alan869

Wombat, Energa, 81 mm mortar.....

Metal detector;)

We did have some fun didn´t we:D The day they bombed the Co-op on York Street (for the second time). Me watching out for the OCs back when from around the corner comes the dullset tones of a certain clergyman. -Booming- out his opinions as usual. Wait till he gets to the corner and then stick my boot out:-) Does a terrible forward roll, gets up shouting -who´s in charge of this maaan- The rest is history;) Funny how quite a few of the compo -cocktails- were quite good but a lot of them were hiddious. Wonder if anyone has managed to get the -menus- for the different -assortments-:red: No -divvy- in this Co-op:shocked:

:rofl::rofl::rofl:Lots of things we did that -were frowned on- but we always got the job done so there were very few reprisals. It was called -airborne initiative-:cool2:. Standing the PM -and party- up against the wall on one occasion for not stopping at our guard post. Didn´t go down very well either. They just wandered past the sentry when challenged and made no effort to show some ID. The sentry shouted and within a couple of seconds -the party- were surrounded by blokes with cocked weapons. Needless to say they showed their ID, just like everybody else. That episod has never come out and I´m only going from what I´ve heard of course;)

Yes. we had some great times. Every man in the stick gobbing on the despatcher half a second before leaving the aircraft. They really did think we were a bunch of animals:D

Don´t remember our -denims- having the sewn in creases but what the heck. The 2 pairs will be just right. Send me a PM with the damage report and I´ll get it sorted and send you my address. Thanks again, Alan

Yeah it´s not bad for a has been. Of course the faults are there. Mess tins, you joke, no room for them. Cook and eat out of the metal mug and drink out of the plastic one;) Hexi blocks mmm, yeah alright if it was a buckshee exercise somewhere but mostly with the tactical training you ate cold. The terrible smell of a hexi could be detected more than half a mile off. The kidney pouches would be filled with powdered food of some sort. Keep you going for a couple of days if you bergen got lost. Of course all the pouches would be tied together at the bottom to keep them from moving about when we -trotted- about;) A good belt hardly moved when you were on the go. If it can be laid flat then you´ve put it together wrongly. Half moon shape to fit snug. The kidney pouches were a bit flimsy so a lot of the blokes used 58 pat waterbottle carriers for the whole belt. They could carry other things than a water bottle. Everything got -broken down- to the bare essencials so that you could fit it all in bergan and belt. Belt was strapped around the bergan before you strapped the whole thing for a jump. The boys in Grey/blue often tried to get us to put everything inside the bergan (for safety reasons) but there was no way you could manage it, so they usually gave up trying:-D I usually had the thankless job of showing some of the sprogs how to put together a decent kit for -the outdoor life- My kit was always spot on. A sluvenly para looked like a pig in drag. And as a certain Jerry Davis once said to us in JPC -We know youré a useless lot of sods and haven´t a clue but at least you can dress and act as though you knew what you were doing;)) From that day on I started to -hoodwink- my surroundings:-D

Yes, it´s all down in the cellar. Thought I´d get the complete outfit for posterity:embarrassed: As far as I know there is only one thing missing now and that´s the clasp knife with string landyard that we wore with the smock. The smocks I´ve got have 2 different patches. An original 10 Para and an older 44 brigade patch. Don´t think I will alter them. Would like a couple of blue patches but not the modern nylon stuff. The original ones were a heavy cotton. The 2 on the smocks are of the same quality

Found these photos. My old bergan. Had this particular one since 1972. The sort of patrol belt we had. The machette was the sort of -extra kit- that we used to pick up. Nobody bothered really what sort of extra suff you had out in the field, as long as you did your job;) This one I actually bought in 1980 when I went on my own for a 3 month holiday to central america. Bought in Honduras. Went jungle -hiking- around Belize, Guatemala and Honduras for about a month. The shorter blade machette is a lont more practical than the longer one.

Just the job:D Have you got the buckles?? I´ll take both pairs when you´ve got it sorted. PM me for payment. Thanks very much!! Alan

Take it easy mate. If I´ve waited 38 years for a pair I suppose a while longer won´t hurt:D

No I let them go in the hope that you come up trumps:-D

Britannia, beautiful aircraft. When I started my -spotting- years in the beginning of the 60s there were loads of these going. You would see maybe 20 or so during a day at LAP (Heathrow). Mostly frieghters but even a few charter firms. Haven´t seen one since the 70s. Has anyone saved an Argosy?? They ended up in the same boat as the Britannia but were phased out later, and replaced by the Hurc. Managed to do a few jumps from an Argosy before they suddenly disappeared. Lovely aircraft and a pleasure to jump from. Although you had to really push out of the door to avoid a -rivet inspection-:-D The Hurc is a great aircraft but deffinately designed as a load carrier. Frieghting pork and beans rather than troops. After 8 hours in one of those there was absolutely no refusals to jump when the time came:red:

I don´t think the one you describe was ever issued to us. Any way not in my time. We did have a 37 pat belt. Used very rarely for parades with no2 dress. It was standard 37 pat which was painted -maroon- but the paint used made it look more pink. We had to paint them and then bull them. Only had to wear it 2 or 3 times in the whole time I was in. We didn´t like them (we hated no 2s aswell;))

This is what it´s all about:D Compo. We used to get one man packs. It was pot luck. Some were okay but most of it was a good substitute for underseal for the car. Treacle Pudding. That lost me a grade on the final exercise in Brecon. It made me absolutely sick. Couldn´t get rid of it and it ended up the only thing I had left and 24 hrs left in the snow. Blood sugar must have gone down to about 2 and I flipped out. If we were out for say 5 or six days they would issue with 2, one man ration packs. When the new blokes used to complain they were told -use your Para initative- or -live off the land- So there was always a few live rounds about (so I´ve been told:rolleyes:) just incase we bumped into a sheep or such:D Fourty years on (God I´m old:red:) Still works perfectly.