It has always been rumoured that they were used on grass airfields for towing fighters out on to the runways but other than the picture Neil attached which I believe is from a museum in Holland, I have never seen any photos of MG crawlers in use. I have seen quite a few photos of crawlers painted in military livery including American army. I have a copy of a Ransomes book which details what went on with ransomes during the second world war it shows lots of photos of ploughs and crtawlers being made alongside artillery guns and aircraft parts but no aircraft towing.
Just been going back through recent completed listing on E Bay Ransomes MG and found an RAF liveried MG2 sold around 21st November. The seller says that it was used on airfields for grass cutting , his father showed it towing a starter pack for aircraft. So maybe more than rumour.
Thanks for the info about the liveried MG sold online. I’ve had a look and kept a few images for future reference.
I did have a search a while back to see if there was any contemporary evidence of MGs with the RAF, but I found nothing.
There was a David Brown roadless on tracks but apparently it was found to cause too much damage to the airfield and was subsequently converted to tyres. I have a photo somewhere when I find it.
I have a wartime david brown aircraft tractor. They replaced the fordson model n for heavy work as they were not man enough to shift a bogged down aircraft being prone to clutch slip under heavy loads. The david brown was originally used in crawler form but as already stated they tended to damage the grass runways. They were returned to david brown and converted back to wheels. Mine has a torque converter transmission where gears are selected by braking the fluid flywheel via a hand lever. An 11000 lb winch also operates through the fluid transmission making everything smooth and controlled.
Although these tractors were designed for heavy four engined bombers I cannot see a ransomes tractor being used for even a light single seater fighter. I think it is just someone’s over active imagination.
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