An old seafaring man told me once, he was on a ship in the middle of the Pacific when they heard the war was over. They were carrying tanks, Jeeps, etc., & they just pushed everything overboard & turned around. Also heard of an island somewhere in the Pacific that had a big volcanic crater, where the US forces had pushed all the equipment at the end of the war. The natives had made foot trails down into the crater & packed Jeeps & trucks out Johnny Cash style-one piece at a time...there was still WWII stuff running all over the island in the 70's...& the "parts dept." wasn't empty yet.

From what I remember, my Dad having been a machinery dealer, I'd have to agree with Ozdozer on just how badly US manufacturers and dealers, and new-deal politicians, wanted the lend-lease equipment to stay away from home. You have to remember that the US went into WWII directly from the great depression. The last thing they wanted was massive unemployment all over again--a glut of equipment and a glut or returning workers for factories that couldn't sell their production.

Did they over react? Maybe, maybe not.

Jack

Oz this is an antique tractor site so we dont need to do history lesson here but our history text books used in our schools say that most of the debt owed to us from WWII was FORGIVEN (not repaid) as in most every loan we ever made to other countries, now we just call it aide (international welfare).
I'm no fan of Mr Bush and his war but I see all the appiciation and suport we are getting from our allies and thier citizens. LOL

I agree with what you say about big biz thats why our prisons and institutes are breaking us, they were forced to stop producing anything even for their own use.

I just need to correct my earlier dating on the Lend-Lease Act .. it was initially instigated 11th Mar, 1941 .. the Feb 23 1942 agreement was just a more comprehensive and updated agreement.

I realise this is a tractor site, and history lessons aren't normally a part of it. However, I felt that a little discussion to balance out what I felt was an untrue statement was the order of the day.
Admittedly, a very large part of the War Materiel debt was forgiven .. however that debt became larger than need be, due to the circumstances of the day.
Much of that debt was accumulated because of wastage .. errors in planning .. and failure to refurbish and return equipment .. as originally envisioned by Roosevelt. That the Industrialists had a big hand in increasing U.S. taxpayers losses, is something that is rarely discussed.

An old farmer friend told me how he was instructed to drive hundreds of near new Jeeps out into the wooded areas, up to a couple of hundred miles South of Darwin .. and drain all fluids .. and leave them running with a brick on the accelerator.
My father told me of his wartime buddies telling him, how they took entire shiploads of new Jeeps, trucks, tractors, weapons and associated equipment (much of it still in waterproof wrappings) .. out to Sea, off Fremantle in Western Australia .. until they reached the edge of the Continental Shelf (extremely deep water) .. and under explicit instructions .. pushed it all overboard.

In case of these scenarios, I consider it wrong to big-note oneself, and say that the Allied nations huge assistance bill was totally forgiven .. when the bill was vastly larger than needed be .. due to the original spirit and concept of the agreement having been abandoned .. and massive waste, was the order of the day ..

In this case .. Roosevelts famous speech about lending his neighbor a hose .. and getting his hose back, or suitable compensation, in lieu of another hose .. would alter the scenario totally .. to one of Roosevelt chopping up his hose after the neighbor had finished fighting his fire .. and then saying .. "Well, I've just lost a $15 hose, helping you fight your fire .. but I'll put that down, to one you owe me! .. "

Lend-Lease .. www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWlendlease.htm

WW2 supply problems .. www.quartermaster.army.mil/OQMG/professi...%20During%20WWII.htm

Has anyone got any info on D4's in their wartime colours?looking for markings info. etc
Thanks

I was reading Thomas Wilk's excellent book Caterpillar 75 years again last night and on page 21 it states that "another manufacturer was supplied with original cat parts to build the 4T model for caterpillar", is this correct?

Do we know who the other manufactuer(s) were?