Operation Infatuate II: Sherman tanks at Westkapelle

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by Willem de Braal

Wim de Braal, which recovered in 1946 the two D6A armored dozers was my grandfather.

Let me add this here:

http://www.bouwmachinesvantoen-archi...de%20Braal.htm

so everyone can see exactly what you mean by “recovered” I strongly suspect the one shown being dug up there is the one I posted a picture of earlier, standing in fairly deep water, and the second to be the one whose armoured cab was removed and left behind on the beach.

(Also note the wagon with the Sherman wheels.)

[Alex van de Wetering]

Jack Olding only did the armoured conversion. The tractors themselves were licence built in the USA but I don't know who by.

David, thanks for the correction and additional info.

I was told about 15 years ago that Caterpillar at that time denied the existence of the 1T series as 'nothing to do with us

That's pretty much the same reply I got at Chubbs in Wolverhampton, when I asked them about the Conger carrier conversion years ago! The hard part with these large firms usually is to reach someone that is actually willing to go to th archive and/or is interested in the history.

Let me add this here:

http://www.bouwmachinesvantoen-archi...de%20Braal.htm

Judging from the pictures in Jakko's link, the armoured dozers did get a custom tank to clear the armoured body.

[David Herbert]

Alex,
Quite right about the custom diesel tank. Sorry to confuse matters but I was seeing that as a 'sheet metal part' that was easy to change. I should have been clearer.

Jakko,
Thank you for the link to the archive. Those are great photos. The photos show that they removed the engine from the dozer that they dug up, presumably to reduce weight. it would have had to be removed anyway for rebuild.

Willem,
Would it be possible for you to post a couple of photos of Cat 1T3038 as it is now please ? Does it still have the dozer kit with the frame between the tracks. If so I would be very interested to see how that is attached to the tractor.

David

[David Herbert]

Looking at the photos again, I have realized that, at least on the D6 conversion, the driver's position was raised by at least 30cm. presumably to provide a better view for the driver. I don't think that these armoured dozers were wadeproofed to any great depth, hence the drowned ones ! In the archive there is at least one photo of one with a home built cab that clearly has its floor much higher than a standard tractor.

David

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by David Herbert

Thank you for the link to the archive. Those are great photos.

I found them more or less by chance — on another site, I came across a few of those photos of a bulldozer being dug out, and the captions there mentioned the company name. I then Googled that and found this site.

Originally Posted by David Herbert

The photos show that they removed the engine from the dozer that they dug up, presumably to reduce weight. it would have had to be removed anyway for rebuild.

That’s what I was thinking too. All that sand can’t have been conducive to the engine working I suspect the bulldozer was simply left where it stood and buried under the sand of the new sea dyke that was built. Parts of that were made using a suction dredger, which sprays a mixture of water and sand to where the sand is wanted, so it would not be a problem at all to bury a vehicle that happens to be in the way.

BTW, the reason I said that I think this is the one that stood in the water by itself is because of the houses visible in the photos of it being recovered. Though I haven’t tried matching them to any houses that still exist (maybe I should give that a try …), my knowledge of the lay of the land leads me to suspect it must be close to where the photo shows the drowned bulldozer with ruins on the right-hand side of the picture.