AlienFTM

1981 and back in the turret of a Scorpion after a number of years in Squadron HQ and Command Troop. Trip to Hohne Ranges. Convert an awful lot of tax-payer's money into empty cases. But not as many as I'd have liked. It was decided to have a proper battle run (on Battle Run 20) with a full load (42) of HESH, SHELL and SMK and an overload of 7.62 1B1T link. The link was shoehorned in wherever we could. First up we engaged an enemy tank, then we brassed up a ridge with the coax. Then we were instructed to lay smoke on the ridge. We were told by the Instructor, Gunnery at the back that ours was the best smokescreen of the day. Chuffed. Good day at the office. Then we were detailed to brass up the ridge again. STOPPAGE! We went through the drills but couldn't get the GPMG going again. Eventually we came off the range in disgrace. Bad day at the office. Unloaded about 20 boxes of 200 * 1B1T to be distributed to the remaining troops. But I was sure there was one more box than I counted out. Fast forward two weeks, back in Paderborn, need to get the radios out of the back of the turret (forget why). Oh look, here's a box of 7.62 link. Oops. Now I might take this box of 7.62 to the Squadron Sergeant Major to be dealt with properly and face his wrath, but he and I never saw eye to eye and I thought better of it. I could speak to my vehicle commander (troop sergeant) but was the SSM's best buddy, he and I didn't see eye to eye either and I foresaw the same result. "Sam" Brown, my driver had the keys to the troop sergeant's locker. We dumped it in there and denied all knowledge. Given that no questions were ever asked, the assumption was that he took the box of 7.62 to his mucker the SSM and that was the end of that. It's not what you know, it's who you know.

Forgot to add. Captain Taylor's escape is worthy of a separate appendix in the official history: http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html?aa=468cae32f7c387d1c593f491b7761afc&cc=History_of_15th-19th_The_Kings_Hussars_1939-1945.pdf&dd=19'>http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html?aa=468cae32f7c387d1c593f491b7761afc&cc=History_of_15th-19th_The_Kings_Hussars_1939-1945.pdf&dd=19'>http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html?aa=468cae32f7c387d1c593f491b7761afc&cc=History_of_15th-19th_The_Kings_Hussars_1939-1945.pdf&dd=19 If that link doesn't work, select it on this page: http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html It's in PDF format, so you can load it onto your Kindle. Highly recommended.

Captain Taylor was Adjutant that day. For those who hadn't clicked (from my previous "This Day in History" posts), 18 May 40 found 15/19H as the left-most regiment in 2 Reconnaissance Brigade on the outskirts of Brussels. From the official history: 2 Recce Bde was a temporary formation with no dedicated assets or staff. This led to the direst consequences for 15/19H. This was to be the blackest day in the history of 15/19H, its forebears and successors. A book I reviewed a couple of weeks ago put losses at 80%. The Osprey history of The Light Dragoons posits that the regiment lost 1/3 of all its Second World War casualties on that one day. The well-respected author and historian Allan Mallinson describes in Light Dragoons: The Making of a Regiment how the regiment ceased to exist as an independent recce regiment. Captain Taylor went on to be Commanding Officer and subsequently Colonel of the Regiment (the CO is a Lieutenant Colonel, from the French taking the place of the Colonel).

