10FM68

Well, it doesn't take time. Are you saying the tanks are at Waterbeach or not? Simple yes, or no I'd have thought.

Blimey Tony, you're getting as bad as Andy!🙂

OK. First then: are you telling us, categorically, that your tanks are buried under the apron at RAF Waterbeach in 1950? As far as I am aware, the aprons were originally laid during wartime, so while they may well have been upgraded, in the few months between Transport Command leaving and Fighter Command coming in, it remains highly unlikely that there would be sufficient space, secrecy and willingness to bury loads of tanks there at that time. I cannot confirm that the RAF were not considering upgrading for B29s, but I'm not sure why they would have chosen an airfield they had just allocated to Fighter Command and which would host USAF F84s for training when there were plenty of other airfields belonging to Bomber Command to upgrade. As for burying stuff, why choose an active RAF air station when, at this time, the choice of alternative, abandoned military property was immense. It just doesn't add up.

Well, as far as Waterbeach is concerned, it is a problem. At the end of the war Waterbeach was a busy operational airfield in Bomber Command, passing to Transport Command in September 1945. The squadrons were busy all through the Berlin Airlift then Fighter Command took it over in 1950. During the Korean War thee were even some USAF aircraft stationed there for a time. Fighter Command kept it busy until 1963. It was used thereafter by the Varsities from 5FTS at RAF Oakington who continued to use the airfield even after the arrival of the Royal Engineers. So I don't see any point in giving this particular hare any sort of exercise at all.

Well, the first set of coords are Waterbeach Airfield. The second Little Fen Drove some way to the east. During the war and afterwards Waterbeach was an active RAF station - not a likely place to bury tanks. Much later it was home to the Royal Engineers Airfield Damage Repair regiment - 39 Engr Regt (Airfds). They certainly had the capability to dig huge holes, but the coords show the concrete apron outside the hangars which will have been in situ long before the Sappers had it and, anyway, the Army had Waterbeach long after any old WWII vehicles would need to be disposed of. I served myself at Waterbeach many years ago. Today the airfield has been sold. Little Fen Drove has nothing of interest to be seen from Google Earth - no signs of undue excavations or reinstatement of the ground. So... sadly, this adds nothing as far as I can see. Andy... look back through the threads and try and answer some of the more useful questions, please.

You won't have to go very far to find gloss red-painted tow hooks. It was quite a common habit among soldiers given the task of tidying up their vehicle post-exercise. Once the tin of red paint was opened the brush would be hovering looking for somewhere to land and the tow hook was often the place - the maker's name plate being another. But... the fact remains that it was unauthorised and not required. Red lead, basic black, or bare greased metal are correct, gloss red isn't. You'll come across all sorts of justifications for doing it, but most are bollox. One chap suggested that the Marines painted them red so they'd be easier to find underwater! Quite what sort of marine would need red paint for him to find the towing hook on the back of a Land Rover I can't imagine... even the dark most of us found no problem finding them - usually with our shins! So, you are perfectly at liberty to use red paint - it will be completely authentic - in the same way as bits of rubbish, oily cotton waste, the odd bit of graffiti and sometimes penknife marks on Series 3 dashboards are authentic!

This topic is forever coming up. Lots of units painted their towing pintles bright red - as they did towing eyes, wheel nuts, makers name badges and all sorts of other details. But, by rights they ought not to have done (apart from securing nuts on split rims). It was done to make things look a bit smarter, because the guy with the tin of paint was bored and for a host of other reasons. Most commonly, though the towing hitches were left in their original state: usually black, sometimes red lead and occasionally sprayed the same as the rest of the vehicle. Sappers were also quite keen on white paint back in the 80s with quite a few vehicles having towing and lifting eyes painted white and white circles appearing round lifting holes - whether that habit continued for long, though, I have no idea. So, best advice? Clean it off and give it a light spray of gloss black.

I agree with Simon. It looks as though the 74 and the 6 are of different sizes and, given the length of service this vehicle will have seen, that is entirely reasonable - the Arm of Service sign would have been repainted a number of times over the years. 74 on red/blue background split horizontally would certainly fit - a divisional field regiment RA both during the war and afterwards - well into the 50s, if not later. 46 would give you a post-war inf div fd regt RA while a 126 would offer up a Corps med regt or Corps CS regt from 1959 /1962 respectively. I'm offering post-war options as they are most likely to be closest to the surface, and thus easiest to read and, of course, if the vehicle was rebuilt post-war as so many were, then it is likely that any earlier markings would be completely eradicated during the bodywork repreparation process.

I wouldn't consider the Germans in 1940 France to be "owners".

I don't think this is actually a captured vehicle as such. It looks to me as though it has been used as a static crane - for unloading canal barges of gravel, perhaps? The rear bogie isn't straight, there is a missing bogie - no sign of any controls in the cab and it is settled on bits of plank in addition to its jacks. Just a thought.

