Restoring a rare WW2 Airborne Dozer.. Hasn't run for 45 Years
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มี.ค. 2023
- The Clark air Crawler model CA-1 was a small airborne bulldozer designed for improvement of runways in World War II by the United States Armed Forces.
In 1942, the United States military created a new engineering unit that would be extremely mobile; this could only be done with light equipment. The military began looking for a new bulldozer small and light enough to be flown in the Douglas C-47 and the Waco CG-4A. When the parameters were set, the military looked for a company to create such a machine.
They were to draw inspiration from the US Forestry Service's "trail tractor" (a small tractor for use in small clearings and fields within the forest).
In 1942, the Clark Machine Company took the contract. Clark initially built 14 operational dozers and conducted extensive tests at their facilities. Once proven, the military ordered 800 more and eventually extended that figure. The War Department worked with Clark Machine over the course of the years 1942 and 1943 ordering many CA-1s by the end of World War 2. It is estimated that there were more than 2,500 produced.
The Tractor was flown in by either a C-46 or C-47 or transported by a glider, which landed on an unimproved runway or a possible runway. Once dropped off, the engineers used the tractors to construct a paved or improved landing strip. The CA-1 would be used predominantly to tow graders and pan scrapers. This style of construction was fast and relatively efficient which gave the United States a reasonable strategic advantage in the Pacific campaign of World War 2 due to the island hopping tactic that required many new airfields. After the war a new community of people eager to restore these small and light tractor emerged. More than 1,500 CA-1s were used by the US Army.
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Triggered a memory of 30 years ago in the Auckland war museum up on the hill. A display of a captured Japanize Zero fighter. The museum staff removed the ropes around the plane to allow an elderly Japanize man to board the plane and sit in behind the controls. He had flown Zero's in war in 1945, and was shaken from his reentering the plane These old machines remind us of the joys of peace and the costs of war for both sides.
Great vid Marty mike and browny were stoked , awesome to see team at rem did such a great job for them what a great rebuild ,and browny doing the trials such a great vid on old school machines,and browny with his famous roly he is clever bugger ,cheers , shaneo nelson 👍
Well said 🇬🇧
I think your airfield might take a while Marty !
Fun fact, mitsubishi tried to release a special edition evo in the USA called the zero fighter 😂
@@Matty.Hill_87
Oh I remember the uproar that caused, shame they did not go with a family van called "Yamato's Revenge"
I'm sure that y'all already know this,but when I asked my great uncle,my grandfather's brother who was a seebee in ww2 he informed me that everything,including the radiator,and hoses and lines was painted od green and the seats were usually covered with od green canvas material,not vinyl or rubber.. No black radiator flues and fins, no black seats,hoses,or anything... Even the knobs and handles were painted od green.. and only the gauges and lenses weren't . He'll argue with ya and break out the photos,which are black n white as his proof..😂 He's a great guy with a super sharp mind and sight even though his time's getting short at almost 100 years of wonderfulness... Enlisted at 17 in 1942 and wouldn't go back and change a thing he says..
Bless you and your great uncle. Those photos will soon be gone, digitize them. Men who built a great and civil society when they returned, must have been amazed and saddened by it all since.
May god's grace bless you and your family 🙏🕊️🙏🕊️
@@sandsparWell they went and killed a bunch of fellow white Europeans and fought on the side of communist china and Russia so maybe they fought the wrong people, or shouldn’t have been involved.
There are pictures of all green ones online. Definitely a neat little machine!
I could listen to Browny all day. Needs his own channel. 😅
I am forever stunned at the industrial creativity and capacity of the US in the 40's. Where else on earth could someone say "we need dinky toy sized road grading equipment we can stick in a DC-3 sized airplane. To build airports in the middle of nowhere. And then someone goes off and does it overnite and it works like a charm. Kudos to the restoration team for a really worthwhile project. Its a reminder of just how much effort it took to win the war in the Pacific. Brilliant job.
My Dad was a Army mechanic from 42 to 46..went to Australia then New Guinea and finally to the Philippines... my guess is he worked on a few of these but they were a lot newer then ..RIP Dad. seeing these old guys reminded me of him.
