AlienFTM

If everything that had "gone down with the Atlantic Conveyor" had gone down with the Atlantic Conveyor, she'd have gone down in Southampton Water. SOP. As I joined 15/19H in Omagh in 1976, a Ferret got blown 30 feet in the air by a culvert bomb (both survived but sadly one guy later took a medical discharge). Apparently this Ferret was carrying so many sleeping bags and expensive G1098 kit that people were amazed it got off the ground. And all that expensive kit had to be written off ...

Absolutely not used in in the Corps Area of BAOR while I was there 1977 - 1985. Pretty damn sure I didn't see them in use within UKLF 1975 - 1977 and fairly sure I didn't see them within UKLF 1985 - 1989. Edited to add: I still have after-images of my last CFT in 1989. CFT consisted at the time of three phases: 8 miles as a squad on roads and cross-country wearing the relevant kit. 100m carrying an oppo of similar size and weight and all equipment in a fireman's lift. A "Special to Arm" task. Attached to REME in BAOR in 1985, they had the bright idea of making the NBC test the Special to Arm task, so they could tick off two boxes on the training schedule for the price of one. With an RAPC major unit in 1989, they had the bright idea that RAPC Special to Arm meant "Get on the truck; get off the truck." And that's what we did, again with all our kit. I still remember myself, demob-happy with just a couple of months to go, having yomped around the Longmoor Military Railway, completed the fireman's lift and really did not enjoy getting my backside over the tailgate of the four-tonner. Getting off consisted of stepping off into space and stuff the consequences to my weary ankles because I was too tired to care and the CFT was complete when I hit the ground. Some spectacular blisters to be sorted the following day. The point is, I had a very close, traumatic view of a closed tailgate of a non-tactical MK in 1989 and I can say with a good deal of certainty that there were no visibility chevrons.

Read this. It will expand on the prologue: http://www.neam.co.uk/wingate.html

You can go the other way for sure. CVR(T) was designed for Clansman, but in the austere days of the early 70s, we were told we could have one or the other, not both. We got Scorpions with a hybrid harness that gave a degree of Clansman function from Larkspur ancillaries and also allowed us to plug Clansman bonedomes into Larkspur breastplates. It's been so-o-o-o long and my memory was then overwritten by the Clansman harness that came along with Clansman about 1979 that I cannot remember details, except that ISTR the commander's radio box was the RSB2 (Radio Systems Box 2-set). I also STR that the Larkspur Scorpion commander's mouthpiece was unique in the choice of options selectable from the thumb switch underneath the mike. But it was a long long time ago.

No help I am afraid. I never saw anything mounted in that location. What I would do personally is replace the part with a new one with neither the gert big speaker holes nor the ones you ask about. TBH I cannot see picture in my mind how you could mount an SLR there, but it never concerned me because as RAC everybody had an SMG and we'd just bung it behind the seat, to be collected when we dismounted. Besides, you are talking about a lightweight: we only ever had LWB apart from a runaround or two in UNFICYP.

If this is the tank I think it was, I had a chat with the owner last year who marvelled that I was the first person all weekend (Sunday afternoon) not to call it a T54. I passed comment on the fume extractor and he told me that was a red herring cos, like myriads of tanks around the world it had been fitted with an L7. I got lucky for once.

As recce vehicles, CVR(T)s were built primarily to be fast, hence light and there was never seen to be a need for power traverse (but if you needed to traverse through any significant arc, selecting the higher gear would make it traverse manually more quickly at the expense of needing a fiddler's right arm - I had served as Scorpion crewman for years before I discovered there was a second gear to the traverse handwheel: I guess my instructor just forgot to mention it). I understand the latest tranche of Scimitars weigh in about 12.5 tons, compared with 7 in my day, so I could be persuaded to believe that at some point somebody decided to save the little darling point-and-click gunners of the Game Boy generation from developing a fiddler's right arm, unless those of us who learned to shoot properly on Scorpion.

Wild guess mode. I saw the eye and immediately thought 4RTR Chinese Eye (dating right back to the Great War iirc). Seeing the Roman IV underneath probably encouraged the idea. However, then reading Guards Armoured Division I suspect that, as usual, I am wrong: it looks more like Guards Armoured than 4RTR. When I see a square, I automatically think B Squadron / Company. Seeing the number 7 within suggests this might be the tac sign for a vehicle in 7 Troop / Platoon in B Squadron / Company of a unit which numbered troops or platoons consecutively through squadrons / companies rather than the usual state of affairs where each squadron / company has subunits numbered 1, 2, 3, 4. It isn't strictly correct as per Signals Communications in the Army, Volume 2, Voice Procedure, but there used to be a lot of idiosyncrasy in the British Regimental System which in the last decade has sadly been dreadfully eroded. Do we think maybe the Pig might have been anachronistically marked Guards Armoured Division for a film? Not that I can think of a film that referred to GAD or used Pigs. Just a thought.

I understand why people are recommending bulling them, but it doesn't really address the issue of the leather fading and besides, unless royalty were visiting, no AV crewman would so much as think of wearing bulled boots in his vehicle, so from an authenticity angle it is just plain wrong. ---ooo0ooo--- Edited to add: Bulled boots with chunks out are a military mortal sin. Far better they are well brush polished. ---ooo0ooo--- In the RAC, it was accepted that boots got wet, muddy and oily, all of which came between the boot and a parade shine. On first parade, all the Troop Sergenat (Troop Leader, SSM or OC depending on who inspected) cared about was that the boots were clean and polished, the beret had been brushed free of fluff (most regiments wore dark blue berets and brushed them with the black offer boot brush) and that overalls were not dripping oil. I would certainly consider the suggestion to dye the boots back to black. They must be very old boots, since the first standard issue Boots, CH started to appear around 84-85 (though I knew a LG CoH wearing prototypes as early as February 1976). So I imagine the leather is really struggling to hold its colour. Do you brush your boots every day? In service, this would ensure that the stain in the polish always stayed ahead of the fading of the leather (but bear in mind I tended to get through a pair of DMS in six months). As stated, the squaddy would only ever use Kiwi (Cherry Blossom simply didn't shine) and when Parade Gloss came out ooh probably sometime about 1980, it became the only polish available from the NAAFI because it was just so right. The staining effect of brushing your boots daily (like any squaddy) may add to the retention of the black colour. As to using Parade Gloss. I am in two minds there. Yes it's what we'd use, but I doubt your boots are getting as dirty and oily as ours did, so you may develop an excessive shine on your boots. Looks good, but again, authentic? We never ever used dubbin in boots that would be worn on parade in the future because it dulled the leather. However, a buckshee pair (we all acquired buckshees so that parade kit never had to go on exercose and be ruined) might be dubbined if it was going to help keep the individual's feet dry. You might argue that using dubbin in the actual circumstances you would be wearing DMS would give a more authentic finish representative of the conditions you are representing. IMCO of course.

I cannot say I ever noticed that Charlie had had the trunking removed. Doesn't mean it hadn't. On my past record I am probably wrong.

Correct. See the link. Len Deighton's novel Bomber was deliberately set on 31 June so that rivet counters couldn't turn round and say "But Main Force hit Berlin that night."

Main Force Lancasters of Bomber Command launch a raid on Krefeld. A Pathfinder Mosquito is shot down near the village of Altgarten and its target markers ignite. Being a clear night, follow-up pathfinders have no trouble enhancing the wrongly-laid target markers and the inevitable creepback of bombs ensures the entire wrath of the Main Force, intended for the Ruhr industrial area, falls on the small village. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomber_%28novel%29

Funny you should say that (but apologies for going completely off-topic). I have owned a copy of Bob Calvert's Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters for a number of years (having seen it in the record shop in 1974 and unfortunately refrained). The track list does not agree with the actual contents: a track is missing, entitled "The Widow's Song": Something on TV the other night reminded me of a track I wanted to buy from iTunes (Streets of London - Ralph McTell) so I logged on and did the deed. Then I remembered a couple of others (Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire and The Widow's Song) that I could get while I was there. Now I knew that The Widow's Song wasn't actually on the album: that's why I was looking for it. So I had to search quite hard to find it. Nothing of that title on iTunes, so instead I had to look at Bob Calvert's discography and find the album it was off. There I find that iTunes had listed The Widow's Song as The Windows Song. No wonder I'd been unable to find it! Grr. How can I soar like an eagle when I am surrounded by turkeys? My apologies again for going so far off-topic.

A word of warning. If you take your Ferret out and follow a Saracen, don't expect to be able to keep up across rough ground. When I saw "Ferret flying across the field" I couldn't help but remember my first time driving a Ferret, at night on the lanes of West Tyrone. We entered a small town (take your pick: it could have been Fintona, Augher, Clogher, Dromore, Fivemiletown: they all looked the same deserted in the dark) and the Can took the chicane (45-gallon drums and speed bumps) in front of the RUC station without reducing speed at all. I became aware of a whining, which stopped when I hit the first speed bump, took off, cleared the second and landed, for my commander to snot his head on the turret. It seemed the whining had been his scream of terror when he realised what was going to happen but he couldn't get the Larkspur mike to his mouth quickly enough. I promptly learned how to take speed bumps at speed in a four-wheeled vehicle.

Reverse flow air. Our Zero Charlie ACV was one of these. In BAOR it made not a ha'p'orth of difference, but in sandpits it reduced the amount of sand collected.

Since you mention Barrack Dress, I can legitimately claim to be the last RAC recruit not to be issued Barrack Dress trousers at initial kit issue. I had previously done three months' RMP training before telling them where to stick their truncheons and purchasing Discharge As A Statutory Right. Then I re-enlisted into the RAC (RMP refused to let me simply transfer to a "lesser" [their word] corps). So I was fully au fait with Basic Training, Kit and Bedding issue, etc, and when, on arrival at Catterick, the last four of us to join our intake fronted up at the QM's Clothing Store for initial kit issue, I let the other three go through and excitedly collect up all their green kit. Three weeks later, looking out of a window in the accommodation block, walking (they were still in the process of learning to march - unlike us old sweats ;o) up the hill was the next intake, all dressed in woolly pullies and what looked to me like 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards Number 2 dress trousers. It happened that the Skins were RAC Training Regiment, our hosts, and all the permanent staff wore dark green trousers with their No 2 Dress. I must also have been one of the last people to be retrospectively issued Barrack Dress trousers in the RAC, because I went off to join 15/19H in Omagh where there was no demand, then four months in Tidworth, intensively converting from Chieftain to CVR(T), then six months with UNFICYP. Some time after return to Tidworth, there was a formal parade in which the dress was to include Barrack Dress trousers. I borrowed a pair. Next such parade, I decided I'd better get my backside down to the Clothing Store and sign for some of my own. I figured they didn't need ironing cos they were pretty much perfectly creased, apart from where the legs had been folded. Eskimo Ness (the SQMS) suggested a method to hang my trousers whereby there would be no crease on the outside of one leg. This involved folding one leg over the hanger with the inside down and the hem just reaching the crotch, then the other leg over the the hanger over the outside, so that both legs are folded over the inside. If you try this, it will appear completely unstable after you have got the first leg over because the weight will tend to pull them right back off. Once the second leg is over, the friction of each leg will pull against the other and they'll stay put. For suit and DJ I still hang my trousers this way to this day.

That's me wrong. I read the title of the thread and was going to suggest that maybe a clown had stowed away, then fallen off. Obviously not.

Probably true at Stalingrad where the factory was in the war zone and they were driven out straight into battle by the builders, rather than being built by the crews.

You sure that shouldn't read 24 BA 25? Would be more consistent with the age of the vehicle: I think others younger than me will tell you the Army never got up to PA. But I could be wrong as usual.

As a member of Command Troop I got to take an internal Saracen driving course, which, after a couple of days' learning about the maintenance side, involved driving round the streets of Paderborn until we satisfied our instructor (we were all Ferret trained, so we all had a Group B - automatic - licence which was all we needed: no test required). The only thing that sticks with me is that when driving in a straight line, six wheels with power steering are shall we say "different" and holding the wheel straight did not guarantee the Can (Sarry-Can) went straight, so we'd gently rock the steering wheel back and forth against the feedback from the power steering. It's hard to describe, but we found it the best way to keep the Can moving in a straight line. I did feel that, even though there are bigger vehicles, faster vehicles and more-testosterone-generating vehicles to look at, driving a Can gave me far and away the biggest sensation of King of the Road of anything I ever drove. The Ferret was far and away the best drive I ever had, but the Can gave me the biggest feeling of power. There are other words I might use but I know the forum is read by more than just testosterone-driven blokes. I remember returning from an exercise. We detrained at the Paderborner Nordbahnhof as usual then made our way round the ring road back to camp. It was a Saturday morning and evidently somebody had cleared us to move because heavy vehicles are normally banned from German roads between Friday evening and Monday morning to preserve the weekend. Also, German children got to go to school Saturday mornings to make up for finishing school early during the week. Our route took us past the local sixth form college equivalent and I still remember the warm smiles on the girls' faces in particular as I drove past in Zero Bravo at 50kph and very close to the teachers' parked cars (about the only time I drove a Can in anger). I also remember that after we'd unloaded vehicles, cleaned and put weapons away, washed down the vehicles and soaked in a long hot bath, we each headed to our preferred drinking haunt. Those of us with German girlfriends at the local sixth form college were particularly well-received that afternoon and evening, oh yes. Of course everybody learned English as their second language. I remember one of the girls telling me how they'd go into English lessons on Monday to be asked "How do you say ... ?" Girls would give their answers and teacher would go off on one. "Nein! Nein! Nein! Zis iss Paderborn. Ve speak Hochdeutsch [high or if you will posh German] und ve teach you Oxford Englisch. Vot is ziss nonsense?" "Whey it's how arl wer boyfriends speak ter us like." I don't think Paderborn ever got used to fraternisation by a Geordie regiment. Still, the Paymaster had the same trouble. Nipper went to Playgroup with all the Geordie nippers and every night he'd return home to gret his father, "How fothar. Yer arl reet?" And he'd spend the evenings and weekends undoing all the Geordie training he got at Playgroup. Oh how I larfed when I married Paymaster's nanny and she related this to me.

I went through two Ferrets in UNFICYP. The former, 01EC28, was pretty damn good and I was upset when it got taken from me for overhaul and I was issued another. (Sadly over the years I have forgotten the number except that it finished with 23. We tended to refer to vehicles by their last two, though we did later have two Scorpions which finished 14, so they were 0214 and 0414 - because FD was a given.) I think 28 was a Mark 2/3 and 23 a Mark 2/4 but I could be wrong: it's 33 years ago. 23 was straight out of workshops and made 28 look like a wreck. About a month before end of tour, we underwent a Periodic REME Examination. I had to drive into Nicosia Airport from our DanCon outstation in the mining village of Skouriotissa. We got in, my commander (troop leader) went off to the Mess for a spot of breakfast while I sat with the REEM. Everything passed. Then he jumped in to see how it drove. I commanded. He set off down the perimeter road and floored it. About halfway along there was a small uphill S-bend which he took flat-out and kept his speed through the corner and up the hill. When he got out he was impressed that he had kept it at 55mph, and he had, he admitted, rather frightened himself doing it through the uphill esses, as no other vehicle in the unit had got close. Last week of the tour. We repainted the Ferrets with a shiny coat of gloss white ready to provide a dash (if you'll pardon the pun) of cavalry style and elan as the entertainment for a combined B Sqn 15/19H / 1 Para medal parade on the airport runway*. 25 Ferrets lined up behind the grunts. On the right, the OC in the SSM's Mark 1, then six troops of four Mark 2s. The visiting dignitary "inspected" the grunts in the way visiting dignitaries do (while the OC Para and his CSM, walking behind no doubt bollicked anyone not up to scratch) then they marched past as soldiers always do. That left us sat at the back looking pretty in Scout Cars, Number 2 Dress and UN accoutrements. We drove past. Vehicle commanders were stood to attention in the turret, without headsets. Drivers wore headsets set to monitor our VHF Set. On the terminal building roof, unseen to anybody, was our SSM and an A41 manpack on our command net frequency, 48.00 MHz. On his word of command all Ferrets started up (luckily!). On his next word of command we all rolled forward. Squadron Leader turned right, putting himself in front. The troops each wheeled right, maintaining line during the manoevre so that we now had six lines of four cars lined up behind the OC in column of troops. On his next word of command we started off in a big anti-clockwise circuit. As each troop approached the saluting dais, troop leader would throw one up while the three other commanders did an eyes right. It was just like any other parade except we were in Ferrets. Then when we completed the lap, we simply headed for the exit until the SSM instructed us to make our individual way back to camp. I floored it and from the fourth row (fifth if you include the OC) by the time we reached the exit I had passed everybody. Troopy started kicking me in the back and shouting (because he wasn't wearing a headset). I believed he was, in the way cavalry officers do, encouraging me like a horse to go faster and get back first, which I duly did. I stopped and leapt out, big grin on face. Good drive. Rommel (our pet name for Troopy, cos he had this habit of wearing issue goggles on his forehead in the style of his namesake and unlike any other Ferret commander, who just left them to rot in the side bin), not normally a violent man, all but took a swing at me. It turned out he wasn't demanding Warp Factor 8 after all, but that we stop cos he'd lost his beret. I was just mounting back up, calling him names for not holding on to his beret, ready to trog back to the airport, when my previous Troop Leader pulled up alongside and passed him his beret back. I think everybody laughed but Rommel. So yes. Moral of the story. If you get a fast Ferret, you've got a good 'un. __________ * The airport had been closed to air traffic since the war. A couple of weeks later iirc it reopened for one day to allow the grand return of Archbishop Makarios after an accord in February between him, Denktas and Walheim of the UN over the sovereignty of the island. This grand return happened right after our A Sqn took over from us. See : http://www.photius.com/countries/cyprus/government/cyprus_government_1977_makarios_denkta~1454.html

