In the real world, we routinely acknowledge the advances made in farm practice through mechanisation. My articles about the Women’s Land Army published previously in TFH mentioned how this was spurred on throughout the Second World War in particular when farmers were being urged to grow more food. Output was closely aligned to innovation, then as now. While the Fordson F tractor is rightly singled out as a star performer throughout this period, the importance of crawlers is often played down or even completely overlooked.
It was largely through the utilisation of tracked machines produced by Caterpillar, International Harvester, Allis-Chalmers, and other manufacturersacres of unproductive land finally brought into regular crop production. Indeed, had it not been for the crawler tractor, many of the airfields would not have been constructed as fast as they were, nor would roads, factories and homes re-built without them in the post-war years.