Looks like I walked in at just the right time. I was intrigued that this vehicle is listed as an APC, not an ACV. Zoom out a bit. During the Cold War, combat units toured the world on what was known as the Arms Plot. All postings were not equal, so senior officers used to move units around to keep those in the duff postings happy. (Funnily enough those in cushy postings didn't feel the urge to move ...) Further, RAC units alternated role between MBT and Armoured Recce (until at that time very recently, Armoured Car). Lisanelly Barracks in Omagh was and had long been an armoured car posting. The RAC Arms Plot cycled an MBT regiment out of BAOR into Omagh for an 18-month (later 2-year) tour before retraining as Armd Recce. 15/19H passed through Omagh between 1974 and 1976. We followed 1RTR to Aliwal Bks Tidworth. They in turn had followed 16/5L and before them 17/21L. So why Saracen Armoured Personnel Carrier and not Armoured Command Vehicle? RAC regiments have never consisted solely of tanks, armoured cars or recce vehicles. Each sabre squadron has tended to have a support troop. In Tidworth B Sqn 15/19H (Scorpions) had a Guided Weapons Troop in Mark 5 Ferrets carrying Swingfire ATGMs while A Sqn (Foxes) had an Assault Troop in Saracen APCs. FHQ had Saracen ACVs. It was ever thus: I understand that in Fallingbostel (whence 15/19H headed to Omagh), there was a GW Troop with FV438 Swingfire launchers. So I'd suggest to you that this vehicle was on the Order of Battle (Orbat) of 17/21L as an Assault Troop APC, then handed over to 16/5L. If you find under the paint a squadron tac sign (triangle = A Sqn, square = B Sqn, circle = C Sqn - I'll be surprised if you find an HQ squadron diamond and I forget what the D Sqn sign was cos we never had one and I'd expect D to be a support squadron anyway), you'll know where it was down to the troop level. As for VHF. The MBT regiments I am quite sure were using VHF (C42 A-set; B47 B-set) on the squadron and regimental command nets by the early 70s. Lucky them. In 1977 as a recce regt 15/19H were still using HF (C13) for squadron and regimental command nets to cater for the larger area. HF at night on Salisbury Plain after the ionosphere has collapsed was a nightmare. Actually not unlike the cheap and nasty VOIP phones our company has just replaced the old technology with. But that's another story.

You sure it wasn't fork handles? ;o)

Mark 1 4'9" if memory serves.

The GPMG was a coaxially mounted gun, but was simply an anti-infantry / soft-skin weapon: ranging was performed using bursts of three (solenoid controlled) from the .5" Browning which was ballistically similar in flight to the main gun. However trace burn-out on the five-oh was a lot shorter than the ranges you wanted from the 120, so they got Barr and Stroud to design the laser rangefinder. I don't know (was never a Chieftain gunner) what range was trace burn-out on the five-oh; trace burn-out on the GPMG was 1100m (if the trace ignited in a hot barrel, it was 900m).

