Johnson outboards are also used to build pontoons in Europe. The Johnson PO15 is a 22 hp engine mounted on a pontoon rear tailgate. “The other end of the pontoon is upstream,” Stevenson said. With the current (currently) at 8 knots and the engine set at 8 knots, this section of the pontoon can remain relatively stationary. They’ll anchor that part to the ground, and the outboard will move on. Then link the next section of the pontoon, match it at 8 knots, and fix the section. According to Stevenson, sometimes the military will lay pontoons with 100 sections of pontoons and 100 of these outboards.
If the outboard fails, the force of the river water will rip the pontoon in two. After the pontoon was laid, the ordnance would use a motor upstream to fasten the anchors to the steel cables in the silt, then pull the cables downstream and fasten them to the bridge. This makes the bridge safe enough for trucks, tanks and infantry to pass through. Without this project, advancing in Europe would have been nearly impossible.
While Evinrude and Johnson helped the Confederates cross Europe, other outboard companies also contributed to the war by supplying parts. As the country struggled to procure vast quantities of lumber from the Pacific Northwest to prepare for war, Carl Kiekhaefer of Mercury, USA, designed a two-person, six-foot chainsaw. The chainsaw is powered by an air-cooled twin-engine outboard. Kiekhaefer personally promotes his new chainsaw throughout the Pacific Northwest, challenging professional loggers for a logging PK. Before the war ended, Mercury was the largest chainsaw manufacturer in the world.
The outboard also powered the world’s first drone, saving the lives of countless pilots. Reginald Denny, a successful Hollywood actor and model aircraft enthusiast, teamed up with aircraft engine pioneer Walter Righte to create a flying remote-controlled aircraft. Before that, Danny was only interested in aircraft models, but his pursuit of designing aircraft models was important to the military, as the military wanted to find a way to reduce pilot mortality while flying missions, Ground gunners at the time often practiced firing anti-aircraft guns at tumbling targets. Unlike the lethal drones deployed by the military today, these “Radioplanes” are unarmed and designed to keep pilots out of danger. Radioplanes and their engines changed everything.
“They had two-cylinder engines, and later four-cylinder engines, all from outboard manufacturers,” Stevenson said. The engines powered the plane with six horsepower. The Army ordered the construction of thousands of Radioplanes. Among the factory’s assembly workers was a young woman named Norma Jeane Dougherty, whom Army photographer David Conover first photographed in 1945 after being sent to write about Radioplanes for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes . It was there that Norma Jeane Dougherty’s modeling career began, and she later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
Outboard technology propelled the Allies to victory, and while there is no certainty that the war would have been won without them, they saved many lives and their contribution was immeasurable. “Eisenhower thought we were really going to have a hard time winning the war without outboard gear,” Stevenson said. “If you were rowing across the river the traditional way, it would be impossible.”
The Germans also had their own dingoes (landing craft), but with a completely different outboard design. The engine is mounted horizontally on the transom, and the shaft cannot be lowered but pushed straight. “The guy with the tiller had to be very strong, because the propeller was 10 feet to the bottom of the boat,” Stevenson said. Those engines couldn’t compare to the Evinrudes engines of the Allied landing craft. The Japanese also have outboards, but they are made by an aircraft company that doesn’t meet their requirements and the quality doesn’t compare. Differences in outboard warfare between enemy nations mean different stakes to protect armies, conquer land, and win the war.
Outboards helped win the war, and with it an industrial boom. Before the war, most outboard engines were no more than 5 to 10 horsepower fishing engines. After that, the middle class came with the GI Bill and a vibrant economic market. Water sports are growing in popularity and there is a new need for outboard power. A horsepower race between outboard companies began, and by 1958 consumers could buy 50-horsepower outboards. In 1962, Mercury introduced the world’s first 100-horsepower outboard engine.
Stevenson donated his collection of more than 200 vintage outboards to the LeMay Family Collection in Tacoma, Washington, many of them from World War II, where the public can see them. This series allows us to see how innovative a 50hp landing craft outboard can be, or how much impact a 22hp rowboat engine can make, especially when the stern typically comes with hundreds of horsepower. Outboards infiltrated every aspect of the war, helping the Allies win.