trucks.
00:14:35They operate on land or in water.
00:14:37Navigating rough seas like Navy barges,
00:14:40the ducks are the last word in mechanized equipment.
00:14:43And who better to take the duck to sea than the Marine Corps?
00:14:46Special duck operating companies were formed, which quickly became known as the Quack Corps,
00:14:57and led to some confusion in the ranks.
00:15:00He says, well, I don't know anything about them, but it's a duck company.
00:15:04And so I asked him, I says, what the hell is the Marine Corps going to do with ducks?
00:15:10In training schools along the American seaboards,
00:15:13men are learning how to operate and service ducks.
00:15:15Training is tough, but interesting.
00:15:18A driver must be a combination truckman, stevedore, seaman, and mechanic.
00:15:25Once seated in the cab,
00:15:27the novice duck driver found himself surrounded by a bewildering array
00:15:31of levers, pedals, dials, and written instructions.
00:15:37It is not difficult.
00:15:39It's putting gear just like you would a car or truck.
00:15:41There's a lever to pull on your propeller to make it go.
00:15:46It was built for whatever you're going to use it for.
00:15:52Whether it be land or sea.
00:15:55You didn't have to worry about where you're going.
00:15:57You know you'll get there.
00:15:58But overconfident truck drivers soon found that going to sea was not as easy as they thought.
00:16:06The king of the road could soon find himself out of his depth.
00:16:11My maintenance officer overloaded one of them.
00:16:14He overloaded this one with equipment and tools and whatnot, parts.
00:16:19And it went clear to the bottom of the ocean.
00:16:21On land too, the duck driver could find himself in trouble.
00:16:29With the wrong tire pressure, sand is a trap.
00:16:33As this demonstration will clearly show.
00:16:36The duck on the left has tire pressure for road driving.
00:16:39The one on the right, for sand.
00:16:44The hard tires make narrow deep tracks.
00:16:47While the deflated tires splay out like a camel's foot.
00:16:50Giving good traction.
00:16:52The driver with the hard tires might have gotten through on level ground.
00:16:56But now he's in a spot.
00:16:58With his wheels digging in deep.
00:17:00But the duck had a whole range of special equipment for awkward situations.
00:17:04Just like this one.
00:17:05Lesser vehicles might need the help of a tow truck.
00:17:09But the duck could winch itself out of trouble.
00:17:12Using a ship's anchor.
00:17:14Also provided as part of the standard kit.
00:17:17It's just simple engineering when you get down to it.
00:17:21It may seem complicated to some people.
00:17:23But in theory, most of it is simple.
00:17:25What you can't do, this guy can.
00:17:28And that just keeps going.
00:17:30There's always a way, no matter what.
00:17:32After 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.
00:17:44I was born and raised in the hills of Kentucky.
00:17:48And there all you saw was a horse and wagon and buggy.
00:17:51And I wasn't too impressed with either.
00:17:54I never saw how we'd go anywhere.
00:17:56And when I got out of Kentucky, I could see there is a way.
00:17:59A new world.
00:18:01That I never knew was out there.
00:18:02So that's what the duck company and the Marines did for me.
00:18:07Showed me a new world.
00:18:09As they set sail for the battlefront, the crews of this novel machine were venturing into the unknown.
00:18:15Rod Stevens felt sure it was a winner.
00:18:18But the duck had not yet proved its ability in combat.
00:18:20And many of the senior military chiefs still doubted if it was up to the job.
00:18:26Some called it a lame duck.
00:18:28Others said it would be a sitting duck.
00:18:31And a few predicted it would quickly become a dead duck.
00:18:34Now they would find out who was right.
00:18:37It's become more and more apparent that our strategy from now on in calls for the landings.
00:18:47On lots of beaches and in lots of places.
00:18:50Invasion from the sea.
00:18:52America's fighting a modern war.
00:18:54So it takes the GI truck.
00:18:56Adds a little American ingenuity.
00:18:58And you got the duck.
00:19:01The duck's in full production now.
00:19:03And every day more of them show up around the world.
00:19:06In Great Britain, stories began to circulate among the army transport drivers
00:19:11of a strange new breed of vehicle.
00:19:13Deep in the heart of North Wales there were reported sightings
00:19:17in the narrow country lanes or on the wide deserted beaches
00:19:21of trucks that drove straight into the ways and went out to sea.
00:19:27It sounded like just another wartime rumour.
00:19:31But driver John Geldart soon discovered it was true.
00:19:35They took us out and showed us.
00:19:37This is what they call a duck, they said.
00:19:39And we thought it was a tank or something like that.
00:19:42And then we could see the rubber wheels on it like that.
00:19:46What is this? A wagon or something like that.
00:19:49And of course, they told us that it goes out to sea.
00:19:54I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a wagon.
00:19:57The first main memory I had is when we first went to Taiwan in North Wales for training.
00:20:04And that was the real time when we were introduced to the duck
00:20:08and what I could do, what we had to do.
00:20:10As they examined their new toy, the British drivers found that every compartment and locker seemed to contain some new gadget.
00:20:22Clearly this was no ordinary army truck.
00:20:25But like their American allies, the British soldiers soon adopted the duck
00:20:29and developed an affection and a growing respect for this extraordinary example of Yankee ingenuity.
00:20:38Oh, fantastic. Yeah, great.
00:20:40You were king of the road like, huh?
00:20:42A fantastic invention. It was great.
00:20:44I've got to hand it to the Americans for that.
00:20:49First and foremost, we had to learn seamanship.
00:20:56When we were out at sea many a time, I was seasick many a time.
00:21:00Most of us were.
00:21:02Tides and currents could play tricks on an unwary driver,
00:21:06particularly when trying to mount the ramp of one of the big tank landing ships known as LSTs.
