Nicks Blog | Old Caterpillar D8 moves a tiger

[RSS Bot]

Here is another stunning old photo from good friend of the digger blog Bob Rocker, Bob is a military historian and specialises in construction machinery used in military applications during world war two.

The photo shows an armoured Caterpillar D8 pushing a German King Tiger tank off the road in the spring of 1945.


Bob suggests that a D8 back in those days was only putting out around 140hp but this model did have a fair bit of torque. The operator probably had to push at one end of the tank to the other to get it off the road.

In comparison one of today's modern D8T's has a gross horsepower of 347 hp and would just push a tank like that easily in one movement!

We would love to hear from any old Cat specialists who can identify the exact model of this old dozer.

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http://www.sed365.com/digger-blog/2010/04/old_caterpillar_d8_moves_a_tig.html

[Julian]

The Tiger weighed over 60 tons I think. Would that dozer have been able to push it sideways? I could see it moving it forwards or backwards with the tank in neutral gear.

I think the dozer's tracks would have just slipped on the road surface. (regardless off available engine horsepower!)

Julian.

[Martyn Henley]

68.8tons to be exact Julian ... the Porshe turret version was slightly lighter at 68.5tons

Martyn