AlienFTM

Hmm. Looks like they have redone the memorial. It was right down by the roadside in my day: looks like it's been raised up and away from the road now. This, I presume, would be a redeication service. Got to agree with you about the Austrians though.

Fourteen years in, twelve plus with SMG as personal weapon, five years on the 1 (Br) Corps FLOT, three more just behind, and I never saw an SMG bayonet, even when parading for HRH The Princess Margaret, Colonel-in Chief. Very much an SLR thing, the bayonet on parade. Not used at all during SMG drill (which is the only time we'd even consider a bayonet frog) when we'd be wearing leather (or plastic leather-look) regimental belts in deep shiny brown. Cannot recall ever seeing a bayonet frog to go with 58 pattern webbing for use in the field. Doesn't mean there wasn't one.

Thought not. Cheers matey.

I don't know what regiment the story is based around but I do so hope it is 15th or 19th Hussars. Why? Well both regiments took their horses to France in August 1914 and served as horsed cavalry until the trenches had been bled dry. Corporal C. E. Garforth, 15H won what must have been one of the last VCs to be won by an action in which he was fighting as a horsed cavalryman. The regiments amalgamated in 1922 and for much of 15/19H's existence, the regimental recruiting area was Northumberland and Durham (and latterly Tyne & Wear). To paraphrase the old joke. Two hussars out on patrol. One points and says, "Are they war horses?" Geordie replies, "Nah I think they're the enemy's."

It certainly always was the points in my day. Driver Mechs and REME in recce regiments were always good at doing the points, on CVR(T)s in particular. Doesn't help that the J60 started life as a 4.2 litre Jaguar engine out of the XK120 sports car, from an era before Japanese cars which were the only cars that would run on 2star. The XK120 expected 5star. But of course the J60 was re-engineered to run on CombatGas, which made 2star seem like 5star. Immediate action with any CVR(T) or Ferret that spluttered to a halt was to clean (or change) the pugs and points and off it went nine times out of ten. Most will have heard this but for the new members... Working on my (the Squadron Leader's really: I only drove) Land Rover on the vehicle park of Aliwal Barracks, Tidworth one morning in 1977, I watched a (civvy) petrol tanker pull up at the POL (Petrol, Oil and Lubricants) Point. The contents were allowed to settle, then the requested delivery was transferred into the CombatGas tank. The (civvy: presumably Shell) tanker driver proffered his work ticket so that the POL Stroeman could sign for the load. The tanker was driven away, POL Storeman stood watching, perplexed look on his face and scratching his head. I was bored but intrigued. I bimbled over. (The verb to bimble describes a very casual walk, mush less formal than the Tank Park Shuffle, which describes cavalry marching day-to-day, again far more casual than proper marching, reserved for RSMs, Adjutants, COs and visiting generals and royalty.) "What's up, marra?" I asked. "It seems I just signed for a tanker-load of 5star. I pointed out it was meant to be CombatGas. He said there was an error on his work ticket and it was 15th/19th Hussars' lucky day. I asked him whose unlucky day it was. He replied, 'I wouldn't fill up with 5star at the Shell garage in Burbage for a few weeks if I were you.'" He swore me to secrecy, or half the garrison would be hitting out pumps. I kept his secret but word obviously got out and the tank was dry again in no time. I must point out that the number of broken down B vehicles around the garrison was negligible for the next week or two. When I dared to ask why we didn't do something about it, I was told that we needed to be able to use the lowest common denominator fuel that we might find during war. The cost of repairs to engines was budgeted. The cost of R&D of new engines was not. Simple really.

These pictures all show MTGxxx. I'd expect MTG to indicate Mounting.

I don't recall the service of Stolly overlapping very long at all with Clansman: it was more a Larkspur era jobby. Vague recollection suggests to me that if we had a radio in a regiment Stolly, it was a B47. Pretty sure our Stollies went before I left in 1982, having had Clansman only since 1980. Or, as they say, a meringue? I usually am.

Just received issue 3 of Military Times having taken out a subscription after being sent a copy of Issue 1 to review. See: http://www.arrse.co.uk/content/242-review-magazine-military-times.html Note that a typo or two crept into my review after it left me. I really hate slack punctuation, spelling, grammar and syntax in printed works. Grr.

