[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by wim sikkelbein

New information in the form of fellow KTR-member henk minne has come to light. The clarkair of the airbornemuseum is actually purchased from a belgium scrap-dealer and is not the original arnhem example.

Here is Henk's intriguing story which he asked me to post on the MLU Forum:

From: Henk Minne
To: Hanno Spoelstra
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 5:25 PM
Subject: Clarkair CA-1

Let me make it clear that any abuse against the King's (nowadays Queens) language done by me is not by malice but sprouts from a foreigner’s knowledge of the British tongues and traditions.

The Clark CA1 airdozer which is now residing at the Hartenstein museum comes from a Belgian collector.

Like all fairytales this Clark airdozer was discovered at an old Belgian paper factory where it was used, since the Fifties, once a week to shift paper waste into big containers. When the factory was closed down it stayed outside for some time until the buildings were sold and were demolished and all parts went into recycling. The scrap handler told the dozer story to some people who started a shared negotiation and the dozer was sold for scrap iron value as soon as the correct weight was known (4000 lbs or 1820 kg’s). The Clark suffered a steering problem because the right steering brake lining did not work properly. After a hastily done paint job it was showed a couple of occasions at displays.

How the Airborne museum got the Clark is a long story.
It started a over 20 years ago in Oosterbeek during one of the September vehicle parades when an elderly British gentlemen, mr Mervyn "Gilly" Potter from Clevedon, asked if someone had knowledge of American Engineer equipment. All fingers pointed towards me so he told me his story.

He had landed on day two, Monday 18 September 1944, on landing zone "X” with a bulldozer, one of the two that was given by the Americans to the British Airborne Division. His officer commanding had told him to take one to the Netherlands because it was a land of dykes (the ones that keep water in) and ditches so it could be convenient to have a machine that could move some soil. He did not know what make or type it had been but would be very interested in knowing what he had brought over.

He was very sure about the fact that it was a Horsa glider he had flown because he had the floor re-enforced with railway sleepers to prevent the bulldozer from breaking the airframe floor. He had told the pilot to be gentle when landing for although he had secured the machine as best as possible "the risk for the pilot of having a bulldozer up on his arse was still eminent" as he phrased it.

So the investigations began.

With the help of Bart Vanderveen the Clark airdozer CA1 was found as being the one in question.

The CA-1 was developed specially for the Airborne troops to clear and egalise the area where gliders and planes could land for later operations.

Mervyn Potter made a telephone call, immediately after receiving three different pictures of bulldozers, telling it was number two. So the Clark was the one to be.

Propaganda Kompagnie Wochenschau
In the Wochenschau of early November 1944 was a shot of the bulldozer ¾ left rear view. A still was generated and presented to mr Potter including the Wochenschau tape. He said that it was where they had left it because they engineers never used it after parking. The spot was near the house called de Sonnenberg.

All consulted airborne "experts " told that there was no Market Garden glider loading list stating "bulldozer". Besides they stated "the British Airborne troops never had a bulldozer, all bulldozers are Caterpillar and the weight starts with 4 ton (8000 lbs for D-4) so no Horsa "

Later investigations proofed that most of the loading list were earlier dated because the former plannings were overhauled by time. (About 17 attempted operations before Market Garden. All they needed to do was changing the chalk numbers for the planes on the sheets for the next operation)

Luuk Buist who is very knowledgeable about the Army Air Corps and Glider Pilot Regiment called me .He had done a query asking the pilots about the gliders and their loads and told he had a response of a glider pilot who transferred 3 men , a Tractor, Crawler, 20DBHP, w/Bulldozer,-AMM/Clark CA1, a motorcycle (Matchless) .

It was a Horsa HG 916 serial number B27 ! The glider was flown by Lt. P.J. Brazier (K.I.A.) and Staff Sergeant M. Hibbert (Crossed Rhine). Take off was from Down Ampney.

Luuk Buist also had an aerial photograph of the landing zone "X" alongside the Telefoonweg in Renkum showing all gliders directing to the railroad except one. That one was pointing in the opposite direction.

Mervyn Potter had told once that they were shot at from the woods on the right hand side but we were unable to understand that, because to us there were no woods for we had not seen the aerial photo.

His story was that when the glider arrived at the landing zone the Germans opened fire, the glider pilot disengaged from the towing plane and forgot the load, dived and found he had to much speed to land as all other glider facing the railroad. Doing so he sure would have had a crash landing amidst all landed gliders. So he made a 180 degree turn, landed with tailwind , had a skid mark about twice as long as normal and was shot at from the right-hand side.

So the glider on the photograph is surely the one Lance Sergeant Potter and the Clark used that day.

All clamps and other closures did not work properly to split the glider so it was decided to blow up the landing gear with explosives which was not so difficult being an engineer. After the explosion the bulldozer was fired up and drove away at eleven o’clock through the glider fuselage.

The motorcycles followed. Arriving at the Utrechtseweg they were told to dig in at Sonnenberg so they left the dozer and started digging.

It was decided to keep an eye open to find such a bulldozer and in 1998 the Belgian connection worked. The owner was very cooperative so the Clark was trailered to the Netherlands, put in a GMC tipper ( sorry none of our British vehicles was available) and united with mr Potter for a happy day. The story was told to the newspapers .

Mervyn was very happy for after 54 years he was able to show his story was for real.

The Clark owner sold the Clark airdozer to the Vrienden van Hartenstein who gave it to the Museum for display purposes.