Old Git

Or, the manner in which the sentence is worded! Can we confirm that the reported sentence is verbatim? Incidentally, this is the third book in Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the American Army in WWII. He won the Pulitzer prize for his first volume, "An Army at Dawn", but that's a wee bit like getting a Purple Heart for being wounded by broken glass whilst sipping beer in an East End pub during the Blitz! :red: :angel:

Harry, I'd love to see a picture of these on the pure white background, like a sheet or a fresh fall of snow. Just to get the colour correction on the computer monitor! Rgds Pete

Not very likely, after 20 years together I've just got to walk into the Kitchen and say "hello darling" to hear the oft-repeated response, "if it's got anything to do with tanks or militaria the answer is NO!":blush:

Thanks Adrian for the answers! Re the engine compartment panel, DOH! It's three separate access panels not one big one. Sometimes y'just can't see the wood for the trees!!!! Or in this case the panels for the tin! And of course now that I'm looking at the drawings it all makes sense. I guess the extra markings on the drawings are some form of embossed feature on t5he panel, like stiffener grooves. LOL, all things being relative mate and given the number of questions that get thrown up when you've only got the drawings to go on, these are only a few! Rick, thanks for the offer buddy and I might just take you up on that. Given that I'm on the other side of London, Old Buck is a six hour round trip for me and given that I belong to the wife and kids most weekends I shall have to plan it out! Although Mid-term break is looming so there might be a window of opportunity there!

I'm hoping that some of you knowledgeable chaps might be able to help out here. 1.) Can anyone shed any light/Piccies on the access panels in the Engine compartment bulkhead. The only pictures I've managed to find of this bulkhead (as viewed from the fighting compartment) show a large access hole, with a curved top, leading into the engine compartment. I have a drawing from the tank museum which appears to show a large access panel held in place with wingnut or some sort. However, it also seems to show that this access panel contains three other access panels, immediately behind the bevel gearbox. Are these access panels within a bigger access panel or are they holes? I presume they're access panels or why else would you have a need for 'Air intake control flaps' on either side? Has anyone got any pics of what the complete panel looks like? 2.) Does anyone know if the newer forms of main fuel tap handwheels were more common on the Cromwell IV? The older type, as fixed to the lower right side of the engine bulkhead, resembled the chain drive on a bicycle with a handwheel, bicycle chain and a cog wheel. At some point they replaced this with a pair of vertical spigots. Just wondering if these were part of the FS upgrades or something that was introduced into the manufacturing process so that only later produced Cromwells had them? 3.) Drivers Seat: Can anyone explain (pics would be great) how the drivers seat attached to the floor and if at was hinged at the front to allow it to be tilted forward? I know the back of the seat lifted out to allow quick access to the drivers compartment but I think I've once seen a picture showing the seat tilting forward as though it were hinged at the front were the legs met the floor (can't find that pic though). However, I've also got a, not very clear, drawing that seems to indicate that the seat was on some sort of rails which allowed it to to slide foward/backwards which makes sense if trying to accomodate all leg lengths. Any pics of how the seat was constructed under the 'seat' area would also be great. 4.) Has anyone got any good pictures of various control units in the drivers area, i.e. attachement point for pushrods on/near the accelerator, brake and clutch pedals and generally all the levers and controls along the right-hand side, like mast, especially around the RH steering master cyclinder and the strangler lever. 5.) Can anyone scan a section of the Cromwell IV Handbook / Service Instruction Manual, the section covering the steering brakes and track brakes? 6.) Does anyone have a PDF version of the Cromwell IV Handbook / Service Instruction manual? 7.) Can anyone comment on how the outside armour plates come together, are they lipped with one overlapping the other or do they just but up together. And do you really need to remove the idler, idler axle and the tensioner before you can remove the foremost outsidfe armour plate? Any help would be most appreciated, thanks in advance. Pete

Adrian, got any recent piccies mate, I'm feeeling a bit starved for Cromwell resto's now that Rick's is on the road :-(

Thanks Pete, if you can't manage it then don't worry mate, We'll sort something out when I get back from Normandy on August 17th! Rgds Pete

Pete, loved the audio mate, although the little speakers on my laptop do not do it justice. I shall have to nip into the Kitchen and listen to it on the family PC! If you shoot me a copy on email I'll strip the Audio out of it and send you back the MP3 file! Rgds Pete

Thanks for that Rick, I've already got Toadmans site bookmarked. I probably should have been more specific as I was actually looking for bigger version of these two pictures... But today I had a better look at the ones I have and have discovered that I can see just what I need to with these two, so all's well that ends well! Here are a couple pics of the lower hull for my model, I managed to get some primer on it today and (as you'll know from doing the real deal) it's always a mile stone when you get primer on 'er! I've got most of the various parts completed now and just require some assembly and tweaking, but this will have to wait for a couple weeks as I'm off to Normandy for three weeks on Saturday morning.

