Larry Hayward

IMBS - But if a soldier on active service has an accident does he have to report it to his UK Insurance Company once he is home and his private vehicle needs its insurance renewing? Does it depend what he drives in service? If you squash an Iraqi insurgent in his car in an APC in Basra I suppose thats OK but what if you crashed your Army Land Rover in to a tree after falling asleep on exercise in Germany?

Here is that Jagdpather - this time at Military Odyssey 2006 [attachment deleted by admin]

I saw this photo in the papertoday and it really fooled me for a second. Its not Dunkirk in 1940 but Redcar seafront in 2006, where filming has been done for a new film called Atonement. For once the props team have really studied their subject and have re-created the look of all those abandoned CS8's - though I am not sure the vehicle numbers on the body are correct for 1940. Can anyone say for sure? I am reliably informed no real Morris Commercial CS8's were hurt during the filming! NB - Click on the photo to enlarge [attachment deleted by admin]

And presumably thats why you have to use the choke a little when starting a hot engine, like my Lightweight needs none when starting from cold!

Vapour Lock? Can someone explain how it occurs? Is it due to the heat, that the fuel vapourises before it gets to the cab? So pouring water over it takes some of the heat away? Is that what it is?

Degsy, Was it you in your Jeep with hood up that I saw near the entrance to Hullavington Tractor Show a few miles before Kemble? If it was, then sorry I did not stop as I had a car so close up my a**e and it would have been difficult to break and that road from the M4 isn't very good for U turns! The owner looked like he knew what he was doing and wasn't head in hands beside the road. BTW - who thought the set up at Kemble was all wrong? Me and a few hundred others I suspect. The stalls were furthest away from the arena, so unlike previous years you could be looking round the stalls and when the action started in the arena you could walk a few yards and have a look - then go back to the stalls in between. But this year it was either look round the stalls (which seem fewer in number in recent years) or look at the vehicles and wait in between the events. Also the refreshments were next to the arena and too far for stalls for the sole traders to nip over and get a cup of tea and be back in a mo'. Some were saying that even if a mate stood in for them it would be ten minutes each way to get a drink!

Jack, I am very surprised to hear that the MVT Council have told you that they are not interested in an MVT Forum. A bit short sighted in my opinion and only a matter of time before they change their mind. Why so many people find a forum useful is that they can post a technical help problem on the web and very often get a reply the same evening - from people they have never heard of before or met previously but who share the same interest. Imagine trying to find out the answer by phone or by letter - who would you contact first even if you knew all the owners of the MV type you were working on. You could write to an MV Magazine in the hope that three months later your letter would be published and replied to by another letter! Some hope - as CMV do not want hundreds of 'How do I do this' letters. A forum is also great for asking about shows, who is going and saying if they are any good and for getting details in an instant from the likes of Clive Elliott, who I met at Kemble last weekend. So keep up the good work

Jack, As your HMVF forum is turned out to be a great success and the Military Vehicle Trust have been slow in setting one up, perhaps they could 'commission' you to run this forum on a new improved MVT site and then they could pay something towards the costs - in the same way that 'Windscreen' was put out to tender and paid for by the Club. It must cost you time and money and I am not sure if you have much support either. As an EMLRA member since 2004 I have met more EMLRA members in two years through their forum, and had many technical questions answered, than I have in many years of membership of the MVCG & MVT! Sadly due to work commitments and the fact that so few people own MVs in NW London, there is not a local MVT group meeting that I can easily attend, so the forum is vital to keep in touch. All major Clubs like the MVT need a forum in the 21st Century. The MVT may be planning their own forum but it may be better if they paid you to carry on doing what you do on their behalf.

Ack Ack, Yes I will be at Kemble, so I will come and say Hi!

Great Site. I am pleased you have started an AA Gun web site as this is still a subject that has had very little coverage. I am also pleased you have found a Gun Laying radar trailer to restore. In a copy of Wheels and Tracks from c.1993 there were pictures of a couple of trailers left out to rot until that time, that were un-identified in the magazine. I subsequently discovered they were very early GL Mark 1 but by now I have no way of finding out where the photo was taken or what happenedto them. I will dig out the issues of W&T I presume you have heard of the Defence Electronics History Society - http://www.dehs.org.uk DEHS has many members who worked on or used these GL radars (and every other type of radar too) and they can assist with technical details and photos. I was interested in the Lister Generators by the way as I was a member of the British Army's last searchlight unit - 873 Movement Light Squadron RE (V) which used the pre-WW2 carbon arc 90cm Searchlights & Lister Generators for battlefield illumination. These 1935 built searchlights were used right up to the late 1970s using Bedford RLs as 'searchlight portees' with Lister in tow! Even when we got proper US built Xenon Searchlights & Land Rover Generator sets, we still kept the 90cm' s & Listers for cerimonial duties, such as lighting up Horseguards Parade, Buckingham Palace and Wembley Stadium to name a few. Keep up the good work

Neil, Try contacting Rob Short through the Ex-Military Land Rover Association (EMLRA) web site. He is a volunteer at the Royal Gun Powder Mills and is organizing the MV event next weekend 24/25th June. He should know if there is a competion!

AlienFTM, Were you involved in Operation Crusader 80 in Germany in 1980 by chance? I remember being with my RE unit in a field when we were attacked by some Scorpions of 'Orange Force' and I can still remember seeing hundreds of football sized cabages flying in to the air in all directions as your lot tore up a German farmers crop!

Thanks Clive. Presumably the use of the black square must has gone too, as some photos I have seen show the marking in black on the Nato Green background. BTW the earliest photo I have just found of CHALK, RAW, FAW & AUW on a black square is on a Wobat equipped Lightweight of the Royal Marines on page 74 of Mark Cook's 'The Half-Ton Military Land Rover'. The photo is said to date from 1969.

