AlienFTM

Serious question. Can you actually physically fit four metres of rod? I have to ask because we rarely if ever needed the Divisional Guard Net and had we used it, we'd no doubt have thrown up a mast. Come to think of it, probably: it's not so much more than the 12 feet maximum with HF on Larkspur. I hope when you fit that amount of rod to a moving vehicle you use an antenna slope adapter (what did they call those bright metal adapters that allowed a vertical rod out of an antenna base to slope?)?

I wore one day, day out during late winter - spring of 1976. It was issued to me for good reason; everybody around me (who had been on the tour since late 74) was quite happy to wear his; I assumed there was an order somewhere which meant I had to wear it. I never for one moment considered going without it and it never caused me a second's discomfort. It was just a piece of kit. The instructions on mine said to wear it under the combat jacket, but since everybody else in NI wore it over the top, why make a target of myself by being non-uniform? I haven't seen the modern equipment but when I see how the modern squaddy runs like a pregnant duck (no offence - merely an observation), I assume he is far more heavily laden than we were. I cannot speak for discomfort in summer. Summer of 76 was, as we all know, hot and dry, but spring in NI was pleasantly balmy. For a place with a reputation of cold and wet, I don't remember any rain during the period Feb - May and thoroughly enjoyed my tour, flak jacket or not.

I went to a Light Dragoons Regimental Association weekend a year or two back and made a bee-line for the Command Troop display so that I could sit in the back of a Sultan again after a quarter of a century. The only thing internally that I recognised for certain to be unchanged was the water tank under the commander's cupola. I was quite surprised. But I have spent the last quarter century in the computer industry, so why was I surprised to find a pair of pretty-much bog-standard laptops bolted to the operators' table? Did I not think the computer age had reached the army? The operator started to look worried when I opened Control Panel ...

88mm PaK43 on a Hetzer chassis! The mind boggles. Bad enough fitting a 90mm to a Scorpion.

Sweeping statement. Like I said, Scorpions in the first years of Clansman had two times 353 side by side, but control signallers with the nouse to set them to rebro would be thin on the ground, and why deny a sabre troop a vehicle when there were rebro ferrets in the Orbat for that specific purpose? Any two compatible (ie either Clansman Larkspur) or VHF radios (didn't have to be the same radio) could rebroadcast automatically, I agree, but in three years in a rebro Ferret, I only once actually got to fulfil the role, and I wasn't even exercising myself: I was rebroadcasting an umpire net. Furthermore, it was also possible, with control signaller training, to manually rebroadcast using an HF and a VHF set side by side, but the tactical or technical situation where this might be necessary was extremely unlikely ever to occur.

Tuning Unit Radio Frequency! I KNEW there was another box and that the ARFAT didn't do the tuning!

I doubt Skorzeny would freely admit afterwards that the photo-recce he personally undertook a couple of days before the op was so badly flawed in that he had not appreciated the angle of the "field" he chose to land in. It's so many years ago that I read it that sorry there is no way I am going to remember my source.

It's just about possible. I am pretty sure 4/7DG never converted to recce between the introduction of Scorpion and Options For Change when, along with the Skins (5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards), they became Royal Dragoon Guards. During most of this period, battle group recce recce was provided by the divisional recce regt (which would not be 4/7DC), not the regiment at the core of the battle group (which would be). I cannot date the introduction of Scorpion to BAOR and I am not entirely familiar with the divisional Orbat prior to 1977. At some point the divisional recce regt (CVR(T)) replaced the divisional armoured car regt (Saladin / Ferret). In 1976, 15/19H were working toward an Orbat of two times Scorpion and two times Scimitar per troop. When we returned from Cyprus in 1977, we learned that one squadron per recce regt was to be designated Close Recce, would take all the Scimitars and would be essentially permanently detached to battle groups. This suggests to me that recce was in a state of flux in the mid-70s. I suppose it is possible that at some time between the introduction of Scorpion as a recce vehicle to replace Ferret and the move to close recce from the divisional recce regt, 4/7DG may have had Scorpion for regimental recce. However, in 1976 4/7DG were coming to the end of a Tidworth Armoured Regiment tour (next door but one to 15/19H in the Tidworth Recce Regt role). I don't remember the Tidworth armoured regiment having CVR(T), because this was a transitory posting, not an operational battle group posting. I am strongly inclined to say NO, but I cannot be 100% certain. Say 99%.

