Chieftain tank crew tent????

[RattlesnakeBob]

I've just acquired a rather cracking looking tent...It's in it's own bag and has faded stencilling on the side

CSQN SQMC 9x9

It's in gorgeous condition complete with a bag of really heavy duty short steel pegs and also 3 small steel poles. (These poles don't look 'army sort of grade' though so may have been just shoved in the bag cos they looked sort of 'tenty' ) ... now.....I know where it's come from ...sort of.

...my cousin served for 12 years or so as a Chieftain driver in a Guards Regt from about 1978 through 'til about 1990 .....and I'm guessing he...ahem...'liberated' it at some point .. so can anyone tell me what it is ? I'm thinking a crew tent maybe?..it's difficult to see the shape of it without being able to hang it up somehow but it looks to be of a sort of 'lean to' design with zipped flaps at either end .?

Any ideas?...and whats it worth-ish?.....if I was to decide I got no use for it that is

[AlienFTM]

A coffee table you say now where abouts would you stow such a thing lol

 

The local-manufacture XPM box mounted over the engine decks of course. Oh and needless to say, it was more usually used to rest beer cans than coffee mugs, obviously. Those warm summer evenings before radio stag but still too hot from the day to sleep, you have to sit and watch the view in comfort. Er, I did mention that you needed to erect the bivvy open side out to get the view, didn't I?

[timbo]

The local-manufacture XPM box mounted over the engine decks of course. Oh and needless to say, it was more usually used to rest beer cans than coffee mugs, obviously. Those warm summer evenings before radio stag but still too hot from the day to sleep, you have to sit and watch the view in comfort. Er, I did mention that you needed to erect the bivvy open side out to get the view, didn't I?

 

I presume you needed a view in order to see the Russians coming...

[AlienFTM]

I presume you needed a view in order to see the Russians coming...

 

No, no, no, you haven't got this Recce lark sorted. The sabre troops of the medium recce combat teams were spread across the divisional front (one squadron = 16 Scorpions per brigade / task force). I recently read a book "The Red Effect" by somebody who obviously knew what he was talking about ... less armour and recce ... who put 4 Armd Div's front in 1984 at iirc some 90 km. If Scorpions always worked in a minimum of two times CVR(T) per section, what was the minimum frontage covered by a recce section?) along the FLOT - the Forward Leading-edge of Own Troops.

 

Sabre squadron FHQ (strictly SHQ, but that's cavalry tradition for you) is sat behind the sabre troops, running the combat team, sufficiently close to the FLOT to be able to communicate effectively and far enough back to contact BG HQ (see below). If this distance were too great, a Command Troop rebro Ferret would bridge the gap.

 

Command Troop, running the battle group HQ, are far enough back to be able to reach Div HQ (or a rebro) and far enough forward to contact the two CT FHQs. This usually somewhere in front of the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area, where the tanks and infantry are sat, miles behind the lines as per the 15/19H song) but not too far, because Div will have positioned themselves far enough back from the FEBA to be able to bug out (a very big HQ) when the Russians came but close enough to contact the armour and infantry BG HQs.

 

Div could put out a rebro forward to the BGs on the FEBA so that they can sit back; Recce BG HQ could put out a rebro (me) forward to the Recce CTs so that they can sit back and another back to Div.

 

So although Recce BG HQ Command Troop might be forward of the FEBA, they were a good distance back from the FLOT with a recce screen of their best buddies to let them know to pack up in a hurry when the Russians came. For preference, I'd park up my single-vehicle rebro ready to bug out in seconds. One scout car was not going to attract a lot of incoming when there was so much juicy armour to engage.

 

Only once in all those Command Troop years did I ever get caught close to the FLOT during a withdrawal. Orange were advancing on us, BG HQ Main (0A - ACV 1, 0C - Int Cell ACV, 9 - CO in his rover, 95 - RSM in his Ferret in a packet led by 98 - Rebro Ferret 1) withdrew to a new defensive position leaving 0B - ACV 2, 9A - the regiment 2IC and 98A - me in Rebro Ferret 2) to run the BG Command Net and work on the Div Command Net until BG Main were set up. It was close: we left the village to the west in the company of withdrawing Chieftains while Orange were moving into the village from the East. Squeaky bum time.

 

Why have a recce screen and watch for Russians yourself?