“1941 CMP Amphibious vehicle” (4x4)

[Harry Moon]

perhaps a prototype or pre production with the UK as the client?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Harry Moon

perhaps a prototype or pre production with the UK as the client?

GMC was churning these out by the 1000’s; why would the UK need/ want to source these from Canada? If there would have been a need for a second source, they surely would have chosen to build the DUKW to print. And if this was a bespoke Canadian design, by now we would have surely found traces in the AEDB or similar period sources. My $0.02 CDN…

[Harry Moon]

It wasn’t made in Canada but appears that it may have been built by yellow truck in Michigan in a plant that in the same year geared up for and produced many DUKW. I just can’t see anyone building a one off outside of a trials or pre production product when 6x6 DUKW were plentiful and cheap.

[Bruce MacMillan]

There may be an Italian connection as they used amphibious fire vehicles. Perhaps a vehicle that has been done over as a military vehicle?

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Bruce MacMillan

There may be an Italian connection as they used amphibious fire vehicles. Perhaps a vehicle that has been done over as a military vehicle?

Good lead, thanks! The vehicle you depicted is a Fiat Iveco 6640 G, an Italian amphibious vehicle which was "built from the early 1950s till the 1980s for the Italian government organisations". Our subject vehicle may well have been a prototype for the Fiat Iveco 6640 G...

The Italian The National Fire and Rescue Service (https://www.vigilfuoco.it/aspx/Page.aspx?IdPage=5374) used a host of ex-WW2 vehicles during its existence: https://www.vigilfuoco.it/aspx/page.aspx?IdPage=2903

960px-Fiat_6640_AMDS_Vigili_del_Fuoco,_vista_anteriore_destra.jpg
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/C...Fiat_6640_AMDS

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

If there would have been a need for a second source, they surely would have chosen to build the DUKW to print.

The UK did want, and produced, an alternative to the DUKW:

Terrapin Middelburg (col. J.C. van Winkelen).jpg

But given that they had both, I agree that it would be unlikely to want a third source for yet another vehicle, especially — as you mention — DUKW production was well underway in the USA.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Harry Moon

It wasn’t made in Canada but appears that it may have been built by yellow truck in Michigan in a plant that in the same year geared up for and produced many DUKW. I just can’t see anyone building a one off outside of a trials or pre production product when 6x6 DUKW were plentiful and cheap.

To me that's an indication DUKW parts were used in its construction. The question is if DUKWs were plentiful and cheap in the area where the subject vehicle was constructed.

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

The UK did want, and produced, an alternative to the DUKW:

But given that they had both, I agree that it would be unlikely to want a third source for yet another vehicle, especially — as you mention — DUKW production was well underway in the USA.

Good point, but the Terrapin was an indigenous product.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Hanno Spoelstra

Good point, but the Terrapin was an indigenous product.

What I meant was that, given that the UK was developing/building the Terrapin as a DUKW alternative, I’d think it unlikely they would need another DUKW alternative on the basis of a CMP. Unless, of course, that was perhaps developed alongside the Terrapin? But then I would think there would be information about it in sources relating to Terrapin development.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

What I meant was that, given that the UK was developing/building the Terrapin as a DUKW alternative, I’d think it unlikely they would need another DUKW alternative on the basis of a CMP. Unless, of course, that was perhaps developed alongside the Terrapin? But then I would think there would be information about it in sources relating to Terrapin development.

Ah yes, check. Indeed there is no sign of a paper trail. I'd put my money on the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service lead. This may be a fun vehicle, but apart from the concept and (some of) the components, it has no military heritage if you ask me.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I remembered yesterday that I recently helped out P.M. Knight with some Dutch translations for a book he’s writing about the Terrapin, and thought I’d e-mail him to see if he knows anything about this CMP-DUKW-thing in relation to the Terrapin. He wrote back to say:—

There was an Amphibian Trials and Development Board (ATDB) in Canada, and their chairman,. J.E. Hahn, visited the British Ministry of Supply in August 1943 to discuss the possibility of the Canadians building either DUKW's or Terrapins. The problem was that the existing Ford, Chrysler and GM plants in Canada did not make six-wheeled trucks whose production lines could be readily converted to make DUKW's, but only 4 x 4's (i.e. CMP's). However the Canadians did at least undertake to investigate whether they could produce DUKW's at the expense of CMP's, although nothing seems to have come of this. In the event the Canadians were scheduled to make Terrapin Mk.II's in big numbers (approx. 2000), but this initiative ended with the cancellation of the Terrapin Mk.II in mid-1945. The Canadians were heavily involved in the development of the Terrapin Mk.I, btw.

I think the most likely provenance of the vehicle is that Yellow may have made a few trial DUKW's with CMP chassis, as this would have provided commonality of parts within Canadian forces. I suspect that this may have been conceived before the US entered the war, after which the Americans needed DUKW's for themselves, and so providing a separate model for the Canadians would have been inefficient.

I'll keep an eye open to see if I've got any information on this which I may have previously overlooked.