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steveo578

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About steveo578

  • Birthday 08/23/1954

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  • Location
    northern england
  • Interests
    AFV history, photograhpy,
  • Occupation
    electrician

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  1. The only note I have on that one is that 37ZR79 was one of a number alocated to MkVII AVRE So the manufacture refered to TBP would be the firm responsible for the conversion with a date of 1/53 January 1953 -not the original manufacture which should be Vauxhall under contract M7454 which was a large contract and could well be the master contract meaning that some of the production was let to other firms. M7454 contract is hard to follow as the papers so far found are partial,conficting and a total basket case. Sorry I don't have any more but it could be still around -although some are being converted back to MkVIII and some will no doubt just be donor vehicles. THe B Card for 27ZR79 might give you a fate -assuming it is available at bovington (don't hold your breath on that one though) Many MkVII AVRE and Bridgelayer were struck off in BAOR and most likely were used as targets.
  2. T31640 is a Metro Cammell built MkII from the Contract T749 which produced 70 vehicles T.31946 to T.31670. However it was rebuilt as a MkIII with trackguards (so may have been rebuilt as an Mk.III prior to initial issue and then again as an AVRE - it survived WW2 and became 46ZR01 under the Post War numbering system. In its first iteration it was filmed serving in 33rd Army Tank Brigade in the New Forest Hampshire early in the summer of 1942. Video is on Utube. Also in this Contract is the tank T.31579 which became a Twin Ark and was rebuilt as a Mk.IV by the Churchill Trust? Utube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhw2UvnMsjg
  3. A great shame Rick and worse a waste of your time -remarkable and sad to see so many Conqueror, I wonder if Bob Griffin knew about them.
  4. But it is down to the contact they signed up to, -no point in saying how much they could get on the commercial market if they signed to reduce it to scrap then that is that. As happened 20 years ago on Otterburn when the Sea Vixen was removed -had some-one approached the Range they could have had it - but once the scrap dealer bought it from the MOD it had to be completely shreded.
  5. I think the scrap dealer may be confusing the regulations regarding the demilitarisation of US sponsored (financed) equipment which requires the vehicles to be cut in two as in those M8 from Italy that I put up some years ago. Good luck if you're out to Germany get some good pics -I'd love to see any evidence of numbers on them. Cheers Steve
  6. Actually I over edited myself I should have said none empirical -which does mean the story isn't true it just means it is an isolated result -not sufficient data to base a hypophasis. Anyway I don't think being influenced by the generation that went though it is a bad thing Thanks for getting back so quickly steve
  7. Tony ,sorry mate I'm really not looking to lock horns on this one but I can only think you have completely misunderstood the point of my post, it was that there is too much subconcisous support for the theory that the 3rd Reich -as was the WW1 German defeat was facilitated by the "stab in the back", this probably attracts the wrong kind of interest to the forum. There is no verifable evidence that amateur sabotage of industry by forced labour materially shortened WW2, -neither of the 2 largest documentation centres, Shoah and Simon Weisenthal insts., support that theory. In the last 2 years of WW2 German war material production actually increased exponentially despite the best efforts of the real heros of WW2 -those who put on uniform and served in conventional forces and those who worked damned hard in industry at home ie in allied nations. The nearest Germany came to disruption of industrial capacity was by pointed use of air power in such matters as the attacks on the Ruhr dams, the effecive bombing of aircraft and AFV production facilities and the bombing of the Romanian oil fields -none of which stopped production for more than a few weeks. Other SOE based operations for example Le Cruseot works in France -electircity system destroyed -resulted in production -both machine tools and skilled labour being forciably relocated to Germany. The other example Norsk Hydro -the Germans probably ****** over their own nuclear capability long before the SOE (actually heroic Norwegian soldiers) did for the plant. Most of the stories are, as in your examples, at best empirical instances being used to support a hypophasis.
  8. It actually seems to be in some sort of cutting made by a tractor. The holes in the casing look like cannon -so possibly set up as target post war. Good stuff anyway.
  9. IMO the best is often the enemy of the good, the Germans lost the plot when Hitler interfered directly in design -to an extent he was correct to be outraged that the 5cm L/60 was not in service on Pz3 prior to the start of Barbarossa, but the subsequent level of interference on AFVs was counter productive -practically all subsequent tanks were overweight, overly complex and unmaintanable. In simple terms concentration on Pz3 and Pz4 while improved AFVs in the same weight limit were developed may have made some difference particularly in the war in the east. Comet was just a Cromwell with a 50kft/lb K/E 76mm gun so no advance over a M4A1 76mm and virtually no HE capability. Had the Comet had a 17pdr (60kft/lb K/E capable weapon) it would have been a tactical advance at least in its capability as a tank killer, which is not really the purpose of a tank anyway -but that's another debate:red:.
  10. You can't extract a sherman through a test pit -I'm sure Rick will have a trusty hydraulic breaker in his kit:cool2:. Seems quite apparent what happened to all those old Shermans -they became hardcore:-D.
  11. A light tank would be L6/40 (a 20mm gun armed tank) if it were an M40 it would be the medium M13/40 (a 47mm gun armed tank) which at 14ton would be classed as a light tank by most people -it is a variant of the Vickers 6 tonner -similar to the Polish 7T and Soviet T26. The Italian 90mm gun cannon da 90/53 CA was fitted to a number of Lancia 3 RO trucks and some were captured in the desert campaign. It was also fitted to Breda 41 6 x 4 trucks and a Breda 4 x 2 truck. Certainly L6/40 and various M series Mediums were stored at Chertsey until disposed of to ranges and scrapyards. It is regretable that you didn't have the benefit of modern mobile/digital cameras in the 1950s:-(
  12. No it's new - surprising that the zimmert is either still there or the ground conditions have caused the zimmert to etch the steel. Interesting that it's another Pzjgr4 similar condition to the one beneath the bridge which has been mentioned previously.
  13. From one anorak to another - just to fill in the blanks the big howitzers at 5.43 are 30.5cm mozdir vz.16 Czech built captured from the Czechs and Yugoslavia and in service with the Germans as 30.5cm Morser(t)(j) 638. Six were used during the seige of Leningrad and others were used at Sevastopol. is a Marder 3 the first version with as you say the Pak36®. There is a Marder 2 Pak40 shown in the background the Pz38(t) shown at 6.30. Yes it's a Toldi 1 (with a loop aerial) very similar to the Swedish Strv 38 hence the Bovington Strv38/40 was once finished in Hungarian markings:undecided: -the Toldi is also a survivor of the mass scrapping and is now at Kubinka. That is more likely to be a Pz1 muntionschlepper -which had a "carryall box" on the roof. Other way round the short tracked vehicle at 7.05 is a Ferdinand the APG exhibit is an elefant -c/w hull mounted mg. It's the 88s big brother a 12.8cm Flak40. The missing section from 9.00 covers a brief over view of captured trucks, mortars, small arms, medals and unforms. Steve
  14. I wonder how it ended up landlocked -tsunami:??? or did the commander take a wrong turn whilst the periscope was misted up:???:-D
  15. They used 17pdr equiped M4 sherman Ic and Vc post war so from the point of ammunition logistics it would be reasonable to have a gun park with towed 17pdr, -probably a lot more viable post war than the 3inch M5 used by Italian co-beligerant forces in the later part of WW2.
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