Jump to content

M5Clive

Members
  • Posts

    619
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by M5Clive

  1. I didn't know you'd been absent without leave old boy. I'll never forget your face in the back of that Dodge leading the Bolero convoy in 2007 when we left Parham Airfield - Didn't know where to point your telephoto lens next !
  2. You can tell the Mods are all on holiday
  3. I got down late Monday evening and bailed-out Thursday night after a great few days, but I think I peaked too early! I found the intense heat combine with the horrendous dust in Kitcheners (rutted & stubble) field just too much. A simple walk from the shower block back to base camp found you needing another shower by the time you got back there! But I must say, I found the showers at the entrance to Kitcheners Field first class, hot and excellent water pressure every time I used them. I went to use the loo's at Kitcheners Field mid-morning on Thursday and all the toilets in the cubicles were blocked and full up to overflowing. I just assumed that there was a blockage on the main exit pipe from the cabin which had made them back-up. Up until this point I had found them quite acceptable (considering the relentless pounding they were getting all day and night long). Like others have said on here, I really do wonder about the mentality and sanity of the cretin's that get a kick from doing this sort of thing. The poor sods who would have been forced to resolve the problem/blockage in that intense heat and dust for the benefit of everyone else on-site is probably more worthy of the Bart Vanderveen Trophy than most! Did I like the new site in preference to Beltring? Well, as a general rule none of us relish change and I most certainly didn't like the 'gobi desert' where we were camped on the top of Kitcheners. But know-doubt I'll go again when we've endured another winter as bad as last year to muddy the memory of the dust & heat of W&P 2013. It's no mean feat staging a show of that magnitude at a new venue and it took many years to per-fect the show at Beltring, so its going to take a few attempts to get the exact formula right.
  4. Just given my works van its annual 'hoover out' in preparation for its conversion to a camper van! See you good folks down there - I'll be the one with a short sleeve shirt that resembles a deck-chair! Thanks for all the pictures to date of the show build-up and vehicles amassing - Much enjoyed.
  5. Can you believe all this happened exactly five years ago? How time flies and to think that the Liberty Belle is little more than a pile of useless wreckage now. But, Don Brooks has vowed to rebuild her one day. Great memories and great reflections on a simply wonderful day and such a privilage to be a part of.
  6. Yes indeed, blue sky - Almost unheard of these days in England Nice picccy!
  7. I took my CCKW 353 Shop Van up to the event (all of 4 miles each way), with my 4 year old daughter crewing for me on the junctions in her car seat, ratchet-strapped into the open cab, with the roof off and the screen down - Absolute bliss. The bright summer sun (at last), leafy East Anglian back roads, the wind in your hair, gas in the tank and a little girl with the prettiest smile in the whole wide world and a valid tax disc - Life really doesn't get much better does it - And I mean that with absolute sincerity.
  8. This just made me laugh out loud............ Not forgetting of course Mark Heliop's Ward La France doing much the same on the A12 en-route to Suffolk.
  9. Fantastic work! Don't you just hate people with workshop facilities so amazing and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see any crap lying around on the floor or workbenches - What a set-up! Keep up the great work.
  10. Well done Steve for remembering the date - I hadn't ! So many highlights looking back at those photo's one doesn't know where to start? Was it the Boeing Stearman buzzing the Hellcat racing up and down the peri-track at Parham, the sight of almost 80 WWII vehicles in line-astern convoy weaving their way through the Suffolk countryside, the Maurice Hammond buzz-job down the grass strip at Hardwick with brother in the back seat trying to keep hold of his lunch or the Friday night formation HMVF Drinking team in the tent, laughing and giggling to the early hours? Well it was none of them of course - Because who could ever forget the slowest fast-food outlet in the whole of the United Kingdom who we had the misfortune to engage at the 95th BG base at Horham! Yes, those catering guys will be remembered and talked about by far more people and for far longer than any of the highlights I have mentioned earlier. Its a shame to think that the P-51 Big Beautiful Doll shown on one of Steve's pictures is no-more (after the mid-air collision at Duxford a couple of years back) and I honestly think the chances of getting that many GMC's together again for a heavy haulage convoy is pretty unlikely with the cost of fuel. I also think the reason that the event was so special for many on here was because it was the first time for many of us that we actually put a face to the screen name! For instance, it was the first time that I had ever met Rosie, Joris, RCubed, Snapper, Zoomer, NOS, Degsy and many others (even Jack perhaps), and up until that time we were all just online HMVF'ers and didn't realise that we actually all existed for real ! Cheers for posting the trip down memory lane and it begs the question, "Should we do it all again?"
