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smleno4

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About smleno4

  • Birthday 05/21/1934

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  • Location
    Dorset
  • Interests
    Photography & military history
  • Occupation
    Retired

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  1. Scammell on the salt flats registration not known
  2. 1956 Jan Egypt. Yes Lizzie, you've hit the nail on the head again - good job you were not our OC LAD as you would have sussed this one out before anybody else did! A half track (Signallers having a cabbie)) was swanning around the perimeter at the back of El Ballah camp in the afternoon and decided to let it rip away from the camp not knowing there were miles and miles of salt flats north of the camp where nobody ever went and it didn't get far before it got hung up on its underside. The Scammel went out and that too got bogged down while he was attempting to winch it out fifty yards or more away. There was nothing left but to get the ARV out and it is the one in your photo that eventually got them both out. By then it was dark and all the officers and NCO's were well entrenched in their respective messes a couple of miles away sinking a few jars as usual. I nipped out and got a few pics before the ARV came out. (worth a bob or two, vested interests!) The ARV remained in the Canal Zone where we understood it was going to be scrapped. Our unit was employed destroying stores at the Ord depots for months before we were shipped out by LSTs, the last active regt to do so. Your photographer John Newton must have been on another jolly at the end, collecting our left-overs for the OFP - it appears to be on the same salt flats! Pete Roberts our Recce mech did not want anybody to know about this, neither did the Signals guy. We lost a Dakota fuselage over the barbed wire where this happened days, before this event and if we had left it there until the morning all the loose parts on our two trucks would have been stripped off by local bandits. Another story from Egypt. Max
  3. Thought I would post a pic of your veh 94BD67 which is the best I have showing the side and the extension chests which now appear long gone. The year is 1958 and we were on a round robin exercise travelling every other day and firing the regiments 5.5's the next day on a different training area. So the first was Salisbury Plain, followed by Thetford, Otterburn, Wales and Dartmoor and back to Salisbury. The Scammell did some work on the way, spares being flown in by Heli at least once and a gun overturned too! The photo shows the LAD column just after getting stopped by the police for a word in my 'shell like' between the Lake District and Preston - I was driving the binner with trailer (& my iron bedstead in it), at the front of the column. Happy days! The regt's CO was trying to show off to the GOC even though he was ex Desert Rats. Max
  4. Re: The weight plate I have not got any photos of this on 94BD67 but I have found one from an earlier Scammell we had - very similar to yours and that is 23 over 14. I'll try to post a couple of photos but not sure they will come out a reasonable size. Both this veh and 94BD67 had extension tool chests on rear and not sure if the extra weight makes any difference. Max
  5. Two suprises at once! Sorry this is quite a long one but thought you would find it interesting. It was a great surprise to find an old friend getting a rub down in your back yard and I’ve got Bluebelle to thank for that! No it’s not her - but your 1955 Scammell! She wouldn’t take kindly to a session with a ‘Card Scratching Armourers’ (file card). I went out with 3RHA to Egypt in Feb 1954 where we had a different Scammell & ARV. Two years later we all moved up (Vehs & 25pdr Sextons by LST) to Libya early in 1956 (now part of 10th Armd Div). The photo BlueBelle posted on here shows the LAD and your new Scammell, Cent ARV and Pete Roberts, our Recovery mech. I took the photo at Homs on an Admin parade. Pete is the lance jack standing in front of it. When I left the Army in 1960 he was a Sgt and my MQ next door neighbour. The second surprise I had was after looking through my photos 1957/60 of Bulford & Perham Down, believe it or not, your Scammell was again with us, now in 3rd Infantry Div UK. The story behind how it was shipped from Libya and reissued to us in Bulford I will never know. Even the personel weapons were left in Libya plus all our equipment, vehs and Sextons. The small arms metalwork was so shiny being the armourer, I was hand painting with PFU Olive drab most of the Stens & Bren guns as the rustproofing (Browning) had worn off with continuous use in the Canal Zone during the troubles there – pleased to get rid of them and start again with refurbished kit. So you would be authentic to have our tac signs on your workmate. It was No.74 in Libya along with the Rhino in white on black with a white circle on the RH side or more appropriate in UK, No 46 (in 1957/59) or No 32 around 1959/60 along with the 3 Inf Div triangles. We had the RHA Cypher cap badge(about 10” high) on both cab doors. All our REME personal wore the RHA cap badges on their battledress lapels and mostly proud to do so. Most REME Wksps had REME badges all over their Scammells – usually cast locally in ali within the Wksp in all shapes and sizes. We also had the RHA decal on all our LAD veh Cab doors. I was amazed to see we had the same Scammell in the UK as I remember going to the RAOC Central Ord Depot at Feltham to collect all the LAD’s vehs when we arrived back in the UK but that did not include the Scammell. This appeared in the weeks following my arrival as i/c the LAD advance party and didn’t recollect it was anything other than a ‘new’ one. Only Pete Roberts would know the real story. He left the RHA LAD around 1963/64 (after the tour 1960/64 in Kenya & Aden) and went to work as an engineer, I believe, for Bernard Matthews and his turkeys. He was from Norwich (that’s the story I have been told!). If he is still alive he would jump at the chance of seeing his old Scammell, and give you a hand too! He would by now be at least 80! Not so far away from you? I can send a few supporting photos, better images of the signage and may be have an answer for a couple of RHA decals if I can have your email addy etc. I will add a couple of photos during the next day or so. Good luck with all your hard work - Who knows, maybe i've painted your truck in past times. Max
  6. Good-day to you all, My name is Max. Regretfully I have no claims to owning historic military vehicles, however, I have driven many during my time with active Army units during the Fifties and have taken a few photos while there. I have your BlueBelle to thank for introducing me to HMVF through my photos in Libya. I do not claim to be such a mine of information as she is, but perhaps I can add interest with some pictures taken while with 3RHA. I served as an Army Apprentice armourer 1949-1952, a year with 18 Comd WkSp Bovington to 1953 driving a Tilly for range duties, followed by 8 months with the Glosters Training Depot, followed by six & a half years (1954-1960) with the REME LAD of 3RHA (3 years in 10th Armoured Div and three with 3rd Infantry Div) I have done quite a bit of military research including telling the story of the Dorset village of Abbotsbury in Wartime WW2. My civilian life since 1960, has been entirely taken up with all aspects of photography including news film for television. This includes 15 years working for US and European companies.
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