00:21:11When you placed your front wheels onto the ramp,
00:21:15you'd find that the back, which was still afloat, would be pushed to the left
00:21:18and you'd be facing across the ramp, which is a bad thing to be.
00:21:22But you eventually got to gauge how the current was running, things like that,
00:21:27and enter in such a way that you ended up with your four wheels straight.
00:21:31But to me, it was a marvellous vehicle. It was a pleasure to drive it.
00:21:35The duck's first combat test came with the invasion of Sicily.
00:21:43Now, this was designed to knock Italy out of the war
00:21:47and to do very serious damage to the Germans.
00:21:50And it brought the Allies to the very edge of mainland Europe.
00:21:53It was clear that much would depend not merely on getting troops ashore,
00:22:00but then on keeping them supplied.
00:22:03And this time, the duck was in the spotlight.
00:22:07The Allies planned to mount a two-pronged amphibious attack.
00:22:11The Americans would land in the southwest,
00:22:14and the British would land on the southeast coast.
00:22:16The invasion fleet carried more than 900 ducks to ferry men and supplies ashore.
00:22:23On the 10th of July, 1943, the attack was launched.
00:22:28While some men waited ashore, others had the pleasure of landing in ducks.
00:22:42They're amphibious half landing craft, half lorry.
00:22:46The landings mostly went well.
00:22:50But another new invention, the big tank landing ships,
00:22:54ran into serious problems.
00:22:57Many beached on sandbars well away from the shore.
00:23:02By evening, the weather was deteriorating,
00:23:05and began to threaten the whole operation.
00:23:13But the ducks were able to mount a shuttle service,
00:23:18braving the rough seas to deliver the goods ashore.
00:23:23As the weather improved, the Allies secured the beachhead.
00:23:27But during the critical early days of the invasion,
00:23:3090% of all supplies came ashore by duck.
00:23:34Some senior officers believed that the ducks had actually saved the entire operation from failure.
00:23:39Considerably easing the supplies problem,
00:23:43the amphibious vehicles, affectionately called ducks,
00:23:46have delivered the goods as required all along the east coast advance of the 8th Army.
00:23:51Once safely ashore, the ducks operated as regular army trucks,
00:23:56transporting troops and supplies along the narrow mountain roads.
00:23:59Many Sicilians saw the Allies as liberators,
00:24:03but the Germans put up stiff resistance and the going was tough.
00:24:08At last, they reached the Straits of Messina,
00:24:09and the ducks took to water once more for the short swim to the Italian mainland.
00:24:17The battle for Sicily had been won.
00:24:19The supreme Allied commander, General Eisenhower,
00:24:20was profoundly impressed by the ducks' performance.
00:24:22He reported to Washington,
00:24:23Amphibious truck, two and one half ton, commonly called D-U-K-W, has been invaluable.
00:24:26Suggest commendation for officer responsible for immigration.
00:24:27for its development.
00:24:28Nobody wanted to admit to Ike,
00:24:30that the U-K-W had been a short swim for the short swim to the Italian mainland.
00:24:32The battle for Sicily had been won.
00:24:34The supreme Allied commander, General Eisenhower,
00:24:36was profoundly impressed by the ducks' performance.
00:24:40He reported to Washington,
00:24:43Amphibious truck, two and one half ton,
00:24:46commonly called D-U-K-W, has been invaluable.
00:24:50Suggest commendation for officer responsible for its development.
00:24:53Nobody wanted to admit to Ike that the Army's chief contribution to the duck project
00:25:00had been a determined attempt to sink it.
00:25:05But for Rod Stevens, it was a triumph.
00:25:09His ugly duckling had finally won its spurs.
00:25:13It's not built for beauty.
00:25:14It's built to take the people in,
00:25:16the artillery and the ammo and the stuff we did,
00:25:20to stick back to the ship.
00:25:21Anything you want to put on it, you can haul.
00:25:24That's why it was beautiful.
00:25:28With ducks to do the job of getting it ashore,
00:25:30it gets done in a hurry.
00:25:33Invasion's the order of the day.
00:25:35An American skill is right there to meet its requirements.
00:25:41But the duck also had its share of frondlers.
00:25:43It required constant lubrication and maintenance to resist the destructive combination of salt water and sand.
00:25:54The men are thoroughly grounded in maintenance work,
00:25:57which is highly important in a truck that goes to sea.
00:26:00Every vital part should be serviced at regular intervals.
00:26:03Every day, lubrication is checked and rechecked.
00:26:05The need to stop and increase the tire pressure for road driving after a beach landing was also a major drawback.
00:26:13The crew engages the tire pump, using the control in the driver's cab, and gets out the air hose.
00:26:18All six tires should register 40 pounds.
00:26:23Inflating and deflating as driving conditions change may take a little time,
00:26:27but it prevents injury to tires and keeps the driver from getting stuck.
00:26:31And in a combat area, that's essential.
00:26:33The answer to the tire pressure problem was an ingenious system of pipes and valves,
00:26:42which automatically fed air to the hubs of all six wheels from the compressor on the engine.
00:26:49In the cab, signs told the driver which pressures to use for a whole range of conditions.
00:26:56High pressure for paved highways.
00:27:00Lowest pressure for soft sand.
00:27:04Soon, the duck would be experiencing them all.
00:27:08From the sharp coral spikes and soft volcanic ash of the Pacific Islands,
00:27:13to the firm sand of the Normandy beaches,
00:27:17and the hard road to Berlin.
00:27:24This is the day for which free people long have waited.
00:27:29This is the day.
00:27:32At the beginning of June 1944, the Allies prepared to launch Operation Overlord,
00:27:38the invasion of Normandy.
00:27:40It was the greatest amphibious operation in history.
