I have just been reading a copy of "38 Group Operation Order No 526 for Operation Market" Under the section headed Glider Recovery" it states: - "When the military situation permits, 38 Group will despatch by air a glider recovery party of 50 men …………...The following vehicles will be required: Crossley Graders........2 Coles Cranes...……....2 Lorries 3 ton...………..5 Motor Cycles...……….1 Vans 15 cwt...………..2" Does anybody know the Crossley Grader, it is not a piece of plant I have come across before. Noel
Basically a big scraper blade, a bit like a bulldozer, but set at an angle in the middle of the machine. It was used to grade (read level) ground. The recovery plan was to create temporary landing strips similar to the ALGs in Normandy to collect, repair and dispatch gliders in the same way they did in France.
Noel, The Cossley 4x4 heavy tractor unit used in conjunction with the queen mary trailer often had a collapsable ballast box fitted behind the cab; I have seen this Cossley in various pictures and film towing gliders. I believe this is your "grader" but some how tractor has become grader Ted
This thread caught my eye and reminded me that in Burma on the second Chindit operation, La Tourneau earth graders were transported by gliders to prepare temporary landing strips for Dakotas. The two images below depict these scenes at the Broadway landing strip in Northern Burma:
Thanks to all for your kind replies, I am aware what a grader is and that it would make sense to use them to clear some ground to recover the gliders, it was the "Crossley" description which confused me. Ted has given one possible explanation of that.
According to the book "RAF Airfield Construction Service 1939-1946" the vehicle in the middle is a Galion Grader built by a US company in Ohio. The vehicle at the rear is a bulldozer (possible a Caterpillar D8 tractor) towing a 12 cubic yard scraper. Both seem to have been standard pieces of plant for the ACS in WW2
Given that building airfields in Britain involved the work of a large number (approx 130) of private contracting firms employing 139,000 men and vast amounts of plant it is more probable that these items were generally widely used.
Its interesting that the original order implies that both men and vehicles are sent by air. At the time the only aircraft we had that could possibly carry such loads would be the Hamilcar. This photo shows what appears to be a towed bucker scraper loaded in a Hamilcar so a grader is not unimaginable. (just not the Michigan one pictured above).
Graders could be broken down and transported in parts and re-assembled on site. I've seen references in USAAF material to graders being sent by air in Waco gliders this wqy