I thought of my father as well. Even in his 90s with prostate cancer drugs he still had the strong forearms of somebody who worked hard all his life...
You know I was thinking the same thing the army would have never done it that they should have put it back to original they ruined it half-ass in it
Was your dad attached to the 503rd Regimental Combat Team Airborne?
My dad was and had a similar journey across the Pacific.
My father was in WWII in China. Burma & India as a Airborne Combat Engineer (879th) and worked with this type of equipment building airfields and roads. Thanks for sharing I enjoyed see the equipment that my father used
It's hard to believe that a whole pile of (basically kids) young men and these tiny machines tackled the jungles, islands and all the miserable conditions that come with them and won a world war.
Tell me there's a God without telling me there's a God.
Young people now don't even know whether they have balls or not, what color of the rainbow their hair should be or what a pair of work boots look like.
Thank you for sharing this awesome piece of history.
You guys rock!
You guys are ok at cricket, but fuck me no one can be so amazing at fixing old machinery, especially you MartyT..
24.02 "Freedom is NOT Free" Amen brother.
❤️
Them ole boys pretty sharp to take the pile of rusted worn-out, beaten up, and abused to within a hairs breath of totally losing it's life to either the scrape bin, or just fading back into the earth it was born from.
Excellent job gentlemen one and all for bringing the old girl back to her glory once more.
She's got her marks of character about her, and she'll never be as good as new.
Yet she's earned every nick, n ding she wears, and I'm bettin somewhere there's a smile on someone's face to see her movin about that's been long gone for some time now.
Even got a new to her wagon to ease along behind her again just like in her youth.
Excellent!😅
A good dose of NZ/ Oz slang thrown in. Perfect.
Tiny thing.. cool. My gramps was in the Pacific building runways during the war, wonder if he used one of those.
Amazing workmanship and patience. Thanks for preserving this marvelous piece of history.
So unreal to see it running when you look at the state of it in the beginning , the old engine for it certainly was well used up . Nice restoration guys , its a credit to you all.
So True, Freedom is Not Free. We have the fight for it
Very true
First thing I noticed and then went to the comments to see the top comment about it. Freedom isn’t free.
So many this day have gotten soft and forgotten all the hell out fathers and grandfathers had to do to insure our freedoms. Especially up hear in the states. It's sickening to see.
To Marty and every one involved Just a VERY BIG thank you
The black and white segment was a nice touch in your filming and editing. These gentlemen are certainly to be admired and congratulated for their knowledge, ability and perseverance.
Yeah, it's nice he could include some original footage from the 40's, for the historical pespective.
@@herrakaarme Browny doesn't look like he's aged a day 🤣!
Other than the smartphone in the background XD
“Do you remember how it goes together” “nope but I’ll figure it out” said any quality works man ever lol
Buggered - A lovely technical term.
Gotta love the old fella who always has a smoko hanging off his lower lip.
A piece of ANZUS history that helped build airfields and roads during the war, thanks to the crew for doing such a great job!
Oldtimers working on oldtimers are still the best combo.
all the skill these guys have will go with them , lets see if a.i. can do this
and with so much humility .
Love they way he drives straight out the shed with the scraper and rips up the good surface in the yard. Reminds me of little boys with their tonka toys. LOL
Great job! Another piece of history saved from the junk yard!
I have pictures of my grandfather in France on that same little dozer. I never knew the story behind that until now. Thanks Marty that was awesome
Marty, you are the master of the understatement when you said "That will keep you busy for awhile."
After the land was cleared for runways, Marston Mats* were placed down!
* Marston Mat, more properly called pierced (or perforated) steel planking (PSP), is standardized, perforated steel matting material developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips.
Also used by returning GIs as well as guys all over America to build car trailers,cross wet or sand areas,as car ramps,lifts,hog pens, cattle guards,etc,100s of uses as sold as surplus for literally pennies apiece as there were 100s of 1000s or maybe even millions of " sand,runway mats' sold all across America after ww2,Korea,Nam... My cousin still has a 50s Era race car hauler,hog pen,cattle pen,cattle ramps he,his brother and their father my great uncle,a ww2 vet built with them.. Wish they were still available at scrap prices today..