00:27:445,000 vessels, 11,000 aircraft, tanks, trucks, jeeps, and 2,000 ducks.
00:27:52With a mixed cargo, duck driver Stanley Dobson headed for Juneau Beach,
00:28:04three hours after the start of the invasion, on June the 6th, D-Day.
00:28:08I've been dropped somewhere in the region, three, four miles from the shore.
00:28:18Our ducks were all loaded up with stores, a little of each.
00:28:22The idea, of course, of being one of the first ducks onto the beach was that we had something for everybody.
00:28:29We had petrol and rations and ammunition, tank shells, things like this.
00:28:34We had a little bit of everything.
00:28:35It was amazing, I think, the organisation that went into that.
00:28:48Nobody told you what it was going to be like when you got there.
00:28:50And I presume if they had told us what was likely to happen, we maybe wouldn't have done what we did.
00:28:57Not take the chances and things like that, which some people did.
00:29:00I mean, I remember looking over the sand dunes at the time of unloading the duck
00:29:04and saw the infantry actually fighting to take a cottage.
00:29:10I heard this, what I thought was the sound of the bees,
00:29:13and suddenly realised it was there, the machine gun bullets coming up, there's no one at the top.
00:29:23I suddenly realised, oh, what am I doing here?
00:29:30Until harbour facilities were established,
00:29:33the ducks formed a vital bridge between the supply ships and the invasion beaches.
00:29:38Forty percent of all the tonnage brought ashore was carried by duck.
00:29:44The sheer scale of the Normandy operation biggors belief.
00:29:49By the end of D-Day, the Allies had put 130,000 men ashore in Normandy.
00:29:55By the end of June, they had landed 850,000 men,
00:30:00150,000 vehicles and 500,000 tonnes of supplies.
00:30:06This was a tremendous logistic undertaking.
00:30:08It was rather like trying to supply the population of a very small country or a decent-sized city.
00:30:19It was estimated that every fighting man would need up to 30 pounds of fresh supplies every day.
00:30:26A tonne for every hundred men.
00:30:29Ten tonnes for a thousand.
00:30:30Thousands of tons to shift in boxes of every shape and size,
00:30:36each one labelled and listed, checked and signed for.
00:30:39Canned goods, cannons, machine guns, rifles, pistols, ammunition, bombs, hand grenades,
00:30:54mines, mortars, uniforms, clothing, medicine, bandages, ointment, plasma, drugs.
00:31:10Soon, the ducks were also performing another vital role.
00:31:15After unloading their cargoes, they became floating ambulances,
00:31:19able to evacuate the wounded straight from the battlefield to the hospital ship in one operation.
00:31:24What the drivers did was pick up anyone on the shore.
00:31:29They'd take him there, get him aboard ship, get him to the sick bay or whatever,
00:31:34and do what they could for him.
00:31:36A lot of people had their legs shot off. A lot of things.
00:31:40For designer Rod Stephens, it had been a long, hard battle persuading the military to adopt the duck.
00:31:46But by now, even the most hidebound commanders had learned to appreciate the value of the floating truck.
00:31:54Its versatility had been proved beyond any doubt.
00:31:57And its lumbering shape became a familiar and welcome sight on every battlefront.
00:32:03You got the feeling you were kind of special because you knew that you were depended on by so many.
00:32:09I and most of the men fell in love with the thing.
00:32:12Pretty quick, because you could just do so many things so well.
00:32:19It's built to take the people in, the artillery in.
00:32:23And then now what are we going to do? We got to have some ammo.
00:32:27So we got to go back to the ship, get another load of ammo and bring it back.
00:32:31Now we got to have food for the men, so we got to do that.
00:32:35And you just constantly go back and forth.
00:32:37That ship was sitting out there full of everything.
00:32:39And if they need something heavier, they'll go get it.
00:32:43And that was it.
00:32:45Well, I think as far as the duck's concerned, if they hadn't had the duck, we wouldn't have had Normandy.
00:32:50It's as simple as that.
00:32:52I don't think that the Normandy lands would have been successful without them.
00:32:55I don't think so.
00:32:58On 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.
00:33:11Next, it was the turn of France's future president, General de Gaulle.
00:33:15For the French nation, his first step onto the newly liberated soil of France remains a truly historic moment.
00:33:26It was hardly a dignified entrance, but thanks to the duck, at least he kept his feet dry.
00:33:31Two days later, the duck again helped to make history.
00:33:37On the 16th of June, just ten days after the opening of the invasion,
00:33:41His Majesty King George VI paid a visit to the fighting front in Normandy.
00:33:46The king went ashore in one of the now famous amphibious vehicles known as ducks.
00:33:50The duck had finally achieved the ultimate status.
00:33:55It really was a vehicle fit for a king.
00:34:05Normandy was another triumph for the amphibians, but it was not their toughest assignment.
00:34:10That would come on the other side of the world, in the Pacific.
00:34:20No great port facilities in the savage jungle lands of the far Pacific,
00:34:28and barrier reefs of coral blocking off 85% of the tropical shores from boat landings.
00:34:34But 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.
00:34:44Pacific islands could scarcely have been more different to Normandy beaches.
00:34:49Sometimes there were barrier reefs offshore.
00:34:52This meant that your landing craft couldn't actually get to the beach.
00:34:56And although the Germans always fought very hard, the Japanese fought with unprecedented ferocity.
00:35:01Unwounded prisoners were almost never taken.
00:35:10This was a very different war against a very different enemy.
00:35:16The attack on Saipan was launched on June the 15th, 1944.
00:35:23All the ships, as far as we could see, were shelling the land.
00:35:26And it was a sight that you'll never see anywhere else.
00:35:30It was beautiful, still it was horrifying, you know.
00:35:34And that's when you're proud of the Navy, because they're blowing those people off that island.
