AlienFTM

We used the lines on the hubs to indicate the position of the filler to make it easier to stop the vehicle with the filler at 2 o'clock / 10 o'clock and check the oil levels.

I'll be very surprised if it is not now in Afghanistan. I visited Battlegroup Afghanistan at the Tank Museum in April. One of the displays states that the Tank Museum cannot get hold of a Mastiff because they are so robust that they never come out of service. I suppose there is a possibility that it is at the driver training school that was on television last month, but my money is on Afghanistan.

All the Three-oh ammunition I ever saw came in standard brown boxes with yellow stencilling.

One of my numerous books scattered around the house describes a Sherman crew having the tank shot from under them in Normandy and being issued a brand new one. Spent as long as it took chipping off the white interior paint for reasons already discussed.

Small world. I did my Scorpion Live Firing (out of Catterick) at Warcop in February 1976.

Did you know that the PC brigade recently decreed that the term "pet" offends a home-living domesticated animal because it implies ownership, when the home-living domesticated animal is not something to be owned because it is its own entity? Or some such bilge.

Not shown in the film was Gibson's instruction to (I think) the Provost Sergeant to bury the dog at midnight "and we can both go into the ground together." Which illustrates how Gibson rated his chances.

I'd guess they were DBG base with a sand stripe applied in-theatre. ;o)

Aah but if you face away from the bucket of sunshine, the positive wave gets inside the helmet and takes it downrange, with your head still inside.

If the regimental badge * decal on the night sight cover is correct, it used to be 17/21st Lancers (pre-1992). It may of course be that a private owner decided to slap a decal on the night sight cover because it looks pretty: it never happened in service unless a vehicle was on a KAPE tour to Keep the Army in the Public Eye. In Options for Change, 17/21st Lancers amalgamated with 16/5th Lancers to become the Queen's Royal Lancers. However, something is telling me that QRL use a red background (as did 15/19th Hussars and their post-Options son The Light Dragoons). I don't know exactly when Sabre was in service, but I do know that Light Dragoons had them in the Balkans in the mid-90s. I cannot remember whether QRL are now (permanently since Options) recce or amour: I suspect the former. The blurb says chain gun, which istr is correct for a Sabre in a recce regt, but not recce troop of an armoured regiment. _____ * 17/21L and afaik QRL take great exception to people calling their badge a badge: they prefer "motto" because with the scroll under the death's head, it reads "Death or Glory", motto of either 17th or 21st Lancers, forebears of 17/21L.

