The name Durkee Atwood comes from the makers of a USN floatation device used by troops during the D Day landings. To my very close friends and family I was always known as Dirky and it’s a nickname that has stuck. So, wary of the internet and not wishing to put my given name it seemed a good idea to use this but in a slightly different way.
I was brought up in a house where as children we had access to all forms of weapons and a permanent assault course in our back yard. I grew up at a time when military surplus was freely available. As children my brothers and I would prefer a bayonet or a helmet rather than toys for Christmas or birthdays. My eldest brother would eventually buy the first Willys jeep of many we would come across in the sixties. That first jeep was virtually rebuilt using parts from the only supplier Metamets (I think that was what it was called and spelled). Original wartime jeeps were very rare even then as most that survived were mostly bent pieces of rusty steel. We had couple of despatch rider’s motorcycles and a 1936 Hillman in army livery. That cost me £16 and I was about eleven at the time and just able to reach the pedals. Growing up between the fifties and sixties there were many war films on the television. I must have watched every single one of them at least three times. Most of them were American made films which I preferred to the English made war films. Our war games as kids were always the Americans against the Germans. It was always the Germans or Krauts and never the Nazis. Today we must call them Nazis so that we don’t offend the Germans. I don’t know what my father thought of it all as he was of German extraction and during the war he worked for the British Admiralty. I can only suppose they knew about his roots. We never did find out what he did for them. But he had many stories to tell about being invited to see the R101 airship when he was in his twenties. A legacy of his wartime involvements were four submarine bulkhead doors and part of a release mechanism for a torpedo that was dropped from an aircraft or at least wouldn’t drop and that is why we had it. We had access to all types of chemicals and we frequently made bombs to entertain our friends. This would almost always mean a visit to the hospital with one of them. We grew up with a respect for all forms of weapons and explosives. This came in useful for our future career’s which was eventually channelled in a legal and useful direction.
I own a Hotchkiss M201 and it is finished in US livery. I make no apology for this because an M201 in French livery means nothing to me, nothing to the war I have a historic interest in and frankly nothing to the majority of people who recognise it as a army jeep of the 1942 period. I will go so far as to say that the square mirrors, plastic hood and seat covers, radial tyres and that weird shaped blackout lamp are aesthetically displeasing and do not belong on this 1930’s design.
I use my jeep regularly and as a consequence of use within modern traffic it has disc brakes on the front and a servo. It has a 24V alternator instead of the dynamo and regulator that constantly fails. It is fully functional, waterproof and will never need towing back from France. I travel to Normandy every year fully kitted up with M1 Garand and full GI kit. I collect US WWII militaria and original uniforms. If I like a repro and I think it good enough and I have a mint original I will buy it and display them side by side. I like to see so called experts (self confessed ones) think both are repros. I am reminded of Washington’s original axe; the one that has had two new handles and a new head because in my book if any WWII military item its original then it’s probably been rebuilt several times using new parts. So I have to ask of any useful piece of equipment…what part of it was actually there between 1944 and 1945?
I like the idea of introducing myself like this as it cuts out a lot of bull. You know what I think and I now don’t have to enter an argument with any one regarding the rights and wrongs of dressing an M201 in the livery everyone recognises to look correct. I am not passing it off as WWII in order to sell it as such. Its value is similar to a so-called wartime jeep…ha…sorry I shouldn’t laugh. I am certainly not wasting my time correcting some old guy in the street that the jeep was made in France in 1962 by Hotchkiss when he is busy telling me that he drove one during the war. In Normandy one year I let an aged but spritely US Ranger drive my jeep. I meant for him just to sit in it. He asked if he could start her up. Then he disappeared for over an hour and drove back like a kid with a new pedal car. It was just as he remembered it and not even the Jaeger dials seemed odd to him. I was not about to correct his fond memories of that little vehicle. I applaud anyone who has restored to an original condition any military vehicle because of what it stands for. An acquaintance of mine is virtually building from scratch a Lysander (aircraft) at Duxford. It obviously isn’t original (some of it is) but its more about seeing them fly again as they did during WWII. He is rebuilding a Blenheim with a different cockpit as the original had a prang. There aren’t any precious enthusiast there saying its not a wartime kite if 80% is made of new materials. I would have a replica Spitfire in a heartbeat. Better still if someone made a replica Willys (pronounced Willis) or Ford exact in every detail but brand spanking new, I would have one. I also think that a few more enthusiasts would buy one. The only problem being that it would have to have a roll bar and seat belts and modern number plates and that just wouldn’t look right. Much better to have a Hotchkiss in really good shape.