00:35:40And you're just a little man down there, a little duck, and you said, I hope they get them all.
00:35:44Shortly after the 1st Infantry had landed on Saipan, the Marine Corps duck crews had the dangerous task of delivering the assault artillery.
00:35:56I think you fear it more when you're on ship.
00:36:00See, I'm going to be there in a few minutes. I've got to go out there.
00:36:03And I see what's going on out there.
00:36:05I see those fish jumping out of the water, only they're not fish.
00:36:09They're mortar shells.
00:36:11And I see they're only a few inches apart. There's millions of them.
00:36:14And I see it's going on all the way from the beach to the ships.
00:36:28All the Japs turn loose on us with the rockets and their mortars.
00:36:32And if the ocean got so rough, you could hardly stay in your ducts.
00:36:36And finally, you just weather the storm, the ones that don't get knocked out just go on in.
00:36:41And that's the way we did it.
00:36:44You hit the beach, you're glad to be on sand.
00:36:47Because that ocean gets deep.
00:36:53As the Japanese resistance intensified, the battle for Saipan grew more bitter and more deadly.
00:37:00The Marines suffered heavy casualties.
00:37:03When we went in, you know, the first wave had already been in.
00:37:06And so there were obviously a lot of bodies lying everywhere, you know.
00:37:09I mean, it was quite a horrifying sight.
00:37:13But, uh, that's what war is, I guess.
00:37:18If you hate to see that, people with their arms and their heads blowing off.
00:37:25And that's hard to take, but you keep going.
00:37:27And then the diesel ships would come in onto the shoreline, and so mixing the smell of the bodies and the diesel, I couldn't stand diesel smell for years after I got out.
00:37:42It was just obnoxious to me.
00:37:46And every time I'd smell it, I'd get the same picture of all these fellas laying there.
00:37:51Out of the grime and blood of Saipan emerges America's greatest single victory in the Pacific, control of the Marianas.
00:38:01Saipan cost 15,000 American casualties, but the Jap garrison of 20,000 was virtually wiped out.
00:38:08One Japanese survivor told his captives that it was the sight of the amphibians climbing over the barrier reefs and coming up the beaches, which convinced him that the island was lost.
00:38:20By 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.
00:38:36The largest American naval force ever assembled in the Pacific heads for one of Japan's strongest defenses, the island of Iwo Jima.
00:38:43Iwo Jima is dominated by the dormant volcano Mount Suribachi.
00:38:50The beaches of this desert island are composed not of golden sand, but of soft black volcanic ash.
00:39:00Iwo Jima is only 660 miles from Tokyo.
00:39:04The American Marines were ordered to capture the island as a base for air operations against the Japanese mainland.
00:39:13After a heavy naval bombardment, the Marines went in just after 9 a.m. on the 19th of February 1945.
00:39:33As the first waves landed, there was little opposition, and it looked as if the operation might be fairly easy.
00:39:40But then the Japanese opened up a murderous barrage of crossfire from their well-defended positions, and the Marines were soon suffering heavy casualties.
00:39:53It began to look like another Gallipoli.
00:39:57When the ducks reached the shore, many became stranded, their wheels spinning in the soft ash.
00:40:03That black sand, it was hard to breathe. That was hard on them. And you couldn't walk through it hardly. You couldn't get your vehicles through it hardly. It was tough.
00:40:13Only by lowering their tire pressures to a mere five pounds were they able to clamber out at a few points where the beach sloped more gently.
00:40:21All around them, Japanese gunfire kicked up the ash, and many machines were knocked out.
00:40:27And then Mount Suribachi standing there looking at you down your throat, and that was tough.
00:40:35It took them three days to get up to the top of that thing.
00:40:39Those three days were long and treacherous.
00:40:42There were men laying there just eating bullets as fast as they could.
00:40:46Rockets, artillery shells, everything the Japs had, they threw them at them.
00:40:50At last, the summit was reached, and the American flag was raised.
00:41:02Iwo Jima had been won, but the experience had left many in a state of numbed shock.
00:41:096,821 Americans were dead.
00:41:13Of more than 20,000 Japanese defenders, barely 200 survived to be captured.
00:41:24The suicidal determination of the Japanese, and more horrific casualties taking the island of Okinawa,
00:41:32convinced the Allies that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would mean slaughter on an unacceptable scale.
00:41:38It was decided to unleash the ultimate weapon.
00:41:48On August the 6th, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
00:41:55After a second bomb devastated the city of Nagasaki,
00:41:59a Japanese delegation boarded the American battleship Missouri,
00:42:02and signed the formal surrender document on the 14th of August 1945.
00:42:09The war was over at last.
00:42:12The Allied victory was won by military force and mass production.
00:42:21It was won by the fighting machines, the tanks, battleships and bombers,
00:42:27and by the unarmed machines, the transport planes, trucks and landing craft.
00:42:36It was also won by the ingenuity, imagination and determination of men like Rod Stevens.
00:42:43These were the qualities which hatched his ugly duckling,
00:42:47which so nearly didn't make it to the battlefield,
00:42:50but managed to prove its critics wrong.
00:42:52Without your ingenuity, where would you be?
00:42:57It's just something that's installed in us.
00:43:00I think it's great.
00:43:02The duck, great.
00:43:06It was a privilege to drive it and work it.
00:43:10It was... I know it was under awkward times to drive it and use it, but I enjoyed it.
00:43:24I don't really know how I would have done it without it, to tell you the truth.
00:43:37It was quite the machine.
00:43:40Invasion's the order of the day.
00:43:43An American skill is right there to meet its requirements.
00:43:47So it takes the GI truck, adds a little American ingenuity,
00:43:50and you got the duck.
00:44:00On land too, the duck driver could find himself in trouble.
