Based on a modified GMC AFKWX-353 long-wheelbase truck chassis, the body, designed by Sparkman & Stephens, was made of light sheet steel with an internal metal framework.
The »Duck«, as it was popularly called, went into quantity production in Pontiac, Michigan from 1943 to 1945 with a total of 21,147 DUKW's built overall.
The truck seems to have met the Red Army requirements quite well as an almost exact copy was produced after the war by the domestic industry, the ZiL-485.
Entering East Prussia with Konstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front in January 1945