John Pearson

Excellent job Rick. What is the story behind the 75mm breech ring - not the same one you had at Beltring I think? Right hand side recoil shield looks familiar!!!! Don't forget where you found it!! Is the breech ring you had at Beltring available? I still have a loose 75 tube in the Churchill turret because some git pinched it 25 years ago to put into a Valentine and now need to put it back!

Seems to me that this may well be a selector linkage problem rather than internal to the gearbox. The internal selectors have to be in exactly the right position to engage a gear. If they are slightly out one way or another then they try and engage two gears together and the gear change pedal stays down. How it achieves this precision is by a plate, carefully machined with exact notches and a spring plunger to hold it in exact positions for each gear to successfully engage the relevant brake band. Now this can wear but it runs in oil and is very lightly loaded so wear is usually none existant. This plate inside is connected to the gear change lever that comes out of the box and is connected by the linkage to the gear stick. The gate around the gear stick stops it in position for each gear, the linkage moves the gearchange arm coming out of the gearbox and the linkage must place the arm in the exact position. In fact, there is always a bit of wear in the linkage joints so it really needs to place it within a few thousands of an inch then the spring loaded plunger in the gearbox will do the final locating by sinking into its notch. If you disturb the linkage or the gearbox, you have to readjust the linkage which is simple. Take out the drivers seat and underplates to get to the gearbox. Take out the cotter pin connecting the linkage to the gearchange arm where is comes from the box. You can then turn that arm in an arc, feeling each time the spring loaded pin goes into a notch.If you put the gearstick fully into first with the arm fully at the end of its travel, pin should just slide in. If not, adjust the turnbuckle. Check with the extreme other end (3rd) and again pin should just slip in.

I will polish my bald head then! Count me in!

I was there as a cadet in 1967. For those that don't know, the toilet arrangements mentioned consisted of a long sewer pipe, slightly inclined that ran the whole length of the latrine, going from stall to stall. There were toilet seats above holes in the pipe where you sat and made your deposit. Then every ten(?) minutes or so, like a urinal, there would be an automatic flush from the higher to the lower end of the pipe, collecting all "deposits" on the way. Very disconcerting if you were still seated but we had a better use! Wait in the most "uphill" stall with several pages of crumpled newspaper.As soon as the flow could be heard on its way, paper down the seat, spray on petrol lighter fluid and ignite then run like hell. The fireball was then washed down the pipe and under any bare buttocks that happened to be in situ. The runninng part was the most important as you were likely to catch several NCO's who could make you pay dearly for your fun! Ah, happy days! The nissan huts were uninsulated so early mornings, the floor was about half an inch deep in condensation and it was bl**dy cold! One cadet who shall remain nameless was one of those hateful people who woke up before revellie and whistled while cleaning his brasses. Someone threw a boot at him which hit him behind the ear and knocked him out cold. We bundled him back into bed so when the corporal came in to check we were all up, he was apparently still in bed asleep so he was put on a "fizzer" of some sort. As is common with unconciousness, he had forgotten a few minutes so he did not remember either getting up or being hit with the boot. It was so boring there that we walked about 4 miles on our one afternoon off to go to a Highland Games. Got caught by the Major coming out of a pub there, I remember!

I had to risk booking into the site from work (verboten (sp?) to do this from official computers) but I have had a Saracen 30BA10 for about 15 years. When the posibility of getting it very cheap came up, I though who wants one of those? Complicated, fragile, no proper armament/turret and post-war?? Anyway got it after it having spent 11 years on a plinth. New batteries and a fuel gravity feed, 100 yard tow and it started and has run perfectly ever since. Normal maintenance and only repairs have been to replace starter motor and fan belts. While starter motor was playing up, we started it off the hand crank. I can honestly say that driving it on the roads is probably the most fun you can have with overalls on! It ain't a car so don't think you can just jump in it and go, you must do the maintenance, in particular you must check ALL the oil levels before any use. If you compare it to say a tank then it is 98% of the fun but only about 25% of the aggravation. Compared to a ferret it is about 110% of the work for 200% of the fun and compared to a jeep it is about 200% of the work for about 1000% of the fun. If you can run a ferret and can measure the circumference of tyres (swapping as necessary to maintain balance of sizes side to side) then you can easily run a saracen. Same also goes for Saladin but you cannot sleep in the back of a Saladin at shows. Yes, fuel costs are high, less than large petrol trucks but no denying that they are pricey to run. However, you are not going to be going on holiday in it, as I said it is not a car but you certainly get a load of fun for your £30 jerrican full. I don't disagree with Bob Grundy over very much at all but when talking about Saracens, we are at opposide ends of the argument!!

I have been a Probation Officer since 1978. I am now only doing 3 days per week due to some heart trouble. Looking forward to retiring, unless the Gov sell Probation off and I am made redundant!