I saw it live and felt for him. Below is not entirely related, but neither is it entirely off-topic. In 1978 I drove a Mark 1, Command Troop 15/19H, Rebro Ferret 1 callsign 98A commanded by the troop sergeant. There was a Divisional exercise (unusual but necessary as 3 Armd Div was newly-deployed) which started (as did so many) with an Active Edge crash-out in the middle of the night. This time was different. Somebody thought it would be a good thing to include in the four hours from standing start to crash-out locations a trip to the Sennelager ammo point and bomb up the CVR(T)s as for war. This all went over me, being in Command Troop: all we ever needed was rounds for the Three-Oh. So then the division snaked off eastward through the night and when we (everybody bar Command Troop) got where we were going, reboxed all the 76mm war stock and returned it and an awful lot of 1B1T 7.62mm link for the coaxes to be put back where it belonged, then for a week exercised eastward. End of the first week there was then a long drive westward. The RSM had offered a crate to the first crew to spot the T62 which had been acquired and brought on exercise for a bit of realism and familiarisation. The Ferret was a free-runner, not in a packet. We overtook long lines of CVR(T)s. Then, over the brow of a hill I saw the T62 on a transporter. Big Lou refused to pay out the crate on our claim. We spent the weekend (no track movement at weekends) in the grounds of a Schloss at Wewelsburg (which only many years later did I realise was "the spiritual home of the SS." (http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/confronting-the-nazi-perpetrators-new-exhibition-explodes-myth-of-ss-castle-wewelsburg-a-687435.html). Explains why we were under strict instructions not to enter the castle and to behave. While we were there, Pope John Paul I was elected. Then we continued to exercise ever further westward away from Paderborn. Wednesday morning was bright. I was awoken for radio stag at 0400 after the usual four hours' sleep. When I finished, I was in such a good mood that exceptionally I cooked breakfast for both rebro Ferrets and the RSM and his driver. Took a long, lingering breakfast, washed up and was just about to get back into my scratcher for a few hours' more sleep (unaware that it would be lunchtime Saturday before I had that pleasure) when our Ferret was tasked to deliver what must have been a non-exercise message to 16/5 Lancers who must have been Orange Forces (cos they were not in 3 Div). Nice day driving about the Westfalian countryside. That night we were kept busy with location moves and time for sleep was not available. Thursday was more hard exercising. The part in the standard scenario had come where we had beaten Orange Forces to a standstill and as EndEx approached, we went on the offensive. That night, we were informed, the engineers would put in a bridge over the River Mosel and by first light, we were to be "heading for Moscow". Getting an armoured division across a single temporary bridge tactically is no easy matter when an armoured division on the move occupies ten miles of road. (To be fair, there was probably more than one bridge.) At last light Thursday everybody packed up and moved to waiting areas. When the bridge opened, stuff started to cross and the queue of units started to shuffle forward. No time for sleep: everyone stayed in his vehicle, engine running, at minutes' notice to move. The occasional closure of eyes and rest head on steering wheel was as good as it got. Lights were set to convoy and the horn cover was on in case you slid forward and your knee rested on the horn, telling half of Nordrhein-Westfalen where you were. Happened to me once, but not this night. Because the other bank was bridgehead, we made sure all our pyro was hot to trot: Schermulies, smoke flares, thunderflashes etc. "What has this got to do with the thread?" you are asking by now. We shuffled into a small town on the south bank of the Mosel and found ourselves at the bridge. We were still tactical. We were lucky right now to have some street lighting, but otherwise it was black as ... well, night. It came to our turn. Troop sergeant talked me very slowly and blindly down a ramp to the river where I presumed the bridge was. It was steep and black. I found the nose of the Ferret start to rise steeply, then level off. I presumed we were now on the bridge. I was told to select neutral, apply handbrake and stamp on the footbrake hard as I might. When the street lights upstream started to move, I was convinced we were somehow slipping off the bridge and there was the first hint of panic. It was only when I felt a clunk at the front after a few seconds that I realised that what I had assumed in the blackness to be a bridge was in fact a ferry. Off the ferry, up the far bank and get away in a hurry, ready to support the advance in the dawn in not a long time at all, it being mid-summer. In that few seconds, I felt what the Tankfest driver was going to feel all those years later. By dawn (Friday) we were off in a race reminiscent of the regiment's charge from the Rhine to the Baltic in 1945. Unusually, even Command Troop was sharp instead of several miles behind the sabre squadrons. Late afternoon EndEx was called. I can still vividly see Jackie Broon popping an orange smoke flare (well you'd only have to hand them in when you got home) and dropping it under the open back doors of Zero Bravo Command Saracen. The day was hot with next to no breeze apart from the breeze blowing through the Saracen. We heard the adjutant's voice. "Hello all stations this is Zero stand by for orders for the move to the railhead. Cough, cough. Splutter. What the ...?" then the operator flew out of the commander's hatch and coughed his lungs up. Oh what great japes we had back in the day. Friday evening we, the RSM and rebro Ferrets, stood at the nearby railhead and watched CVR(T)s load through the night. Yet another night with no sleep. RSM blagged a lift back to Paderborn in comfort while the three Ferrets along with those of the Squadron Sergeants Major of B and C Squadrons (who also blagged lifts in comfort) drove back to Paderborn on Saturday morning. As lead vehicle I was first person back in camp, did the bare minimum of post-exercise admin and headed off to see girlfriend, who took one look at the bags under my eyes and sent me to bed. By the time the regiment got to the Paderborn Nord loading ramps, unloaded and returned to camp, I was asleep until well into Sunday. Sorry. Carry on now.

My bold: UIN = Unit Imprest Number. This is actually a Pay thing. It describes the imprest account run by the unit (for a full and proper definition see for example: http://www.wikicfo.com/Wiki/Default.aspx?Page=Imprest-Account&NS=&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 ), in other words, the account used by the Pay Office (in my day: whatever it is called in the modern world) for the handling of cash payments (for example Acquittance Roll cash payments to soldiers), receipts etc. within the regiment (unit). A unique UIN described every major and independent minor unit in the army (and I suspect the rest of the armed forces). A prefix indicates Army. A suffix indicates a primary Imprest Account (almost always. Very rarely a sub-unit on detached duty may get another suffix. So while 15/19H, A0124A had B squadron in UNFICYP and C Squadron as Cyprus Armoured Car Squadron, each of these squadrons, each running its own Pay Office, might have had a non-"A" suffixed Imprest Account, for example A0124B - I cannot actually remember after 36 years whether we did or not, but we could have done. In fact it might have been A0124D, but don't quote me.) The four digits identified the unit. Royal Armoured Corps units' UINs were apparently consecutive in the range either side of 15/19H, A0124A. 12 Armoured Workshop REME was A1112A (major unit to 31 Dec 82; minor unit from 1 Jan 83) and the other REME workshops again occupied the range around this. Because UIN uniquely identified a unit, there was no necessity to create another identity number for units. The term therefore passed (incorrectly but understandably) into common usage as Unit Identity Number.

