bill testaert

If what i see at the right rear stowagebin is a red and blue square this means that this spartan was used by an artillery batallion, most probably used by the forward observers. It is definitely a modernised vehicle since it carrie s new type fire extinguishers. License plat should be beneath the rear door, onto this special iron plate illuminated with the little light on top of it. William

Locations are absolutely correct. Might be possible to grind one slightly, a number might appear. Might it be possible you found a red and blue square on it? William

You all got me cornered with this idendification problem! I admit I did not pay much attention to this before. I looked into one of our Spartans and found an ID plate near the back switch-box but no other vehicle seems to have one! Serials are all mixed-up and correspond to nothing...more intriguiing than I tought! the only thing I can come up with sofar is that: When vehicles were built the licenseplate corresponded to the serial nrs. During the late 80ies our CVRT's underwent a major reconstruction, they were totally take apart and rebuilt. It is probable that they got licenseplates when they came of the constructionline wich then did not correspond to their former number. If you are interested all our OPS CVRT'S will be on display during the URSEL WING AND WHEELS show during the week-end of 10-11 aug. Urselairfield lies is in Ursel near Aalter easily reached from the coast trough the E 40. William

I know of one bloke who collects UK CVRT's but his name I will have to look up. I just contacted a friend who was cvrt testdriver at ASCO who produced CVRT's under license in Belgium. He is almost 80 but still drivers our museum's Striker. He doens't recall any id plate whatsoever in our vehicles, so for the moment I stick to my stand: I cannot tell you when your vehicle was produced nor where it first served. We have a proto Spartan and a proto Scorpion and they have UK style ID plates but that's it. To find the black squares look at my pics. they might lead us to something.

See my reply above.

Definitely a Belgian Spartan. Did you find a black square with a 3 digit number on it? I will hav to check a bit further. William

Hello, At the right or left rear side (not the back) of your SPA you should find some letters and digit's ex: BESPA XXXX, put the number 65 before these digit's and you have your belgian MOD license plate. Now, the hulls were produced by a Belgian firm ASCO, they still exsist but manufacture airplane parts nowadays. Most of our CVRT's were produced around 1973-74. Samaritans where the last ones. For ex 65665 was hull 665, in this case a SULTAN. (my first CVRT when I joined...) This ALVIS club or something might be a bit more helpfull.. Hope I was of any help! Cheers, William

Belgian Army does not have a policy to keep service documents. Once out of service, docs are destroyed. CVRT's transferring to the Army Museum sometimes keep their documents but these are maintenance documents and do not carry service records.When vehicles are deployed the logistical chain follows them on their license plate but after the mission no tracks are kept.You might find a black square with a three digit number on it and this refers to the unit in wich it served, for ex. 057 = 2nd Lancers Regiment.This could give you a clue. Operations in wich belgian CVRT's were involved are numerous: Belgian Forces in Germany, Croatia, Kosovo,Somalia, Rwanda etc.Most of the CVRT's engaged served with the light cavalry regiments called "Jagers te Paard". We used to have three regiments of these, each equipped with around 100 CVRT's.of all types. Every recce platoon of the tank-and infantry regiments had 7 CVRT's, tank squadrons used Spartans as PC and LAD mec vehicle.In total Be Army had more than 7OO CVRT's. William Testaert.

Looks good! Succes! William

[ Hello, When they came into service they had brit smokedischargers. Later we switched to german throwers compatible with our Leopard MBT fleet. Cavalry greetings, Bill Testaert TE=Cornishbloke;329511]Just came in for a cup of tea whilst re-fitting the headlight on my Scorpion and saw this. Cheered me up! Interesting pattern of smoke dischargers - I've never seen these before. Nice to see first parades being carried out properly rather than just leap in and hope that it all works. Back out to the shed with a spring in my step! :cheesy:

Hello Shaun, Let's do this again, any time! Greetz Bill

Hello, I see you are attending a CVRT Striker. We are looking to complete ours and are searching for the remote firing device and mock missiles or bins for it. Any clue as where to look for it? Thanks for your time! Bill Testaert Royal Armed Forces Museum Brussels

Hello, Thank you all for these nice reactions! Indeed, our volunteers do a great job! I am not very good at sending things so I passed some new footage to Joris were you can see more CVR(T)'s, this time in a more "logistic" fashion. Cavalry greetings, William

Hello, Thank you on behalf of the Volunteers of the Royal Army Museum of Belgium who restored all these vehicles. Indeed at the beginning we used brit smoke dischargers, later we switched to German dischargers compatible with our Leopard MBT's. As for the Striker we are looking to find the remote firing post and some dummy missiles, any idea's? Thanks! William Testaert