"Penso che sia la seconda guerra mondiale, non capisco la necessità di montare la benna in quella posizione con questa conformazione della macchina, era un aratro forse per fare dei solchi tipo trincee ma penso che quella benna sia poco funzionale per il tipo di macchina , ho sbagliato? scusate la traduzione..sono italiano.."
Translation - I think it's the Second World War, I don't understand the need to mount the bucket in that position with this shape of the machine, it was a plow perhaps to make furrows like trenches but I think that bucket is not very functional for the type of machine, I wrong? sorry for the translation..I'm Italian..
I strongly suspect it is an Italian VENDER track loader, fitted with a very unique backhoe-style bucket.
I would hazard an educated guess that it was a Vender track loader prototype, possibly built for a military contract to excavate troop trenches.
It's interesting, in that I've seen Vender crawlers here in Australia, and a few have survived - but I have never seen any photos or brochures on any Vender track loader - making me suspect it was a prototype.
It dates from the mid-to-late 1950's, because it's got reasonably modern looking hydraulics fitted to it.
A WW2 machine would still be cable control or have a very crude hydraulic system. Those bucket hydraulics are quite a sophisticated design.
The Wikipedia link below gives some information on Vender. They were based in Milan, and appear to have commenced crawler manufacturing in the late 1930's (I think the company was in operation long before this time) - and their initial contract was supplying tractors to the Italian military, before and during WW2.
So, the fact that Vender started off with military contracts indicates to me they continued in that field after WW2.
I have no knowledge of what the Italian military strength and size was in the 1950's, but I would expect it was only a token military force.
After WW2, it appears Vender set out on an export drive, but they struggled to make much of a mark in the crawler manufacturing field, and the company was purchased by Allis Chalmers in the early 1960's.
The Vender company had a wonderful and rousing choice of model names - Vender Bully, Vender Champion, Vender Conqueror, and Vender Destroyer!
All the Venders here were sold in the early 1950's when farming was booming, and much development work such as clearing, was still required.
They faded away in popularity relatively quickly due to a lack of service and parts backup.
There was also a PEGASO-VENDER tractor, built in Spain, utilising Vender components and technology - but I can find little about them, either - apart from the fact they changed the brand name to Empresa after only a couple of years.
it.wikipedia.org
Made in Italy. By courtesy of Nicola De Biase.
www.album-mmt.it
