AlienFTM

"In open order RI-I-I-I-I-IGHT DRESS!"

Here's a little-known insignia for you to consider. In 1980 it was decreed that all German Colloquialists and above (I was a Linguist) were to identify themselves as such on ex Spearpoint for the benefit of the media. We were each issued with a strip of six Bundeswehr cockades (google "Bundeswehr cockade", select Images and see a roundel in yellow / red / black, about life size. I'd give you a link but it's many many lines long and garbage and I dunno if it would work. See other images of them worn on Jap caps etc: you'll see they are mounted on a square of drab material and mounted as a diamond) for us to sew onto combat jackets, shirts, overalls or jumpers, whatever the user predicted would be what he would be wearing on Spearpoint. I still have one, rather battered and tattered, that was repeatedly removed from an item of worn-out clothing and sewn onto its replacement. It was worn by us on the left sleeve, right above the combat jacket left-hand sleeve pocket mounted square, not diamond. Equivalent spot on other clothing. Still wearing it when I got out in 1989 because no formal instruction had ever been given to remove it and when orderly officers asked about it on guard mount, that's what I told them and none of them ever thought to dig deeper. I certainly never did. It wasn't often a squaddy got the chance to vary his uniform officially, so the opportunity was never wasted. (It was not authoried for wear on Number 2s, I hasten to point out.)

There's a new issue (issue 6) of Military Times out (for subscribers: hit my doormat yesterday). Interesting article (by a sailor) decrying them selling off iirc HMS Caroline, a light cruiser and last surviving ship from the battle of Jutland. He asks how come we have thousands of listed "buildings (stretching the term building in some cases)" around the country that absolutely need to be preserved at any cost, but the country's sum total heritage from centuries of ruling the waves is exactly thirteen ships scattered around the country in places like Hartlepool (no offence intended to monkey hangers from a mackem). Apparently HMS Caroline is in amazing condition for a ship close to its 100th birthday, but by next year it'll probably be razor blades.

At Christmas I was in Waterstone's and did a double take when I saw a Hayne's Manual for a Starship Enterprise.

No the original post didn't mention changing up, and neither did mine. I guess it also doesn't specify changing down. My reply did. One other thing. Driving Ferret and Saracen in the real world under load, if you start being gentle with the GCP, you'll end up one day with your left knee in your face and a Ferret (or worse a Saracen) stuck in a false neutral bombing down the road and the force required to operate the GCP is incredible. Not a good time to be bombing along and out of gear. No, it never happened to me personally, because I was taught always to give it a good kick and it worked. But it happened to enough of my friends.

Did the original comment read "change up"? (Can't be bothered to go back and check.) If so my reply is completely wrong. I read "change down". No you wouldn't want to keep revs on while changing up.

No. An image intensifier receives all ambient light and passes it through a series of cascades (hence the length of the Scorpion night sight) amplifying what light it gets. It will achieve nothing on a cloudy, moonless night where there is no ambient light. But II is an entirely-self-contained passive system (nothing transmitted). Active IR lights up the target with IR light which is detectable through IR Goggles. But because it is an active system, anyone with gogles can see it. If you have an II sight and bad weather conditions (see above) it is easily enhanced by lobbing a flare (I remember doing night shoots on cloudless nights and those times when we had a 432 mortar behind the firing point lobbing starshells in the sky, the II sight was like day - even if everything was green. The white light flare also gave off a lot of IR light. But again, the light lit up everything and it was a two-way street, and the enemy would know somebody was looking at them even if they couldn't see them. So it was far preferred to use passive II. Trouble is as I recall the II sight was monocular rather than binocular, so that depth perception was impossible. I remember engaging a target at 400m only to discover it was about 50m away. It didn't half go bang, even with a PRAC round. clods of earth coming back at us kind of shook the driver and commander who were both blind without a night sight.

