Weasels were found useful for resupplying front line troops during World War Two, often going where larger vehicles could not
What’s the connection between a strange Englishman who didn’t wear socks and the M29 Weasel? The answer is the proposed Operation Plough, a planned commando raid to Norway which was intended to destroy most of that country’s hydro-electric power plants, including the one the Germans were using as a source for the heavy water they were going to need for their nuclear programme. The strange Englishman was Geoffrey Pyke, an unconventional, single-minded man, regarded by some as a genius (and, incidentally, cousin to TVs Dr Magnus Pyke). Pyke went to the US around April 1942 with some officers from Combined Operations to consider the design of an over-snow vehicle for Operation Plough.
Pyke was not comfortable with military people who, in turn regarded him as an odd character. The Americans, both military and civilian, tried to exclude him from meetings by classifying them as secret, for military personnel only, for which he was not cleared.
ABOVE: Two M29s enter the water. A basic M29 would float but not very well with a full load and with only the tracks to drive it along was very slow in the water
