plant and C vehicles

[Les Freathy]

Good day guys
First, i will take this oppertunity to wish all members a merry christmas and a happy new year. I have only been with you guys for a couple of months but have had some fun flying around the threads and seeing the forum really come alive, i hope you have all enjoyed my input believe me there is a lot more to come
To finish up this year here is a new thread on military plant, i chose this because i have been involved in the plant hire industry for 35 years and have tended to collect as much archive as i could including the military side
Photo 1 is a cable operated Cat D8 the operater can be seen at the blade lever

This thread should appeal to many members and material should be quite reasonable to find for inclusion

cheers
Les

[Les Freathy]

Photo 2 a Osgood crane in the UK late 1945 the trucks have been cleaned and rust proofed to be packed and shipped back to the states, now thats a surprise

[Les Freathy]

Well, it looks like all the plant is still on Christmas holiday so to kick em back to work heres a couple of Cat D8s
Les

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Les Freathy
Well, it looks like all the plant is still on Christmas holiday so to kick em back to work heres a couple of Cat D8s
Les

Les,

I spotted the standard British engine engine crate lurking behind the top Cat, so likely to be British Army. Also see the V Corps sign on the front probably in N. Africa then. It has built up grousers as well.

Bottom one would be US Army at a guess, because of the three US jerricans.

Richard

[cliff]

this pic is from the AWM and is titled - 'Morotai, New Guinea. 5 October 1944. RAAF engineers clear area for airstrip'

[cliff]

Another from the AWM - 'NADZAB, NEW GUINEA. C. 1944-02. STONE CRUSHING MACHINE'

[cliff]

One from Pictures Australia web site Neg # an000533 showing a bulldozer on a 'chinaman' loading a truck.

[cliff]

Now the next two are from the AWM also and show the RAAF unloading equipment out of a LST at Morotai, New Guinea. on 5 October 1944. The tracked machinery is the same in both photos.

My question is what is the piece of tracked equipment shown in both photos?

Pic 1

[cliff]

Pic 2

[Les Freathy]

Hi Cliff
It is possible that it is an early trenching machine, it look to me as if some parts are missing from the frame work
Les

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Les,

Like you I to work in construction, and consequently am particularly interested in plant used during the war.

My particular interest is in airfield plant used not just by the military but also companies like Kier, Fitzpatrick and Laing who built over 300 bases in Britain in a very short period of time.

Do you know of any drawings for CAT8's or D6's, as whilst I have a lot of photos, I have been unable to find even outline CAT drawings from the 1940's, despite looking out for them over many years.

You are quite probably correct in assuming that the tracked machine coming out of the landing craft is the bed of a trencher.

However I wonder if it is a not a Koering or possibly Barber Greene concrete paving machine used to lay airfield pavements (runways for non technically minded.)

I am not sure that I have spelt "Koering" correctly.

The machine has no cleats on the tracks. I think that the "mouth" type frame between the tracks was the guiding plates that used to funnel the sand, and aggregate (and possibly cement) into the hopper where water was added.

The hopper, mixer drum, is probably still in the LCT on a trailer.

The mixed concrete came out the other end of the machine and was spread into the shutters for screeding off.

The reason I think it is a Koering, is because I used to work for Fitzpatrick & Son, who were airfield contractors during World War II. In our offices in the 1980' there were a number of photographs of these machines working on the M1 in the 1960's.

Apparently during World War II a lot of American plant was handed out to British contractors in order to speed up the laying of concrete all weather runways. After the war this remained in the contractors hands, and was often relegated to a remote part of the plant yard where it rusted for many years.

Fitzpatrick won the contract to concrete pave the stretch of the M1 from Scratchwood to Hemel Hempsted, in the 1960's where these machines were used again.

Because concrete has to be laid within about 40 minutes from the point that water is added, in order to be used in runways, and static mixing plant was very slow and inefficient in those days, they arrived at a system whereby concrete mixes were centrally dry batched, and trucked to the laying point, where the water was added, and the concrete was mixed right next to the point of use.

Any of you who have ever screened wet concrete within 10 minutes of its mixing will tell you that it is much easier to place, than concrete that has been in a ready mixed truck to 35 minutes before being screeded.

Sometimes the water was trucked to the mobile batcher, at other times long lengths of pipe was laid on the ground, which was added to as the mixer moved to the next bay.

Do you have a picture of one of these mobile batchers?

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

The following photo from the IWM collection shows a very small CMP truck (15 cwt?) with an unusual wooden body, which looks like it could be another and Indian pattern one pulling a large roller on airfield construction.

Regards

Nick Balmer

Photo No.: SE 3239
Photographer: Watson R (Sgt)
No 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit

Collection Title: WAR OFFICE, CENTRAL OFFICE OF INFORMATION AND AMERICAN SECOND WORLD WAR OFFICIAL COLLECTION

Collection No.: 4700-64

Description: THE BRITISH ARMY IN BURMA 1945
A roller pulled by a truck is used during the construction of an airstrip near Ondaw, 26 February 1945.