I wish someone had thought of those bins for our XPM boxes. nice. The annoying thing is that when we ripped the float screens off our CVR(T)s, we mounted these bins on the float screen collar in their place, so the idea was there, just didn't make it to Command Troop, which was unusual.

I was thinking it was off a Saracen because as I recall our Saracen ACVs had a large rectangular sliding commander's hatch where the APC had the turret and just maybe this plate would fit that hole. But I reckon the turretless Mark 1 will represent a longer and wider time line than a turreted Mark 2. Once recce started using CVR(T), the only places I ever saw Mark 2s in British service were Cyprus and NI (and I know Mark 2s were replaced by Fox in the Omagh armoured car regiment before Ferret retired), whereas the Mark 1 stayed in service everywhere as runabouts for sergeants major and rebros right until the end of service. Saves the hassle of firearm certificates: we never ever mounted our .30" Brownings on our Mark 1s.

Oh and by the way, thank you very much Wargaming.net for taking my evenings from me for the last year.

Believe me, I sincerely hope so. They were at Tankfest last year. Memo to self: Must remember to take blood pressure pills as usual.

The range brief before firing the big boy guns (okay, the teenager guns, 76mm on Scorpion as opposed to 120mm on Chieftain) was taken very seriously indeed. Every morning before First Round Down (as near to Range Opening as possible, dawn in winter, so the brief was in the dark), we got the full spiel on what to do and what not to do. Frequently mentioned was the Bundeswehr national serviceman who decided to pull through his Jadgpanzer Kanone before checking it was clear, rams the rods down the barrel and detonates the round that had not been unloaded. Apocryphal? Who cares. When I did my Scorpion Live Firing Test at Warcop in 1976, the IG told me that the six-foot-square (ish) metal plates were the armour plating from the flight deck of the last decommissioned iteration of the Ark Royal. I suppose for the sake of a pot of paint to draw a tank outline, the job could be a good one: recycling, tick; cheaper and less wasteful than cutting the plate to shape, tick; target smaller than scale to make the gunner work that little bit harder, tick. For everything else, there's Mastercard.

I was in the NAAFI, Aliwal Barracks, Tidworth. A mukker was a great Elvis fan. I told him I could do an Elvis impression, lay down on the ground and crossed my hands over my chest. He didn't speak to me much after that. I found him on Facebook last year. He must have forgiven me: didn't remember it.

There was one mounted on the rear mudguard as standard. Pretty sure we kept the water can in the bin. I don't recall normally carrying any more petrol because being in Command Troop, we didn't normally move far and the CO always got his replen. On this drive we knew we'd be pushed so we carried extra. Apart from this one day I mentioned earlier when GW Troop Leader was begging for an emergency replen (and they were big, heavy gas-guzzling Mark 5s), I don't recall ever having issues over fuel in a Mark 1 or 2.

With a bit of downhill, it is dead easy to push start a Ferret with three or four bodies to push. Probably possible on the flat: luckily the twice I needed to in 1976, each time we had a bit of downhill. Driver selects third gear (IIRC). Bodies push the WHEELS (less resistance to overcome than pushing the hull). Fluid in the flywheel starts to turn, turns the engine, job's a good 'un.

"Okay left indicator. Working?" "Yes it is. No it isn't. Yes it is. No it isn't. Yes it is. No it isn't. Yes it is. No it isn't." The old ones are still the oldest.

I suppose it's all relative. I cannot remember the range of a Ferret, though in 1978 at the end of one exercise we drove most of the way across West Germany from near Belgium to Paderborn, filled up from Jerry cans during a rest break and had to switch to reserve as we travelled down the last hill before Paderborn. The only time we ever used the reserve tank. Scorpions with 92 ( ? ) gallon tanks went on forever, but travelled any significant non-exercise jorneys by train or by transporter. In our regiment (an armoured reconnaissance regiment where mobility and communications were everything) every Ferret had them fitted. We had an excellent REME Light Aid Detachment who could and did work miracles. Other regiments were not so blessed.