Here's a photo of typical UK-based NT trailers of the period. These are from HQ 19 Inf Bde deploying through Hamburg in the autumn of 1983 for exercises with 2 Div. They have no markings at all and the black paint is added pretty much at the whim of the painter - very often simply avoiding the tricky bits! The camouflage nets and hessian covers are tied on top of the trailers. There seems a lot of camouflage because this formation used complete hessian covers for their vehicles - rolls stitched together with green string - with black lines painted on in a rough brick pattern. These were used in the place of camouflage nets when camouflaged close to buildings - usually the HQ would be located in a "gut" - a German farmstead. The nets were only used when deployed into woods and fields. And, of course, nets were universally augmented by black hessian strips around the lower half of vehicles covering wheels and bogies as well as over windscreens and windows.

No, it isn't 2 AGRA. That formation had gone by then, disbanded finally in 1962. I did know which regiment it was, but I can't remember. Wally is correct with the other Formation sign - it is London District, but, again I can't remember which regiment - though an RA specialist could work it out

Steve, Here are a couple of photos of Martians which I took when I was a boy - so about 1968-70, something like that. They are of two separate TA units: the first is an AD regiment - with Bofors 40/70 and the other was a regiment equipped with 5.5" howitzers. They aren't great as it was a very simple camera and an even simpler person behind it!

It would becaue RMP vehicles in Berlin were usually gloss black as in the case of the photos above. I would expect the RAF Police ones to be gloss RAF blue.

If you think that's bad, just think how many Wehrmacht vehicles were left behind at the end of the war!

Undercover Covers do a lot of British military canvas tilts etc, both stock items and bespoke. I do not know, however, whether they have SCC2 canvas, but they're worth talking to. The quality of their stuff is reportedly absolutely excellent.

Have a look at your online entry - on the DVLA site and see whether your vehicle is now marked as exempt from MoTs. Mine had been so within a couple of days of having submitted the form, even though the V5 took a couple more weeks to come back to me.

Were you still at Cove the following year on the night of the general election when the Sgts' Mess burned down?

Bridging cranes were a nightmare. Our troop had a couple of Mk5s and a couple of Hydra Huskies when I was in Germany. Both spent more time in 37 Rhine Workshops than on the vehicle park - safe load indicators and boom extension sensors - they'd work their way through the line in the workshop, get to the end and go straight back to the beginning again as something or other would be out of date. The other thing was the pressure test certificate for the damn servicing trailer - the one piece of kit in the troop which never worked once during my 2 years in the troop. Even the Leyland Martian got a bit of a run out. We built an EWBB Bailey bridge over the main road for the Army Air Corps day using two Hydra Huskies - probably along the same lines as you did at Guildford - and at around the same time. We'd got as far as we could short of actually placing the span across the road for which we were going to get the police to close it for an hour or so. Typical conversation ensued - crane op, MPF, tp comd etc "nah, we don't need to wait, it'll only take us 10 minutes" (it was already dark and there was no traffic). So we did - but it was a close-run thing. Both cranes were at their limit - warning buzzer switched off - watching to see neither tipped by keeping an eye on the tyres - if the "squash" started to go out of them and they began to bounce we'd stop... But, we did it! Drama over, but the thought of tipping a crane onto the road when we were bending the rules was a bit "half-a-crown-sixpence"!

The navigator can't be up to much, then - Valencia is in Spain!

Use a light board.

Armoured regiments in a District would be numbered in the series 20 - 49 the Gunners 140 - 149 and the Sappers 160 - 169. HQ & odds & sods 10 - 19. During the latter half of the 70s, though, The Blues and Royals were in Detmold and the Life Guards were the armoured recce regiment for 16 Parachute Brigade, so may have been using 16/2. But they were based in Windsor (Combermere Bks) and would have been providing the mounted troops for public duties. At the same time they generally had a squadron away in Northern Ireland and, later Cyprus. So, I don't know whether either of the Household Cavalry regiments at that time bore LONDIST markings. Have a trawl through photos on line, you may find the evidence you're looking for.

Yes, these are standard markings for British military vehicles from the second half of the 1970s. LOND is London District and 73 is one of its infantry battalions. Field Force infantry battalions were numbered 7 - 11, Districts 70 - 119

I share your interest in the products of the Rootes Group. I'd sell my soul for a Humber Box or a Snipe! Don't forget post-war Hillmans - the Husky was used in the 60s as a general runabout - replaced by the Morris Minor Traveller. (And I do hope the chaps above never succeeded in finding the fault under the bonnet!) And didn't the Queen's Baggage Train use Commers, later Dodges?

This scam, probably the same scammer, was on eBay a few months back with the same vehicles - they aren't in Japan, but they are vehicles which are, or have been, on eBay being sold by their genuine owners. This white one was up for £30k back in March last year. It then came up for sale in October being offered by the scammer for considerably less. At that time, the scammer showed an address in Matlock, this time it's Newport. Quite a few of us simply report it to eBay, then it gets taken down, before the scammer starts again. I have no idea what would happen if you were to try to arrange a viewing - it's almost tempting to try! I'm sure there are loads more similar scams on eBay - just it's easier for us to spot the ones we recognise as odd. Having said that, I think the genuine owner's expectation of £30k for this is stretching it a bit - I'm sure it probably was owned by 27 Cdo Regt RA, but it would never have looked like that! PS - I see eBay have now removed the listing. Quite what the advert showing it as being in Japan is all about I don't know!