These guys are right. It doesn't matter how hard or quick you smack the GCP (ok it does: make it happen fast and hard!), that's the right way to do it. The fluid flywheel entirely governs the smoothness of the change so pratting about with the GCP gains you exactly nothing and loses you plenty cos that's not how it is designed. As to changing gear at full revs, yes. I was taught this by the RNZAC instructor who had to do me a three-day Ferret driver course before we went to UNFICYP because UNFICYP needed to know we had been trained, even though I had been driving them in NI prior to this (didn't need training: covered by a Group B licence, an automatic car, which came as a freeby when I passed Group A, a manual car). He pointed out that taking the foot off the throttle to change down going up a hill only allowed the revs to drop off, then you had to wind them back up or you'd find yourself having to change down more gears than if you simply preselected and kicked the GCP. The UN outpost at Skouriotissa was in a mine engineer's bungalow. To get out of the site onto the Green Line, we had to drive up a spoil heap. Changing down at full revs made all the difference, trust me. Most of my RAC career was spent in Ferrets. Trust me.

I hope the gunner knew about trunnion tilt!

No they weren't. While the rest of NATO planned a strategic controlled withdrawal to stretch the Commies, the Bundeswehr's Immediate Action as 3 Shock Army crossed the IGB was to race to Moscow. No retreat. No fighting on German soil (including East Germany).

How about a chicken-powered atom bomb? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Peacock

I assume Clive' s links tell you this. Active Infra-red (wherein infra-red light is beamed - either from dedicated IR sights, see early CVR(T)s, or filtered from white lights) was an early generation of night vision. Having cast the landscape with IR light, it became visible via IR optics. Unfortunately, being an active system, anybody with the right optics would see the IR light and once "the other side" had them, you might as well use white light and shout, "OVER HERE!" Obsolete by the mid-70s and I cannot remember whether Scorpion had IR light by 1976. They were certainly gone by 1978. Image intensification became the norm and that's what drove the Scorpion night sight. Thermal imaging works in the far infra-red spectrum (as opposed to near infra-red used above) but it's entirely passive, undetectable and different from active IR.

This statement takes me straight back to my Civil Service Linguist (Army) course in 1980. We sometimes got the same stuff to translate over and over, just like we often sat and watched the same Bundeswehr recruiting films over and over: I can still hear an I Corps Sergeant groan, "Not 'Vier im Leo' AGAIN!". One sentence we got enough times that I remember it translated something like, "A unit [it was noted by me that it didn't specify what size unit: troop, squadron, regiment?) of Centurion tanks idling uses 1200 litres of petrol per minute."

A zombie reunion? You wouldn't have got me in there.

I commanded 33BA81 in 1980. Probably not a lot of help.

I think (don't quote me) some campaign etc medals were dished out in such vast numbers that they often weren't. They may have been issued late and the recipient would be glad just to have the medals. My GSM came engraved with number rank name; the UNFICYP medal didn't. I wouldn't ring alarm bells just because the medals aren't engraved.

2/10 not good enough. See me after school.