00:44:04With the wrong tire pressure, sand is a trap, as this demonstration will clearly show.
00:44:11The duck on the left has tire pressure for road driving, the one on the right, for sand.
00:44:15The hard tires make narrow, deep tracks, while the deflated tires splay out like a camel's foot, giving good traction.
00:44:26The driver with the hard tires might have gotten through on level ground,
00:44:31but now he's in a spot, with his wheels digging in deep.
00:44:35But the duck had a whole range of special equipment for awkward situations, just like this one.
00:44:40Lesser 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.
00:44:52It's just simple engineering, when you get down to it.
00:44:56It may seem complicated to some people, but in theory, most of it is simple.
00:45:00What you can't do, this guy can, and that just keeps going.
00:45:03There's always a way, no matter what.
00:45:07After 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.
00:45:18I was born and raised in the hills of Kentucky, and there all you saw was a horse and wagon and buggy, and I wasn't too impressed with it either.
00:45:29I never saw how we'd go anywhere.
00:45:31And when I got out of Kentucky, I could see there is a way, a new world, that I never knew was out there.
00:45:38So that's what the duck company and the Marines did for me, showed me a new world.
00:45:43As they set sail for the battlefront, the crews of this novel machine were venturing into the unknown.
00:45:50Rod Stevens felt sure it was a winner.
00:45:53But the duck had not yet proved its ability in combat, and many of the senior military chiefs still doubted if it was up to the job.
00:46:01Some called it a lame duck, others said it would be a sitting duck, and a few predicted it would quickly become a dead duck.
00:46:08A dead duck.
00:46:09Now they would find out who was right.
00:46:16It's become more and more apparent that our strategy from now on in calls for the landings, on lots of beaches and in lots of places.
00:46:25Invasion from the sea.
00:46:27America's fighting a modern war, so it takes the GI truck, adds a little American ingenuity, and you got the duck.
00:46:34The duck's in full production now, and every day more of them show up around the world.
00:46:41In Great Britain, stories began to circulate among the army transport drivers of a strange new breed of vehicle.
00:46:48Deep in the heart of North Wales, there were reported sightings, in the narrow country lanes on the wide deserted beaches, of trucks that drove straight...
00:46:56If it aren't, you can haul, that's why it was beautiful.
00:47:02With ducks to do the job of getting it ashore, it gets done in a hurry.
00:47:07Invasion's the order of the day.
00:47:09An American skill is right there to meet its requirements.
00:47:12But the duck also had its share of problems.
00:47:20It required constant lubrication and maintenance, to resist the destructive combination of salt water and sand.
00:47:26The men are thoroughly grounded in maintenance work, which is highly important in a truck that goes to sea.
00:47:33Every vital part should be serviced at regular intervals.
00:47:37Every day, lubrication is checked and rechecked.
00:47:40The need to stop and increase the tire pressure for road driving after a beach landing was also a major drawback.
00:47:46The crew engages the tire pump, using the control in the driver's cab, and gets out the air hose.
00:47:53All six tires should register 40 pounds.
00:47:57Inflating and deflating as driving conditions change may take a little time,
00:48:01but it prevents injury to tires and keeps the driver from getting stuck.
00:48:05And in a combat area, that's essential.
00:48:10The answer to the tire pressure problem was an ingenious system of pipes and valves,
00:48:15which automatically fed air to the hubs of all six wheels from the compressor on the engine.
00:48:23In the cab, signs told the driver which pressures to use for a whole range of conditions.
00:48:30High pressure for paved highways.
00:48:34Lowest pressure for soft sand.
00:48:38Soon, the duck would be experiencing them all.
00:48:41From the sharp coral spikes and soft volcanic ash of the Pacific Islands.
00:48:47To the firm sand of the Normandy beaches.
00:48:51And the hard road to Berlin.
00:48:58This is the day for which free people long have waited.
00:49:02This is the day.
00:49:04The day.
00:49:06At the beginning of June 1944, the Allies prepared to launch Operation Overlord.
00:49:12The invasion of Normandy.
00:49:14It was the greatest amphibious operation in history.
00:49:185,000 vessels.
00:49:2011,000 aircraft, tanks, trucks, jeeps, and 2,000 ducks.
00:49:26With a mixed cargo, duck driver Stanley Dobson headed for Juno Beach.
00:49:38Three hours after the start of the invasion.
00:49:41On June the 6th.
00:49:43D-Day.
00:49:44It was discovered somewhere in the region, 3-4 mile from the shore.
00:49:54Our ducks were all loaded up with stores.
00:49:57A little of each.
00:49:59Never try floating a truck across water?
00:50:01It needs a whole platoon of men.
00:50:03A big tarpaulin tucked up over the sides, and she's floated across.
00:50:07Rod Stevens knew that obsolete ideas like this were not going to win a modern war.
00:50:12He began designing a seagoing version of the standard American army truck.
00:50:19In 1941, the General Motors Corporation had introduced their two-and-a-half-tonner,
00:50:25a reliable six-wheel drive truck, which became the universal American supply vehicle throughout the war.
00:50:32GMC would eventually mass-produce some 600,000 of these trucks at the rate of one every three minutes.
00:50:41We used to haul coal and stuff from GMC two-and-a-half-ton trucks.
00:50:46They were a workhorse. They were tough. Great engines, six-cylinder engines, but tough.
00:50:53On the 30th of April, 1942, Rod Stephens and his tiny group of just four GMC engineers
00:51:00began working night and day, converting a standard GMC chassis into an amphibian.
00:51:08They had to create a hull, which would contain the engine and the drivetrain to all six wheels.
00:51:15It needed to be seaworthy, with watertight seals on all bearings.
00:51:23A rudder was needed to steer it in water, and, of course, a propeller to make it go.