I just sat through several dozens of old black n white pics tonight with my grand or great uncle with him running one of these as well as other cats during ww2 and it was both awesome inspiring as well as humbling.. He n I as well as both my grandfathers,several great uncles on both sides,my father,several uncles and a cousin all have talked about our experiences overseas from ww2,Korea,Nam,and DS... This video was a reminder of what my great elders did and sacrificed and made me appreciate them even more than I always have because they didn't have any of the technology,weaponry nor forewarning that my cousin and I had when over there.. Those old guys were true hard-core badasses..
In the Philippines, Marston Mats where used as fencing. The homeowner usually set 'em in concrete and for added security, bougainvillea plants were planted. One can tell that a house was built before or after the war if that house has a Marston Mat fence.
That's amazing! It's a shame people can't be 'stripped and rebuilt' like this to add 50-100 years to their lives.
After watching the recent protests of Posie Parker, it' a pleasure to watch the understated accomplishments of real men in pursuit of reinvigorating history. Well done!
Yip. We're blessed that we get to see the tail end of this kind of stuff. All the stuff we grew up using and loving is near lost on todays world. I'm glad I'm closer to my end than to the beginning. Today's generation have no connection to stuff that does not shine and has no ecu. Poor sods.
@Paul Collins Can I just tactfully point out that there were actual Nazis goose-stepping and seig-heiling in support of Posie Parker. The men who operated the Airborne Dozers were part of a war *against* the Nazis (and their world view).
My great uncle watched this video when I showed it to him and wants y'all to know he thinks that it's beautiful even though it brought back some tough memories for him and said thank you; Marty,Mike,Browny,and the boys at REM sirs..
Browney sounds so much like Barry Crump.
I thought the same first time I met him, Both NZ legends
Splendid work. You can tell he’s an operator. Goes straight at the nearest pile with that blade. Made me smile.
Love how brownie has a smoke in his mouth next to the gentleman filling the fuel!
What a awesome library these old boys are. There knowledge is invaluable. Marty, your in good company and so fortunate that these chaps were so generous with their time. The passion came through and was awesome to watch.
@0:14 we had one of those chev trucks out in Puponga circa 1968-9. sold it to young bloke, who seized it, and it rotted away in a paddock to nothing.
As for this little gem of a dozer, well done to all involved, what an absolutely brilliant project. I think Mr Mechanic enjoyed driving that around his yard more than he is letting on. Thanks for putting that out Marty, well worth the watch.
Absolutely loved the no color black and white editing at the end 😊
That's how you stay young even when you are "old"..projects like that! Amazing work and thanks for taking us along and recording the progress Marty!
Browny is an amazing fella. What a mechanic. It purrs like a kitten. Considering what he started with, that's probably the best refurbishment that I've ever seen. The old-timey looking footage actually looked like it was from the 40s. That was a great video Marty. Thanks!
Thanks to You Marty for recording this Dozer and to Your Mates for the hard work they put into the restoration and for saving a piece of WW 2 History. This one is right up alley. I've seen WW 2 footage of 5 of these little dozers with scrapers in a kind of formation scraping a new runway on some island in the So. Pacific. They aren't very fast but sure are effective.
Marty, FAR OUT, This was completely an outstanding video!!! Thanks for letting us watch the work and the check-out. Regards, Bert
The fact that the manual survived is a miracle wish I had a small dozer like that
Would have this machine been built in Scotland? Clark is an engineering company that builds forestry equipment to this day. It's a really great video to watch. Love to see such specialised workshops operating.
Very hard to state how clever and skilled these old boys are.
Amazing! My Dad was sent to New Zealand in the USMC during the war. He had so many wonderful things to say about the people there.
