Help re DUKW's

Gordons HQ · 04-06-2011, 09:37 PM,

I wonder if anyone can help I'm playing Market Garden44 and I have a few large battalions with DUKW's. I know these are meant to swim across water but I can't seem to do anything with them.

I've looked in the manual and the campaign notes but I don't seem to be able to find anyway I can use for them other than as motorised infantry.

My Question then is there a benefit to be had from using these units, can they cross water and if so how do you do it.

Gordon cheers

Mike Bowen · 04-06-2011, 10:09 PM,

Put them in T mode I think and if they start next to a river they should float across

Mike

**Ricky B** · (This post was last modified: 04-07-2011, 02:43 AM by Ricky B.)

I vaguely remember this coming up before. As Mike stated, if they are amphib capable they need to be in travel mode and then should be able to cross rivers, at least hexside rivers - not sure about full hex ones though. However, what I vaguely recall is that even though the unit type indicates DUKWs which obviously includes the ability to cross water for that piece of equipment, it seems like maybe the battalions were not fully DUKW capable and so not actually set to amphib capable, so they couldn't cross without engineers like other infantry units.

But I don't recall, and can't check from work - if someone doesn't verify today I can check from home tonight.

Rick

**Mr Grumpy** · 04-07-2011, 12:56 AM,

This has come up several times in the past, in the stock scenarios these units are not amphib capable (despite the image), but in the VM _alt edited versions they are, this often leads to mix up's.

If a unit is amphib capable it will state this when you right click the unit image. ;)

**Ricky B** · 04-07-2011, 02:45 AM,

Yes, and from what I know of the battle, and I think part of these earlier discussions, the British army formations with the DUKWs didn't have enough of them to launch a significant crossing during the battle - from what I recall, they struggled to get a couple of DUKWs up to the front across from the Arnhem pocket to help rescue the airborne troopers that managed to get away, but it took many trips. Hence, why the stock game they are not amphib capable, I think.

Rick

Al · (This post was last modified: 04-07-2011, 03:07 AM by Al.)

(04-07-2011, 02:45 AM)Ricky B Wrote: Yes, and from what I know of the battle, and I think part of these earlier discussions, the British army formations with the DUKWs didn't have enough of them to launch a significant crossing during the battle - from what I recall, they struggled to get a couple of DUKWs up to the front across from the Arnhem pocket to help rescue the airborne troopers that managed to get away, but it took many trips. Hence, why the stock game they are not amphib capable, I think.

Rick

To expand just a bit on what Ricky says here I am currently reading "Crossing the Rhine" by Lloyd Clark (a really good book, BTW) and just read the passage that covers this attempted rescue. The British were in fact unable to even get the Dukw's in the water to help out the 1st Abn. The problem was that with a full load the Dukw became stuck in the mud as they attempted to enter the water - some nearly tipping over. Apparently the ground in this area was saturated making any offroad movement - especially for wheeled vehicles, very difficult.

**Mr Grumpy** · 04-07-2011, 04:17 AM,

I forgot to add that if you are playing VM _Alt edited version where the DUKW units are amphib capable the units must be in "on foot" as well as in T mode to cross a river hexside. ;)

If my memory serves me right you still need a "has boats" engineer unit to cross the full hex rivers.

Glenn Saunders · 04-07-2011, 04:36 AM,

Right - chalk this up as a misleading piece of art.
Yes the units did have DUKWs
Yes, in the OOB, these units could be marked as Amphib and thus be able to "swim" and the game would handle it.

....but as someone said - the issue here is they were not able to use them as such because I believe the banks were too steep to launch them properly.

Glenn

Volcano Man · (This post was last modified: 04-07-2011, 10:29 AM by Volcano Man.)

Yes indeed, it is correct for these units to not be amphib capable in the stock version but lets just say that I got tired of people crying about it and changed them to amphibious in the _Alt. ;) I thought about it and rationalized that the vehicles would be able to travel back and forth until the whole unit was across (in two hours), but it is just a matter of interpretation. If I am the cause of confusion then I apologize.

Glenn Saunders · 04-07-2011, 04:27 PM,

(04-07-2011, 10:27 AM)Volcano Man Wrote: Yes indeed, it is correct for these units to not be amphib capable in the stock version but lets just say that I got tired of people crying about it and changed them to amphibious in the _Alt. ;) I thought about it and rationalized that the vehicles would be able to travel back and forth until the whole unit was across (in two hours), but it is just a matter of interpretation. If I am the cause of confusion then I apologize.

LOL - you should have just changed the image to remove the Dukw's as they were really not able to operate in the canals. In any case, I told Sturmer this was going to be confusing, - I just never realized it would take so long.

G