00:51:30In just 38 days they had made it. The new machine was rolled out into the light of day for the first time.
00:51:42The strange beast had no name except its GMC code letters.
00:51:48They were D, indicating 1942 its year of manufacture, U, for amphibian, K, front-wheel drive, and W, rear-wheel drive.
00:52:03The best that the American GI could make of the unpronounceable D-U-K-W was Duck.
00:52:13And that was the name that stuck.
00:52:16This machine was like nothing the Army had ever seen, and there were plenty who said it would never work.
00:52:23But early tests suggested they were wrong.
00:52:26In and out of the water the Duck performed well, and hopes were high.
00:52:31The design was cautiously adopted by the Army, but production would be limited to 2,000 units.
00:52:38The Duck may have taken to water, but it soon became obvious that the military establishment had not taken to the Duck.
00:52:52There were no immediate plans to use the amphibians, or to increase the order.
00:52:57Right.
00:53:01It's become more and more apparent that our strategy from now on in calls for the landings, on lots of beaches and in lots of places.
00:53:10Invasion from the sea.
00:53:12America's fighting a modern war, so it takes the GI truck, adds a little American ingenuity, and you got the Duck.
00:53:21The Duck's in full production now, and every day more of them show up around the world.
00:53:26In Great Britain, stories began to circulate among the Army transport drivers of a strange new breed of vehicle.
00:53:33Deep in the heart of North Wales there were reported sightings, in the narrow country lanes on the wide deserted beaches,
00:53:40of trucks that drove straight into the waves and went out to sea.
00:53:47It sounded like just another wartime rumour, but driver John Geldart soon discovered it was true.
00:53:54They took us out and showed us, this is what they call a duck, they said.
00:53:59We thought it was a tank or sort, I reckon.
00:54:02Then we could see the rubber wheels are out, I reckon.
00:54:05What is this, a wagon or sort, I reckon.
00:54:08And of course, they told us that it goes out to sea.
00:54:13I couldn't believe it, I thought it was a wagon.
00:54:17The first main memory I had is when we first went to town in North Wales for training.
00:54:23And that was the real time when we were introduced to the duck and what it could do, what we had to do.
00:54:30As they examined their new toy, the British drivers found that every compartment and locker seemed to contain some new gadget.
00:54:42Clearly this was no ordinary Army truck.
00:54:45But like their American allies, the British soldiers soon adopted the duck,
00:54:50and developed an affection and a growing respect for this extraordinary example of Yankee ingenuity.
00:54:57Oh, fantastic, yeah, great. You were king of the road like, huh?
00:55:01A fantastic invention. It was great.
00:55:05I've got to hand it to the Americans for that.
00:55:09First and foremost, we had to learn seamanship.
00:55:15When we were out at sea many a time, I was seasick many a time. Most of us were.
00:55:22Tides and currents could play tricks on an unwary driver,
00:55:26particularly when trying to mount the ramp of one of the big tank landing shifts known as LSTs.
00:55:32When you placed your front wheels onto the ramp,
00:55:35you'd find that the back, which was still afloat, would be pushed to the left
00:55:38and you'd be facing across the ramp, which is a bad thing to be.
00:55:42But you eventually got to gauge how the current was running, things like that,
00:55:46and enter in such a way that you ended up with your four wheels straight.
00:55:50But to me, it was a marvellous vehicle. It was a pleasure to drive it.
00:55:57Greatest single victory in the Pacific, control of the Marianas.
00:56:01Saipan cost 15,000 American casualties,
00:56:04but the Jap garrison of 20,000 was virtually wiped out.
00:56:08One Japanese survivor told his captors that it was the sight of the amphibians
00:56:15climbing over the barrier reefs and coming up the beaches,
00:56:18which convinced him that the island was lost.
00:56:26By the start of 1945, the Americans have scored a string of victories in the Pacific.
00:56:31But the attack on Iwo Jima was quite unlike the others.
00:56:36The largest American naval force ever assembled in the Pacific
00:56:39heads for one of Japan's strongest defences, the island of Iwo Jima.
00:56:43Iwo Jima is dominated by the dormant volcano, Mount Suribachi.
00:56:49The beaches of this desert island are composed not of golden sand,
00:56:54but of soft, black, volcanic ash.
00:57:00Iwo Jima is only 660 miles from Tokyo.
00:57:04The American marines were ordered to capture the island as a base for air operations
00:57:08against the Japanese mainland.
00:57:19After a heavy naval bombardment,
00:57:21the marines went in just after 9 a.m. on the 19th of February 1945.
00:57:26As the first waves landed, there was little opposition,
00:57:37and it looked as if the operation might be fairly easy.
00:57:43But then the Japanese opened up a murderous barrage of crossfire
00:57:47from their well-defended positions,
00:57:49and the marines were soon suffering heavy casualties.
00:57:53It began to look like another Gallipoli.
00:57:58When the ducks reached the shore, many became stranded,
00:58:01their wheels spinning in the soft ash.
00:58:04That black sand, it was hard to breathe.
00:58:06That was hard on them.
00:58:07And you couldn't walk through it hardly.
00:58:09You couldn't get your vehicles through it hardly.
00:58:11It was tough.
00:58:13Only by lowering their tire pressures to a mere five pounds
00:58:17were they able to clamber out at a few points
00:58:19where the beach sloped more gently.
00:58:21All around them, Japanese gunfire kicked up the ash,
00:58:25and many machines were knocked out.
00:58:28And then Mount Suribachi standing there looking at you
00:58:30down your throat.
00:58:31And that was tough.
00:58:36It took them three days to get up to the top of that thing.
00:58:39Those three days were long and treacherous.
00:58:42There were men laying there just eating bullets as fast as they could.
00:58:45Rockets, artillery shells, everything the Japs had, they threw them at them.
