When all Tractors were Green

Fatamus

Member
It all started on December 7th 1941 and the color was Olive Drab Green, OD Green to you and me. All American foundries and industries started painting Drab and were aimed at the war effort. Industry for the first time in modern history had a common goal. It was a different time and place but the machines left behind from that by-gone era still run today.
That plop, plop, plop of yesterday still echos it our local valley, I feel when that is gone a large part of us will be missing as well. So keep your Old Iron tuned and running, tired as it may be, even if it is just to putt out to pull the new stuff back to the shop.
Be sure to support the troops that ran them too.

1941 IH T-9 BE

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Farmers could still buy red Farmalls all through WWII. Now, rubber tires were hard to get, but the red tractors weren't.
 
More of an abstract than a fact. And yes some tractors were available in that era but they were far and few between.
As the foundries and die and tooling industries geared for war most American companies used what supplies they had at hand by the time those supplies were shot Government contracts rolled out and a lot of farmers went off to war. Thus leaving one main source of income for the companies.
A few leftover tractors of color were sold, yes, but not close to the numbers in previous years because the lion shear of the labor, parts, materials and metals were earmarked for the war effort.
My attempt was to leave a homage for OD Green Tractors of ALL makes and colors and the men that worked them.
Fat Dan 8)
 
When I was a kid in the 60's, a neighbor had a Farmall M built during the war and it was brown, he said that was the only color they had. It's also the only brown M I have ever seen. Chris
 
No sir. Some are tractors I took pictures of at shows. A few are pics I saved from the net. I've always felt a connection to war tractors. I lost two relatives in WWII. One at Normandy, one on the Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and the survivors were not rescued and left to the sharks. Also, one of my farm neighbors flew B-17s and another was in an engineering group and ran an IH TD-? crawler just like Fatamus pictured here. Said he was never more scared in his life as when he and his guys were chased down the streets by a German Tiger tank.
 
My dad and grand-dad sold Farmalls during the war
[and after]. American agriculture was considered
a BIG part of the "war effort," and there were no
restrictions on farmers buying a new tractor
during the war. How do you think America got fed,
when most of the young men were being sent off to
war? We sure as heck didn't import the food! The
government actually encouraged farmers to become
more efficient, and a tractor replacing a pair of
mules was a great way to increase productivity, to
feed both the nation AND the military men fighting
for us.

Yes, there was gasoline rationing; but farmers
could generally get a "C" card, which meant
virtually unlimited gasoline for ag purposes.
Plus, many of the wartime tractors were set up to
run on kerosene or "distillate"...so those would
start on gasoline, and then switch over.

But tractors weren't rationed...and NO, the
"majority" of tractor production was NOT
"allocated" to the military. This wasn't the
Soviet Union, and the government didn't have GI's
out there on government-owned tractors raising the
crops. If a farmer could get by with a tractor on
steel wheels, rather than insisting on rubber
tires, tractors were NOT hard to get...AT ALL.

Faramll H production:
1942, 40,850 tractors
1943, 28,854 tractors
1944, 28,160 tractors
1945, 35,872 tractors.

That's 133,736 Farmall H tractors built in "the
war years."

Farmall M production:
1942, 9023 tractors
1943, 7413 tractors
1944, 20,661 tractors
1945, 17,479 tractors.

That's 54,576 Farmall M tractors built in "the war
years."

Or 188,312 combined.

The US Military did NOT buy 180,000 Farmall H and
M tractors during WWII. Nope. DID NOT HAPPEN.
It would be more likely that FARMERS bought
180,000 Farmall H and M tractors, and the military
bought 8,000 [or less].

It was the MILITARY tractors that were the rare
ones.
 
Was the one raring up pulling the sled at Dick Ericsons show a few years ago? Looks like Tonya with the flag. I was pulling a wagon to bring spectators to the pull site that day.
 
