Bulldozer Question

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Here goes...

Thanks Kieth, much appreciated! Y'know, after taking a good look at the dozer being loaded into the C47 in this pic, it's too small to be a D4, I wonder if it's a CA-1?

[George McKenzie]

Hi First I will say that the older cats pre 1936 numbers stood for horse power .A 30 cat had 30 HP a 60 had 60HP .The 35 was the first deisel .The R series were R being a gas ,RD is a deisel The RD 2,4,6,8 and some U series were the Catipiller modles used in the ww2 .I put a D7 in a Hurculies aircraft in Yellowknife where it was hauled to the artic we had to remove all the dozer parts ,blade and C frame maily because it was too wide ,not too heavy .I might add that these cats did not have canopies on them and when working in the bush kild alot of operaters from the tree tops comming down on them .Some were sheeted in with iron and used in combat They were so reliable that they made a great impact on the out come of the war George

[Lang]

Keith,

I agree with Sapper that it is a little baby Clarke air portable tractor.

[Lang]

Some Clarkair photos

the action scene is at Nadzab in the Markham Valley in New Guinea. The equipment all arrived by air.

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by Lang

Some Clarkair photos

the action scene is at Nadzab in the Markham Valley in New Guinea. The equipment all arrived by air.

Lang, you seem to have the same interest in the ClarkAir as I do. I have about 40 pictures of the little dozer and it's attachments, if you're interested in any, let me know and I'll email them to you. I've just posted to "Transporting the Clark-Air CA-1 bulldozer" regarding the temporary stub axles I've seen on them before. If you're interested, check it oout. Derek.

[Alan Nicholas]

I was up in the Ramu Valley with my father in early December 2005. He was 7th division 2nd/25th infantry battalion and had fought up in the Markim and Ramu valleys. He showed mum and myself where he had fought – main battle/skirmish being at the site of Kesawai village. We also went to Kiapit and a distant look at Shaggy Ridge.
While up in that area we stayed at the Ramu Sugar complex. We got talking to the local expatts, which wasn’t hard as they were impressed that someone of Dad’s age(82) had come to visit and pay his respects.
Anyhow it was mentioned that they had in the process of developing a new cane field came across a couple of buried little dozers that where used to develop the military airfields in WW2. Apparently a lot of equipment was buried after the Japs where driven out of Papua New Guinea. The theory being that while the war was going the allies way, they may have ended up back in PNG still having to fight. So if that was the case they would need some gear, so they buried catches of equipment just in case. That is what I was told by the expatts anyway! I don’t know as to the condition of these dozers or what happened to them. I assume that it is true due to the amount of ex-military equipment being dug up or that was left lying around and can still be seen today.
Apparently they have a hell of a time digging up Marsden matting when they develop new cane/oil palm fields. Here’s a link for those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Matting
Just to the North West of this town is the Ramu Sugar township / complex for those who are interested.
"Kaigulan" lat=-5.979949, lon=145.905197 Copy and Paste into Google earth.
I thought this might be of interest to the discussuion.

Regards
Alan Nicholas

[Lang]

Derek,

Always interested in Clarkairs. I have only ever seen one in Australia - well restored - at a tractor show a few years back. I have always wanted to own one. Just drove across USA and saw two in the mid-west on poles advertising earth moving companies.

lang@st.net.au

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by alnich

I was up in the Ramu Valley with my father in early December 2005. He was 7th division 2nd/25th infantry battalion and had fought up in the Markim and Ramu valleys. He showed mum and myself where he had fought – main battle/skirmish being at the site of Kesawai village. We also went to Kiapit and a distant look at Shaggy Ridge.
While up in that area we stayed at the Ramu Sugar complex. We got talking to the local expatts, which wasn’t hard as they were impressed that someone of Dad’s age(82) had come to visit and pay his respects.
Anyhow it was mentioned that they had in the process of developing a new cane field came across a couple of buried little dozers that where used to develop the military airfields in WW2. Apparently a lot of equipment was buried after the Japs where driven out of Papua New Guinea. The theory being that while the war was going the allies way, they may have ended up back in PNG still having to fight. So if that was the case they would need some gear, so they buried catches of equipment just in case. That is what I was told by the expatts anyway! I don’t know as to the condition of these dozers or what happened to them. I assume that it is true due to the amount of ex-military equipment being dug up or that was left lying around and can still be seen today.
Apparently they have a hell of a time digging up Marsden matting when they develop new cane/oil palm fields. Here’s a link for those interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marston_Matting
Just to the North West of this town is the Ramu Sugar township / complex for those who are interested.
"Kaigulan" lat=-5.979949, lon=145.905197 Copy and Paste into Google earth.
I thought this might be of interest to the discussuion.

Regards
Alan Nicholas

Matting is always of interest to any discussion, well, if you're an Engineer anyway! I'll be posting a story soon of Canada's role in developing expedient runway coverings.

Interesting story you have told of buried equipment in PNG and one that is so oft repeated around the world that there must be much truth to it. In British Columbia stories abound of equipment found along the Alaska Highway and in the Chilcotin training area. When you consider how remote much of Papua New Guinea is, and how quickly the jungle retakes cleared land, I imagine there is much to be found yet. No surprise that they're spending a lot of time digging up Marsden matting (PSP) as there was 2,000,000 tons of the stuff made during WW II. Derek.