Still going strong

[plainmilitary]

So is this the longest serving vehicle in the British armed forces? After much thought we at Plain Military think this is the case. Apart from some very old gate-guards that are on the MOD books we think this is the only one still running and working out it's purpose.

 

Operated by 11(Amphibious Trials & Training) Squadron Royal Marines at ATTURM(Amphibious Trials & Training Unit Royal Maines) Instow, North Devon.

They have at least 3 of these and are used for supporting amphibious trials in and around Instow, Braunton Burrows and Chivenor.

 

 

Anyone know of anything older still working in the Army, Navy and RAF?

Tony.

[Gordon_M]

If you have a look at those, they all have dash plates with proper hull / serial numbers. The British Army got them all rebuilt and standardised on the later model, so early details like horizontal rear coaming, ordinary CCKW windscreen, and opposite placement of the spare wheel on the rear deck all disappeared at that time.

 

However, I was told by a trusted DUKW insider that had been over them in detail that one of them was a very early chassis indeed, with a hull number well under 1000, so it would have all of the early features.

 

The wrinkle is that the hull / chassis number doesn't match the plate that is actually on the vehicle dash, so it is worth checking the rear wheelarch for the actual hull number next time you see them, since one of them is very early indeed.

 

As a follow up I've only ever seen one very early DUKW with most of the early features still in place - in the Amphib event in Italy round Lake Garda in the nineties where it was for sale - don't know where it went.

 

Gordon, ex-owner of Dusty DUKW hull 14962

[404boy]

the one in lake Garda was it red and white by any chance

[plainmilitary]

A few more snaps of the same vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

[Gordon_M]

the one in lake Garda was it red and white by any chance

 

I remember it as being pretty much red, might have had white on it too. I think it might have been ex-Italian fire brigade, or their equivalent.

 

It had all the original features, but needed quite a bit of hull attention. I think the only non-original part was hydraulic rudder control as the original rudder control with the spare tyre on the other side was a bit difficult to get to.

 

Nice machine, worth having, and was prices about £8000 at the time I think. Of course I already had one at home and didn't need another.

 

Still got just the odd DUKW part on the shelf, but not much.

 

Gordon

Edited September 17, 2009 by Gordon_M