Paderborn is still a garrison. Allanbrook Barracks has hardly changed since I left in 1982. Google maps "Paderborn". Sadly I cannot see how to lift co-ordinates from Google maps so let me walk you in. Around the centre of Paderborn is a Ringstrasse. From Paderwall at 10 o'clock, head up Neuhäuserstr (literally the road to Schloss Neuhaus) to the junction with Elsenerstr (the road to Elsen) (main gate). The camp is bounded by Elsenerstr, Erzbergerstr, Theodor-Heuss-Str, Rathenaustr and Gieferstr. The A vehicle entrance is on the internal corner of Gieferstr, turn right and join Rathenaustr. Turn left onto Rathenaustr then right onto Neuhäuserstr to head down to the Ringstrasse, clockwise and off in the direction of Barker Bks (a Chieftain regt and a Fd Regt RA) to the Goldgrund outside the city, our Active Edge location. First indication that 15/19H had been Active Edged was a CVR(T) broken down in the middle of the Rathenstr / Neuhäuserstr junction blocking the rush hour traffic. Still, having exited the camp, the vehicle was not deemed an Active Edge failure. My wife (then-fiancee and the Paymaster's nanny) always knew when we'd gone because she'd be walking the Paymaster's daughter to Kindergarten. Standard pre-war accom blocks around the northwest, north and northeast sides. Guardroom on the northeast corner. Between guardroom and main square (cars parked) is what was the Corporals' Mess, behind that the gym, bordering on the square. Gym, built about 1979 had a big blank red-brick wall ideal for group (squadron, etc) photos. See http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/album.php?u=216 Was that young lad third from the left back row really Lance Corporal Alien? Between the regimental square and the LAD square was the NAAFI (bar, lounge, restaurant, shop and snooker room). Between the square and the NAAFI, first time I looked at Google Maps a couple of years ago, I could not believe they had built an open-air swimming pool. Closer inspection revealed that the old five-a-side, volleyball etc courts had had a new surface laid in a LOUD bright green. Down the left-hand side was the Garrison Army Education Centre, cookhouse, Garrison Court Martial Centre, Sergeants' Mess overlooking the LAD square (which has had two new buildings plopped in the middle). Between the AEC and the cookhouse on the chicane in the camp ring-road, under a tree can be seen my Regimental Signals Store (white car currently shown parked in front) where all un-issued radios and ancillaries were stored. The other three sides of the LAD square comprised LAD (surprise) north and east sides and hangars for the two medium recce squadrons of Scorpions, Sultans, Samaritans, Spartans and Ferrets, south side. Right of the LAD square is the regimental football pitch. Right of that (between Allanbrook and Rathenaustr) was the regional (Land iirc?) Bundeswehr conscript reporting centre. We always thought it was a gaol - I don't suppose we were that far wrong. The traditional Bundeswehr sentry-box at the gate in gaudy yellow / red / black chevrons ought to have been a clue). Right of the medium recce sabre squadron hangars and below the football pitch were the QMs' departments, Boots and Socks on the left, Tech on the right. Below this was the bottom square with the washdown and ramps along the Erzbergerstr edge. There is a line of new buildings along the bottom edge of the bottom square. Between the bottom square and Theodor-Heuss-Str, Officers' Mess bottom left (with treed garden and tennis courts). Next a hangar which I believe contained the bulk of Task Force Echo HQ and Signals Troop (who had a very minority share of the barracks) which became iirc 33 Armd Bde HQ and Signals Sqn when the Task Forces reverted to Brigades after Ex Spearpoint 80. Next a two-story hangar (see ramp down out of the north face) with MT vehicles upstairs, inspection bay downstairs (north end) and the remainder of TFE HQ & Signals Tp in the south end. Last but one (with skylights) was the pre-1979 gym in the north end, Command Troop hangars in the middle (three Sultans, four Ferrets, two FFRs). South end was part of A Sqn's 40 Close Recce Scimitars. Last hangar was the bulk of A Sqn's Scimitars. If any of you has been to the RAC Gunnery School at Lulworth, my good buddy, the recently-retired Gütersloh Garrison Sergeant Major, a former 15/19H Instructor, Gunnery, assures me that on display there is the barrel of a Rarden Cannon. About 1980 A Sqn needed to take a Scimitar up from their hangar directly opposite ours (Command Troop). We were indoors keeping cool in the through breeze (exits from both sides of the hangar wide open) on an otherwise hot, sultry West German summer's day. We heard the roar of a Scimitar driving off, then ... "CLUNK". We all prairie-dogged out to see who had broken what. It transpired that the Scimitar in question had been parked at the back (this hangar only had doors in the west side). They had moved out the Scimitars from in front of it, then the driver had jumped in and roared out. On the level, there was about six inches' clearance between the Rarden muzzle on full elevation and the hangar door lintel. Unfortunately he was hammering his way up the gears and motoring as the front-end raised and smacked the lintel, shifting it some six inches out of true, causing the entire hangar to be declared unsafe until it was fixed and A Sqn had to park elsewhere (I forget). The barrel of the Rarden was bent upward maybe some 20 degrees. The driver shamefacedly went and found the Gunnery Artificer to break the news. The Tiffy laughed and accused him of talking rubbish cos you couldn't bend the barrel of a Scimitar. He came down to inspect and we watched him break down and weep. AIUI, the barrel is now at the Gunnery School on display. _____ Addendum. Down the right hand side of the regimental square, inside the barracks ring road (squadron accommodation on the outside), under the trees were the medium recce sqn offices with troop cages in the cellars.

You'd really have thought they'd have learned after Charlie did that to them regularly in the 60s.