  11. Pretty sure it was Dave Poitja (or something like that) - I am thinking back 20 years now!
  12. I see from the number plate that the Dukw that sank recently in Albert Dock is in fact one of Rex Ward's old preserved MV's from the show circuit. I can remember him finishing this restoration as the number plate is RSY, which he joking commented to me stood for 'Rex and Shelia's Yatch!" Jeremey Vine did a good feature on this story earlier in the week on BBC Radio 2 and gave the whole Dukw Tours a real slating. My old one (that in a former life was rolled on the M6 when hit from behind by an artic lorry) is still doing sterling work for Viking Splash Tours in Dublin Harbour. I do however think the days of operating these dukw tours are now numbered. Perhaps they will trickle back into collectors hand and be returned to wartime configuration and preservation. Lets face it, restored GMC Dukw's are a rarer sight on the show circuit these days than Sherman tanks!
  13. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post your images of Normandy 1994. You never see Dennis Robert's Diamond T (M20) combination loaded with his Sherman Grizzly anymore out and about; back then he used to drive it the length and bredth of the country and often abroad too. Good to reflect on past events.
  14. Somewhere in the mass photo collection that Brian Valente printed for you of Max Demuth's black and white photographs was a picture of a Dodge Weapons Carrier (from memory) loaded with 437th TCG guys. This photograph showed the bumper stencils and although will give you an insight in to what a 437th vehicle should wear, I guess won't help much on the Grantham HQ's front. Check through your photos though and see if you cant find the one I'm referring to.
  15. We did the Series of Red Ball Express convoy events in Wiltshire which ran from 1990 to 1995, I think the most CCKW's we managed to get together was 18, although the convoy's also had many Dodge's, DT's, Wards, etc etc and we totaled around 45 on the best Red Ball run. When Ed Abbott and I did Operation Bolero in 2007 here in Suffolk we had around 80 vehicles in the convoy and I think we had over 20 CCKW's. I'm intrigued now - i'll have to go and look up the participants list and work it out exactly when i get a moment!
  16. Box over the winch? - I thought that was a mobile tombola Not to my liking at all, but I guess it takes all sorts!
  17. Its a batch that we had made up here in Suffolk by a paint company based upon a 'swatch' I gave them to use as a guide. I will agree that it is a good colour, but I haven't been especially impressed with its durability.................(with the risk of taking this thread off on a whole new tangent!) Having said that, I'm sure I could provide you with some if you were interested.
  18. Not at all - I have a bit of a reputation for taking a month of Sunday's to get around to doing things, so more than happy that you have saved me the trouble NB - Blog Number 167 is the same truck. This was how is was when Robert Clayden first bought it, but being a perfectionist, he researched the Chassie-Number and deduced that it had been re-fitted with a hard cab post war. He then sourced an excellent condition Open Cab and converted it back to how it would have been when it was built. He also sourced an original wartime fuel tank and replaced the incorrect one, which you can see in the photo on Blog Spot 167. Hope this helps make things a bit clearer.
  19. Its high time for another Stevens feature length:) HMVFer's of a certain vintage will well remember one of the early vehicle restorations featured within these electronic pages by Suffolk CCKW enthuiast, Robert Clayden (aka ShopNut.) For varying reasons, Robert sold the truck to me around 18 months ago, having done a serious amount of restoration work on the vehicle over the several years that he had it, but the restoration remained unfinished. Although Robert had restored all of the mechanics absolutely A1, the body work on the Shop Van was tired, so on one winters morning in 2012, Howard Wade and myself fetched the old girl out of open-air North Essex hibernation and returned it so Sunny Suffolk, leaving Robert with a long face. WWII specification from the manual demonstrating various uses for the Shop Van Just out from hibernation under a sheet Rust Oxide - British Leyland had trademarked this invention under a number of guises...Austin Maxi, Morris Marina, Allegro etc Extremely original inside with genuine US worktop, drawers, flooring and high shelf across the side window (unique to the M30?) I employed HMVF's Howade Wade of rustybits.co.uk to undertake the remained of the project and was anticipating the trucks first show debut around July last year. Sadly my father in law's health deteriorated alarmingly during the summer of last year which resulted in his untimely departure in October and therefore with all this going on and although finished, I put the Shop van on the back burner. Nobody at home was feeling remotely jubilant during the second half of the 2012 Show Season and the atmosphere was just not right, so I left the truck's debut for another day, another year in fact. Off with the Old............ ......on with the new........! A lick of paint........ ......and a touch up to ! A proper job and the classic wooden wheel (now commanding a second mortgage) Having procrastinated on which markings to adopt, I finally opted for my own now somewhat 'Stevens Trademarked' white bumpers with black markings, which I have used on all of my USAAF marked vehicles from the Chrysler Royal, to almost every CCKW and Dodge that I have had over the past 19 years. I couldn't make up my mind on the unit identity, but thought that as the truck will spend much of its life at home and I live 50 yards from the old heavy bomber hardstandings at Eye airfield, Suffolk, (which was home to the resident 490th Heavy Bombardment Group of the US Eighth Army Air Force), and the fact that unlike the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 490th never get much of a look-in when it comes to restored MV representation, so here was the answer. First day out wearing nice clean shoes and not a cloud on the horizon! I was even heard to mention "If there's any mud on this route, I'm turning around!" Fortunately there wasn't. Ain't they pretty and what an impressive line-up, including a couple of 'two-a-penny' Dodge Carryall's for good measure! So two weeks ago, Howard blew the dust and bird-poop off the old girl and applied the stencils. Its first debut was Bank Holiday weekend just gone, where we took both of my CCKW's out for the first airing of the Show Season to do a WWII MV Convoy from Debach Airfield in East Suffolk, around the green lanes and back to base. Suffolk Area MVT mustered around 35 vehicles for the trip and the finalie was a formation flypast by Maurice Hammond's two P-51 Fighters (Janie resplendent with her brand new zero timed Merlin engine), followed by a 10 minute display by Mr Hammond's Boeing Stearman. What a great day:) "I just wanna get closer than close" (I think Barry Gibb composed it!) I never profess or claim to being a dedicated MV restorer, although I did do a lot more before we had children, owned and operated our own business and took up house restoration - so the credit for the finished article must really lie at the doorstep of other HMVFer's...... Shop-Nut for sourcing all of the original hard to find US WorkShop truck parts (Original US fuel tank, WWII US rear doors etc) and for being a perfectionist to start with! Tank Barrell for providing all the new metal and for reworking and fabricating some of the damaged section Howard Wade for completing the restoration, fettling, farting about and storing the vehicle when it wasn't prudent to use it. I think you'll agree they make a tidy couple of wagons and do the designers at GM and Yellow Truck and Coach credit. You don't see many ST-6 Bodied trucks this tidy on the show circuit, although I know that Jeepest in France have a corker.
  20. That made me laugh out loud...............I had almost forgotten about the return trip from 'Bolero' and the front wheel falling off. Best get yourself settled into a tail-dragger and not a tricycle, just to be on the safe side
  21. An extremely nice gentleman indeed and always a perfect gent whenever I met him. I met up with Penny Croft today, the eldest daughter of David Croft (Dad's Army / Allo-Allo / Ain't alf Hot Mum producer and co-creator) who told me that she was sitting with Bill the day before he died at an evening meeting of the DAAS (Dads Army Appreciation Society) in Thetford and they both went outside the hotel for a cigarette and Bill was on top form for his age. She said that he died out of the blue and did not suffer a lingering illness and that was indeed the way to go when you have to! Bill always had time for his many fans and was especially appreciative of all the children who would ask for his autograph and shout "put that light out" when they met him. He opened a new development of retirement homes in Marlborough in 1989 and I managed to persuade my science teacher at the time to let me off his lesson as I wanted to go down and meet him and it was during school time. The agreement was that my teacher would let me go in exchange for Bill's autograph as he was also a big Dads Army fan. When I told Bill Pertwee this fact at the opening, whilst requesting a second autograph for my teacher, he thought it hilarious and asked me what the state of British education was really coming to! A sad loss and a much admired actor. Penny also told me today that Ian Lavender who played Private Pike is not enjoying very good health. Its very sad to see these guys growing old, when they remain forever etched on our brains as the jubilant characters they once portrayed.
  22. I spoke on the BBC Radio Suffolk afternoon program about the significance of the day both for the Dam Busters guys coming home and the Eighth Air Force and the Memphis Belle heading out. It was quite a day.
  23. Very interesting indeed. So from reading your post, I take it that six of these engines were the 'pushers' that powered the B-36 Peacemaker (along with the four accompanying jets) ? I shall follow your progress with interest and thanks for sharing.
  24. Thanks for posting - really good picture. Split (timken) axle, long wheel base dump/tipper body trucks with open cabs. Could I be nosey and ask where you came across this image? Just curious that their may be more in the series of photographs. As you will no-doubt know, decent photos of the yellow truck & coach/General Motors production lines in WWII are extremely hard to find. Thanks again for sharing.
×
×
  • Create New...