Picked up a copy of this book last week and it is a good book, but it's not the definitive word on the Denison! Don't get me wrong, I'm not slating it, it's just that I was hoping for a bit more from it. There's some truly interesting things in here and they have made good use of the Airborne Museum's expertise. However, they do not appear to have made any use of the National Archives and my overall impression is that of some interested amateurs publishing what they know, and can pull together, rather than 'in-depth' research. I would have liked to have seen more on the development of the garment and of the various camo patterns and I'm sure this info nust be in the National Archives somewhere, indeed I'm pretty sure I've seen references in the MRC files, and elsewhere, to the development of Airbornes specialist items. I haven't read it all as yet but the text is a bit clunky in places and doesn't read as well as it ought to, I found myself having to go back over a few lines to try to understand just what it was he was trying to convey, but then as I say 'interested amateur' rather than professional historian/writer so that is to be expected. All that said it is still a book I really want to have on my reference library and it's well worth the purchase!

Just another quick one, does anyone have any large-sized pics of the Driver and Aux Gunners compartments that were taken during restoration. A few appeared in this thread earlier but they had been re-sized and so prevented zooming in on detail. If anyone's got those in large size I'd love to see them.

I like the fact that in every picture Rick's got a big cheesy grin, like the cat who got the cream! Fair play mate, I'd be the same if she was mine and I'd gone to the efforts that you've all gone to to get her up and running.... and looking so damn fine as well!!!

She's a beauty!!! Award justly deserved I'd say!

Rick, might I suggest 8th Kings Royal Irish Hussars, recce unit to 7th Armoured, and tank name could be Abbess of Chantry a well photographed 8th KRIH Cromwell that survived to take part in the Berlin Victory parade. It would also give you the opportunity to wear the 8th KRIH distinctive tent hat for officers, (the only item of army headress worn without a cap badge other than with combat uniforms) something which is still worn today by a small cadre of Officers within The Queen's Royal Hussars, indeed there are photographs on the net of the tent hat being worn in Iraq during the last land war there. The 8th KRIH fought with distinction throughout WWII but also have an illustrious history stretching all the way back to the Wars of Spanish Succession. They also fought in Korea! The 8th KRIH were amalgamated in 1958 with the 4th Queens Hussars to form the The Queens Royal Irish Hussars. This regiment was, in 1993, amalgamated with The Queens Own Hussars to form the The Queen's Royal Hussars (The Queen's Own and Royal Irish), which is now the senior UK armoured regiment. And just to give you a bit of background you can do no better than Bill Bellamy's book about his time with 8th KRIH from Normandy to Berlin. Called "Troop leader: A Tank Commanders Story"; it's a pretty good read. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Troop-Leader-Tank-Commanders-Story/dp/0750945346/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373815187&sr=8-1&keywords=Bill+Bellamy+troop+leader

Quick question if I may; does anyone know if the roadsprings and shock absorbers carried any makers marks? I assume not as you really wouldn't want to aid enemy intelligence by letting them know which factory manufacturers vital components, but I just thought I'd check before I finished making my own model shocks and road springs? I've tracked down the Newton logo and can print it to put on the shocks, (in that brass colour they used to use back then). Just not sure I ought to? Here's a wee pic to show you what I've been doing!

Thanks for that Adrian, I haven't quite gotten to the cowl yet and have only thought about it obliquely, if at all. My Cromwell will have a Normandy Cowl of course but I'm still not sure if I'll go for the 'official' design or the ad-hoc design as shown in the video above! I sort of favour the ad-hoc design for a little extra authenticity but then that idea is tempered by the realisation that I'll have to spend a lot of time explaining to 'certain folks' why it's the 'wrong' shape!:-D

Re the Normandy Cowl, here's an interesting little video which I found on British Pathe http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=53387 There's a lot of stuff in here but at 2:02 minutes and afterwards there's a shot of a Cromwell crossing a Bailey Bridge. What's of interest here is the shape of the Normandy cowl which you just see a close-up of as it goes by. A field modification no doubt and quite different from the ones normally seen! I've never been sure if the Normandy Cowl was a pre-invasion design or a field mod that was made from cut-down wading stacks. But I'm happy to bow to Adrian's superior knowledge on the subject and have it confirmed as a post-invasion field mod:) And another curiosity can be seen if you single step through the stills (you'll see a link to the stills on the right side of the video window). At Still 100 - 105 there's a couple pics of a section of British Infantry walking along a hedgerow. They're being led by a Lance Jack who is carrying a Sten and wearing the standard universal pouches. But the interesting thing is that none of the rest of the section are wearing universal pouches, they look like they're wearing '37 pattern cartridge carriers. I didn't know these were still being used by Normandy period!

