AMERICA'S LATEST WATERPROOF JEEP

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5300, 13 January 1947, Page 2

AMERICA'S LATEST WATERPROOF JEEP

"RELUCTAjNT TURTLE" UNDERGOES TRIALS ANNAPOLIS The United States Navy recenitly unveiled the Reluctant Turtle, a submarine jeep that adds on>s Jpew tal^nt (to thj^ vtersastile vehicle of World War II fame. (Experts said the depth to which the seagoing jeep may submerge "seems to be limited! only to the "ength of the neck of the driver, whose head'-' mus|t stick out of water." Marine Sergeant Roy Harmon of Washington, veteran of Pacific fightrng and driver of the Turtle, wore x diving suit, minus headpiece. The vaves lapped over his eollar and wet iim to the waist. Hitting the water at 18 miles an 'xour, in a demonstration for news•japermen, .the Turtle threw a spray 10 feet into the air and slowed to a •valk. The impact snapped Sergeant Harmon's neck forward until he alnost cracked the windshield. But the Turtle, using four-wheel lower, churned on and the wheels submerged. Then t'he fenders and inally the windshield disappeared. Nothing remained but Sergeant Harmon's beaming smile and two pipes, like periscopes, sticking out of the water, Sergeant Harmon r-ode the waves like a duck. The demonstration lasted more han an hour. The turtle is an ordinary jeep ^quipped with a "submarine" kit. Marine and Navy men at the demon•tration said the seagoing jeep rnight 'xave saved men and equipment in vartime beach invasions. It also will 'ermit jeep-borne soldiers to ford ivers. "We've had them under water for { '.s long as IS hours, but of course j hey aren't intended to be submersible hat long," said a representative of ihe firm that constructs the kits for he Navy.