I am contractually bound to point out it is not my tank but it is on long term loan from the Tank Museum. There is absolutely no way I could afford to own it if I had been required to pay for it so I have no qualms at all in pointing out who actually owns it! I can just about afford the labour (free!!) and some bits to do it up but outright purchase, no chance! Still Bobs fault though! Now if only I could track down the bloke that had the gun recoil shield. Oh hang on, that was me! Thought it would be the same as the Valentine but it wasn't so it stayed on the shelf until the Churchill came to Wolverhampton to join them 20+ years later!

Don't think I can help with RL emer but will have a look when I get home. I am about to scrap my RL Light Recovery due to extensive tin worm, a fact which breaks my heart. Don't want to buy it for spares do you? I would prefer it to be fully restored but being broken up for spares is better than just going in the pot to become razor blades and tin cans. PM me if you are interested?

Ah! The missing aircleaners in the foreground!

With Mr Pearson inside filling his pockets. I now have to put it all back on! Please publish any other pics Bob you have of that trip and do you have a record of the date?

This thread puts me in a bit of a difficult position. There have been undoubted tensions and dsisagreements between the Friends of the Tank Museum and the Tank Museum management over a number of issues in the last year ot two. These were recognised prior to the Aunnual General Meeting and caused a large amount of discussion. A working party has been set up by the Friends Council to receive and collate suggestions for changes in the relationship, organisation etc, in fact nothing is ruled out. Unfortunately, bits of dicussions have been published in Tracklink which has given the impression that matters are a lot worse than in fact is the case. The Chair was due to retire at the AGM, having served for 6 years but the AGM decided to renew the Chair's tenure by one year to enable him to have time to try and put matters right. I was elected Vice Chair at the same meeting. I am very keen that matters are put right and I have submitted some suggestions and I know that others have also made submissions but of course I am in a difficult position to discuss my suggestions here before the Council has had an opportunity to discuss them all.

I think that David Fletcher at the Tank Museum actually met Hobart but my memory may be faulty and he might have been telling me about someone else's opinion but he said Hobart was the best person he ever met for rubbing people up the wrong way - brilliant but an absolute git! I have been doing a bit of research at the Public Records Office and anything from Hobart appears petulant, awkward and bloody minded and that shows through the official formal language that is used. Brilliant no doubt but I don' think many enjoyed having to deal with him. Bit more trivia: he was "retired" in 1940 and when he was later re-instated, he was a lance corporal in the Home Guard. I would not have fancied being his sergeant!

I had missed this thread somehow! Callous though it may seem, DD use was a mathematical calculation of chances. The further out from the beach they are launched, the more dispersed a target they present but the further they have to float, the greater the chances of breakdown, flooding or swamping. The decision was that 5000 yards was about right so they would be launched over the horizon and appear to be small folding boats on the way in. Tests with Valentine DD's in the Moray |Firth in the winter of 1943/4 showed what the limits of seaworthiness were and it was decided that as the landing was a Naval operation, it was a Navy decision if the conditions were too bad to launch but of course the Navy did not have any DD experience. A pre D Day rehearsal at Studland Bay on 4 April 1944 was done in marginal wave conditions and six DD's were swamped and 6 crew drowned (NOT all drivers as sometimes thought) and this caused a rethink, at least in the British and Canadian Armies. They decided that the worse the conditions, the closer in they should be launched as the balance of probability changed between a whole landing craft of DD's being sunk by a single shot compared with the probability of swamping. Further the Army arranged for a high ranking Army officer to "advise" the Navy man about conditions. Off Omaha, the American Navy thought the conditions were suitable and launched from the nominal 5000 yards although it is alleged that some were launched even further out and almost all sank. Seeing what happened, later American launches were made closer inshore. On the British and Canadian beaches, the Army officer "advised" a much closer approach and so those and those at Utah were almost completely successful. When training and active service launches are considered, there were probably 40 - 50,000 launches of DD's in WW2, and about 60 to 80 were lost which is a pretty good average. Incidentally, facines on tanks were used in WW1 at the battle of Amiens to breach the Hindenburg line. Hobart did not actually invent anything himself, his forte was organisation, drive and training.

Cannot help with the history but I am working on restoring a Churchill if you want to have a look.

How about taking them off altogether and fitting some kind of removable light board, like a front trailer board perhaps?? Wired to a hidden plug, on for road travel, in the back of truck for shows: maybe coupled with fog lights and reflective panels on a similar board at the back as well??

How much and where are you?