I had Orange ADSL all the way back through Wanadoo to Freeserve and 56k dial-up. Never gave me a second's problem. Then one day it just stopped. Numerous calls to Orange (at my premium rate expense) - nothing. They didn't want to get an engineer out because, even though they wanted me to pay, they would end up paying at some point. I half-Nelsoned them into getting a BT engineer out and wasted a day when I ought to have been working. When he headed several Ks up the road to the exchange, I could hear him checking the line between DSLAM and socket cos it kept pinging. Orange still wouldn't admit a problem. Now Orange / Wanadoo / Freeserve had successfully kept me on a maxed-out tariff that I couldn't be arrsed to complain about, despite over the years offering me new, faster deals at lower prices: they always seemed to continue the old price. I had been a Sky customer for years and they were offering free internet if you had Sky TV and phone, which I did. I took their "no-quibble unlimited" offer for a fiver a month. (PC magazines keep telling me that Sky's is the only truly no-quibble unlimited download contract). It was a no-brainer. Actually the most help I got from Orange was from the guy from whom I demanded a MAC code, but still the line was silent. Sky promised me a working ADSL line within a week: it was up in about four days. And I have just taken a £5 per month contract reduction. Sorted. Nobody is any better than their solution to the last problem.

Cobwebs blown away. Convinced. Thanks.

I only ever saw one Shackleton. In UNFICYP in 1976 not at all very long after the 1974 war, one of the patrol routes was BRITCON West, which involved leaving RAF Nicosia Airport Camp, following the (closed to air traffic) perimeter road to a checkpoint where we passed out into the ulu. The perimeter road was some 20-30 feet below the level of the runway, which had been raised to counter the slight downhill slope toward the western end of the runway. After we passed through the checkpoint, clearly visible on the crest was the sad wreck of a dead Shackleton. What was worse that was within hmm 1/2 mile of the checkpoint and southwest of the end of the runway, our patrol route passed through an orchard ... and a minefield, where the track took us within a few feet of a mine-victim Land Rover. Sometimes our patrol took us along the northern edge of the airport (this BRITCON West patrol mainly focused on the DMZ out toward the DANCON (Danish Contingent) zone toward the west of the island) where we had a great view across the plain to the mountains* that separated the port of Kyrenia from the rest of the island. At the ceasefire, the Turks were only a few hundred yards from Nicosia Airport in places, kept at bay by the RAC Parachute Squadron. When we handed over our troop's Nissen hut to our replacements, our own A Squadron, their ex-Para Sqn troop sergeant saw it as a home-coming, even if our camp still looked like the refugee camp it had been last time he moved in. Anyway. The northern perimeter. I was driving the troop leader as usual. He map-read and we led. The troop corporal followed. We followed the road as far as was necessary. He then directed me me to turn right, off the road and cut across a field back to the main road. As I bimbled across the field, I noticed 24 Bravo coming bombing back along the road we had gone down. It was only as we rejoined the road that Rommel said, over the I/C "Oops, that field was marked as a minefield. I'll see you in hell." Luckily Bravo pulled up alongside and its commander Chalkie had a right go at Rommel. Saved me getting out and snotting him. _____ * There are pictures on the net of a hillside on the Turkish side, planted to create a massive Turkish flag clearly visible from the Greek side. I don't remember it being there in 1976: Baz to confirm?

I could have sworn the hand throttle was on the left-hand sidewall under the side hatch. But it's been so-o-o many years.

Clansman rods were manufactured in one-meter lengths (as opposed to four-foot Larkspur rods) which were convenient to the frequency ranges used by the various Clansman sets. Clansman VHF sets (30 - 76MHz) required quarter-wave antennae up to two meters in length. (Larkspur VHF sets, eg SR/C42 - 36-60Mhz - used eight feet of rod). The tuning units on the Clansman VHF sets expected to find 2m of rod and would automatically electronically correct the transmitted signal to make it think it was transmitting on exactly 1/4-wave. Too much rod (ie 3m, as fitted to the 321 and other HF sets) would encourage the TUAAM to try and correct the VHF signal to 1/2 wavelength and actually inhibit the transmission. It's all about wave theory. I am sure there are people more current who can explain it better than my paleantological memories. Since the frequency is changed daily*, it is not practicable to cut rods to 1/4 wavelength, because if you need longer rods for tomorrow's frequency, you've got to reattach the bits you cut off. If you use a mast and a dipole antenna (I just saw some great pics on a thread about vehicles in winter), Clansman Dipole antennae were marked every foot so that you could get the antenna (usually) to exactly 1/4 wavelength (rounded down to the next foot-boundary below 1/4 wavelength - see above). When using a dipole with HF, this is a lot more accurate than allowing a tuner to adjust. And the skywave element of the horizontally-polarised signal gives far, far greater range. But you cannot use a mast and a dipole on the move for obvious reasons. If your set is only going to receive, the more rod you put up, the better. But it won't be militarily correct. _____ * At midnight (in theory midnight Zulu time so that everybody changes frequency worldwide at the same time, but in practice at midnight local time because exercises often happen at time zone change, meaning that the scope for error and having people changing frequency on three different hour boundaries: the right time before the clock change, the right time after the clock change and the idiot who adjusts his frequency change time the wrong way because he doesn't know which way the clocks changed). In the early 80s (iirc) it was decided to change frequencies at midday (in theory Zulu time) so that most units would be changing frequency in daylight, making it easier to adjust dipole etc lengths, there would be more operators about, less tired and less prone to mistake. Unfortunately, during the day, combat troops were more likely to be in contact and not notice that they ought to have changed frequencies. No wonder the net just went very quiet. How embarrassing. At night, the frequency change gave the 2200 - 2359 operator something to focus on and stay awake and his successors on the dead stags the chance to verify his frequency and code changes (and remorselessly take the Mick if he'd got anything wrong) before it all kicked off at pre-dawn stand-to. Iirc it only lasted one exercise season.

Erm, you didn't paint the black rubber, did you? It's meant to be unpainted. Earthing the transmitted signal and stuff. And the matching transformer. It's radio kit and I doubt in service it would be painted yellow unless it happened to be on the vehicle when it got a paint job. I'll accept that in my time, the Machine was Green, so the green radio kit matched the green vehicle cam. Maybe it's changed now.

I fired all sorts during my time. During my (brief, until I told them where they could stick their truncheons, and the sun wasn't shining) time in the RMP I was volunteered to star in a film showing how to strip and assemble a Browning. The irony was that I had been tapping the boards before the OC Training Wing because yet again the Training Wing CSM had not considered I had not done enough work on bulling my boots (I had joined the army to crew a tank, not to spend my every waking hour kowtowing to the demands of a martinet CSM, but been advised I was overqualified and to go and find a proper job. I took Discharge As A Statutory Right and immediately re-enlisted). Restriction of Privileges (so that I might waste even more of my life bulling boots). I returned to the lesson on the RMP Alternative Personal Weapon. The OC followed me in and asked the instructor for the best recruit at stripping and assembling the Browning. Me. The film was filmed and the OC was actually quite chummy. I later bumped into one of my former RMP buddies on the slopes of Mount Olympus in Cyprus where I was skiing. We had an interesting chat. Anyhoo. The Browning. I fired all sorts in competition. I cannot remember having won anything for Browning shooting: I could get up and look in the trophy cabinet, but I cannot be bothered. Browning was the only one that ever caused me any grief. Why? I have short stumpy fingers. The unload of a Browning cocks the weapon in order to eject and extract a round in the breech (as do most weapons). With most weapons, you then pull the trigger and allow the working parts to slide forward under control. With the Browning, all that pulling the trigger does is let the hammer forward. To release the spring, it is necessary to engage a part in the bowels of the gun (name escapes me: it's been 35 years) while pulling the trigger. The book says to use a magazine (which is how the mechanism works during firing). However, putting a magazine on whilst performing an unload is seen as introducing scope for a Negligent Discharge by the army, so we were trained to slide the middle finger inside in place of the mag. Like I said, I have short stumpy fingers. It must have been comical watching me fighting to get my finger inside during an unload whilst remembering to keep the weapon pointing downrange at all times. ---ooo0ooo--- Two cap badges later, the whole Pay Office bar me (that would be both of them) volunteered for the 1984 Osnabruck Garrison Triathlon. It was a hot sunny day and I wasn't going to do their work while they were off having a swim, a run and a pistol shoot, so I volunteered too. I had no intention of winning: there were far too many racing snakes and keen types: my calculations told me that a day out of the office having a swim and a 9-milly shoot was worth pounding up and down the one hill in Osnabruck. Even took wor Lass, the bairn (bairn number 2 was on the way) and a picnic. So cometh the day. First up was the swim. Sorry, was I meant to be competitive? I didn't do competitive any more. Then came the 9-milly shoot. Dress for the day was tracksuit, with a web belt, holster and one pouch for the pistol. So there I am in tracksuit bottoms (apart from being black, the two yellow stripes down the outside of the legs made them look just like my mess dress trousers. On another occasion Wor Lass could not believe I was wearing work boots, mess dress trousers and T shirt for Tug-of-war. But that's yet another story), track suit top open and T shirt. The instructions came down to load, make ready and finally, "Watch and shoot, watch and shoot." We all adopted the postion. The targets turned from side-on to face-on, our cue to engage them. I raised the gun and took up first pressure on the trigger. A wasp struck my chest just above the neck of the T shirt and fell inside. Ow, ow. I untucked the T shirt from the tracky bottoms and out fell ... a red-hot empty case from the bloke to my left. By the time I was sorted (remember I had a loaded gun and one hand had to keep it pointing downrange at all times), I'd missed the first engagement. Damn. The targets reappeared, I raised the gun and ... another empty case hit my collar bone and dropped inside my T shirt. Ultimately, the 9-milly shoot was not the strong point of my day that I'd hoped for. As predicted, I didn't finsh in the top 3 in the hill run ... or the top 50 ... or the top 200. I didn't stop around for the medal presentation. But the picnic was good.

My Mark 1 Eyeball is quite certain of the 2 in the place suggested and pretty sure that (probably) the last digit is a 7.

