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AlienFTM

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AlienFTM last won the day on September 20 2022

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About AlienFTM

  • Birthday 08/15/1955

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    Retired Staff Software Engineer for a multi-national IT megacorporation

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  1. Good question. I have no answer. But I agree with your thoughts. Some of mine. For Operation Chariot, St Nazaire, March 1942, troops were issued rubber soled boots to avoid hob nails banging on the cobbles, moles, etc. I tried once to establish a link between these boots and the DMS I wore in armoured vehicles in the 70s and 80s. Without joy. I'd like to think that these boots went on to be issued to RAC crewmen. That said, as you say, in the field we wore what worked, not what regulations said (looks at 9/12L who, I heard, did enforce dress standards in the field. And the Household Cavalry). A friend left and gave me his sheepskin lined Bundeswehr Panzerstiefel crewman jackboots. I was in Command Troop and even the CO wasn't offended by my wearing them. On one occasion, driving the Regimental Signals Sergeant's Ferret Scout Car, he, envious of my Panzerstiefel, offered a swap for his helicopter crew boots. Since I was envious, we went for it. Unfortunately the half size difference proved too much and we quickly swapped back (mid-exercise). This was about the time somebody went round the troop suggesting we all buy US Army boots to wear in the field, from the PX at nearby Dempsey Barracks, Sennelager. I declined because I had experience of US shoe sizings, and knew that they made their footwear far too narrow for my wide feet (I wear size 8, but the smallest DMS I could wear were 9 Large). As I recall, it didn't catch on.
  2. For clarity, do you want the Antenna Tuning Unit mounting box or the actual ATU box. If the latter, what Larkspur set is it intended for? I worked with C13 and C42. One of them istr took an ATU Number 6. 4½ decades later I can't remember what the other was.
  3. With the *cough* benefit of nearly 50 years' hindsight, if you told me that in 76-7 01CA69 was my mate Jock's FSC in the UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron, I'd smile and nod and tell you you're absolutely correct.
  4. Wot no mention of a Benghazi burner? https://www.google.com/search?q=benghazi+burner&oq=benghazi+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgJEAAYgAQyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQABiABDIHCAIQLhiABDIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQLhiABDIHCAUQLhiABDIHCAYQLhiABDIHCAcQABiABDIQCAgQABiLAxiABBjuBBjGBTIHCAkQABiABDIHCAoQABiABDIHCAsQABiABDIHCAwQLhiABDIHCA0QABiABDIHCA4QABiABNIBCDQ3NzVqMWo3qAIAsAIA&client=tablet-android-lenovo-rvo3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8&chrome_dse_attribution=1
  5. Might I suggest an echelon vehicle. Holds hands up, I was never familiar with the echelons, A and B. To me, they were Eskimo Ness, the SQMS and they brought stuff up to us while we sat in treeline OPs watching for 3 Shock Army. My understanding is that the A Echelon brought ammunition forward, split into two. A1 and A2. A1 went forward to troops to deliver ammo. A2 went back down the MSR to fetch ammo. Whereas B echelon brought food and everything else forward. But I could be wrong. Our reconnaissance B Squadron B Echelon, callsign 29G under the pre-1982 callsign system, cabbied around alles über the Platz in a lightweight Land Rover and only ever listened in the the Combat Team (Squadron) command net. 29F was the SQMS's callsign. I seem to recall he ran the A1 echelon to fetch us our ammo. Since I never came across the A2 echelon, maybe it was an HQ Squadron asset. Apart from Command Troop (where I spent three years), in the field HQ Squadron just comprised a single command vehicle (a 1-tonne LR) and lots of trucks. Edit. 29D was the SQMS. 29F was the squadron ambulance.
  6. In 1984-5 we started being issued what I recall as 84 pattern combats (I still have a jacket). Nosing around an Army Surplus shop a few years ago I found what was labelled IIRC as 94 pattern. To my eyes identical but ripstop. Didn't last long before being replaced by what I believe was a completely new CS95. But I could be wrong.
  7. Patton did not like the massive weight increase from applying concrete, because it put extra strain on just about everything. Banned in his division.
  8. As I've replied on another, similar thread. When you cannot sufficiently tension a 76-link track on Scorpion/ Scimitar (/Sabre), it's time to replace the tracks.
  9. Larkspur antenna rods were essentially identical to Clansman, but were 4' long as opposed to 1m. VHF, Larkspur vehicle sets always used 8' of rod. The rods were tapered. A top section coming to quite a point. It connected to a centre section. For Larkspur HF, 12' of rod might be used depending on the frequency being used. The bottom section was quite robust. Looking back just shy of 45 years when we converted to Clansman, I don't believe you could make 8' from a top and a bottom because each expected to fit into a centre section. I could be wrong.