00:58:55At last, the summit made it.
00:58:58The new machine was rolled out into the light of day for the first time.
00:59:01The strange beast had no name except its GMC code letters.
00:59:08They were D, indicating 1942 its year of manufacture.
00:59:15U, for amphibian.
00:59:19K, front wheel drive.
00:59:21And W, rear wheel drive.
00:59:23And W, rear wheel drive.
00:59:26The best that the American GI could make of the unpronounceable D-U-K-W was Duck.
00:59:35And that was the name that stuck.
00:59:37This machine was like nothing the Army had ever seen.
00:59:42And there were plenty who said it would never work.
00:59:45But early tests suggested they were wrong.
00:59:49In and out of the water the Duck performed well and hopes were high.
00:59:54The design was cautiously adopted by the Army.
00:59:57But production would be limited to 2,000 units.
01:00:00The Duck may have taken to water, but it soon became obvious that the military establishment had not taken to the Duck.
01:00:14There were no immediate plans to use the amphibians or to increase the order.
01:00:21And as the new machines came off the production line, most went straight into storm.
01:00:30Some generals were convinced that the amphibian would always be a compromise.
01:00:38Neither a good boat nor a good truck.
01:00:43They believed it could actually become a liability on the battlefield and should not be used in combat zones.
01:00:50War spawns new inventions.
01:00:54And they in turn demand new techniques.
01:00:56But the military mind is quite often conservative.
01:01:00And in a way, rightly so.
01:01:03Because nobody wants to take a gamble with people's lives.
01:01:06But the problem is this.
01:01:08Nobody will take a new invention seriously until it's been proven in battle.
01:01:13But it can't get proven in battle until it's been taken seriously.
01:01:17In 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.
01:01:28It looked like his last chance to sell the idea to an unenthusiastic military establishment.
01:01:34Four days before the trials, a violent storm hit the area.
01:01:42A Coast Guard vessel was wrecked on a sandbar offshore.
01:01:46When all attempts at a rescue had failed, a Duck was sent out and managed to save the seven-man crew.
01:01:54A few hours later, the wreck had vanished.
01:01:56I grew up on a farm in eastern Colorado and we were pretty much at home.
01:02:03Then I saw this big billboard that said they need another good man.
01:02:07And so I thought, well, I might just do that job, you know.
01:02:11The recruit gets his hair cut military style and marks the first step in his transition from a civilian into a first-class fighting man.
01:02:19And during boot camp, you're not a Marine. You're a boot. And that's the way they put it.
01:02:30It's just the training they put in you and the tremendous skills they teach you.
01:02:35And you get proud. Each day it gets harder to work and harder to do it.
01:02:39You get more proud and you do it faster.
01:02:40And when you graduate from boot camp, they say, now you are a Marine. And you are a Marine.
01:02:51I felt very strongly that if I could live in a beautiful country like we live in,
01:02:58and have all the rights that we have, that it was also my obligation to defend this country if it need be.
01:03:04With major amphibious operations required on every battlefront,
01:03:09the problem of landing an army on a beach moved to the top of the agenda.
01:03:13The research committee was set up by the American government
01:03:16to investigate new ways of fighting an amphibious war.
01:03:24In 1937, the racing yacht Ranger won the prestigious America's Cup.
01:03:29It was the work of yacht designer Rod Stevens.
01:03:36Early in 1942, he was asked by the government research committee
01:03:40to help develop an amphibious vehicle for the American army.
01:03:46Yacht design is all about creating elegant and streamlined hull forms
01:03:50that cut through the water at high speed.
01:03:53Now, Stevens would produce one of the slowest and least lovely vessels ever to put to sea.
01:03:59But it would prove to be his most important achievement,
01:04:03and a triumph of American ingenuity.
01:04:05Ever try floating a truck across water?
01:04:13It needs a whole platoon of men.
01:04:15A big tarpaulin tucked up over the sides, and she's floated across.
01:04:19Rod Stevens knew that obsolete ideas like this were not going to win a modern war.
01:04:29He began designing a sea-going version of the standard American army truck.
01:04:33In 1941, the General Motors Corporation had introduced their two-and-a-half tonner,
01:04:43a reliable six-wheel drive truck, which became the universal American supply vehicle throughout the war.
01:04:48GMC would eventually mass-produce some 600,000 of these trucks at the rate of one every three...
01:04:58...850,000 men, 150,000 vehicles, and 500,000 tons of supplies.
01:05:04This was a tremendous logistic undertaking.
01:05:07It was rather like trying to supply the population of a very small country or a decent-sized city.
01:05:18It was estimated that every fighting man would need up to 30 pounds of fresh supplies every day.
01:05:24A tonne for every hundred men.
01:05:28Ten tons for a thousand.
01:05:30Thousands of tons to shift in boxes of every shape and size,
01:05:35each one labelled and listed, checked and signed for.
01:05:41Can goods, cannons, machine guns, rifles, pistols, ammunition, bombs, hand grenades,
01:05:54mines, mortars, uniforms, clothing, medicine, bandages, ointment, plasma, drugs.
01:06:10Soon the Ducks were also performing another vital role.
01:06:14After unloading their cargoes, they became floating ambulances,
01:06:17able to evacuate the wounded straight from the battlefield to the hospital ship in one operation.
01:06:24What the drivers did was pick up anyone on the shore.
01:06:28They'd take him there, get him aboard ship.
01:06:30They'd get him to the sick bay or whatever.
01:06:33They'd do what they could for him.
01:06:34A lot of people had their legs shot off. A lot of things.
01:06:39For designer Rod Stevens, it had been a long, hard battle persuading the military to adopt the duck.
01:06:45But by now, even the most hidebound commanders had learned to appreciate the value of the floating truck.
