The cargo hold was used to manage just about everything - twelve combat-ready troops, wounded with staff, general supplies, ammunition, and even light artillery pieces. Some artillery systems were even fired from the bed of the truck which proved useful in providing mobile firepower or assailing enemy positions on approach - particularly during an amphibious assault action. More typically, DUKWs were outfitted with medium or heavy machine guns for local, self-defense - the latter protecting against low flying aircraft as well as light armored enemy vehicles.
By design the DUKW was a transport through-and-through and originally envisioned as a supply runner for ship-to-shore work. However, it held additional strategic value in that it could go beyond shores and continue delivery of goods directly to active fronts more inland than traditional amphibious vehicles could. Of course wartime service ultimately produced official standardized and unofficial in-the-field configurations and, even then, the haste at which the vehicle was produced also led to many changes on the production lines themselves: the central tire inflation system was added in September of 1943 while the passenger's rear view mirror was lost in November of that same year. Some models also featured skirts over the wheel wells while others had their wheels completed exposed.
One of the standardized configurations of DUKW was a rocket-projecting platform which fitted a rack of 4.5" High-Explosive (HE) rockets for which to use against enemy positions upon approach of a given beach from a transport ship. This sort of suppression fire was highly appreciated and acted as much as a psychological tool against the enemy as it did a conventional battlefield weapon. Rocket-laying versions were rightly known as "Scorpions" and used heavily throughout the Pacific island-hopping campaigns. DUKWs also became veterans of the "D-Day" landings of northern France on June 6th, 1944 but its appreciation came earlier than that - during the Allied landings at Sicily (July-August 1943).
The Soviet Army became a major recipient of the classic American DUKW through Lend-Lease. Its success along the Eastern Front led to a local copy of the product emerging as the "BAV-485" though with some changes to suit Soviet service - chiefly a loading ramp was added to the rear of the hull to facilitate unloading and loading of the vehicle. As massive amphibious assaults were less in play on the Eastern Front, the vehicle was modified more for the river-/lake-crossing role than ship-to-shore work.
Beyond the Americans and Soviets, the DUKW made it into the inventories of Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom. The Australians operated over 500 units while the Canadians held a stock of about 800. French use ended in the early 1980s while the British, with a stock of about 2,000, ran theirs into the 1970s before giving them up for good. A select few were used by Royal Marines into 2012 however.
Many "Ducks" ended their service lives in the civilian market after the war years - the most famous use perhaps being the Wisconsin Dells "Ducks" used for touring from land to river and back.
Content ©MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.