I have been doing some research on the prime movers used by the US Marine Defense Battalions during WWII for their Seacoast Gun Groups. As far as I can tell, the areliest Gun Groups were equipped with pedistal mounted 5"/51Naval guns. 6th Defense Bn at Midway had a couple of 7" Naval Guns, but they were not mounted in time for the battle of Midway.

Theree are references in the Marine History monographs about the use of catepillar tractors (D-8's I believe) for reconaisance of position on Midway, but no indication as to what equipment was used to transpot the guns and mountings from the landing barges to the battery positions. Obviously, the seacoast gun groups on Samoa, Wake, Palmyra and Johnston Is. had the same issues. Any idea as to what was used? References?

Later in the war, the Seacoast Gun Groups upgraded to the 155mm GPF guns and subsequently to the M1 (M-59/M-114) 155mm Gun. As near as I can tell, with each of these upgrades in hardware, the Marines stuck with the tried and true method of using catepillar tractors as the prime movers for the Defense Bns. I have seen a couple of late war pics showing TD-9 and TD-18 tracros being used to pull both 155mm guns and 90mm AA guns from landing craft.

Question: Does anyone make a 1/35 kit for either the TD-9 or the TD-18 tractor?

Thanks,
Whisky6

Hi sorry but I got carried away before.

Only one I could find is a D 6 plus model

Bob

Bob -

Thanks for the source. I'm not sure my skills are up to snuff for scratch-building all of th modifications I would need to make to have the D-6 represent either a holt 5 ton tractor or a TD9.

How did you so your search to find the D-6 tractor? I need to get better at this.

Thanks again.

Dave

David, I have the Resicast D-7. I had a few emails with Resicast concerning doing a International TD-9 or TD-18. There was much interest at the time. Send them an email and see if they decided to produce one.

Resicast