01:06:52Its versatility had been proved beyond any doubt.
01:06:56And its lumbering shape became a familiar and welcome sight on every battlefront.
01:07:02You got the feeling you were kind of special because you knew that you were depended on by so many.
01:07:07I and most of the men fell in love with the thing.
01:07:13Pretty quick.
01:07:14Because you could just do so many things so well.
01:07:19It's built to take the people in, the artillery in.
01:07:23And then now what are we going to do?
01:07:24We got to have some ammo.
01:07:26So we got to go back to the ship, get another load of ammo and bring it back.
01:07:30Now we got to have food for the men.
01:07:32So we got to do that.
01:07:34And you just constantly go back and forth.
01:07:36That ship was sitting out there full of everything.
01:07:39If they need something heavier, they'll go get it.
01:07:42And that was it.
01:07:44Well, I think as far as the duck's concerned, if they hadn't had the duck, we wouldn't have had Normandy.
01:07:49It's as simple as that.
01:07:51I don't think that the Normandy lands would have been successful without them.
01:07:57I'm sure if it need be.
01:07:59With major amphibious operations required on every battlefront,
01:08:04the problem of landing an army on a beach moved to the top of the agenda.
01:08:07The research committee was set up by the American government
01:08:11to investigate new ways of fighting an amphibious war.
01:08:19In 1937, the racing yacht Ranger won the prestigious America's Cup.
01:08:26It was the work of yacht designer Rod Stevens.
01:08:31Early in 1942, he was asked by the government research committee
01:08:34to help develop an amphibious vehicle for the American army.
01:08:41Yacht design is all about creating elegant and streamlined hull forms
01:08:45that cut through the water at high speed.
01:08:47Now, Stevens would produce one of the slowest and least lovely vessels
01:08:52ever to put to sea.
01:08:54But it would prove to be his most important achievement
01:08:58and a triumph of American ingenuity.
01:09:04You ever try floating a truck across water?
01:09:08It needs a whole platoon of men.
01:09:11A big tarpaulin tucked up over the sides and she's floated across.
01:09:15Rod Stevens knew that obsolete ideas like this
01:09:18were not going to win a modern war.
01:09:20He began designing a seagoing version of the standard American army truck.
01:09:24He began designing a seagoing version of the standard American army truck.
01:09:31In 1941, the General Motors Corporation had introduced their two and a half tonner,
01:09:37a reliable six-wheel drive truck,
01:09:40which became the universal American supply vehicle throughout the war.
01:09:43GMC would eventually mass-produce some 600,000 of these trucks
01:09:50at the rate of one every three minutes.
01:09:53We used to haul coal and stuff on GMC two and a half tonne trucks.
01:09:58And they were a workhorse.
01:10:00They were tough.
01:10:02Great engines, six-cylinder engines, but tough.
01:10:05On the 30th of April 1942,
01:10:08Rod Stevens and his tiny group of just four GMC engineers
01:10:13began working night and day,
01:10:15converting a standard GMC chassis into an amphibian.
01:10:20They had to create a hull,
01:10:23which would contain the engine and the drivetrain to all six wheels.
01:10:27It needed to be seaworthy, with watertight seals on all bearings.
01:10:31A rudder was needed to steer it in water and, of course, a propeller to make it go.
01:10:42In just 38 days they had made it.
01:10:48The new machine was rolled out into the light of day for the first time.
01:10:52The strange beast had no name except...
01:10:56That we had something for everybody.
01:10:59We had petrol and rations and ammunition,
01:11:03tank shells, things like this.
01:11:04We had a little bit of everything.
01:11:06It was amazing, I think, the organisation that went into that.
01:11:09Nobody told you what it was going to be like when you got there.
01:11:21And I presume if they had told us what was likely to happen,
01:11:25we maybe wouldn't have done what we did.
01:11:27Not take the chances and things like that, which some people did.
01:11:29I mean, I remember looking over the sand dunes at the time of unloading the duck
01:11:34and saw the infantry actually fighting to take a cottage.
01:11:40I heard this, what I thought was the sound of bees,
01:11:44and suddenly realised it was machine gun bullets coming.
01:11:48It wasn't over the top.
01:11:49You suddenly realised, ooh, what am I doing here?
01:12:00Until harbour facilities were established,
01:12:03the ducks formed a vital bridge between the supply ships and the invasion beaches.
01:12:0840% of all the tonnage brought ashore was carried by duck.
01:12:12The sheer scale of the Normandy operation beggars belief.
01:12:19By the end of D-Day, the Allies had put 130,000 men ashore in Normandy.
01:12:25By the end of June, they'd landed 850,000 men,
01:12:30150,000 vehicles and 500,000 tonnes of supplies.
01:12:36This was a tremendous logistic undertaking.
01:12:38It was rather like trying to supply the population of a very small country
01:12:43or a decent-sized city.
01:12:49It was estimated that every fighting man would need up to 30 pounds of fresh supplies every day.
01:12:56A tonne for every 100 men.
01:12:5910 tonnes for a thousand.
01:13:01Thousands of tonnes to shift in boxes of every shape and size,
01:13:05each one labelled and listed, checked and signed for.
01:13:12Can goods, cannons, machine guns, rifles, pistols, ammunition, bombs,
01:13:23hand grenades, mines, mortars, uniforms, clothing, medicine, bandages, ointment, plasma, drugs.
01:13:40Soon, the ducks were also performing another vital role.
01:13:45After unloading their cargoes, they became floating ambulances,
01:13:49able to evacuate the wounded straight from the battlefield to the hospital ship in one operation.
01:13:54What the drivers did was pick up any...
01:13:58...stoppers...
01:14:00...not at home to the...
01:14:02...not at home to the hospital ship.
01:14:05...not at home to the hospital ship.
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