I cannot remember where I read that and Google is not too much help. Two sources here: http://www.auschwitz.dk/skorzeny.htm http://homepages.ius.edu/RVEST/SkorzenyDr2.htm It doesn't take too much extrapolation that it was a ski slope because (ibid): My italics. What else would a resort hotel be for 6000 feet up in the mountains?

A few years ago I remember seeing a picture of a modelling project. A guy had taken a (Tamiya 1/25th?) Tiger 1E, stuck Tony the Tiger in the commander's position and painted it orange with tiger stripes. Sadly a quick web search reveals nothing so I doubt those who haven't seen it will believe me. It this where your orange paint is left over from? ;o)

Yes. From memory. An aerial photo recce had revealed a DZ / LZ right next to the mountaintop hotel where Mussolini was being held, but when Skorzeny's commandos arrived, they found it was actually a ski slope. So determined was Skorzeny to get back with the package and claim all the glory, rather than remain with his troops, he blagged a ride in the Storch which made it severely overweight and it was only because the "landing strip" was actually a ski slope that the aircraft was able to get airborne. Usual caveat about flawed memory.

I really ought to know the answer to this, being a former RAC Control Signaller and Rebro Ferret commander. My excuses are that I was Larkspur trained (but being on the last Larkspur Con Sig course, I spent pretty much my entire Con Sig career on Clansman) and that my rebro was 2 times VHF, not 1 times VHF and 1 times HF. My recollection is that Clansman was idiot-proof and everything was click-to fit, so my guess is that if the cable end appears wrong on the antenna base, you have a Larkspur antenna base. We had to replace our Ferret and Sultan Larkspur harnesses in their entirety (the hybrid Scorpion and Scimitar Larkspur / Clansman harnesses may have had parts which might be re-used but I don't think so - I didn't personally convert any Scorpions or Scimitars - and the replacement kits came with everything provided anyway) including the antenna bases. I do remember that the connection between the TUAAM (hang on: TUAAM was the Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching on the 353; the HF 321 used something else, maybe ARFAT, Adaptor, Radio Frequency, Antenna Tuning?) ... ... the connection between the ARFAT and the antenna base was shielded by a series of black holed hemispherical plastic bits (whose name escapes me), the connection is deep out of sight and you do not plan to broadcast on the Military HF frequency band anyway (do you?), so with the best will in the world, even trying your hardest for authenticity, I shouldn't lose any sleep over this connection. Out of curiosity. What is the scenario for your Ferret? What is it representing that has a 353 / 321 radio fit?

Certainly they were deployed to the Balkans. About 1995-6 while I was at BT Old Street, I saw a BBC report from the Balkans. The camera started on the VRN, 02FDxx and I announced to the family that this was a Scorpion. I had enough information to be absolutely certain. Then the camera panned upward and I found myself staring at the muzzle of a Rarden. No, no, no, this was not right. Scimitars started in the 04FD series. Having spent a career surrounded by Scorpions (and crewed 04FD14) and Scimitars (all parked in the hangar opposite while I was in Command Troop), I knew this to be fact beyond argument. Then I realised that the turret appeared to have been visited by headhunters and shrunk. I was taking big bites of humble pie and barely managing to register that the interviewer was talking to a Major Polley, Light Dragoons, evidently the squadron leader, and he bore an uncanny resemblance to the 2Lt Polley, who had joined 15/19H a decade and a half earlier (the other side of Options For Change before 15/19H and 13/18H became LD), whilst trying to work out what I was seeing. Monday morning back in Old Street, I spoke to an RAC STAB on the permanent staff and he told me of the recent sad demise of Scorpion. As to white-painted CVR(T)s, it can only have been a UN posting and I am unaware of any being sent to the UN other than in the Balkans. Further, the time frame really only fits the Balkans: shortage of CVR(T)s after killing off Scorpion, Sabre as an interim until such time as Scimitar numbers can be balanced. (I have often wondered whether MOD went to Alvis and asked them to start making more Scimitars or whether the balance was restored because of the decrease of CVR(T) numbers required on the Orbat.) Winter white paint is more like whitewash and I cannot imagine anyone painting over the top of it and expecting it to stick. I never had the pleasure of serving with AFNORTH but AFAIK, their CVR(T)s were painted winter white over NATO green / black, just all over as opposed to the 1/3 , 1/3 , 1/3 cam employed (one winter in my five years) in BAOR. As to another poster suggesting that the Army paints vehicles white for bling: nope, never seen or heard anything like it. (Stands by to await incoming correction.)

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't one of the original prototypes, which were all xx SP xx. See the Scorpion at Bovvy. What really grips me about the Bovvy Scorpion is that it still has the experimental lightweight shall-we-say-spoked road wheels. Why can they not swap half the road-wheel halves with another CVR(T) and pit the holed halves on the inside where nobody can see them?

My sentiments exactly. Any time.

Back in the days of the Arms Plot, I am pretty sure 17/21L preceded 16/5L, 1RTR, 15/19H, 9/12L, 13/18H round the arms plot from MBT to Omagh to Tidworth and conversion to recce then deployment to BAOR in CVR(T). So I am quite sure they were recce from about ... hmm ... 1973* until they Arms Plotted back to armour. 15/19H spent from 76 to 84 in the recce role before returning to armour. The Arms Plot wasn't hard and fast, so 17/21L might have been in recce longer or less time than 15/19H. Some regiments (15/19H, 13/18H, 9/12L) had an affinity with recce, others didn't. Their Colonel (not the CO, the Lieutenant Colonel - from the French, the Colonel's stand-in) may well have gone to the Arms Plot and got them back on tanks sooner rather than later. Yes I am sure they did do recce at some point in the 1970s but I cannot give you a date, and anyway, unless they stayed in recce a lot longer than my memory suggests, they wouldn't have had Striker which, as I explained recently went with Swingfire back to RA control in 1977 anyway. The more I consider this, the more I lean toward Waltism. ______ * Counting on me fingers here. 15/19H were in Omagh for 18 months from late 74. This would put 1RTR in Omagh from early 73, 16/5L from late 71. So 17/21L would have left Omagh in late 71 to go to Tidworth and train convert to recce. Not even sure they'd have got Scorpion, never mind Striker.

My considered opinion is that outside of recce, troop / platoon commanders might have 2 times 353, but I doubt it. Below combat team level, frequencies were only allocated for the combat team command net. Alternative frequencies were provided, but these were for use when the first frequency became unusable (due to terrain or more likely jamming) and there would only be one or two: not enough for every troop to grab one and use it as a chatter net (as occasionally a troop leader might do so that he could micro-manage his troop on an important task without the whole combat team interrupting). Intra-troop comms would not demand a 353. In recce we did have two times 353 side by side in Scorpions and Scimitars between ... hmm ... 1980 into 1982 (when I left) at least, but as I was leaving, it was becoming clear that two times 353 was overkill even for recce (where comms were the top priority, to get information into the CoC) and the replacement of one by a 351/2 was being planned. This would have the added advantage of making a dismounted recce easier. My Ferret needed two times 353 fitted side by side so that I could rebroadcast the battlegroup or divisional command net if the tactical or technical situation demanded it.

I heard it on Wave 105 this morning. Here you go: http://www.wave105.com/Article.asp?id=1894544&spid=25629