Can anyone say when the British Army first started spraying CHALK, RAW, FAW & AUW on the sides of its vehicles. I can't remember seeing it applied to any Deep Bronze Green vehicles in the 1960/70s?

Top tip for this post is for people to state the location of their finds, as they could be posted by someone any where in the world so members would not have a clue whether it was a practical proposition to buy, if it was available. Also I doubt anyone is going to post an item here first if they are seriously interested in buying it, so giving better details of the location would help someone else buy it

I've decided to sick with originality when painting my Lightweight Land Rover - by painting it like a squaddie would have done - in a hurry and straight over the old colour, not rubbing it down or removing old coats of paint! Thats how I used to do it when I was in the TA many years ago!

Thanks guys for your suggestions. In truth I am more interested in the legal aspect of this - to warn members - as we are the people with odd looking vehicles (as far as the public are concerned) and the ones who are likely to lay up a vehicle for the winter - and as we have seen its us the law abiding citizens who are likely to be targeted by Police & Wardens, whereas the local 'asbo' just carries on driving without tax and insurance as before!

So can I take it that its OK to cover a vehicle up on the road? Obviously if the authorities want to take a look to see its got a registration plate and tax disc I do not mind- as long as they put the cover back on and secure it - but I was under the impression that it was an offence not to display these items, so if there was a vehicle cover on it could be argued that they were not on display and a fine would be payable - the same as putting your new tax disc in the glove compartment of your car!

Forgetting the pros & cons of using a cover on an MV that it stored outside during the winter, am I right in thinking that if the vehicle is parked on a public road, that the owner can be fined if the Tax disk & registration plate is not visible? I seem to rember reading this in a magazine or newspaper somewhere?

Don't get me wrong either - a feature on a CLASSIC MV from any age would be fine but don't fill the pages with oddities that are not Classic or with articles on quasi - military vehicles like bulldozers made from leftover M4 bits etc that should be featured in one of their sister publications. I can imagine that people with post war vehicles like me could get bored if it was just WW2 - but the subject of WW2 vehicles has hardly been covered. Perhaps we are so used to British American and German types, we forget that there have been no articles on Japanese, Italian or French trucks as far as I can remember! Incidentally I think the for sale / wants section is a great improvement!

What made a great impression on me - the best part of thirty years ago -was attending an MV show on my own as a member of the public and being given a ride around the arena in the cab of a CMP truck by a very generous owner after I said to him that I thought his vehicle looked great. To me it was the highlight of the show and something that convinced me to own a vehicle & join the MVT. While the vehicle came later I later got to ride in many other MVs, thanks to the generousity of many MVT members. For me nothing beats riding in a turret of Peter Gray's M10 on a French public road during an early Normandy tour. It would be nice to think that we could do the same today, for a member of the public showing a real interest in our vehicles but I suppose such a simple idea has been ruined by worries over Health & Safety or the idea of a long queue forming next to your MV! I suppose it depends on the vehicle in question and the situation but remember if you can make someones day (and their Dad's at the same time) they may well become a club member now or in future! We certainly need them!

With regard to this subject, I actually emailed Pat Ware a few years ago to tell him what I thought of the Magazine - that it should cover CLASSIC MILITARY VEHICLES vehicles older than 20 / 25 years, and that he should be writing about such vehicles either in a historical sense - documenting their use in service, or about vehicles that people are likely to own today, so do buyers guides, restoration articles and bits about owners vehicles. As for modern vehicles I suggested they were kept to the news feature only. What I did not like (but still continue to see) are the articles such as those on some obscure type that never made it in to service - such as American armoured box tanks of WW1 in the April 2006 issue, or anything to do with ex-WD vehicles turned in to weird French Fire Engines (June 2006). I also do not like artices on toys, as apposed to proper kits of MVs. With regard to the comment that CMV could not keep just to WW2 vehicles that is true - though in passing I would say that I cannot remember seeing anything on Canadian CMPs at all, and CMV could pick anything from a BSA to a Scammell Pioneer and do a feature on the type, in service and / or a feature on a preserved type with the owner giving details of what they did and what's it like to own (like Jack's GMC) So you should email as well to say what you do or do not like - cmv.info@kelsey.co.uk

Interesting! When the computerised MOT system was first announced I had an idea that it would cockup things for MV owners and one un-answered question I have is whether it is possible to take your MV in early for an MOT, and if it fails still have the remaining period to put it right. My Lightweight has an MOT expiry in mid December, which is a bit to cold for working on it. So if I take it in for a test at the end on October, will I be turned away or will it allow me to bring forward the MOT and then have October each year as the expiry?

Not a Morris - but a Humber marked in 43rd Inf. Div markings. Did you veteran drive one of these. Was he in the Recce Corps / RAC or perhaps in the REs which also used the Morris Light Recce?

Just reading old posts and wanted to say that all those German Sd kfz 250 & 251 halftracks that have been restored by the Sdkfz people realy do look good at Military Odyssey and bring the show to life - and yet if you read the history of each of them you will find they were nearly all scrap yard wrecks before having thousands of pounds spent on them. As for the Jagdpanther I went to the show specifically to see it in action and I think 99% of those who attend shows would rather see it restored and running than see that M3 full of holes, just as they would prefer to see a Hurricane, Mig or Bf 109 restored to flying condition even with lots of new parts, than see it 'as found' in a Russian forest. I have nothing but admiration for people like John, who bring something previously 'lost' back to life! NB - John why is it though, that in all the photos of your Valentine, you're never pictured driving it? I hope you get the occasional go in the hot seat !!!!!!!!!