Just a brief update: Eddy8men, his mate that I can't remember the forum name of and I went to Castlemartin to look for spares for the Churchill at what was left of a target. We arrived at 4 am, got up at 6 am and Eddy8men got home about 11pm so it was a tiring day. We had some success but weather was bl++dy awful again. Man on the gate said that it was a lovely part of the world when it does not rain. How often is that says I? Don't know he says, only been here about 8 years. The above is a lie in fact but it felt like it was true: I have never seen it apart from under a heavy downpour! On the range I found a Valentine or Covenator bridge section still in daily use on one track where it went over a stream! We have a big "pull" organised for Saturday, hoping to finally get the plastic "canvas" roof on the building over the Churchill but we will need to put a bulge in it at one end as the Churchill is not quite inside! More bolts have come undone, not all but the vast majority! I am still trying to get onto any range with Churchill targets, initially for a photo recce. I am not short of much (well not short of much that is likely to still be there anyway) but suspension springs, gearbox covers and patterns for seats would be nice as would a spare engine or two and I will attempt to make one runner from several. A 75mm breech would be an unlikely prize! Big Al is on the mend and I have one new helper Scott plus no 1 son Colin and numbers 1 and 2 grandsons Jack and Alex are all keen to help but one or two more would be welcome (but see above for the poor conditions attached to this opportunity!!!)

Thought I would update with what little progress has happened with the Castlemartin Churchill that Bovington have lent to me for restoration.! All hatches now open, including even the hull side doors. They now swing open with fingertips. One whack each, cracked the 20 layers of paint and Mr Vauxhall's original grease still there! Still only under a sheet as we have yet to finish building the shed around it but even a tarpaulin is better protection than before. I am starting to try and gather spares: have purchased some items from a collector, left over from a previous restoration and have a trip booked onto the impact area at Castlemartin looking for remains from the other Churchills that went there in the 1950's and were not so lucky as the one I have got. I am also trying to gain access to other ranges that I know had Churchills in the 1980's but I am really about 25 years too late. Surprising how good heavy body panels can be mind you if there is a lot of peat in the soil. As mentioned above, very grateful for the brass ID plate that I was given at Beltring. A couple of volunteers have come forwards to help with the job. I am looking forwards to making a proper start in the autumn!

Right, briefly I am back in contact!! Back from Beltring and at work: my home computer will not let me reply to posts (the dialogue box appears for a half second then vanishes - any ideas???) but the work computer does not allow me to send photos!! The ID plate is now in my posssession!!! I will get Big Al to post picture of handover, once I send him a copy from my home computer. At Beltring, I came across a Churchill turret traverse electrical control box, NOS. I asked the price, to be asked "What, got a Churchill have you?" Just this once I missed out the details about actual ownership remaining with Bovington and answered "Well yes, I have" That felt SO good! Comment from above: I can't post pics but i can strip tanks? Ah well, tanks come with instruction books but bl**dy computers don't! Also, someone above is interested in helping Big Al to fix this Churchill? He will get a PM but it occured to me does anyone else want to help? As they say, I could use a few good men (or women of course) Conditions appalling, poor tools, no pay, no expences, long hours?? Probably 1000 hrs of hard graft per hour of crewing and 100 hrs of crewing per drive? Churchill is a few miles from M6 Junction 10, PM me if you can give say a day a fortnight at least. Skills not necessary, just enthusiasm and willingness to achieve the impossible with neither budget nor equipment!

Ah, but will I live that long? Not unless I lay off the pies!

Thanks for posting. If I send you a PM, can you let me have a good copy of the pic? By the way, if you google "Panzers in Wales" on Pathe News you get a bit of movie of it in the background of a visit by German officers in 1961. Film also includes a less lucky brother well on the way to being destroyed by gunfire on the range.

Several belly plates were out but it was still only a mile from the Atlantic for 50+ years so lower details are mostly brown and very flakey!

Early in 2011 show - maybe Monday? - there was a rain shower that made the top 1inch of surface into gloop but it was hard underneath and then started to dry up. Visiting us was an old college friend Tom who is the wittiest bloke I know. He cracked some joke and my two grandsons (13/14 yrs old) are sitting in those fold up chairs which I think are called Landrover chairs for some reason. Anyway, one grandson laughs so much he overbalances sideways, takes chair with him and goes splat into the mud, all down the side of his head, right arm etc. He is laughing so much he cannot move and is tangled in the chair anyway so he just lies there on his side in the mud laughing like a drain as we then all did. Which grandson is a secret to protect him (but his name is Jack!)

That is 26 years after you of course, cannot count and machine will not let me edit for some reason!

Bob, I did not know that and I was there! I remember leaving a full outboard motor fuel tank on a gravity feed for you and going home (I was working on the Valentine and had finished). I later heard that a flooding carb had filled the inlet tract with petrol and when cranked, the engine mixed this with radiator cooling air and blew it up into the rafters, finally igniting it as a small fuel/air explosion that all but lifted the roof off and got us all stopped from working on vehicles inside the Museum itself for many years! I did not know you got it running, certainly not long enough to move it! In that case, someone must have been "messing" between 1986(?) and 2012 as the starter motor was burned out and the carbs broken insidewhen we got to it: I must say I assumed you had done for the carbs with the "backshot" but if you had it running afterwards then you are certainly not the culprit. Mr Mystery must have also done for the headgasket but the other faults, jammed controls and crumbling/brittle wiring is just the passage of time. Hard to accept but your work on it was only 35 years after it was thought to have last run (1951) and we were looking at it 36 years after you! Now I do feel old!