Armoured Dozer

[kevinT]

I have just found a great picture of "Slippery Sue" a Canadian Armoured dozer.
It is on British Pathe film ID 2145.01 frame 189 and on.
The AoS is 344 with an Army Group diagonal b/ left to t/ right.
According to "British Miltary Markings 1939-1945" that AoS should have the bar below. Is this another book error?
Can anyone make out the WD serial. I have last 4 numbers as 1007.

Cheers
Kevin

[Chris Johnson]

"Slippery Sue" should be from 1 Mechanized Equipment Company, 1st Canadian Army.

Cheers,

Chris

[kevinT]

Hello Chris,

Thanks for that. Any idea of the colour of the AoS?

Cheers
Kevin

[Don Dingwall]

First...Howdy.
Long time no hear.
Second, your timing is awful. I'm just putting the finishing touches on my Resi-chunk D7 (un-armoured) from the same unit....Steve G. and I looked into a photo of one from the same unit some time back and concluded that it would be an RCE unit, not RCASC.....so, a blue background was duly hand painted on my Dozer. Same number and A of S sign style though.

Steve mentions in an email that the dozers wre operated by company HQ of Field Park Companies.

So am I repainting this thing in time for Capcon next weekend or what?


Cheers
Don

[Chris Johnson]

Hi Don,

I thought you had dropped off the face of the world. Good to hear from you again.

I was perfectly happy with dozers being under the RCE umbrella myself, sporting a 344 over a blue background AoS. When I saw a good front frame of "Slippery Sue" in this Pathe film though, the AoS looks to me to be of two distinctly different shades of paint with a split white bar. I'm guessing the colours here and the Corps affiliation, so I'm open to suggestion.

Cheers,

Chris

[Chris Johnson]

Don,

Further to my last, the more I look at the photo and having enlarged it, the more I'm leaning towards the distinct possibility that it could be a single light coloured AoS sign behind that "344".

That's more in keeping with the RCE parent corps, which makes more sense to me. The white bar signifying an army unit affiliation. How's that for waffling? If it were me, I wouldn't repaint that D7 of yours.

Cheers,

Chris

[Mark W. Tonner]

For what it's worth, the AoS marking in question is that of 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, R.C.E., who were Army Group Troops (21st Army Group)

Cheers

[Mark W. Tonner]

Another 'armoured dozer' of the 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, R.C.E. - Udem, 1945.

Cheers

[Chris Johnson]

Mark,

Thanks for clarifying that. Now if you can dispose of that AoS sign I mistakenly posted, that would be great. No sense misleading people with my faulty interpretation.

As an aside, the RCE certainly had some colourful names for their dozers. I seem to remember 'Picadilly Commando' as being another.

Cheers,

Chris

[servicepub (RIP)]

This is from the Cdn Archives. taken in Italy. Only markings I can make out are on the side - M7/21

[tankbarrell]

Originally posted by kevinT

Can anyone make out the WD serial. I have last 4 numbers as 1007.

Cheers
Kevin
[/B]

Its not the WD number but the chassis number. 1T1007. This is usually visible on the front of the armoured D7. Strangely, allthough this alphanumeric sequence is typical Caterpillar, they do not list 1T serials in their production list. It has been suggested that these vehicles were assembled by someone other than Caterpillar. 'Normal' D7s being 3T, 4T and 7M serials.

[Mark W. Tonner]

Another 'dozer' of the 1st Mechanical Equipment Company, R.C.E. - Caen, Aug 1944.

Cheers

[kevinT]

Great help and advice as always guys.


Chris

You wouldn't happen to have a scan of "Piccadilly" by any chance.

Cheers
Kevin

[Chris Johnson]

If you have it, Picadilly Commando appears on page 198 of Don Graves's South Alberta Regiment history.

Cheers,

Chris

[kevinT]

The spelling please Chris?
Piccadilly ( as in London ) has two c's.
I have just found another little gem of a dozer on British Pathe called "Jaq (c) ueline", although I am not sure what sort it is.

Cheers
Kevin

[Chris Johnson]

Yes, the name has two c's.

Cheers,

Chris

[servicepub (RIP)]

Here is a drawing by official Canadian War Artist Capt. O.N. Fisher. Caption reads "Engineers clearing roads through Caen". AoS number is '48'

[Mark W. Tonner]

Originally posted by servicepub
Here is a drawing by official Canadian War Artist Capt. O.N. Fisher. Caption reads "Engineers clearing roads through Caen". AoS number is '48'

Just to add to what Clive said, I've seen the painting of this drawing and the dozer's AoS serial and formation sign are that of the 3rd Field Park Company, R.C.E. which was part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.

Cheers

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here's anther picture of an Armoured Dozer

IWM BU 4333
"A bulldozer demolishing a road block for the entry of British armour into Bremen."
Date: 1945-04-25


Source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/i...ject/205428687



Source:https://www.ebay.com/itm/1945-German...m/393069131554

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Looking through a museum’s archive of scans, I just came across these two pages from the London Illustrated News from 11 November 1944, that I thought might be interesting/amusing here:



(In the scan, the first page was blank above the part shown here, so I trimmed it down.)

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Jakko,

Thanks, interesting to read how they tried to explain the weapons of war to the general public.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by kevinT

I have just found a great picture of "Slippery Sue" a Canadian Armoured dozer.
It is on British Pathe film ID 2145.01 frame 189 and on.
The AoS is 344 with an Army Group diagonal b/ left to t/ right.
According to "British Miltary Markings 1939-1945" that AoS should have the bar below. Is this another book error?
Can anyone make out the WD serial. I have last 4 numbers as 1007.

Here's a link to the film: https://www.britishpathe.com/video/i...nes-europe-14/

Note you can view it as a film or as stills.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

A minor part of these bulldozers, but I found PDFs of original manuals for the winches used on the D6A and D7A:



The serial numbers indicated are technically not for the armoured versions, but the D6A was basically a D6-5R with an armoured cab and hydraulic dozer blade and the D7A was a similarly modified D7-7M, so I doubt the winches would have been very different.

Edit: I just realised that site is making linking to the right page difficult. In the menu on the left, choose Allied Winch → Operator’s Manuals → Archive to find the ones I mentioned above.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Nice find Jakko!

Good to see some manufacturers still provide this sort of information to the users of their products.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

There is probably more stuff there that some restorers might find useful, but I didn’t really look beyond a quick glance.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

D7A No.31 "GLADY'S", Rue de la Gare at Caen, read more here: https://flic.kr/p/2b1zaVX

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Nice find

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Armoured Dozer with the number IT1019 at Blainville (Calvados), France - read more here https://flic.kr/p/26Vw7u1

[Hanno Spoelstra]

And here is 1T3037 - read more here: https://flic.kr/p/UQuecL

[Lynn Eades]

Jakko, There were other options for winches (for those who dont know) There were (Carco ?) twin drum winches used on "cable controlled" equipment. Some Cats (D7) had cable controlled blades and a second drum was used to operate the bowl on a scraper. I assume the millitary dozers used in airfield construction were fitted with them?