Thanks Guys for the info, Brown Cow that is exactly what I was looking for, though I must admit I'm a bit stunned to see a lathe in the back of a jeep. I really didn't expect to see that, LOL! woa2, thanks for the info on the chap at the centenary, I suppose that supports the theory that they did have some sort of mobile workshops on the back of jeeps. The REME museum is my next port of call but I thought you fine chaps could at least give me a steer in the right direction before I submitted a formal request... and that you have done!!

Fantastic job Guy, Bravo!!!

Just wondering if the REME made use of Jeeps in the role of Light workshops etc.? I know the Germans had a mechanics setup based on the Kube (back seats taken out) with some basic tools like drills, vis, etc. Just wondering if the REME had something similar and if so what was the proper naming convention? I'm not talking about the trailers (although I'd be interested in any info on other types of workshop trailers other than the electrical workshop trailer on which there's already a thread); I'm more interested in possible conversions of the Jeep itself to this kind of role. Did the REME ever do anything like this? Incidentally, I once came across a reference to a WO file in the National Archives on a trial in Burma theatre for using Jeeps to transport Bailey Bridge components. I can't find the original file in the National Archives though!

Some more fantastic pics of parts not normally seem in restorations, this really is a very valuable thread indeed! Incidentally, I believe the RE drill holes through the centre of all their spanners and tools and then tie them to their person when working. Essential in their game as when they drop a spanner it goes to the bottom of the River that they're trying to bridge!

I have a similar problem. It's not a constant occurrence, but it has happened several times now. Basically put I'm typing away and when I try to hit enter to get a carriage return to start a new paragraph it simply doesn't work. My cursors just sits there at the end of the last line of text. Every thing else works fine and I can use the mouse point to move around to any point within the text already written but I can't start a new paragraph. In fact I've just tried it now and I still can't do it! I get around the problem by cutting the text from my post and pasting it into Notepad and adding the CR's there. However, and here's the interesting thing. In order for it to work properly I have to add two CR's (carriage returns) in Notepad to ensure that I have one CR in the editor on HMVF. If I use only one CR in notepad then the HMVF editor does not recognise that as a CR and puts all the text into one large pargraph, so I have to add two CR's. For the record this happens on two PC's I use.On my laptop I am using IE 9 but it also happens on the family PC and which uses IE 10) If I had to hazzard a guess I'd say it was one of the plugins on HMVF that has been upgraded in the last couple of months. Or, more likely, it'll have something to do with the hosting company upgrades to something like ModSecurity which is known to have issues with Vbulletin and other PHP based forums! Not sure how'd you'd test for that but on my own forum I recently discovered an issue with adding certain strings of text in posts. Any post that had the words "strap on" in it could not be posted. So for instance if I was discussing a MkIV rifle that came with it's strap on then the post simply wouldn't be permitted. As it happened it transpired to be ModSecurity getting a bit touchy about what it though was appropriate language to be used on my forum (I always thought that was my job). Anyway, I mention it only as a possible route of investigation for the mods!

This is the July 1945 Pamphlet covering the O.Q.F. 75mm Mk 5 main gun and the besa 7.92. I'm specifically after good copies of the plates Fig 1, on pg 26, and titled "75 mm mk.5 Breech Mechanism" and Fig 4, on pg 42, which is titled "75m.m. Mk.5 Breech mechanism (operation during run out)". I have a reprinted version of this manual but my copies of these pics is very, very poor so if anyone has good clear copies of these pics I'd be very grateful! Also, if anyone know the exact dimensions of the O.Q.F. 75mm Mk.5 Breech Block (height x width, x depth) that too would be most helpful!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm trying to do just that so I can set it up in different configurations, either running over the bridge or simply being worked on by the REME! I'm hopeful that I shall have it finished very, very soon! Most everything is done it's just a case of putting it all together and painting her! Thanks Pete and I'll post up some more pics when I get the running gear on her! Cramp, arrgh! Nothing worse when you're in a confined space!! I used to suffer from it a lot as well, sometimes it would just come on when I was in bed. I'd wake up, stretch and suddenly wham! Then there's be the mad dash to get my foot on something cold to relieve the cramp!

Thanks Adrian, that's very kind of you to say so. Although I'm beginning to wonder if the 3D printed running gear isn't going to make the rest of the tank look just a little shabby!:red: