mick.wilson

Yep, could do..... we have found and quick way of getting them off :-) not sure how quick we can put then back on again. Mick.

Your right there Jack, I have heard story's of them ending up on top of the driver :?, our one went 3ft side ways. Mick.

Our guys and girls got some good snaps for you guys. . http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/1.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/2.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/3.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/4.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/5.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/6.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/7.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/8.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/9.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/10.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/11.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/12.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/13.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/14.jpg[/img]

Hi Mike, It when with a bang but the driver was only doing 30mph so the track just rolled off and no damage to the halftrack or the Bofors being towed behind it. If a wheel comes of a Jimmy it could kill somebody Jack, the road is a dangerous place to be dropping anything. Mick.

The trip to and from the Victory Show turned out to be another 514th adventure story. It all started with the Halftrack gear box rumbling on route to the show but we arrived with little problems. The Dodge followed up on the Friday with Cara driving, only 5 miles from our Farnborough depot we received radio transmissions that there were problems with the transfer box and she was jumping into neutral. Thanks to the evacuees (Connor and Sean) wedging their feet against the gear lever to hold it in position for the remaining 115 miles the Dodge arrived safely on site. But that was just the start of our adventures. The halftrack gear box continued to cause trouble throughout the weekend and after pondering all day Monday a coin was flipped to decide whether to low-load it home, we went against the decision and drove. 10 miles into our homeward journey, the halftrack cut out on a roundabout leaving the convoy dangerously exposed. A quick repair job and we were on our way again for another 10 miles, where the second vehicle in the convoy (Jeremy’s truck) decided that it wanted all of it’s six spark plugs changed. At this point we told the halftrack to continue without us and that we would rendezvous with him at the halfway point. Jem’s truck continued for all of 5 miles before it gave up the ghost (That’s one engine per season so far, for this particular truck), with all the trucks towing trailers the only vehicle with an available tow hitch was the Clubmobile, which was immediately turned into a Diamond Tea recovery truck. Towing Jeremy’s fully loaded truck and trailer (We must have welded the extended chassis on well enough as it didn’t come off). Due to faulty communications equipment I (Driving the Clubmobile/Diamond Tea) was the only person unaware of what was unfolding with the Halftrack ahead. At 2100 on the A43 I was being flashed by a spot lamp on the cab of a halftrack stopped on the side of the road, only to realise it was our halftrack. After talking to the driver (Parker) we were informed that the near side track had snapped and shot across the dual carriageway nearly taking out an 18 wheeler, luckily Parker and Mother had managed to drag it off the road to prevent a major incident. So we phoned for recovery as we were certain that our new Diamond Tea couldn’t tow a halftrack aswell. Half an hour later 2 low-loader recovery trucks arrived at our position, 1 to load the halftrack and the other to tow the Bofors. After loading our convoy continued to the break down depot at 10 miles an hour with one recovery truck with halftrack at the front, followed by the Clubmobile towing Jem’s and trailer, then the two still operational trucks, with the second recovery truck towing the Bofors bringing up the rear. After a quick cup of tea at the recovery depot, trucks, drivers, trailers were all swapped around and the remains of the convoy continued and arrived back at the Farnborough base at 0430 this morning. Some people would say “What a horrible journey.” but we were laughing all the way home. All in all an excellent weekend with an exciting finish to the season. Mick http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/IMG_2713.jpg[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P9050264.JPG[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P1010237.JPG[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P9050251.JPG[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P9050257.JPG[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P1010246.JPG[/img] http://www.514th.co.uk/images/Victory2006/P9050261.JPG[/img]

There are no copy rights on 60 year old music and we did the mixing up of tracks so they are our's to broardcast and free for you all to download :-), hell we can put them on CD and sell them on eBay if we wanted to but thought it would be good to give them away :-) Mick.

Have you seen this video of The Puppini Sisters. http://www.universalmusic.co.uk/home/ Mick.

I don’t know if you guys would be interested but our WWII radio page has now been updated, with a choice of five 1 hour broadcasts to listen to while surfing the forums. Please let us know if you have any problems with it as it’s a bit experimental at the moment :? . More radio stations coming soon . http://514th.co.uk/Radio.html Mick.

Thanks guys, We have one already Jack, Nick Halling is a member of our group and has some photos up on his site from Detling. Great photographer. http://www.nickhalling.co.uk/index2.htm Mick.

I have found this photo of our rear truck taking a hit 8) http://www.images2view.co.uk/g/2006/mo/pics/mc06-09423.jpg[/img] But there are lots more to look at on the link below, Set 13 you can see our heroic stand against the German recon group, Set 14 the Allies come in to save the day 8) . http://www.images2view.co.uk/g/2006/mo/menu.html Look out for our trucks being used by the Red Army (Eastern front battle) We covered the white stars with red one's and used them as lend leas trucks. Mick.

