ferretfixer Posted March 25, 2009 Share Posted March 25, 2009 A lot of our SLR's were converted to full Auto in my day Mike - but then neither Regiment didn't exactly follow "normal" Army procedures in most things. The O/C we had was of the "if it works - lets use it" school. Can't speak for his successors of course as this was nigh on 30 years ago now. Back then the armoury at Chelsea included 7.62mm SLR's, 9m SMG's (normal and silenced), 66mm LMG's, 7.62mm GPMG's, 66mm LAW's, 88mm Charlie G's) 7.62mm Lee Enfield Mk IV T's, 9mm Browning Hi-Power's, A couple of FN/FAL's MP40's, AK-74's, a couple of Dragonovs, PPSH's, M16's HK's. And some other odd-ball stuff I can't recall!! A happy place to spend a working weekend!! Im with you all that Neil. But it was a case of be VERY carefull. If anything had been unofficially altered & something went wrong. You were looking at big time trouble. Today, Christ! I dread to think. With health & safety, & all the rule book boys & laptop kings in abundance, they would hang you for getting upto anything remotely like we used to! I was one of the Armourers at the school in Infatry at Warminster for 3 years. A great posting, no excercises & we went away once a year for a week for 'adventure training' in devon. I was trusted enough & a good friend of the then curator of the small arms weapon collection in the museum. I could draw ANYTHING i wanted from the collection & use it on the range. I had 20 ak47's on strength in the Armoury next to the Armourers shop. I used to 'function test' them on a regular bassis. Also had access officialy to the training area upon liason with the range staff. I was sanctioned to rob anything I wanted from vehicle targets for spares. Happy days...............:yay: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Yes - I think things are VERY different these days Mike... :-( Back then we used to "trade" a lot on the fact the chain of command for the three regiments differed from the normal Armies in that we went: Regiment - (D)SAS - The Cabinet - PM - Sovereign As you say - these days the H&S bods fresh from Uni would never wear a fraction of what we used to get up to... They were, indeed, the good old days!!! Sounds like you had a cracker of a job though mate!! I seem to recall spending a few days at Warminster for training on the Charlie G and LAW. Could be wrong though given the sate of my memory!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Yes - I think things are VERY different these days Mike... :-( Back then we used to "trade" a lot on the fact the chain of command for the three regiments differed from the normal Armies in that we went: Regiment - (D)SAS - The Cabinet - PM - Sovereign As you say - these days the H&S bods fresh from Uni would never wear a fraction of what we used to get up to... They were, indeed, the good old days!!! :cool2: Sounds like you had a cracker of a job though mate!! I seem to recall spending a few days at Warminster for training on the Charlie G and LAW. Could be wrong though given the sate of my memory!! Yes Im with you there Neil. Things are indeed VERY different now :-( I call it progress with a question mark! :??? Warminster was a very good posting for me. I was recommended for a posting onto 'The Regiment' by the Colonel who was CO there at the Workshops. He was of the Opinion that my Diverse & Much acquired skills could be utilised by Aforesaid Regiment! I turned it down in the mistaken idea that we attached arms had to be as fit (HATED fitness training!) as the Guys in the Regiment itself!. Young stupid & Ignorant young L/Cpl that I was at the time. Years later I regretted it when I chatted to a visiting EX Member to our Factory. (I think it was the Guy from the TV Are you fit enough for the S.A.S, Eddie, something) He was running a specialist weapons transportaion firm. We were section 5 Manufacturers & neeeded to move some items up North & it was he who i spoke to. Turned out we DIDNT need to do the same Fitness training at all! Think of all the diverse & wonderful toys I could have played with!! I did a lot of converstion work on some of the Regiments .50" Cal MG's. Converting from standard screw in to Q.C.B versions. I spoke to the R.E.M.E Lads who came down & they confirmed my mistaken ideas about Fitness trg. What a Pis*er! :argh: I recall Netheravon was support weapons wing, Mortars , Wobat, Charlie G, 66mm Etc. Warminster did use the sub cal units on those weapons though. Had a few Regiment guys through on courses. One or two strange types though. Wouldnt go to dinner in the cookhouse. used to squat down in the billets & cook thier own meals on a Small gas primus! Beats the hell out of me why! used to working alone I guess? :shake: Happy days! :yay: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 I believe it might well have been the sub-calibre training... Only thing I am certain of is that the live, full bore, firing was done up at Otterburn a month or two later. And I had the highest score on the day for the Charlie G. Fortunately my assigned weapon, other than the SLR, was the Mk IV T - otherwise I could well have been lumbered with one of those damn great things. :shake: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 yes Neil, the local Ranges around Warminster did not have clearance for Full Chat A/T Weapons. ONLY the battlebury Bowl area when Firepower demo's were done. (Extremely impressive to watch!) Netheravon was Support weaps. Charlie G was a very interesting ittem to fire. It might well have been recoiless, BUT, the void effect of sucking all the Air around you & whipping your Trouser legs was MOST disconcerting the first time you fired full bore!! :shocked: I found after 3-4 rounds I was a bit dazed & Punch Drunk! :cool2: Wombat was also an Impressive item to see fired. THE loudest item of ordanance in the Brtish Army at the time. & that included Chieften!! :yay: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marmite!! Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Warminster was a very good posting for me. My Son Harry was there yesterday for the annual Warminster Firepower Demonstration.. I won't steal his thunder.. more from him later... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Ill bet he had a great time! It really is an impressive, Must see, if you can get an invite. :cool2: Tell Harry, from the photo, a SNCO has told you he looked smartly turned out & a credit to his unit. :yay: Well done! :coffee: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StealthyMarksman Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 you he looked smartly turned out & a credit to his unit. :yay: Why thank you very much Was a good day - all current small arms on display to play with, and a few 1000lb bombs to end the day :-D Full report for front page soon, and all of my photos on my website shortly after. Harry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) yes Neil, the local Ranges around Warminster did not have clearance for Full Chat A/T Weapons. ONLY the battlebury Bowl area when Firepower demo's were done. (Extremely impressive to watch!) Netheravon was Support weaps. Charlie G was a very interesting ittem to fire. It might well have been recoiless, BUT, the void effect of sucking all the Air around you & whipping your Trouser legs was MOST disconcerting the first time you fired full bore!! :shocked: I found after 3-4 rounds I was a bit dazed & Punch Drunk! :cool2: Wombat was also an Impressive item to see fired. THE loudest item of ordanance in the Brtish Army at the time. & that included Chieften!! :yay: Can't say I recall those feelings Mike - all I can recall is the headache from being rapped on the bonce by the loader every time we were set to fire.... We never wore battle bowlers and I think we launched about 8 rounds that day!! The main attraction at the time was nicking the sealing rings from the load tubes to use around the ankles to tack the 68 pattern DMP trousers into rather than trying to get them neatly into the puttees. One of the DS up at Chelsea had a story - AFAIK true, feel free to correct if not - of his time out in a certain Middle Eastern country wherein they had a problem viz. some anti-social rebels and limited ammo supplies but they had a couple of Charlie G's and a stack of training rounds for some weird reason. The story goes that they simply turned the Charlie G's around and used the blast from the launch as a close-range weapon...... Sounded an interesting idea..... We never got to play with WOMBAT or MOBAT - they looked interesting (Lee's still does!!) the Charlie G and LAW were the limit of our anti-armour abilities. Had great fun playing with Claymores, C4, PE-308 (Oh the headaches!!) and SemTex though. Read through some of the posts here and you'll find the amusing story of the Queens equerry and his brand new Landrover at Windsor Great Park. Biggest gripe we had with the LAW's was that fact they were designed to be fired and then dumped - but the Regiments battlefield etiquette of policing the scene of action meant we were required to take the used launchers away with us (unless absolutely impossible to do so) and cart them for the duration. Why thank you very much Was a good day - all current small arms on display to play with, and a few 1000lb bombs to end the day :-D Full report for front page soon, and all of my photos on my website shortly after. Harry Nice photos Lee/H - bet you enjoyed the day down there!! I suspect if you fired the weapon in Pic #2 we might see you disappear over the horizon away from the targets!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I look forwards to seeing the full report when you've got it ready. Edited April 3, 2009 by ArtistsRifles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferretfixer Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Your loader was badly trained in his drills then! He ONLY should slap you on the head if you had a Helmet on! A slap on the shoulder was the CORRECT drill! :cool2: Can't say I recall those feelings Mike - all I can recall is the headache from being rapped on the bonce by the loader every time we were set to fire.... We never wore battle bowlers and I think we launched about 8 rounds that day!!The main attraction at the time was nicking the sealing rings from the load tubes to use around the ankles to tack the 68 pattern DMP trousers into rather than trying to get them neatly into the puttees. One of the DS up at Chelsea had a story - AFAIK true, feel free to correct if not - of his time out in a certain Middle Eastern country wherein they had a problem viz. some anti-social rebels and limited ammo supplies but they had a couple of Charlie G's and a stack of training rounds for some weird reason. The story goes that they simply turned the Charlie G's around and used the blast from the launch as a close-range weapon...... Sounded an interesting idea..... We never got to play with WOMBAT or MOBAT - they looked interesting (Lee's still does!!) the Charlie G and LAW were the limit of our anti-armour abilities. Had great fun playing with Claymores, C4, PE-308 (Oh the headaches!!) and SemTex though. Read through some of the posts here and you'll find the amusing story of the Queens equerry and his brand new Landrover at Windsor Great Park. Biggest gripe we had with the LAW's was that fact they were designed to be fired and then dumped - but the Regiments battlefield etiquette of policing the scene of action meant we were required to take the used launchers away with us (unless absolutely impossible to do so) and cart them for the duration. Nice photos Lee/H - bet you enjoyed the day down there!! I suspect if you fired the weapon in Pic #2 we might see you disappear over the horizon away from the targets!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: I look forwards to seeing the full report when you've got it ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Your loader was badly trained in his drills then! He ONLY should slap you on the head if you had a Helmet on! A slap on the shoulder was the CORRECT drill! :cool2: Wish you could have told us that 30 odd years ago!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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