As a UKLF-based Recce Regt, we were C13 as our combat team command net when we were sent on our six-month UNFICYP trip. Crew Intercommunication (I/C) required the "A" set because the B47 B set did not have I/C function built in (with Larkspur, I/C was a radio set function, not a harness function). So half our Ferrets (section second vehicle) had a C13 "A" set to provide I/C while communicating over the B47 "B" set. Since the C13 had to be powered up to provide I/C, it made sense to have it tuned into something useful rather than monitoring white noise. Voice of Peace was perfect. As Troop Leader's driver I was blissfully unaware that half the troop had an in-car music centre until I injured a finger and found myself covering as commander of 24 Charlie when Frankie Smith customised his nose. It was a Saturday morning, we were patrolling the AUSCON area north of Larnaca, driving round a large quarry when the music took me back to Saturday mornings that preceded a trip to Roker Park (Sunderland had just been promoted) and I asked myself what I was doing here. My only bout of homesickness in 14 years. It quickly passed. Where were we? HF relies on the Ionosphere to reflect a significant amount of signal back to earth. After the sun sets, the solar radiation stops ionising the air, the Ionosphere collapses and the signal strength with it. If you've ever listened to Radio 5 medium wave just after sunset you know what I mean. Our Mark 1 Rebro Ferrets had a two times C42 set-up (one on top of the other) so that we had sufficient grunt for both sides of the rebroadcast.

In 1994 I was consulting in Chester. A couple of us took a company-rented house through the week as we were fed up of the hotel bills - and menu. He told me about a friend of his who told him this story. Isn't it amazing how big a small world can be, that you can spend two years in a closed community and not realise your buddy is also there?

Total Recall. Nuff said. Edit: Terminator 3. May not have been the best of the genre, but the twist was worth it.

A conversation in Slidex I think.

I thought that until I noticed the commander is a sergeant ... I have plenty of pairs of glasses, wanna borrow a pair? ;o)

I was in the Medical Centre the day the Dead Sea reported sick.

Slapped wrist, Bazz. There were plenty retread Greys in 15/19H in our day who had to change regiment or take redundancy because two regiments into one didn't go. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Scots DG) were formed in 1971 from the amalgamation of the ... oh stuff it. Here, read Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Scots_Dragoon_Guards The commander is from the Royal Scots Greys (2nd Dragoons). Note the grey beret (re-adopted later by the Scots DG). Scots DG were in Sennelager while we were in Paderborn (same garrison). The Uncle Tom's Cabin pub football team (mainly 15/19H) occasionally played a Scots DG eleven of a Sunday morning and we'd obviously drink together afterward. I remember a Scots DG telling us that it was their habit to remove from their badges the crossed carbines representative of the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) (themselves the product of the amalgamation in 1922 of 3rd Dragoon Guards (Prince of Wales's) and 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers)) in order to return it as close to that of the Scots Greys as possible and remove the "taint" (perceived by them) of the Carabiniers. I have tried to identify the badge on the loader's dark beret but cannot even be sure it is not the same as the commander. Cavalry regiment traditions are idiosyncratic. I couldn't say whether the Greys had a tradition that says that senior ranks (commander is a sergeant) could wear a grey beret, junior ranks not. If anybody could confirm that the badges are different, I'd assume the loader was on ERE (Extra-Regimental Employment) from another regiment. I cannot ID his badge as being a different regiment so he'd have to have come from a regiment which was gone by 1975, which might be Carabiniers. 9th and 12th Lancers had already merged and it isn't their badge. 10th and 11th Hussars amalgamated in 1969 as The Royal Hussars, but the badge is from neither of these. Doesn't look like a Carabiners badge, so I'd guess he is a Grey and that it is my poor eyesight trying to convince me his badge is different from that of his commander.

Damn. I threw away a clipping this morning. Worthy Down (north of Winchester) has managed to avoid any cutbacks. The article mentioned that WD lost out to St Athan on a megabucks project a couple of years ago, but that project has now been deep-sixed.

Not a problem in the slightest. We got issued DPM waterproofs very (if not exactly: I remember pen pocket and elasticated wrists) like these issued some time during my 77 - 82 tour of Paderborn (I'd guess at 1980: Bazz to help unit-average estimate the date?). Before that, we were able to buy from the PRI (President of the Regimental Institute - the regimental shop) a plain olive waterproof which was accepted by the regimental hierarchy as suitable to wear with combats (we still had flasher macs to be worn with other dress). So a civvy copy would certainly be accepted. We also bought NAAFI copies of No 2 Dress shirts, with pockets and epaulettes (which were not then found on issue No 2 Dress shirts) and various other items (boots spring to mind) that were entirely acceptable. So long as the job got done and we turned up properly dressed for parades, what we wore was not questioned unless it kicked the backside out of it.