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'Ow dey do dat den ?


raf753

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I watched (for the umpteenth time) 'Sea Bees' on the box .Yes , I am a sad old fart .

But , I don't know if any of you have ever spotted in the film that the Japanese 'tank' that gets bulldozed off a cliff has the running gear of an M2 Half Track , making it probably the only full track half track ever done .

Now this got me to thinking (had to lie down afterwards) , how the heck did they get the drive to work ?

In some shots , it is obviously running under its own steam .

Did they have an engine in the facsimile armoured body ?

Were the evil japanese crew pedalling like stink on a cunning bike adaption ?

Was it towed by an invisible cable ?

Were a lot of extras pushing it ?

Did John Wayne's hot air blow it along ?

We gots ta know !!

 

Mike

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But , I don't know if any of you have ever spotted in the film that the Japanese 'tank' that gets bulldozed off a cliff has the running gear of an M2 Half Track , making it probably the only full track half track ever done .

 

Mike,

 

Does it look anything like this? I´m asking because I know the movie industry converted a Marmon-Herrington tractor in the 1940s and converted it to look like a tank. I have pictures (which I will dig up later) of the actual vehicle, which survives to this day.

 

Hanno

uslt-MarmonHerringtonCTL3A.jpg

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Hanno ,

That looks remarkably similar .

Without looking at the film again (aarrrrrrgh!!!!!!) I could not be certain .

However , my recollection , and that of my son (who is the smart ass who really

spotted it) is of a perfect knock off of the M2 gear with a quite high superstructure built on . The superstructure was reminiscent of the M5 tank , especially at the back . It did have a fixed 'turret' though ,with evil japanese commmanderoo rooking out of hatch .

Anyway , thanks Hanno , we may have to wait to see if there was more than one built . Interesting , the one in your photo . I wonder what films that was in ?

 

Mike

 

ps ----we watched the film to see the WW2 vehicles in it , particularly a rather nice Ford similar to the German pattern

that my son happens to be making a model of .That's my excuse anyway .

Edited by raf753
forgot something
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I thought the running gear looked the same , Knowing Hollywood I discounted the upper body as that would have been made of plywood or sheet metal and easily changed , it just needs to LOOK good .

I had no luck finding anything further on the "tanks" in The Fighting Seabees perhaps someone else will find the information , I had a memory of some link of that mystery tank to a earlier Laurel and Harty film , again I m ready to be corrected .

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