  10. I've been away from HMVF for some time. Some may have noticed that I've been replying to old threads. This one, it's not about the content, but the poster. In case you weren't aware, John died a good few years ago. As a captain, he won a gallantry medal in Northern Ireland during the 74-6 Omagh tour of 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars. He went on to be OC Training Wing in Paderborn where I had the pleasure of seeing him at his best. A regimental Skill at Arms competition was planned. One of my positions was was Command Troop LMG team number 2 (I got to lug that nasty ammo box downrange while the number 1 carried the LMG and did most of the firing. A gallery range was booked for SLR shots to train, but the RSM, in charge, decided to give his LMG team a runout, even though on this gallery range, automatic fire was prohibited, and the LMG competition was all about automatic fire. However, because on the LMG two rounds constituted a burst, we were able to lose the sound of automatic fire among all the other lanes firing single-shot SLR. The German range wardens either didn't know or didn't care. So there we were converting live rounds into empty cases when Captain Gillman interrupted. He described the SLR shooting as poor (to be fair, most cavalrymen spent their entire career with SMG as their personal weapon) and determined to show them how it was done. He pushed Jackie Broon (RIP) and me off the LMG cos he'd expressed his satisfaction with our shooting, took the LMG and proceeded to use the LMG, on automatic, to fire the SLR competition, mostly standing, and all single shot (good trigger discipline) and score stupidly higher than anyone else on the range. I always had a lot of respect for him, and was moved by the report of the death of Colonel Gillman in the regimental journal of The Light Dragoons some years ago now.
  11. Sounds to me like your old track was younger. 76 links is the minimum link count for a Scorpion and once it stretches, it's u/s. With 78 links, you have scope, when it's stretched beyond adjustment, to remove one link and adjust. Then repeat later when it's stretched again. At 76 it's stretched to its maximum. I THINK, but it's best part of 50 years since I did B3 Scorpion D&M, new track was 79 links wrong.
  12. Measuring Scorpion track tension circa 1980. Put fist vertically between top of centre road wheel and track, approximately 4". If the gap is bigger: increased wear on suspension. If gap is less, track slap and damage to the hull. If the track cannot be tensioned any tighter and create a 4" gap, remove a link. If there are fewer than 76 links, the track is overstretched, and a spot of track bashing with new track is in order.
  13. I think it was nearer 81 for us. Much ado getting a good, clean finish and sanding smooth the flaked old paint. I got the feeling the IRR green was darker than the old stuff.
  14. You'll be lucky. As a member of Command Troop I ran the 15/19H regimental Signals store between about 78-80, during which time we converted from Larkspur to Clansman. We got all this Gucci kit. And, for a whole Recce regiment, a handful of respirator mikes and plastic adaptors. Two of them managed to find themselves onto my rebroadcast Ferret and follow me when I left Command Troop. We spent a lot of time exercising in full NBC kit. My messages were never muffled. Unless somebody found a warehouse somewhere jam packed with some blanket stacker's empire, you'll be hard pushed.
  15. Summer of 1981. Surveillance Troop Spartans didn't go on this particular exercise. Chalky (troop corporal) had his Scorpion final drives die. His wagon was scheduled to go away on Op Scorpole major refit immediately the exercise finished. There were dire shortages of major assemblies in BAOR, the final drives would be replaced on Scorpole anyway, so his wagon was towed away, never to be seen (by us) again. His replacement was already in camp but hadn't been prepared, so the Squadron Leader phoned home and had a Surveillance Troop Spartan sent out to pretend to be a Scorpion. Then Chalky took ill and was medevaced. As Troop Leader's operator, I took over Chalky's Spartan and his operator took over as Troop Leader's operator. Which meant we were only a 2-man crew. Okay for day to day cabbying around the uloo, but evenings, putting in 2-car section OPs was hard work when drivers had to sleep and there were only two commanders and an operator to do back to back stags through the night, all night, every night. It was midsummer, somewhere west of Bielefeld. One afternoon, through the matchsticks holding my eyes open, I became aware of a line of thick, black cloud on the horizon. In seconds, it was upon us, and it hoyed down. Suddenly there was a bang and a strange wailing I'd never heard before and we rolled to a halt. I ducked inside the cupola and found the engine fire alarm blaring. I operated the remote extinguisher. Swanny (RIP) turned off the engine electrics and I called home for Bluebell (REME) assistance and sent grid in code. Then we got out and waited in the rain. Bluebell arrived and we were towed into the squadron leaguer, where the Light Aid Detachment had a look and found nothing wrong. Wtf? As this point, the section commander's operator walked over. As per SOP, on a road move he'd been looking backwards ensuring we were still there. Until we weren't. He told me that for the second time in my life I'd been struck by lightning. Sufficient whammo to trigger the engine alarm but no damage to anyone or anything. If my driving had been more than "holds a Group H licence" I might have opened the engine decks and seen no sign of a fire, but I'd spent the last three years in Command Troop for my radio skills.
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