The Stolly doing the wheelie. Reminds me of Ex Bugle Call, June 1976, funnily enough on Larkhill Impact Area and probably not a million miles from where these pics where take, Every A Veh in UKLF was gathered outside the back of Aliwal Bks, Tidworth, home of 15/19H since the previous month on our return from NI. We had a leisurely start to the exercise, simply driving out of the back gates. Most of them had been transported in. The object of the exercise (if you'll pardon the pun) was to make a film showing a Soviet armoured brigade advancing across tank country and meeting the sort of killing zone we would see on the Goodwood of Ex spearpoint in 1980 (see thread). Even though we had every A veh in UKLF, we still learned that each vehicle represented a platoon of three. That's how poor the army was. Following year we managed to ship a short armoured division (3 Armd Div) to BAOR, but it was only last year that I discovered the full OrBat for an Armd Div was 9 major units and not the five we had in 3 Armd Div. We were each issued new callsign boards. If I remember correctly 4 Tp, B Sqn, 15/19H became callsigns 126, 127 and 128 for the duration. the net was too full for anyone to speak, so just like the Soviets we represented, all traffic was one way and downhill. After a couple of days' rehearsal, we headed for the Impact Area and went for it. The "brigade" motored over the Impact Area at speed. Our BMPs ... I mean Scorpions ... were giving it all they had. Understand that a month previously we had been on the streets and lanes of West Tyrone and Fermanagh and before that the regiment has been on tanks. We were enjoying the new thrill of being sports car cavalrymen. I looked to my left and saw one of our Scorpions up on its left track and bombing along. The grass had grown well in the spring of that long hot summer and had apparently levelled the holes in the impact area (where the RA used to drop their shots onto the Plain) until 127 put one track into a crater and as it flew out of the other side, it rocked up into the air. I nudged Troopy, my New In Green vehicle commander fresh out of Sandhurst and indicated. At this moment the unmistakeable voice of our CO (combat half colonels have a certain aura on the net and no amount of trying will cover it up) came up on the net and said, "I'll see the driver of 127 in my office when we're back in camp." Made me laugh.

I have also seen 94 pattern which was identical to 84 / 85 pattern but made in ripstop. Evidently a short-term solution that was quickly lost under the CS 95 rollout.

Bear in mind that everything was always in short demand. You would never ever see 100% uniformity of kit (and that's before squaddy stamps his own individuality on his kit). So for example you'd see guys wearing OG trousers instead of lightweights. Like another poster says, see previous threads on lightweights. If the kit was on issue, somebody would be wearing it. If there was old kit and new kit, the sweats would jealously cling onto the old kit regardless of how much better the new kit might or might not be. New DPM was boil washed until it didn't look like you were fresh out of the factory (okay off-topic when we are talking about lightweights). In NI we had industrial washing machines and driers with the coin-op deactivated. Come off stag, throw kit in boil wash (NEVER woolly pully: it'd have fitted an Action Man afterward) for two hours, throw in the drier for two hours, ready to put back on, still hot ready for the next stag. Simple. If the kit wasn't available and it wasn't a parade, we wore anything we could that looked right. See Army Rumour Service thread about NI Urban Patrol Boots to see how much variation there was even within issued kit. You'll see examples of "it definitely had a seam across the toe" and "it definitely didn't have a seam across the toe" in consecutive posts. And both were true. http://www.arrse.co.uk/old-bold/155199-ni-urban-patrol-boots.html They were hard times, yer knar.

And it's probably what Commies field agents did too. Always wise NOT to exercise in your GDP locations. I couldn't have told you where my GDP location was.

On our arrival at Airport Camp, Nicosia in September 1976, we arrived late morning after an overnight flight by RAF Transport Command VC10 from Brize Norton to Akrotiri. We were issued a set of pre-UNed shirts, berets, badges, brassard, Trousers OG to supplement the lightweights on our 1157, got changed into uniform, ate in the cookhouse then attended an intelligence briefing. Throughout the six-month tour there was a permanent prize of a crate of beer on offer for the first crew to spot either a T34/85 or a Marmon-Herrington armoured in use on the Turkish side. I am pretty sure it was made clear that these vehicles in Turkish use were ex-National Guard, which confirms what a previous poster says.

It isn't uncommon to see kneelers for regimental chapels bearing a regimental badge such as this.