I know diesels can be hard to start in winter. When I worked for a truck rental outlet, sometimes we had to use additives to keep it from gelling in the cold weather. My father was in Korea from 1955/56 during his hitch with the Army, he remembers starting diesel trucks on gasoline, let them idle for 30 seconds to a minute to warm up and then shifted the fuel lever to diesel and they were good to go.
The diesel truck I worked on use Cat engines, and was tested by the Army in Fairbanks. Preferred fuel is JP-8 which is aircraft kerosene with a deicer (and other additives). We had a gizmo to burn some of the kerosene to warm up the batteries before starting the engine, and to warm the engine coolant.