AlienFTM

Have you lost weight Baz? lol

Reminds me of imprints I see on the windows of the glass walkways between blocks where I work, where birds fly into the glass. On some you can even see the look of surprise in the imprint.

Remember that if you want to remove the turret from a Mark 2, just turn it 13 times anticlockwise and it will fall off. Well that's what they taught me on my first day in 15th/19th Hussars. Bit skeptical me though like. Still didn't try it just in case though lol. ;o)

Whereas the people of Northumberland and Durham traditionally despised the people of Newcastle for supporting King George when he went on his tour of Scotland. Among other things like preferential rights to trading coal to the detriments of their neighbours. Funny how modern history rewrote all this though and now everybody loves a Geordie.

The Emsdorf Helmet perhaps? Emsdorf was the first ever battle honour to be awarded, to 15th Light Dragoons (though the idea was so well-received that further battle honours were backdated). A 15th Light Dragoons helmet, worn by the regiment in commemoration of the battle, exists to this day. It lived for many years in the Officers' Mess of 15th/19th The Kings Royal Hussars and the Light Dragoons after amalgamation, until one December night it was found in a bush outside the Mess after the officers had been celebrating the anniversary of the battle of Sahagun (q.v.). The Commanding Officer and RSM agreed that the officers were not fit to retain the helmet and it now lives in the Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess, were it gets the reverence due to it.

Be aware that however diligent the Mormons may be, they are open to mistakes. Some of my in-laws built an entire alternate family history due to a single error from a Mormon website. Always check your working and get corroboration. Don't assk me what Wor Lass uses for our tree: that's her baby and who am I to butt in?

Wow impressed. However did we manage without the wide-eyed web?

I did once read a source which stated that the invasion of Norway included a handful of experimental PzKpfw5 tanks, but the experiment was a failure and the tank was quietly forgotten, the designation PzKpfw5 subsequently being reissued to Panther. One source, maybe 30 years ago, no pictures, no corroboration. Make of that what you will.

I could be entirely wrong (I often am). I wonder if this raid destroyed the factory that was continuing to churn out PzKpfw3 chassis to be built as StuG3s? The StuG concept was too valuable to give up so, with Panthers and Tigers being rolled out, they actually moved StuG production to a PzKpfw4 factory and built the same weapon on a later chassis for a year, often issuing Wehrmacht tank battalions with StuGs instead of gun tanks, until they got the PzKpfw3 factory rebuilt (because it was cheaper and simpler than mounting a StuG on a PzKpfw4 chassis). Elite units were getting Panther gun tanks anyway and Independent Heavy Tank Battalions were getting Tigers, so the loss of gun tanks was not significant.

I am sure I read something remarkably similar earlier in the year (but before he died) about the battle and the banter between himself and his best buddy. No doubt somebody will drag that out.

HMLCs were issued to line cavalry units as well as RTR and Household Cavalry. (Obviously, since the OP mentions 13/18H and QOH.) I'd be surprised if there wasn't establishment for them in mechanised infantry battalion OrBats too.

There is reference to this incident here: http://www.neam.co.uk/wingate.html The unlucky pilot of XM610, which created a very deep smoking hole in 100m of wasteland between the village of Wingate and its primary school in January 1971, was also piloting the aircraft described here.

The half-track is probably one of SdKfz 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11. I have never been desperate enough to work out the differences between them. SdKfz is an abbreviation for Sonderkraftfahrzeug or Special Motor Vehicle. All Wehrmacht armoured vehicles had an SdKfz number, just as all British armoured vehicles have an FV number.

I heard about this on Arrse this morning. Apparently he served on the Hood (but not when she lined up against the Bismarck obviously). And he worked with Ian Fleming in intellgence. The French wanted a linguist to be their liaison and Fleming sent Pertwee as a candidate. Pertwee didn't fancy working with the French so he threw the interview. On his return, he asked Fleming what the job was all about really. "To be our man in Tahiti." Oops.

Secret passwords: In 1979 Pink Floyd were in tax exile in France due to dodgy accountants. They were recording The Wall. The recently late great Rick Wright had laid down his drum tracks and taken his family to the Riviera for a well-earned break after years on world tours. EMI wanted the album in the shops by Christmas (and indeed ABITW2 was an unusual Christmas number 1) but the perfectionist Roger Waters was not going to let the master tapes out of his sight until it was done to HIS satisfaction. He called Wright back from holiday because he wanted the drum tracks relaid. Wright told Waters where to stick his drumsticks and Waters threw Wright out of the band. (He was allowed back to perform on the live tour as a salaried guest and because The Wall was a financial loss, Wright was the only group member to make a profit from what was arguably the band's magnum opus.) EMI issued an injuction and threats to try and get hold of the master tapes. The Band secured the tapes and the whole recording studio. According to Nick Mason ("Inside Out"), in order to keep EMI executives and heavies out, nobody could get in without the secret password: "I am an EMI executive." Well it made me laugh.

And it was a great place to grow up lol.