If you are going to iron them, buy a tin of spray-on starch and starch them on the outside only. You can end up with razor-sharp creases that stay in and after a few applications the outside fades to white under the starch while the inside leg stays green. This (what we used to term "warry", nowadays the in word is "ally") look was much loved by many. Personally, as the only JNCO in the HQ platoon of 12 Armd Wksp (RAPC attached) who was capable of taking morning parade without it turning into a circus, I used to grip any shiny-arrsed clerks who tried to pull the stunt, because to achieve the look, you evidently hadn't ironed the inside leg properly and why did shiny-arrsed clerks think they needed to look warry anyway? They were shiny-arrsed clerks FFS. Believe it or not I once got gripped by the OC for being too smart and making his REME look scruffy. If you have a sewing machine, having got perfectly straight creases in, sew a line from pockets to hems as close to your creases as you can, then the creases are there permanently. Just don't sew up your pockets. Advantages: 1. It takes out a small amount of bagginess (not much); 2. You can iron your trousers flat, ie with the seams at the edges because the sewn-in crease will always stand out, so you don't have to struggle to live up your creases before ironing. In the real world there was a risk that the RSM might not approve, but in your world it will be spot on.

Ferretfixer has nailed it. B Sqn 15/19H became UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron in September 1976 and we were issued about five pairs of Trs, OG so that, along with the two pairs of lightweights on our 1157, we could wear clean trousers every day and have the rest in the dhobi. We likewise got 5 OG shirts. I remember we were able to hang onto the shirts at end of tour and wore them to destruction out of camp (because they were not official in-camp dress) ie on exercise but I honestly cannot remember hanging on to the trousers. Maybe Bazz can remember. Being cavalry, style, flair and elan were equally important as function, and well-tailored Lightweights were preferred to baggy OGs. ISTR OGs had a map pocket on each leg which was useful, unlike Lightweights, with one on the left leg only. Or a meringue?

A year ago I finally had to replace the licence I'd steadfastly held onto for 22 years since I'd last changed addresses. Obviously I got the new photocard type. I spent a long time trying to find group H on my new licence. I found the bike licence easily enough. I don't expect to drive either a bike or a track-laying vehicle steered by its tracks ever again, but it was a matter of principle. I had a group H licence when I sent it off: why did I not now? Then I noticed that they had lowercased the h and tacked it onthe end of a long list of things I am licensed for, not in the logical place. What a waste of my time. And yours too, probably, if you've read this. ;o)

Small world. For three years after I left the cavalry I was RAPC attached 12 Armd Wksp (as it has evidently become) in the back yard of Mercer Barracks, Osnabruck, which we shared with 1 Green Howards. As to the Osnabrucker bottle top, don't take it as too much of a clue that the vehicle was Osnabruck-based. In the same way that squaddies from all over might drink Newcastle Brown. Mmm Newcastle Brown. There are two good things to come out of Newcastle: the Brown Ale and the train to Sunderland. The preferred Pilsener among Royal Armoured Corps crews was pretty much universally Herforder ("Herfy") which came in multipacks, universally known as yellow handbags. 15/19H were based in Paderborn but AFAIK not one of us drank Paderborner Pils because it was disgusting. I seem to recall somebody remarking recently (probably on ARRSE) that the 73mm diameter Herfy bottle was ideal for stowing up the barrel of a Scorpion. Personally, drinking cans, if I'd filled the empty case bin, I'd drop some cotton waste into a smoke discharger (to stop the trigger punching the base) and drop a can in before replacing the smoke discharger cover.