Filling Up

[Mark]

I think this one maybe for the ex service guys;

 

Military convoys in the UK may have to travel a long way to get to their destination, I have never seen them fill up at a service station if they get low on fuel, what do they do then for fuel as the MPG's of these things as we know are not that good.

 

Anyone answer this

[David Ives]

most times the routes are sorted using bunkering facilities at depots on route otherwise you would have a designated bunkering area where a tanker or cans are loacated for refueling by logics

 

[fv1609]

I have seen individual vehicles fill up. An Army carawagon once & of course didn't have a camera, & odd RN vehicles. But I have never seen a RN convoy so they have to fend for themselves on an individual basis I suppose.

 

Once I was filling up in my carawagon & I had a squaddie turn himself in after AWOL the day before. He tried to insist I took him back to camp, had great difficulty getting him understand my vehicle had civilian number plates!

[ArtistsRifles]

We used to use civil petrol stations all the time - the folder with the log sheet should also have contained a couple of FMT-3's, a couple of Toll warrants and three or four POL vouchers that had the be used in , I think, Sheel or BP garages.

The Toll warrants and POL couchers were accountable documents and had to be returned to the MT officer/NCO at the end of the exercise/trip.

[AlienFTM]

We used to use civil petrol stations all the time - the folder with the log sheet should also have contained a couple of FMT-3's, a couple of Toll warrants and three or four POL vouchers that had the be used in , I think, Sheel or BP garages.

The Toll warrants and POL couchers were accountable documents and had to be returned to the MT officer/NCO at the end of the exercise/trip.

 

 

BP - we also had a monthly allocation to be purchased from the Pay Office to buy VAT-free Benzin (2*) or Super (4*) for use in our private BFG-registered vehicles. There is a BP station in the pokey little village of Wankum which did trade beyond its logical catchment because it was the last BP station on the Autobahn from the Corps Area to the ferries.

 

The advent of unleaded petrol, the use by the IRA of BFG plates as target indicators and a single European market all affected the practice and I have no idea how it works now.

 

Most of my time was spent in Recce. If the CVR(T)s were going far enough to need a replen. they'd be on a train. Ferrets usually went by road because they gave more radio comms as packet leaders / trailers. They had a short range but TBH I cannot remember ever making a planned stop.

 

On one exercise, all six regimental Ferrets left the railhead after watching the Scorpions off, carrying spare Jerry cans and we topped up at the back of a motorway service area. Even so, as lead Ferret, I reached the last hill before Paderborn and as I bombed down, it misfired. Over the I/C I got the commander to throw the reserve tank switch and the engine caught as we reached the bottom of the hill and shot through the traffic lights. The other Ferrets had all bunched up behind me, but didn't make the lights. Made me the first person back from exercise by a long chalk.

 

This was Saturday lunchtime. I had been awake since 0400 Wednesday for a radio stag. I slept well.