Marty, you and your friends are absolutely the best! To take the time over a year to record this and then let us all see it. Allowing the gentlemen to explain what they are doing and what we are even looking at. The machining shop letting you in to record and explain what they are doing to help the project along. The garage doors in the background behind the white Chevy were beautiful. Your channel, in my humble opinion, has brought our countrymen closer together. Watching these videos really makes me want to get over there even more to visit. To meet all of you and listen to your stories would be amazing. I know it could never happen, but maybe instead you could interview them. Well anyway just couldn’t let this video go without a comment. Thank you very much to your friends and you. Cheers!
Great video. I enjoy watching the craftsmanship of men who have accumulated knowledge thru a lifetime of working on equipment and who take great pride in the final product.
Respect from Tennessee USA to all of you
Old Browny has probably forgotten more than most will ever know about old machinery..
An old piece of machinery lives to run in all it's glory
Not to take anything away from todays plug and bolt repairman, I would think you would need to go far and wide to find any with the talent of these old boys well done!
Ah line boring, love watching Curtis at CEE when he gets a line bore job. This is a nice little restore project.
One of the humble unsung machines that helped to win the War. Amazing work by skilled and dedicated men. Superb!
Just a thought, when the USA leadership were putting their heads together to see what they needed to do to win the war, some guys said "More aircraft carriers" and "More tanks" and "More trucks", some visionary said "How about a whole bunch of air transportable bulldozers, because an island is as good as an unsinkable aircraft carrier!"
A prime example of people with mind blowing skills and talent. Not to mention patience. Simply amazing.
A good restauration ! Congratulations from Italy,
absolutely, not anti-climactic. That was amazing. Well done, all.
This is Great!! Love to see these old machines saved!!!!! Our History!!
As a WW2 living historian I gotta commend you guys for beautiful job. So many forget that the basic tools were needed for everything.
Makes me proud to be an American!!! So proud these men have brought this back to life! Would love to shake each and everyone of their hands!!!
I really enjoy watching all your videos, it's amazing watching you get older equipment running that others might think are scrap.
That's my Grandfathers era of equipment . He was a lifelong roadbuilder , born in 1893 . Started out hauling gravel with a team and wagon , worked all over southern Ontario , got sent to Northern BC to help finish the Al -CAN highway in 1942 . Unfortunately he was dead and gone befor I had a chance to meet him.
45:36 "Wow, that is incredible archival footage of one in its original use!" "Oh wait, same people, same place." You nailed the effect, lol.
I would have loved to see the old bald guy drive it. When it first pulled out of the barn he had a smile a mile long. Great job to everyone.
Dedication! We have a local air museum in Terrell Texas that is dedicated to WWII gliders that has a small dozer (could be the same as the one on your video?) on display that was carried and delivered in a glider! Those glider pilots were trained in Terrell Texas and must have had balls of steel. Most of the gliders crashed or were damaged on landing, the museum has one of the few intact gliders in existence.
i like at 38:00 how it rolls out exactly as it would have originally....driver with a smoke
23:50 'Lest we forget:' "Freedom is NOT FREE."
"THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD
AS WE THAT ARE LEFT GROW OLD.
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM,
NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN.
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN,
AND IN THE MORNING,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
Written for the First "Great War," but applies to ALL wars.
Thank you gents for a fitting tribute.
No idea how this channel popped into my YT (probably the Tank Museum, Aussie Tank, Mr Hewes stuff etc!) but very glad to be acquainted with Marty T’s Channel. This one is particularly good.
About 8 years ago, there was one of them at the Zagray Farm Show in Colchester, CT, USA. It had been restored and the guy was driving it around. I talked with him for a while. It was so tiny compared to the D-8s we had when I was a combat engineer. I haven't seen it since. Good Luck, Rick
Mike & Malc best bosses I've had. Great to see Mike still loving his old gear
Wonderful restoration of an unsung hero of the front line of WW2. These little guys made it so bigger equipment could be brought in.
GREAT Restoration, Guys! You should be proud of yourselves! And thanks for having my Great Uncles poem up, too! Yes - I'm a relative of Lt-Col John MacCrae!
Read the Japanese would sit on the surrounding cliffs and watch in ( relative ) admiration at the mechanized speed at which the Americans built airstrips, while they had shovels and wheelbarrows. Nice to see one of the machines they must have been looking at, thank you for posting.
Fantastic piece of equipment. A testament that simple is better because after 80yrs and 50 of those just sitting outside…it can be still made to work.
Very impressive but the last part when you made it look like a 1940’s film that was a very nice touch.
A years for something like this is pretty damn fast. Nice work!
Thanks for taking us all along on this journey.
Totally love seeing old machines coming back to life .
Kind regards from the UK
Thank you mates for preserving American history.We are dying as a nation,we have raised a generation of communists and are under control of a dictator,God help the free world.
hat off to the fine chaps the did all the work brilliant and thank for letting marty follow the biuld for use. cheers.
Nice shot of the flags on the door reminding us that freedom isn't free. Thank you Marty.
Kiwi ingenuity and humour, a laugh a minute Marty and a great video, well done the entire team what a cracking effort.
Great to see this restoration progressing. When I joined plant squadron in 1974 we still had a cat D7T with CCU control, manual box and pony start. It had reputedly been bought back from Italy at the end of the war. I often wondered what happened to it.
A great restoration. One of the best channels to see some great line boring on some big equipment is The Cutting Edge Engineering channel.
^^ This.
Well done Marty. I think we pushed to get this fixed. It’s a very important piece of history. Both for the US & us. What you can do if you work together. Not apart from each other. I hope people appreciate what’s going on here. Well done for taking an interest. & recording it. Cheers Marty
These guys are a national treasure and must be protected at all costs, they are a dying breed of men wh we’re largely self taught and just got on with the job at hand
Marty, could you ask Brownie which glue he uses to hold his roly on his bottom lip, please?
Bloody fantastic you blokes👍🇦🇺
That piece of equipment is a brilliant piece. I could use that on my ranch for sure. Surely a company should make a scraper of that size and make a profit. Those boys work as fast as I do these days. Perfect. Bless them for doing as they did. Thanks so much for the documentary on their progress.
everyone has gone to box scrapers now for smaller jobs. I was thinking the same thing though. You can still get a pull behind grader but you need a 2nd person to run it.
super cool! i have a WWII 1944 Clark Carloader forklift that was in army and airforce service. i use it all the time
Excellent. Wow what a treasure thank you for documenting and sharing. Thank you to the owner of the Excavation Company for supporting this awesome historical project & not to forget the lead mechanic & helpers
Exerllent work Team and REM feller's too!!!
That turned great. Good job to your buddies.
the years of experience was evident in seeing that group of seasoned fellas at work. id enjoy riding shotgun with any of them for a day.
Back from the dead. Sure don't build them like they used to. Surprised you were able to find any parts. Brilliant!
Great job guys - that cool it can only be measured on the Kelvin scale.
Bravo! Just starting on my CA-1. The inspiration for these dozers came from the Forest Service in Portland Oregon. They designed what was designated as the trail tractor for pushing out Forest service trails
The smiles say it all. Great work fellas!
Linebore welding machines are so cool. I love machine work.
Yes I was impressed.. I think Blair and Luke should start a TH-cam channel, Clever boys
Check out Cutting Edge Engineering channel. That Kurtis bloke down under does a lot of welding using line boring machine.
That thing was super cool!
At 41:30 I’m about crying this is been such a long project and she looks and sounds great! Love the seat they made and it’s adorable! How much does she weigh? What type of fuel? I love the paint job! Okay I’ll watch the rest now. Love this so much! My favorite part is when he said he made some parts out of an old hand saw, and you panned to said saw… very cool!
Second favorite part is the black and white old film touch your added 45:38
The best thing about this video is seeing them drop the blade and use the scraper.lovely restored but fit for use.keep up the good work and greetings from Ireland🇮🇪
That is as significant a piece of WWII memorabilia as any restored Bren Gun Carrier, Jeep or Harvard. I am well impressed. The fact that it WORKS is chocolate icing on the cake. I want to see it one day. I want to see it WORKING one day. Congratulations and thanks to all involved. Lest we forget.