Well here is a Q for the historians among you .

I'm building one of two DUKW's at this time .
But to make the future diorama as interesting as possible i want to make two completely different DUKW's .
But i am not sure for what i have in mind is correct .
I know that DUKW's were olive green for the regular army troops during the Europe campaign.
And now for my question..
I want to build the other one in a Navy kinda way .
What do i mean : Not olive green but in the Navy gray color .
Why ?
I want to use one vehicle for the troops transportation and one for cargo .
Now i'm gonna paint the troop DUKW in the Olive green color with an extra O-ring for protection for the troops .
The other one i want to build is for the cargo and supplie transportation and i want to make this one gray ( Plainly said )
But is this correct ? i mean did the U.S. Navy had any DUKW's in their stock ?

Please help me out !!!

Eric

I don't know about Navy DUKWs, and my only reference is the Squadron in Action book. They show a three color camouflaged one belonging to the USMC, a sand and black British one and an all white British post war one. I just quickly skimmed the book but didn't see a USN gray one.

Yes, Eric, the US Navy did operate DUKW's, though not as many as in US Army service. I don't think it unusual to see a small number of them in Navy grey - like the early Amtracs. I suspect perhaps a handful might have been painted in OD Green possibly. USMC DUKW's would have been likely seen (early & in small numbers) in Navy grey, (larger numbers) in OD Green, and some with camoflauge patterns in Pacific use.

Anyone else have thoughts?

I'd say it would be extremely unlikely (as close to impossible as you can get 60 years after the fact) to see a Haze Gray DUKW. Early LVTs were gray because they were bought by the Navy on Navy contracts. All of the DUKWs - to my knowledge - were bought by the Army, hence Olive Drab.

KL

Well, you know what they say about opinions...

Here's some food for thought...

US Navy Small Landing Craft, 1940-1945

U.S. Navy & Coast Guard Vessels 1940-1945, Alphabetical Listing

The above link lists both the DUKW and GPA (interesting model that would be in haze grey) in the inventory, though the total number built field is not filled in. I like this source for USN information...

http://ux1.cts.eiu.edu/~csjdn/dukw.htm

This link above concerns a restoration and makes statements that lead one to believe the Navy wasn't interested in the Army's waterborne craft, but that could be read in different ways...

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:aDe351QfNpAJ:www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/aug02/pdf/smithsonian_august_2002_odd_dukw.pdf+navy+dukw&hl=en&start=9&ie=UTF-8

The above link is from a Smithsonian treatise on the DUKW and Navy skeptics...

http://www.history.navy.mil/books/OPNAV20-P1000/D.htm

Above from the Glossary of US Naval Abbreviations. Interesting - could be because the Marines had the DUKW in their inventory and not indicative that the USN did too...

I don't have this book to tell you if anything about USN-specific DUKW's are mentioned, but it does attempt to cover USMC DUKW service. Even in USMC service, the historical records appear spotty:

http://members.aol.com/dolart/dolart.htm

What a fun question. You've got me digging through all kinds of books now...

Gunnie

to all who replyed to my question thank you very much !!!

I knew i could rely on my American fellow modellers.

When there is more info please let me know !!!!


again thank you !!!

Eric

Gunnie:

Note that I'm not saying the Navy nor the Marines didn't ghave or operate DUKWs, but that they didn't buy them. The Army was the main procurement agent for vehicles and their practices dominated regardless of the final recepient - USMC, UK, USSR.

KL

No problems Kurt! I hope you didn't interpret my response as kinda a backslap - it wasn't. We here like to try and find all the information we can to help each other out. I'm glad you posted and added your thoughts into the mix - we all benefit and learn more that way! :-)

Gunnie