[cliff]

Nick thanks for the photo. The soldier behind the roller is an Aussie judging by the hat. Of interest to me is the rather large white star painted on the side of the tilt.

Also thanks for your input as to the tracked machine coming off the LST. The unit the equipment belongs to was an RAAF airfield construction unit so you may be right about the conc. mixer part.

Cheers
Cliff

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Cliff,

The film is from a sequence taken in Burma and therefore the man is unlikely to be Australian.

I have seen other photos of African pioneers in these same hats with turned up brim sides.

These units came from Matabeleland, and Bechuanaland amongst other places.

There was also a whole West African Division present fighting in Burma.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Cliff,

I went off to try to see if I could find the photo I was aware of with 81st Division West African's in the IWM collection.

Sadly in the time I have, I can't lay my hands on it, but I did find the following photo E 2003 of "THE WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE IN EAST AFRICA, 1941 Men of the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) remove(ing) monumental stones placed by the Italians to mark the boundary of their new empire on the Kenya - Italian Somaliland border.

It is just such a nice picture, that I couldn't resist posting it. Sorry, no trucks.

Sorry Les, but they are carrying shovels!

If you go to the IWM collections and put "Arakan" unto search there are several photos of both West African's from the 81st WA Division, but also of RAF crews wearing wide brimmed hats just like the Aussies. Most were worn with the brim left down, but it is not uncommon to find photos where Brits and West African's followed the Aussie fashion.

I believe that the numbers of Australian's in Burma was very limited, and that they almost exclusively served in the RAF squadrons because the Australian Government wanted to keep the Australians in units run by Australian commanders in order to try to avoid the types of rows that had blown up in Australia and South Africa in 1942 and 1943 about earlier major troop losses in Africa, Singapore and Greece where an idea had developed that the UK government might have "sacrificed" Commonwealth troops to protect UK troops.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Les & Cliff,

I have found a photo of a very similar mobile concrete mixer in action in the following website
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/...istics1-6.html

It shows a truck reversing up to one of these machines delivering the aggregates.

If you look at the photo it has the same type of central wire pulley to lift the scoop that is lying on the ground, and into which the truck is tipping.

The one in the picture here is probably a slightly bigger version than that landing froom the LST, but it has a very similar undercarriage with the same padded tracks which are needed to avoid damaging the underlying lean mix concrete subbase.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[cliff]

Nick thanks for the reply on the hats. Certainly a thing I must watch out for in future. Also thanks for the photo of the concrete mixer.

Here's another AWM photo showing RAAF bulldozers at work building an airfield. Titled "
NADZAB, NEW GUINEA. C. 1944-02. BULLDOZERS OF NO. 62 MOBILE WORKS SQUADRON RAAF"


cheers
Cliff

[cliff]

Another AWM photo showing equipment being unloaded. Titled "AITAPE AREA, NORTH EAST NEW GUINEA. C. 1944-04-22"

I like the sheeps foot roller

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Nick Balmer
The following photo from the IWM collection shows a very small CMP truck (15 cwt?) with an unusual wooden body, which looks like it could be another and Indian pattern one

Nick, correct - see Another Indian Pattern CMP?.

H.

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

The following photograph from http://www.107thengineers.org/Histor...orldWarII.html
shows a bulldozer modified to be able to carry a concreting skip on the blade. Something I had not seen before.

It comes from the above website which contains a very good description of the projects undertaken by the US 107th Engineer Battalion.

There are several pictures of cranes etc.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

N/T

[Nick Balmer]

N/T

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

Here is a photo of Royal Engineer manned roller building airfields on Sicily in 1943

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Keith Webb]

Originally posted by Nick Balmer
Hello,

Here is a photo of Royal Engineer manned roller building airfields on Sicily in 1943

Regards

Nick Balmer

Or perhaps it's an early aircraft scrapping about to happen!

[Mark W. Tonner]

.... and what, do tell, is this guy doing.....planting a garden perhaps......

[Les Freathy]

Hi Nick
Thanks for your most interesting comments nice to have someone in the same trade on board
Photo 1 here is a Parsons trencher, obviously not the one in Cliffs photo and the one that had me thinking on these lines. there is a similarity but your observations seem to fit better, the second shot is a rare item it is a Miles Asphalt plant in use in the ,i believe Sudan in the 1930s under army supervision with local labour.
Photo 3 is for you Nick not military but depicting some of your comments its late 1950s with Wimpeys side tip Fordson Thames
Les

[Les Freathy]

2nd

[Les Freathy]

3rd

[Les Freathy]

whos the bright that put the photo in upside down

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Les,

Thats just a bit before my time. I forget who made that paving machine, but Fitzpatrick had an almost identical one in their yard in about 1985.

They also used side ti dump trucks. When the Laing consortium built the Falklands airstrip in the 1980's they bought Man 6x4 side tippers for the concrete.

Those were sold off in the UK after the job finished. Fitzpatrick operated several. I think they then passed through several hands, and only two or three months ago, I thought I saw those same Man trucks on the Baldock bypass.

Construction companies were issued with hundreds of trucks during the war, and then bought thousands more.

Regards

Nick Balmer