You mean the intake. No I did not; and if you look close the track on the left side is on backwards too. I inherited the T-9 from my father-in-law, and Poppa, God bless his heart, was not a mechanic but the ol boy could farm. Being a farm boy from Kadoka, South Dakota I think he had dirt in his veins. Who cares if he could or couldn't turn a wrench, he was shot down twice in WWII; he flew in the 27th Fighter Bomber Squadron. He was berated by Gen. G. Patton for being out of uniform on his way back across enemy lines after being shot down over Catania, Italy. That story came from his wing-man Jack Hestrege. He was involve in the 2000th sortie over Italy with Jack and a hand full of other guys. I have some pictures here somewhere with them standing around a large easel. His handle was Joker!
Later
Fat
 
Neighbor bought a 1944 D4 Cat that was painted Camo. After several years, they re-painted it yellow. My brother bought it in the late 60's and I painted it a fresh coat of yellow.

He's retired from farming, so the D4 sets in the old machine shed.
 
I doubt that you are stupid, you just made a little slip as we all do from time to time. Also the war effort did not start until 1942 ending in 1945. the 41 IH dozer was not a war time machine.
 
My understanding with Caterpillar and much of the same kind of earthmoving or heavy equipment being produced during the 2nd world war is that the government had so many purchase orders with Caterpillar and others, that civilian sales were highly restricted, given the need for this kind of equipment to win the war in 2 theaters, as well as the need for huge civil projects like the Al-Can Highway that was built concurrently during the 2nd world war.

I am under the impression that Caterpillar did paint everything they manufactured in that period, olive drab green, but its speculation, not sure if that is entirely true, but the government bought 10,000 tractors at a time with some models, like the D7 tractor. Thankfully the war ended before some of those purchase orders were filled, so there was a lot of surplus tractors in O.D. Green that ended up all over the world, much of it here in the U.S. some still turn up in original O.D. green. Lets also not forget the lusterless drab blue paint used for marking these tractors with nomenclature.

Lot of green paint under the yellow on this old one that resides at my place, layers of it actually.
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Not to disagree with you, it may have been different where you lived. I was very much around during that time and I don't ever remember seeing a farm tractor painted OD.
Before the war we lived in Burbank Ca. across the street from Lockeed Aircraft and I remember being puzzled about the cameo aircraft. My dad said it was because there was going to be a war. I was even more confused. We came back to the farm in Texas when the war started. The first tractors I ever remember seeing, except a steam tractor that pulled the peanut thrasher to our field, was at the State fair. The thing that impressed me most was all of the bright colors. I have not, to this day seen a farm tractor painted olive green. I have seen a few bulldozers painted OD. I also remember, when I was a kid, seeing a new 1943 Chevy car, the emblem actually had GMC on it. It was painted OD with a white star on the door, They didn't make cars in 43 right?
 
The 2n Ford came out in 42. It was painted the same mousy grey as the 9n which came out in 39. The only difference, it had a magneto rather than a distributer , no battery, starter or generator and most had iron wheels. It was really just a modification of the 9n because of shortages but, there was no shortage of mousy grey paint.
 
Yes logistics would dictate that the war effort did not start until 1942. NOW I COULD BE WRONG but from the way I understand it the serial numbers my T-9 was made in early 1941. The Eng. Serial No. is TCBM-2293-T, which means that my T-9 had been earmarked for the military from its inception. The casting No. I'm not sure about, I just read about them yesterday. 8318-D
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IHC never painted tractors brown at manufacture. There was a time during WWII when IHC had to change the formulation of its red paint due to material shortages. The reformulated paint gradually turned brown when exposed to sunlight. This I got from a friend who has been an IHC salesman for over 50 years.
 
Yes, there were restrictions on buying a new tractor. First you had to go to a goverment office and prove you had a need for one. And only after they approved your need they would fill out the papers so you were allowed to buy one. Next you were put on a list of who was allowed to buy one. And if you wanted that Farmall and the Allis dealer was able to get one in and your name was next on the list you either took that Allis or your name was dropped to the bottom of the list and the next guy on the list got the chance at that Allis. Dad had to go thru all of this to get the 44 2N Ford that I still have and use. I think that by that time you could chose the Make you wanted but not in the first year of the war. Dad did not have to serve because he could not pass the eye test to see.
 

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