As you surely know, Striker was the CVR(T) Swingfire ATGM launch vehicle. During my time they belonged to the RA and 15/19H battlegroup usually had a GW troop from J (Sidi Rezegh) Battery, 3 RHA attached (the Striker at Bovy bears J Bty markings). At other periods, GW support was organic to the battlegroup, such that 15/19H had a troop of Mark 5 Ferrets in 76-77 and I believe GW came back again after I had left. (The ownership of diverse elements within a regiment has forever gone back and forth. This is a classic example: is it better for the RA to control guided missiles or for the RAC to control anti-tank weapons?) Anyway. Trying to stay on topic. In 1976 (I don't think Striker was generally in service by then: like I said 15/19H had Mark 5 Ferrets) the Armd Recce Regiment's Command Net was on HF and we had C13 sets to work it. Other combat arms used VHF and had C42 A-sets for distance work and B47 B-sets for shorter-range work. When Recce worked with other arms, we needed VHF. Section commanders' vehicles had a C42 B-set while section second-vehicles had a B47. By 1977 when 3 Armd Div had deployed to BAOR, Recce sabre troops were only being issued VHF kit (C42 / B47) so that the whole combat team were using the same kit. Marvellous idea. So during the Clansman period I'd expect Striker more likely than not to have UK/VRC 353 A-set for combat team / battle group command net work as stated by schliesser92. Might they have a 321? Well, being RA attached, I'd guess that they may want comms with their parent unit. VHF simply wouldn't have the range, so I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a 321 B-set tuned in to an RA guard net. ---ooo0ooo--- Stormer. I'd never heard of this vehicle until somebody posted a pic here recently. Since it looks like a stretched Spartan, I'll assume its role was APC. In the combat team role, as you can see from above, I'd expect a 353 A-set and a VHF B-set, which would probably have been a vehicle-mounted 351 / 352. However we need a little aside here. Recce got Sultan ACVs at all levels as soon as they became available. Armour and infantry continued using 432 ACVs for a long time (like the rest of the army). I have been out a long time but I imagine having petrol-engined CVR(T)s in a diesel organisation like an armoured regiment or an mech inf bn is asking for a logistical nightmare. I understand that at some point, armour and inf got Sultan. I am fairly sure that on occasion, units used Spartan as an ACV in the absence of Sultan and managed quite nicely without all the headroom. (The CO was given an Orbat - order of battle - which gave him so many vehicles and so many officers, NCOs and men to crew them. The CO could in fact do whatever he wanted. I believe for example that officially according to the OrBat, the CO's rover was not a Land Rover, but a Mark 1 Ferret, which offered a little more armour protection than the thin aluminium skin of a Land Rover. However, half colonels are by nature of their experience, shall we say into middle age and the turret of a Ferret is more suited to a young man than a CO with the weight of The Regiment* about him. I never saw a CO in a Ferret: they all, without exception, gave their Ferrets to be Rebros. Sadly for the RSM, there simply weren't enough Land Rovers in the Orbat to let him have one, so the RSM was stuck with a Ferret.) So, back to Stormer. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that units might locally designate one of these vehicles to be an ACV and have a non-standard radio fit including HF. ---ooo0ooo--- 432. These were used in so many roles that your guess is as good as mine. In the infantry rifle section role I'd expect a 353 and a 351/2. In the armour / infantry battle group ACV role I'd expect to see a 353 to talk down to the combat teams, a 321 on the divisional guard net and some secure kit to talk up to Brigade / Division. In my day secure VHF provided by a modified Larkspur C42 because they hadn't got as far as encryption for Clansman so I can express no opinion on Clansman secure kit. In the armour / infantry combat team ACV role I'd expect to see a 353 to talk down to rifle platoons, another to talk up to battle group and a 321 on the guard net. But 432s, as schliesser92 can probably tell you better, had all sorts of configurations, being used at all sorts of higher formation HQs. I hope this gives you a feel for just how much big the answer to your question is, _____ * The SAS tell you that The Regiment is their term and applies to 22 SAS. This is rubbish. To every soldier who ever lived, The Regiment is The Family and whichever regiment it is, it is the best.

Local radio are currently reporting that it has been confirmed that it will be doing Bournemouth (Air Show I presume) in the very near future. I'd like to thinkthat going to Bournemouth they'll do what Spitfires do whenever they fly past over Southampton and use the M27 to navigate: I get a great view from the garden.

I took loads of UNFICYP Ferret pics (same tour as Bazz 76 - 77), and sent them all home for safe keeping and to prove to me mum that I was alive and well. Me mum died some years later and it would seem my brother threw them all out. AAAAAAAAAAARGH.

If you were 3 Div Signals: 1. Did you ever have cause to visit Alanbrooke Bks, Paderborn, shared by 15/19H and TFE HQ&Signals Tp? Bazz (from this forum) and I were both there in 15/19H from 3 Armd Div's arrival in late 77. 2. My best mukker from my schooldays was a Nigel Walker who IIRC went to 3 Div Signals in Soest. As his nine approached, he was due a posting and for the UK. They sent him to Benbecula, arguing that it WAS UK. He put in his notice. Mean anything?

I am getting images in my head of something I probably saw on Discovery a year or two back. I suspect it was the two Americans who made a series trying to build a better weapon. Many of them, but not all, were mediaeval. I can see images of a steel hawser being deliberately snapped and smacked into a side of pork. ISTR the outcome was as you say, not cut in half. But potentially fatal internal injuries. As usual I stand ready to be corrected.

I'll say nothing about the US troops invited to look at our kit (so that they might recognise it in the heat of battle) who asked, when presented with a Scimitar, "So you guys drive around in BMPs then?" No wonder we suffer friendly fire.

No, no, no, the Combat Fitness Test, not the Basic Fitness Test (1.5 miles run and walk as a squad in 15 minutes wearing boots and puttees and PT vest, then a best effort run back in 10m30 or less - but with variations for age). The Falklands had revealed that the BFT (apparently brought in about 74 - 75 to replace a test not unlike the CFT) bred an army of racing snakes who could run a mile and a half in 7m30 and not break sweat, but put them under load across East Falkland and it was a different game, so now we has the BFT and the CFT. Learn from other people's mistakes. There is not enough time in life to make them all yourself.