The Amphibious truck "Su-Ki" was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Japanese military vehicle manufactured by the

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

Motor Co., Ltd, similar in concept to the GMC DUKW. It entered service in 1943 and was used by Japanese forces in the Pacific during World War II.

Background

The

Guadalcanal campaign The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by the United States, was an Allies of World War II, Allied offensive against forces of the Empire of Japan in the Solomon Islands during th ...

demonstrated to the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

the need for vehicles that could transport supplies directly from cargo ships to the shore and beyond. While the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

had several vehicles (including the Type 4 Ka-Tsu amphibious landing craft) the army had no such vehicles. The Su-Ki was a stop-gap measure until larger and better designed vehicles could be developed.

Design

The vehicle was an amphibious truck based on the Toyota KCY (To-Ki) 4×4 truck. The engine was a inline-six 3.4l Type B engine with power being transmitted to the rear axle via Hotchkiss drive and water propulsion was via PTO drive prop. It could operate in either 2-wheel or 4-wheel drive. The body was made up of steel and had a "boat shaped" hull, with the hull and other body panels having a 5mm thickness, primarily for protection against rough seas and small arms. The Su-Ki had an unladen weight of 6.4

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

and a carrying capacity of 2 tonnes. The cargo was carried on the rear deck with tall sides and an open top, loaded at the rear via a loading ramp. Between November 1943 and August 1944, 198 Su-Ki trucks were produced by Toyota.

Usage

Su-Ki amphibious trucks were used by the Japanese military forces on Pacific islands during

. The vehicle saw use in the Solomon and Gilbert Island campaigns, as well as operations on Ellice Island. The experience of using the vehicle in operations, especially on Ellice, highlighted the need for better design and Toyota developed the experimental "LVT" from the Su-Ki.

Survivors

The only known survivor is a rusted hulk that remains on the

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

island of Ponape. The island was not invaded by the Allies in combat, and during post-war occupation the Su-Ki (and other equipment) was not worth the effort to remove from the island.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{Toyota Motor Corporation Military trucks Soft-skinned vehicles Toyota vehicles Amphibious military vehicles World War II vehicles of Japan Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944