Thank You To All Who Serve
Veterans Day 2020
Victory in Europe Day (75th Anniversary!)
This is a WWII GMC model DUCW, a 2.5-ton 6×6 amphibious vehicle that used six wheels on land and a propeller when in the water. Essentially sea-going trucks, they were crucial for ferrying supplies from ship to shore. The vehicles were naturally nicknamed Ducks, and Canadian war correspondent Dick Sanborn reported this incident in 1943:
During the invasion of Italy, when hundreds of ducks plied their way back and forth carrying anti-tank guns, mortars and ammunition across the Messina straits, a British destroyer raced cockily past one group. From the bridge twinkled a signal lamp in Morse. Deeply offended, the officer in charge of the ducks translated the message: “Quack, quack.”
Sources:
Sanborn, Dick. “Amphibian Wins Spurs in New Canadian Push.” The Winnipeg Tribune, 11 December 1943, p. 1.
One more thing about Columbus . . . Andrew Jackson Higgins
My jarhead husband reminds me that I can’t talk about Columbus (home of the Gottberg Auto Co. building) without mentioning the Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial. Higgins, creator of the “Higgins boat”, was born in Columbus and was the man Dwight D. Eisenhower said “won the war for us.”
The Higgins boat, or LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle and Personnel) was key to the success of the Allies’ amphibious invasions during World War II, including D-Day. It was a small, light wooden boat with a protected propeller and diesel engine capable of carrying 36 men or a dozen men and a jeep.
The Navy didn’t initially see the value, but the Marine Corps did and was willing to lobby for it. By September of 1943, the Navy had 14,072 vessels and 12,964 had been designed by Higgins. Fortunately for the Allies, Higgins was able to produce so many boats because he had possessed the foresight to purchase the entire 1939 mahogany crop from the Phillipines. A great American, he also once demanded that a Navy contract be renegotiated downward because he was making too much money while American boys were dying. The display, located in Pawnee Park, is a beautiful and fitting memorial, consecrated with sand from beaches around the world where the Higgins boat saw action.
Sources:
Andrew Jackson Higgins Nebraska Historical Marker, nd, Andrew Jackson Higgins National Memorial, Columbus, Nebraska.
Greenberg, Paul. “D-Day Museum Helps Honor Man Who Helped America to Win WWII.” The Clarion Ledger, 9 March 2001, p. 11A.
Ringle, Ken. “The Miracle Boat That Won A War.” The Hartford Courant, 6 June 2000, p. 1.
Watkins, Billy. “The Man Who Won the War.” The Clarion Ledger, 6 June 2004, p. 1.
World War II M2 Halftrack
Photo credit: Delaney Tracy
Photo credit: Delaney Tracy
This M2 half-track is on display at the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles in Lexington, Nebraska. The half-track was produced by American truck manufacturers White, Diamond T and Autocar. It had an endless belt track instead of rear wheels, and power from the 147-hp gas engine was delivered to both the track and the front wheels. The crew was protected by armor plate and a steel visor could be dropped over the windshield to protect the driver. It was designed to carry three machine guns that were mounted on a swivel for firing in every direction. In a June 30, 1943, story, the half-tracks were credited with contributing to the Allied victory in North Africa by Brig. General Joseph E. Harriman. Harriman reported that, “Half-tracks attached to the Second Corps downed 78 German planes for sure – possibly more than 100 – in Tunisia in a three month period. “
In gratitude to all who have served.
Mystery Light
You know how you sometimes have to buy a whole box of stuff to get that one thing you want at an auction? That often happens to me, and the result is a whole lot of research to figure out what I have. Several years ago, I bought one of those boxes, and this light was at the bottom of it:
I had no idea what it was, but it was marked with a part number so at least I had a starting point. Thanks to an ebay seller in Great Britain, I was finally able to confirm that this light was original to . . . . . a B-24 Liberator bomber! How it ended up in a box of old car parts, I have no idea.
My British purchase was a B-24 parts manual. According to that manual, each part begins with “32” followed by a letter such as “W” for “Wing”. My light is marked with “32E-1242-2”, and I found it in the Electrical section where it is identified as “lamp assy”. I also found this picture on the internet:
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The B-24 was a heavy bomber that measured 110 feet from wingtip to wingtip and 67 feet 4 inches from nose to tail. It had four 1200 hp air-cooled engines and could fly 300 mph and 3000 miles non-stop. Why is all this being included on an American car history blog? It actually fits right in because there is a good possibility that my light was manufactured by none other than Henry Ford. The famed Ford Motor Company assembly line rolled out B-24s from 1942 to 1945. There is a short film that can be watched here called “The Story of Willow Run” and it goes into detail about this Ford Motor Company contribution to the war effort.
Willow Run was located in Michigan, west of Detroit near Ypsilanti. There, Ford built a massive aircraft plant that included an 11-acre warehouse with enough material to build 1,000 B-24s at any one time. The plant had a production force of as many as 42,000 employees and included a school with hundreds of instructors to teach them how to build the bombers. Fifty thousand workers graduated from this school and learned to manufacture and assemble the 1,225,000 parts that went into building each B-24. This specialized force was able to turn out a new bomber at the astonishing rate of one every 55 minutes! There were four other plants that built B-24s, but nearly half of the 18,493 produced were built at Willow Run.
