Military Crawlers.

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by von Poop, Aug 6, 2009.

  1. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Reading a nice CMV article on Caterpillar Military Crawlers, and having seen the beautiful restored 'D-Day' example of a D8-8R at Beltring, my interest grows.

    Anyone got a picture of a D7 or D8 towing the Soviet 203mm Gun with a tracked carriage? (or any other big gun... though the lend-lease example currently intrigues me most).

    Cheers,
    Adam.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2016
  2. Paul Reed

    Paul Reed Ubique

    I did think this might be a thread about those who cultivated promotion...
     
  3. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

  4. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Good stuff Bod, knew I should have checked there.
    Let me guess - any sort of Allis-Chalmers kit in 1/35th is going to be £100+ too :rolleyes:.

    Nice little potted history of the caterpillar power-plants from the company itself:
    Caterpillar On-Highway Engines: About Us>HISTORY>Development

    On a famous (infamous) Tractor-based vehicle - This surprised me - I'd never seen actual footage of the 'Bob Semple' outside of that parade film.
    YouTube - Caterpillar D8

    *Janes reports that the type of tractor was an International Harvester. The book "Pictorial History Of Tanks Of The World 1915-45 by Peter Chamberlain & Chris Ellis state that the tractor was an International Harvester. Another source, "New Zealand Yesterdays" by Hamish Keith, printed in 1984 by Readers Digest Australia reports that a Caterpiller brand Cat DH-8 was used.
    New Zealand

    So what do we think was underneath the minister's armoured shell? Or maybe both were used (3, or 4 built?).
     
  5. brndirt1

    brndirt1 Senior Member

    Just a guess on my part, but the track running gear more closely resembles Cat than IHC. IHC has distinct "rounded" inner track guides on both ends, front and rear, while the Cat does not. Also, from the little portion of the film which allows one to see the shape of the frame surrounding the engine compartment, that looks more "Cat-like" than "TD-like" It shows a sculped shape, where the IHC Track Drive models were almost without fail squared off, front and rear.

    Don't take that to the bank, but I have driven all three models of crawler mentioned, an AC HD-11, a TD-9 and TD-24 IHC, and a D-7 and a D-8 Cat. Both cats were the old separate starter engine models, for those who are not familiar with those; there was a small gasoline engine which you start first. Warm it up, get the clutch engaged to the diesel engine flywheel, start turning the big engine over without an fuel being supplied to it, then while holding the lever that engages the small engine to the large engine in one hand, throw another lever which closes the compression release on the diesel, and engages the fuel pump. With luck it is "varrooom".

    Starting an IHC was even weirder. In that case the main engine is both a gasoline and a diesel engine. This engine has two different combustion chambers, one above the other with the upper gasoline combustion chamber having spark plugs, and carburated gasoline mix feed to the same pistons. You start it on gasoline, and after it warms up a lever is thrown which closes the valves between the two combustion chambers, opens the diesel flow, and closes the gasoline flow.

    Of course as electric starter motors became stronger, and batteries stronger, those intricate starting methods were dropped for straight electric start.
     
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  6. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Good stuff Clint, was just reading about those 2 cylinder Donkey engines for starting in the magazine article. Says a lot about the chunkiness of the main engines.

    Bit more on the recent D8 restoration from Milweb:
    Caterpillar D8 and Sherman BARV

    Offensive use of a Bulldozer leading to an award of the silver star:
    It was during the landing on Treasury Island in the Solomons, on 28 November 1943, that Fireman 1st Class Aurelio Tassone, USNR, of the 87th Naval Construction Battalion created that legendary figure of the Seabee astride his bulldozer rolling over enemy positions. Tassone was driving his bulldozer ashore during the landing when Lieutenant Charles E. Turnbull, CEC, USNR, told him a Japanese pillbox was holding up the advance from the beach. Tassone drove his dozer toward the pillbox, using the blade as a shield, while Lieutenant Turnbull provided covering fire with his carbine. Under continuous heavy fire, Tassone crushed the pillbox with the dozer blade, killing all 12 of its occupants. For this act Tassone was awarded the Silver Star.
    87th SEABEE Battalion, WW II, Genealogy
    Seabee History: World War II

    Sadly these are just too small to be easily readable:
    Picasa Web Albums - Gregory - WW II Seabees...
    But there's a bit more detail on the incident here (search for 'Tassone') :
    Full text of "American miracle; the story of war construction around the world"

    'US Trac' Airborne Dozer for sale ?? can't find reference to that type on a quick web-hunt ?? :
    "US Trac" Military Bulldozer

    Nice shot (Margaret Bourke-White no less) of Lend lease dozers for French use in Algeria:
    LIFE: Lend Lease Equipment In France - Hosted by Google
    D4s? And maybe a larger model in the foreground?

    Realising I have so little reference on these machines... Recently bought that 'Tyagatshi' book on Soviet Tractors, not had a proper look yet so will have to see if lend-lease US models are covered there, looks like there might be some re-reading to be done in Wheels & Tracks too.
     
  7. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Duh.
    Looked in 'Tyagatshi' and the very photo of a D6 or D7 towing the 203mm is in there, with the tractors in full 'Red Square' livery.
    (Notes in there the difficulty in finding decent shots of lend-lease gear in the face of postwar suppression of Lend-Lease's extent.)

    8701 Tracked Tractor's shipped via Lend-Lease (Including HSTs), 501 lost in transit.

    As a footnote - Totals of those used as Artillery tractors delivered to the Red Army by type:
    Caterpillar D6 - 296
    Caterpillar D7 - 243
    IHC TD-14 - 246
    IHC TD-18 - 494
    Allis-Chalmers HD-7W - 2106
    Allis-Chalmers HD-10W - 413 (more than 50% of total production run)
    HSTs:
    M5 HST - 200 delivered in 1944
    Tyagatshi, Jochen Vollert p.284
     
  8. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    I had Tyagatshi yesterday, but I could down it only after disguising it with lots of wasabi.
     
  9. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

  10. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    von Poop likes this.
  11. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  13. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  14. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Nice complete looking Stalinetz pulled from the mud:
    (2 min in for the actual extraction.)

     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2016
  15. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  16. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  17. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

  18. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Bit sketchy as to what this is.
    Snapped on Sunday at the Mid Somerset Show.
    I believe it's a Roadless/Fordson Model N conversion.
    Attempt by Roadless in the 30s to early 40s to get into the military market, airfield tugs etc.
    Not great at tractors, and no info available on-site.

    Spent a while with Capt. S staring at/into it.
    Looks like it's all there & possibly even may have run recently.

    IMG_20210815_114004991_HDR.jpg IMG_20210815_114036434_HDR.jpg IMG_20210815_114123112_HDR.jpg IMG_20210815_114521141_HDR.jpg
     
    Dave55 likes this.
  19. Tom OBrien

    Tom OBrien Senior Member

  20. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Pretty sure the Model N used an open differential, so looks like they used simple brake steering.
    Nice.
     

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