I have two particular memories of A10s that might amuse people. 1. Whilst on a divisional exercise in the spring / summer of 1982, B Squadron 15th/19th Hussars was tasked to lay on a demo of how to run a reserve demolition. (Hostilities becoming likely, bridge crossings and other choke points are designated as either primary or reserve demolitions. At the onset of hostilities, all primary demolitions are blown. Reserve demolitions are prepared and protected until they are no longer needed by us or in danger of falling to them.) Reserve demolitions, by their nature, tended to be situated between the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area) where the armour and infantry were sat waiting, and the FLOT (Forward Leading-edge of Own Troops) where the recce screen sat waiting and probing for contact. 15/19H was a recce battlegroup, so reserve demolitions were the nature of business as usual. The demo was on a bridge over a stream (the West Germans didn't like it if we set up demolitions on real bridges, like autobahns over rivers, but a bridge was a bridge and for the purpose of the demonstration, a bridge over a stream worked perfectly well). I was stood on the hillside behind the demolition and overlooking it, stood next to OC B Sqn, who gave a running commentary over a loudspeaker. He described the half-troop of CVR(T)s on the far bank giving close support (infantry might be attached to the BG and they might also be called on to protect the demolition). The other half-troop would be a bound ahead in OPs watching for incoming Orange forces. They would withdraw ahead of the enemy and alert the demolition commander (typically the troop leader) that his time was nigh. Troopy would alert the attached engineers that their time to use the bang button was close. The screening half-troop withdraws across the demolition, in theory the last Blue forces and the demolition commander initiates the demolition, they all wave bye-bye to the BMPs and T64s screaching to a halt on the far bank and PUFO*. "Then," said the squadron leader, "we can call in air assets and bring them down on the swarm of enemy vehicles ground to a halt like ants whose path has just been stood on." And at that second an A10 passed about six feet over our heads. I caught my beret before it disappeared in the general direction of the FEBA: many didn't. The crest was not so high, but the A10 pilot still managed to get low enough that I could feel the hot exhaust, look over the engines and see the back of his helmet. Best flying I ever saw from an American. 2. My father in law lives at the end of the runway at RAF Alconbury. One day about 1988-9 we were visiting. He and I went out in his car. As he reversed out of the drive, I saw two A10s take off in a remarkably tight pattern. I even made the compliment out loud to father in law. Father in law was a volunteer chemical hazard advisor to the Fire Brigade and as such, he had a Home Office radio fitted so that he could be in contact at all times and advise and attend incidents. When he was in the car, the Cambridgeshire Fire & Rescue Ops Net was on. By the time we had driven through the village and were heading for the airbase, I could see the A10s coming round and making to land. As we drove down the Huntingdon Road, the Ops Net sprang into life. It seemed that one of the A10s had developed a problem and went straight round and aborted. Just to make life awkward, its brakes had failed and it had fallen off the end of the runway. Just for good measure, it was fully bombed up. Fire service attended (chemical advisor not required cos there were no "interesting" bombs on board). That evening, we had fish and chips from a shop in Huntingdon. Big queue (there had been a power cut and everybody had the same idea). Telly was on behind the counter. We were all stood there watching a local news report from RAF Alconbury where an A10 had fallen off the runway, having a good laugh. Just then the door opened, everyone turned and in walked two US airmen in combats, to see their base on the news and everybody laughing. They went very red and kept themselves very quiet at least until I'd been served and left. _____ * PUFO: Pack Up and F-f-flit Off

Sitting sideways enclosed in the back of an armoured vehicle is seasick-making without seeing fluids moving! I was lucky in that I only crewed in the back of a Sultan for one exercise season before getting command of a rebro ferret. The soft suspension on a CVR(T) meant that every time the driver sped up or slowed down, my guts churned due to the same motion in my stomach that caused seasickness (even though I raced yachts for the regiment). At least when commanding you were generally looking at a point in the distance in between brief checks of the map.

Stop you if you have heard this before. After Basic Training at Catterick in 1975-6, the RAC Soldiers took an HGV 3 course. The RAC Crewmen did a Radio course followed by either Chieftain or Scorpion (depending whether they were destined for an armoured or a recce regiment) D&M course or a Gunnery course. I did Scorpion gunnery. One of the mukkers I met in Basic found himself on a Scorpion driver course. I bumped into him in the NAAFI one evening and he recounted his day's events. He had found himself on the A1 near Catterick and flagged down by a jam sandwich (or whatever it was in those days). The constable walked round the Scorpion (to the wrong side until he realised that CVR(T)s were built for BAOR ...) and told the driver, "Look sonny, I am not going to stand in front of a magistrate and tell him 'I was proceeding along the A1 at 65mph when I was passed by a TANK.' Don't do it again." I certainly never got the impression it was one of Billy Bullsh's tales, but I wasn't there.

The cockade on the jap cap is what German Colloquialists and Linguists were given six of to wear on SpearPoint / Crusader 80 so that the press could find people to talk to. It was worn square (as opposed to diamond in the picture) on the left sleeve 6" below the shoulder seam iirc or immediately above the combat jacket sleeve pocket. I have one left (on a combat jacket)

Since I last posted on this thread, I saw a thread on arrse comparing Panther and Sherman and there were some if not compelling, certainly interesting arguments that ultimately Sherman was a better tank. I do remember a snippet from that thread that suggested a Panther needed a base workshop service more frequently than it needed to refuel (with petrol!). And that it's MTBF in combat was only about 30 minutes. It looks the part but I am slowly coming round to the view that it didn't deliver on the promise.

