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BlueBelle

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BlueBelle last won the day on November 24 2023

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  • Location
    Calgary, Canada, for now!
  • Interests
    British Army vehicles 1945-66. Unit histories 1945-66. Mil hist. Writing. Music. Cooking. Libya
  • Occupation
    Brit Businesswoman and owner at www.taylorandtaylorconsultants.com

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  1. Another unusual ERM, on a Cromwell 1 used for training, one of 30 'pre-duction' (the caption states) models made in mild steel. Not Libya, not really my topic, but I thought it may interest others.
  2. There is one in the UK undergoing a full restoration. Can't say more as I'm 'sworn to secrecy' by the vehicle owner.
  3. If you are indeed rambling then its fine by me as yours are enjoyable, relevant and of value to our fields of interest . Don't stop, except to get a cup of tea. As for today's museums, archives, archivists and the ethos within....don't get me started... again. In the process of moving back to the UK from a colony, the topic of what to do eventually with the original photographic collection presents questions and frustrations as I don't want them to be lost forever, nor do I want the electronic images wherever I put them to 'not be there' tomorrow for whatever reason. I need a permanent gallery perhaps.... but how? Oh well, I'll worry about it later! Yes, Halftracks and M32 ARVs...in Libya, fascinating topic. Keep on keeping on with them. Even the little Humber CT too, that I'd not thought 6RTR had in Libya has turned up in a colour slide but I can't make out the ERM.
  4. A pleasure, as usual, to read your comments 10FM68 and to receive your very welcome advice. Thank you. I have managed to spell jerrican both ways in my book draft! I will also need an editor who has more that just an 'idea' of what I've written about so that all materialises in a true, factually accurate and readable form..... I'd hate it if I were to be picked up or mocked for getting basics and facts wrong, even after using an editor! Nearly there with the 6RTR in Libya book but new stuff keeps coming in and I'm loathe to keep it and the photos out of the narrative. It's a longer than anticipated process but really enjoyable building the regiment's history, especially through original photographs and the intelligence they provide. Some original colour photos here last week of a DT on the Garian Pass loaded with the DAK Sexton (from Ice Cold in Alex) making its way to be used as a 6RTR range hard target and, it's being followed by one of the K2 (painted windscreen) ambulances from the film. Five new glorious colour slides arrived of Cambridge Load Carrier vehicles on trial with 6RTR.... bogged at Leptis Magna in the exact same spot where Centurions habitually got stuck. The slides also depict the recovery by an Explorer, using another Cambridge as a winching anchor. Enough wetting the appetites of the curious.... more work to be done. 😊
  5. Possibly another; from a very small poor quality image in the June 1951 RDG journal.... 00SA23 or is it 00ZR23? Of the many photos I have of Cromwells, Comets and Centurions (other armoured and B vehicles too) in 4/7 RDG Libya markings/liveries, none show an SA ERM. It is not unreasonable to suggest the SA is for Sabratha and the staged photo taken in winter around the time the regiment's ERMs and livery changed to the new system/Lt Stone livery (from an olive drab-type livery). Forgot to add: The other vehicle creeping in view in your photo is the drivers end of one of the regiment's Archer SPGs. Cromwell 00SA23 or 00ZR23 4:7 RDG Sabratha -from Dec 1951 journal .pdf
  6. She was! BlueBelle with three 'e's. Well remembered John 😊 I saw the video above a good few years ago. Of passing interest only as it wasn't a Libya one as far as I knew then. I now know the ERMs of not one but THREE FV421s that were trialled in Libya with 6RTR and even better, I write to the drivers of two of them and now have a wonderful photographic collection of them there, including five glorious colour slides of them, two bogged down on the Leptis Magna Training Area by the beach and being recovered by an Explorer which was using the third FV421 as a winching anchor (is that the correct recovery terminology, I wonder?). One of the Load Carriers had ditched it's artificial load of Centurion track links joined up in a circle, to make the dragging out of the bog a little easier, so thought I. All will feature in a stand-alone chapter in the history of 6RTR in Libya (WIP). Nice to look in here from time to time, especially when my sixth sense tells me to! 😊
  7. The 44 on the RAC flash relates to the period the 13/18H were the RAC AC regiment for 11 Armd Bde (black bull, yellow background formation mark) from which the regiment departed and went into 1 BR Corps with a 131 flash number. Methinks.
  8. No, seems it's not a '2'' but what looks like a unique '131' on the RAC flash. Images of vehicles of 13/18H in 1957 taken from lousy pdf reproductions of the 1956 and 57 regimental journals sent to me when researching AEC ACs in Libya in the late 1940s and 1950s. D. Taylor's Warpaint is lacking the AoS information, not for the first time either. Each sabre squadron of the regiment had a Heavy Troop consisting of two AEC ACs and one Dingo. So six AECs in all in the regiment and they spent most of their service in the care of the REME LAD.
  9. Prinn Barracks. I have photos of regimental sign at main gate. The regiment, perhaps less a battery who may have been in Jordan as part of Force O, were stationed at Prinn for less than a year. Intended to be part of Op Musketeer. Tell us more, please do.
  10. There never was a 26 Armoured Engineer Regiment. There was however, at Corunna barracks, 26 Engineeer Regiment which with 5, 25 & HQ squadrons when augmented by 2 Field Support Squadron, became 3 Armoured Division Engineer Regiment. The history is on the web and, in 1980, my brother joined the REME workshop attached to the regiment and.... I was in the district and knew my stuff. It was not the first time I or my brother were associated with the barracks for in 1955 it was named as Epsom Barracks and we were babies there as my father was the ASM REME of the LAD attached to 3KOH. The barber who cut my brother's hair 1980-84 was the very same one that had given him his first haircut in 1957 and remembered him for the trouble he gave and fight he gave our father in holding him still for hair chopping! Link:https://www.baor-locations.org/corunnabks.aspx.html
  11. Plain matt green with or without splodges of black or even shiny DBG is not a 'nice' livery for any vehicle when compared to Lt. Stone or even Lt. Stone and black/green splodges. A couple of Aden-based REME Halftracks in desert livery featured in Starfire's post a while ago, scroll through the link below. There are also plain Lt. Stone liveried REME Halftrack images elsewhere on the web. I have an unusual one too, an M5A1 with both a front jib and a 'never ever seen before' rear jib, albeit a smaller one!
  12. So you see Stableboy, I was right....I told you there would be someone on here who would know for sure what your collimator was for...even if it took ten years to get the answer! Now you just need a Centurion to fit it to. 😊
  13. Me too. I sent a message to Admin to inform them and to request reinstatement of my previous to the 19th, status. 'They' had also awarded me some badges....so said the new 'never been seen before' type of notifications. Weird or what?
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