Author: Dima Shuman
After the start of the Vietnam campaign, the American army faced a new and unknown enemy - the Vietnamese jungle. Dense and damp vegetation interfered with the normal movement of troops and armored vehicles, and for the construction of the bases "greenery" had to be mowed down naturally in tens of square kilometers. Well, Johnny, they're in the trees, of course. The dense undergrowth provided an ideal hideout for the combat groups of the Vietnamese army.
The in-house engineering equipment did not pull such a volume of work, herbicides acted too slowly, napalm also worked so-so in high humidity conditions. The problem required a radically new approach. Therefore, in 1967, the military turned to LeTourneau and asked for something strange.
It should be noted that this company generally specialized in strange and chthonic things. They had a history of a super-heavy amphibious truck, a tow truck of landing boats and, as the apotheosis of the senseless and merciless, a two-hundred-meter-long freight road train of 12 motorized trailers.
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95 25 . , . , . , " " V12 (14,0 , 475 ..). , . «-» , .
Transphibian Tree Crusher (). «» , . , , . , , , . «» . . 8 «» 32 (129'000 . ) . , 7 .
« », . , . - - , . . , — 100- , , . , "" , , , "" .
1968 - . , , , . «» , — , .
As a result, taking into account all the shortcomings and the cost of correcting them, the US Army was forced to abandon the "jungle layers" in favor of traditional methods and "agent orange". The cars were returned to the company (logistic services went through their small branch of hell in the opposite direction), the Vietnam War ended in what is known as LeTourneau, and continued to produce strange and chthonic equipment for cargo transportation and mining.
By the way, until recently it was possible to ride one of the TTSs as an attraction in Canada, Mackenzie County.
Author: Dima Shuman