If I told you I was the second man on the Libyan embassy balcony, I'd have to kill you. D'oh. (_8o())

This is a unique FV432 (tick) and it is in civvy hands (tick). http://gulliverstravelsmovie.com/watch-video/5Jkn8brWg1I/timhawkes/tank-limo-the-worlds-only-stretched-tracked-vehicle.html

Whippersnapper! ;o) A couple of years ago on our internal forum somebody posted a link to "What was number 1 in the music charts the day you were born?" A colleague posted "Slim Whitman - 'Rose Marie'", which coincidentally was what I had been about to post. A quick discussion meant that thereafter when we pass in the corridor I greet him as "Whippersnapper" and he greets me as "Old Fart."

Patrick Delaforce's The Black Bull: From Normandy to the Baltic ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Bull-Normandy-Armoured-Division/dp/1848842287/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1305793257&sr=1-4 ) describes his journey of the title with 11 Armoured Division. The story starts just after D-Day through until the end of the war. One of the major players was iirc 8RHA and there are photos of their M10s in Normandy. Truth be told it doesn't tell us much about 8RHA and the M10, but I enjoyed the book, mainly because it describes 15th/19th Hussars' rather more successful campaign than the retreat from the Dyle to the Escaut 61 years ago this week, in which the regiment was left-hand unit of the BEF, holding an open flank because the Belgians did not withdraw beyond Brussels as agreed and the Wehrmacht were able to keep stepping around 15/19H, who were constrained by Army boundaries. 15/19H ceased to exist as a recce regiment 18 May. See http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?7839-18-May-1940 But they did a whole lot better in the return fixture. Sorry where was I? Is it dusty in here? The book is worth the read even if it doesn't say a lot about the M10.

Bump (must enter five characters)

Armoured Farmer by my 3RTR buddy Malcolm Cleverley ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Armoured-Farmer-Tankies-Malcolm-Cleverley/dp/184683029X ) contains a lovely description of a Chieftain pack lift and a swarm of crewmen and fitters waiting to be first to get inside the engine compartment after the engine is gone, to round up the dropped spanners.

I see your Cavalry No 1 Dress and raise you a 1922 Cavalry Peace Time Uniform (of 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars). http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/album.php?albumid=401 (dunno if just posting a link to an album pic works - sure I am about to find out). A word of warning. Fiancee: I hope you aren't planning on getting married in that nasty brown uniform you wear. Me: No Faincee: And frankly the blue stuff you NCOs wear on canteen cowboy duty is no better. Me: Not planning to wear that either. Fiancee: You'll be wearing a suit then? Me: No Fiancee: Well what will you be wearing then? Me: Not telling. Wait and see. Cometh the day, I front up in PTU per the pic. All the guests passed favourable comment on the PTU (a friend of the MIL offered a horse for me to whisk my new bride away to the reception). Thirty years later and she STILL hasn't forgiven me for upstaging the bride. So what did we have. It was all borrowed apart from a T shirt under the tunic to stop it itching, shreddies and socks. PTU and busby from the band of the 15/19H; George boots from my SSM; white gloves from an officer in the regiment ... Here's the good one as far as the OP is concerned: the swords were borrowed from the QOH (15/19H couldn't find me two identical cavalry sabres, so the RSM pulled some strings). It was all old (so old that when you got up close you could see just how much stitching had come undone). And obviously it was blue. What was new? Well I suppose it was all new to me.

It isn't a weapon. Stick it down the barrel of the weapon it applies to (a five-Oh Browning in this case apparently), then from beside the gun, you can see through a prism exactly where the gun is pointing. A few magic adjustments and you can make the gunner's sight point at the same place, so that you can be confident that later, when he lays the sight on the target, the gun will also be pointing at the target and will send a round there when he fires the gun. Simple, as you might say without sounding like a what has become an annoying Russian meerkat.

I am sure there have been threads and pictures on the Old & Bold forum of the Army rumour Service.

Wilkommen an HMVF, Herbert. Ich wohnte auch Dodesheide, 1982 - 1985. Buchenstrasse 17/1.