The Ferret with the badge on the turret ... is that a 13/18H badge I see there? If so, it makes us brothers in arms as members of the LD Association, me being ex-15/19H and all.

When my father was under-manager of a Colombian gold mine, 1946 until his death in 1967, his company car was a Willys Jeep. Entirely appropriate when the Andean main roads were dirt tracks. I do not remember the tailgate coming down, but my brother and I used to annoy him by climbing out of the back (the canvas was open at the back like a Land Rover) onto the rear bumper and stepping off as he pulled into the drive.

I always assumed the Chevette was an Anglicised Opel Kadett. Maybe they wanted a name not too dissimilar from the Opel name but wanted to throw in a V (I nearly wrote "stick the 'V' which might have been misinterpreted) and this was the best they could manage in a hurry? At least they didn't choose "Chavette".

Coincidentally, when I joined Command Troop, 15/19H in 1977, the Regimental Signals Sergeant was Staff Sergeant Peter Scott, who bore a striking resemblance to his namesake, sufficiently so for me to ask him if he were related. Apparently his famous namesake was indeed an uncle or a close cousin.

In 1977 when 15/19H moved to Paderborn, we acquired new attached personnel (because they trickle-posted whereas regiments moved as a unit). One of the HQ Squadron REME corporals had previously been attached to an RCT unit in Duisburg. A week or two before Christmas he invited me to accompany him to his old stamping ground for a day out and a spot of Christmas shopping. As we approached the Rhine, looking for our Autobahn exit, it was clear that large parts of Duisburg remained a bomb-site after more than 30 years. From the motorway, he pointed out a street that we were looking down on that delineated the end of the restored part of town, Vulkanstrasse (Volcano Street). He indicated to me that Vulkanstrasse was Duisburg's red-light district (well it is a port town). I saw for myself a pub on Vulkanstrasse, at the corner of Fuchsstrasse (Fox Street). It was called zum Fuchs Ecke (Fox Corner). An entirely appropriate name in the circumstances and easily pronounced in English (Fuchs' sake).

I was invited to attend the Queen's official birthday parade at JHQ in Rheindahlen about 1979 (somebody had had the bright idea of lining the parade square with cavalry - two men per cavalry regiment currently serving in BAOR - dressed in traditional PTU - Adam Ant kit - with sabres). We spent a week there, learning sword drill and practising for the parade, music supplied by the band of the Black Watch, marching off to Black Bear - what a great piece of music that is. Cometh the day, we, the cavalry guard, marched on (they didn't trust us with horses and I have to say I agree), posted ourselves around the square and parked sabres on shoulders. Then the guests were driven up. It was quite amusing watch the juniors (staff majors and colonels) turn up in their Vauxhalls and Austin Maxis and the new Ford Car, Staff, GS, 4x2 (that a Taunus / Cortina to you and me). Then the Brigadiers in Austin 1800s and 2200s and finally the generals in Rovers.

My understanding. By the end of the Second World War, it had become clear to the British Army that .303" ammunition was ridiculously overpowered for the modern battlefield where visibility would rarely be greater than 400m metres through smoke, dust and other obscurations - it's not as if squaddies were still wearing brightly-coloured, non-camouflage kit. So the EM-2 was commissioned, in, IIRC, 4.85mm calibre. It was a bull-pup which clearly gave inspiration to the SA80 thirty years later. But when the Americans heard about it, they pointed out that they had manufactured enormous quantities of 7.72mm ammunition in order that they could win the war and if NATO didn't standardise on their 7.62mm round, they'd throw their teddy bears out of the pram. Even though there was nothing wrong with simply remanufacturing the EM-2 in 7.62mm, the MOD (War Office?) decided that too much time and money had been wasted developing the EM-2, so they turned to FN and bought a licence to manufacture a variation of one of their rifles, giving us the much-loved SLR. Then the Americans went off to Korea and Vietnam and fired off a fortune in 7.62mm ammunition, only to realise that it was ridiculously overpowered for the modern battlefield where visibility would rarely be greater than 400m metres through smoke, dust and other obscurations - it's not as if Charlie were wearing brightly-coloured, non-camouflage kit. So they decided to screw NATO and use their own 5.56mm ammunition and stuff the standards. With a replacement becoming necessary (some thought) for the SLR, it didn't take much brain to dust off the concept of the EM-2, update it for the 1970s and churn out the SA80, standardising on the round the Americans had grown to love, even to the extent of building it around the Stanag (Standard NATO Agreement) magazine, now universal throughout NATO as I understand it apart from the French (le plus ca change ...). Certainly when I did my SA80 conversion a few months into my notice period, the only mags we had were plastic disposable Colt mags, designed to be pre-loaded, fitted, emptied and thrown away, but we re-used them over and over to save money.

They describe it as an airburst. If so, it is an extremely LOW airburst. Maybe, just maybe, none of the fireball touched the ground. If it did, it ought to be described as a surface burst.

If you buy the book Ice Cold in Alex (I found it in a discount bookstore earlier this year) there is the odd passage about the rations they carried and how they cooked it. Not a lot of info, but the book was cheap and more than worth the money.