Wrong. In the current Journal they say goodbye to Taz on his retirement to be Regimental Secretary at HHQ: seems he moved to Omagh in April 76: barely had time to qualify for his GSM!

No mention of the M79 grenade launcher? ISTR we used them in NI, though I didn't personally.

With respect, I find it hard to believe that "Falklands F/W Reversable Grn White Smock" was available for issue for the war of 82. There were what 60? marines on the islands when it kicked off and the Task Force was halfway down south in the blink of an eye. I find it hard to believe that there was a depot somewhere with a brigade's worth of Falklands-specific smocks occupying shelf space ready to hand out willy-nilly just like that. Especially if you remember that just a couple of years previously, there hadn't been any reloads for the AAMs in RAFG, there was three days' worth of fuel for BAOR (BAOR armour spent the winter of 80-81 locked up in the hangars, filled up after the FTX season and next filled up in March. I know, I was there. Funnily enough just last week I stumbled across Regimental Journals of 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars at http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html which describe this nicely. 1980 edition, Page 31: ). There are no parkas for the West German winter (I know - I froze every year). But don't worry chaps. There's plenty of foul-weather gear for the Falkland Islands. I'll give you two possibilities. 1. There was available by private purchase a foul weather smock remarkably like the one described here, that marines and Paras had bought, which they took with them. (I have seen very little footage from the war which shows anything other than the standard kit we all owned, and had we been invited, I am sure that's what we would have taken.) 2. With the islands re-garrisoned, I'll bet they started churning out foul weather smocks especially for the Falklands. The existing design had obviously worked: copy them. Consider. If you buy a TOFFS football shirt commemorating Sunderland's FA victory over Leeds, the shirt will be marked Sunderland AFC F.A. Cup Winners 1973. However, this is not the shirt they wore at the FA Cup Final. It read Sunderland AFC F.A. Cup Final 1973. Subtle difference?

But all it gives you is room for two Jerry cans. One of them ought to be water: that leaves one can of petrol. In a CVR(T)-equipped recce regiment, that would leave the Ferrets grossly under-range (I know, our GW Troop Leader was forever banging on at the Squadron Leader that if he wanted GW Troop (Mark 5 Ferrets) to keep up with the Scorpions, he needed more-frequent replen). Then there's the question of where to stick the Chieftain (or CVR(T) if you could get one) bivouac tent, sleeping bags, camp beds, spare composite rations, beer, spare clothing, etc, etc? Once you've got two SMGs and webbing, that you NEED handy inside the cab of a Ferret, it very quickly fills up. Not that there is anything wrong with the bin shown in the pictures.

Best hope he gets it better with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forever_War#Film

This was stock. For example I did Guard Commander. Some people would rip the guard apart at guard mounting parade. Me, I had to spend the night in their company so I got them onside as early as possible. Understand that I did not suck up to them or give in to them: I was in charge and I let them know it, but then I'd show them I was human and had been like them once. So for instance, if I found myself standing on the guard's hair during inspection, I'd speak softly to him in his ear, but with the threat of the big stick and let him know that he needed his hair cut. But it never went into the Occurrences Book or get reported to the RSM: would have meant more work for me. He knew that I knew. He'd had his bite of the cherry: there wouldn't be another. Then after falling the parade out to the guardroom, Standing Orders decreed that I read to them all, out loud, the Station Standing Orders for the Gate and Prowler Guards. So I did, clearly and loudly and with no room for misinterpretation. (But quickly: see what's coming.) Then I would replace the Standing Orders and tell them words to the effect: You're all big boys. We've all done this duty often enough. We all know what is required. You don't dick me about, and I shan't dick you about and we can all get through the next 12 hours without drama if we all just screw the bob in. Get away. Then I'd leave them in the rest room (note to colonial friends: NOT the cludgie), return to the Guard Commander's desk and enter "1800hrs - Inspected the Guard and read Standing Orders to them" in the Occurrences Book. Then I'd shout through, "Coffee for the Guard Commander (and the NCO I/C Marching Reliefs - my 2IC - if he wanted one)." And they'd fight to make it for me. It's all about Man Management. As a friend of mine said: "When I commanded the guard in Gibraltar, I was responsible for the Rock. Here, I am responsible if somebody leaves the NAAFI window open after lock-up."