Iwo Jima Drop Tank

I was digging through the 7th Fighter Command photo archives and found this little proto-lakester made from a P-51 drop tank. The photo caption reads,
"7th Air Force men used a little imagination, discarded belly tanks, plus a small engine to make this improvised car. They have nicknamed it "The Bug". Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands, 12 June 1945."

This is the only photo of the car in the archive. All of the groups photos can be found here: http://www.7thfighter.com/albums/index.php/

Brian

 

The birth of the type!

 

Somebody had to have the idea and possibly these two soldiers went on to build one of the very first belly tanks to put it to the test on the salt. HRP

 

Well that won't p*** the safety guys!

Cool pic.

Mike

 

this photo proves that hotrodders were everywhere !!!

 

Wasn't that Tom Beaty? That's what I thought I heard.

 

Bill Burke built the first tank that ran at the lakes when he came home after the war. Could have got the idea from these guys.

 

Those wire wheels are GREAT!!!

 

You never know what they will come up with when you get a couple of ingenious GI's and a pile of leftover pieces.

That one no doubt started out with a "what if?"

 

Nobody musta told em "Ya cant do that".

 

Thats sweet...

 

I haven't had any luck finding more information. I'm curious how much of the car is American and how much Japanese. I can't make out the letters on the tires, but there appear to be just enough to spell "Firestone" so I ***ume the wheels and tires arrived with the Marines/Seabees/AAF unless Firestone sold tires in Japan before the war.

 

Dang! A mid-engined belly with rumble seat! There's a couple of resourceful guys who found a way to have fun... you can tell by the driver's proud smile. Cool stuff!

 

That's really cool.

The wheels apear to be from a Harley Davidson WC Military Motorcycle.

 

The wheels are Harley Davidson Side Car wheels. The thing that is neat to me are the dust caps, this photo proves that Harley had a tapered dust cap. My Lyndwood rail has Harley wires, and early photos clearly show these dust caps. Somewere I've run across another photo of this car or another one like it that GIs build during WWII. Bob

 

He certainly could have...story I heard was that he was watching a ship offload belly tanks while he was in the service, and, being Bill Burke, realized what he could do with one.

(the other pictures on the site you attached are great, reminds of the price of victory...sailed by Iwo Jima once, it looks like a floating mummy case)