Hi Guys, Just got back from Detling’s Military Odyssey show, it was the first time that 514th had been written in to a battle script and with the commentator starting off one of the largest publicly re-enacted WWII battle in the U.K by telling the thousands of public on watchers about the brave men of the Red Ball Express and there job of supplying the troops on the front line, at the same time our convoy of Jimmy’s pull on to the battle field only to get halfway and start taking fire from a German re-con group with a 20mm, the pyrotechnics went great and the first and last truck exploded with lots of smoke, us surviving drivers made a last stand around the trucks until we where overrun by German Halftracks and we where all dead, as the Germans took two of our captured trucks back to there line’s, then the British opened up with four 25 pounder field guns supporting an American advance across the battle field. It was an amazing site to see a working M16 Halftrack firing its quad 50cal at a German plane strafing the battle field that must have been flying 50ft off the ground only to be chased off by an allied plane and then the pursuing dogfight above us, the hole thing lasted about half an hour and was the best and probably the most expensive re-enacted battle I have been in. One problem is I forgot my camera and have no photos (of my own) but I will try and find some for you guys. The 514th also won the “Best Display” award with our S.A.R.A group's camped in a woodland setting, when you consider that this category covered every group at the show from the ancient Egyptians to the gulf war, it shows that the award is as good as it gets (Sorry no photos of that yet). One of the great things that has come out of this re-enactment is that there are so many more people out there that now know the story of the Red Ball Express, there is still plenty more to educate them about but I feel that we may have grabbed there interest enough to look it up and learn more about the subject. Mick.

Thanks for your help guys, I have some to choose from now. ASCZ 783P HQ 1 or 1A-783P * C-5 or 1A-HQ-X..........P-1 or 1A 783P HQ 1 Lots of 1st Army there, where the 783rd 1st Army? Mick.

Thanks for that Degsy, I think thats the info we are look for. Mick.

For our trucks its: ASCZ 514 TC TRK41 ASCZ = Advance Section, Communications Zone 514 = 514th Regiment TC = Truck Company TRK41 = Truck 41 So would it be: ASCZ 783 MP ???? Come on somebody must know......Please

One of our guys has bought a Jeep and wants to put M.P marking's on it, we would like to make it up to be part of the 783rd M.P Battalion from the famous Red Ball photo but not sure what the bumper lettering would be, anybody got any ideas ? Mick

One of our guys "Woody" bought 4 bar tread Jimmy tyres with tubes for £100 the lot at W&P, its just a matter of looking about and being lucky.

http://www.arcclubmobile.co.uk/arcpage2.html

The Clubmobile will be putting a film show on as usual, films defiantly being show will be: CROSS OF IRON ESCAPE TO VICTORY we will also try to fit in the following late night films by request: THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN DOWNFALLl THE GREAT ESCAPE THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI A BRIDGE TOO FAR ZULU MEMPHIS BELL OPERATION PETTICOAT We had a head count of over 150 at Beltring (Saving Private Ryan) 8-) Mick.

We are not hugging the tank but we did fall in love with it.... Me on the 50cal and Enigma front gunner's seat Courtesy of http://www.nickhalling.co.uk

It was great to see so many Jimmy's all on the move at one time, I was in the back of the 4th truck, the 514th was running 4 trucks in that convoy (Truck 4, 5, 6 and 7), it would have looked even better if all the other drivers and passengers where dressed in green, I did say to one of our guys if the 514th every get this big we will defiantly have problems driving in convoy to the shows :-). "Snapper" Glad you liked the spagbog, I see there is a photo of it on the W&P site , So you must have been the guy that keep saying "You get everywhere" whenever I saw you ?. Also found a photo of me and Enigma in the Sherman 8-) Mick

I remember saying to Enigma "we will have to put a post on HMVF, What did you do at W&P" he then took that photo and started playing his harmonica which set the perfect atmosphere as the troops moved up to the front line and past us, before climbing in I wish him good luck and to keep his head down, we then when off to hut down Tiger tanks. Perfect Day :-D

Excellent, I could not have had a bigger grin on my face, I swapped places with the main gunner in mid battle, I don't know how the guys did it in WWII, it was so hectic firing on German Halftracks on the move, the heat and the noise when the gun fired was unbelievable..... I think that took first place on my War & Peace grin list :-D :-D :-D :-D

Thanks Jack, sorry I could not stop to talk to you for long, I was rushed off my feet every minuet of the day, I have had to take two days of work to recover, 5 weeks tell the next one for us lot (Military Odyssey).

Just put our web site photos up of our display at Beltring http://www.514th.co.uk/w&p2006.html. Hard to say what the best part for me was, It would be a close call between the 31 truck Red Ball convoy or the battles riding in on a Sherman tank operating the 50Cal and turret gun with Enigma (where are the photos ?), was also good to meet some of the other forum members, like Jack and Ashley. Mick.

Hi, I have been trying to get the guys to get there $hit together for Beltring but I don't think we will have the brake shoes in time, pity, thanks for the offer you can still come over and tell us your way of doing the job, if you get the chance. "oxy kit and 3/4 drive set" Best bring it anyway, Jem is bringing his mig welder :-D. Mick.