John Deere Armored A1 Tractors

[M715VFD405]

I'm not sure if these have been posted before but I saw a quick clip of them on a farming channel today and looked them up. Pretty cool idea but they were hard to see out of. The V wheeled one was hard to turn in mud, and with the old steel seats and top armor if you hit a bump you would hit your head, someone testing them got knocked out in this manner. Still really cool and thought I would share them. Here are a few pics I found and a link to an article about them.





http://blog.machinefinder.com/8629/...atured-in-memorial-day-parades-across-america

 

[marchplumber]

Were they artillery/wagon movers? Primary purpose?

God bless,
Tony

 

[poppop]

They have been posted, as I did it myself I think. But its great to have someone else find it and post it up. These were covered in a two-cylinder magizene several years ago. One of their main faults were that the angle of the guns allowed the gunners to shoot out their own tires. The big thing is all manufacturers contributed to the war effort and turned their lines into making matieral for the War effort.

 

[M715VFD405]

They were some kind of prototype and they did have weapons so I'm not sure what they would have been used for, but since it is basically a tractor with guns and armor I figured it fit in here.

 

[Jimc]

haha thats cool. never saw one of those. imagine the looks i would get when i brush hog my property with that!!

 

[poppop]

They were actually tested by the Army and deemed unfit for battle field operation. John deere built tank transmissions for the War.

 

[Cleptomaniac]

Very cool!

 

[bchauvette]

Planting corn under enemy fire?

 

[Another Ahab]

I mowed across a nest of bumblebees once when bush-hogging:

- Wonder if I would have been better off in this thing?

Truth is: Anything would have been better than staying on that old Ford. That was not a good day.

 

[capnkirk]

Looks like the Killdozer

 

[EmbarkChief]

I mowed across a nest of bumblebees once when bush-hogging:

- Wonder if I would have been better off in this thing?

Truth is: Anything would have been better than staying on that old Ford. That was not a good day.

Been there and done that! Man those things hurt, they don't forget either.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Looks like something somebody thought up on a dark night with lots of beer as part of the defense if somebody ever tries to land and conquer the USA. Would have been a cool prop in the old English serial Dad's Army

 

[Another Ahab]

Saw some note mentioned the ordnance was .30 caliber (but no other detail):

 

[Danger Ranger]

Yes Deere produced these prototypes in the early 40s in competition with Massy Harris, Farmall, and others. There was never more than a few made of the narrow front model, which is a typical John Deere model A underneath all that heavy armor. The tractor produces roughly 24 HP, and is not all that fast. The wide-front model is the only one of its kind and was destroyed, the model in the pic above was custom built by a collector. There is a page or more about it on the web somewhere.

The army didn't like them because the ride was rough, the tractor had next to 0 maneuverability, and it was louder than all getout, esp for the guys on each side that manned the Browning M1919s. The tractors had rubber tires on the outside, but ran duals with steel lug wheels on the inside, working like runflats, and getting better traction in the mud and sand. They also got very hot under the armor, and didn't have vents like halftracks even.


I am a Deere collector and grew up with them. We have maybe 25 tractors and backhoes all Deere, and I became very interested in these awhile back when I stumbled upon them on the interwebs...

Here are some links:
http://www.johnnypopper.com/weirddeere/Military.html
http://www.fototime.com/D1EF6AB7D8AC4C3/orig.jpg
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?14703-Farm-Tractors-in-Military-Service/page2
http://www.warwheels.net/JohnDeereMGtractorRoss.html