AlienFTM

Am I being dense or was this a pre-emptive strike? "I thought the Germans were going to blow up the barrage so I blew it up first"? Presumably so that it could not be done later when it might have been damaging to our side. Or a meringue?

If you do a search for "peace in our time", Google's first hit points at the BBC's This Day in History page and quotes Chamberlain's phrase correctly as "peace for our time", but the incorrect quote has passed into universal usage.

Google search for "army mechanical transport depot" gives a single hit. Ask a squaddie what MT stands for and he'll tell you that it refers to Land Rovers, lorries and stuff. I have never heard a squaddy define MT. However, if you read the works of Anthony Armstrong from the 1920s, you'll find that he defines MT as Mechanical Transport (from a time when most transport was, not surprisingly, the horse). Works for me. Searching for "army motor transport depot" gives but two hits, one for the US Army, one for the Japanese.

My memory suggests that up to 1982 while I served on CVR(T), kinetic ropes were brown. But that was a long time ago.

Damn I was about to make my guess that the subject of this thread was in fact a pedant's helmet. But looking at it again I find mine isn't quite that heavy. It isn't often I am right but this time I am wrong again.

I got the full tour around the inside of a Panther at Swanton Morley. Very impressive.

There is a programme comes around on the satellite documentary channels about it. There are those who thought a fleet of them might have allowed the commies to launch a full and very fast seaborne invasion using them, carrying far more payload than an airborne invasion using the same number of aircraft. Hence their intense desire to keep it secret.

Seriously, if you want to reduce the forum count, why not move all the disparate forums* for upcomming (sic) and past events into one forum? Five meetings get a sub-forum each but three meetings get a forum each. Furthermore, all future events and meetings eventually become past events, so I do not see why there needs to be a main Future Events and Meetings forum at all, or even as a sub-forum. * For those pedants who want to complain about the plural of the Latin word forum, there is a grammatical rule that says that the use of the Latin plural for a Latin noun is only applicable when the Latin word is used entirely in its original sense. Since these forums do not involve men sitting around in sheets surrounded by stone pillars, they are not, IMO, fora. QED ;o)

With all due respect ... The statement includes: Mr Hunter, who served in the merchant navy as a radio officer during the war, said: "I felt very angry that all those men, many of whom I saw perish, were just forgotten." There is a garden of remembrance on Tower Hill where AFAIK every single merchant seaman and every single merchant ship lost is listed. I have a picture somewhere of my Uncle Charlie's name under SS Hull, sunk in 1943.

36 - 60 MHz is the frequency range of Larkspur VHF sets (though I have a feeling some manpacks did not cover the entire band). ISTR the A41 had a folding antenna which the second picture reminds me of, but I do not recall any need for an antenna base unless this part of a vehicle mounting kit for an A41. We were going to get Clansman PRC351/2s to replace the B set VRC353 in our Scorpions when I left: ISTR they came with a vehicle mounting kit to enable connection of the manpack to the external antenna base. Maybe this is the equivalent for the A41 or similar?

My uncle joined the Northumberland Hussars in September 1939. It was promptly decided that A Sqn were to be reroled to create a cadre of a Light Anti-Aircraft Artillery regiment which was more immediately necessary and they did not want to have to train everybody up from scratch. All they needed to do was retrain them as RA. I am guessing the same thing happened to your grandfather. In the last year of the war, the reverse happened as shortages occurred in the infantry and needed to be addressed.

Have you served? Rule 1. If it isn 't padlocked down, it's nicked. And doesn't only apply to medical kit.

Fair point. Now you mention it, the C13 did tend to connect to the antenna base adjacent to the radio table on the side of the vehicle. The cable between ATU and antenna base does radiate and ought to be as short as possible. Makes me wonder if this box is a hybrid, with somebody attaching any old antenna base to the box. On the other hand, it's been many, many years. Either way, there is a long connector between sets and wing-mounted boxes. These are coax-connected rather than single-core-connected. But yes, my memory tells me the HF set always connected to the side antenna. Strange.

Despite having spent six months in Cyprus 76 - 77, I cannot claim to have ever knowingly seen a Cypriot National Guardsman. However. "Combat jacket ... only worn by special forces/paras." As late as Bravo 20, McNab explains how his Iraqi captors assumed him to be special forces (correctly as it turns out, but incorrectly because, as they understood it, combat jackets where uniquely special forces - or parachute troops which amounted to the same in their idea - around the world. It made his maintaining his cover story as a medic all but impossible to maintain). "a version of the SLR" I wouldn't be in the least surprised. I cannot remember when we handed control of Cyprus back to the Cypriots, but I am pretty sure it was after we were using them and it is reasonable to assume they did to. Compare with India and Pakistan, whose armed forces still look more British than the British and they have been independent over 60 years.

Sorry Jack I don't see what you're getting at. Of course Bocage is a Norman word. Why wouldn't it be? It describes a landscape feature unique to Normandy. Why wouldn't the French have a word for it, and why would anyone else need to make up a word when the one that exists is perfectly apt? Certainly given French track history, if anyone else made up a word for it, they'd make up their own anyway to protect and preserve their own language. ;o)

They are certainly HF boxes, almost certainly C13 boxes (I couldn't tell you whether C11/R210 used a different antenna base). The antenna mount is earthed by an extrenal earthing strip across the insulated antenna base. VHF antennae do not carry this earthing strip as the rods are already provide close to 1/4 wavelength. Earthing the antenna in this way improves the transmission performance in the HF range. That said, apart from the earthing strip, AFAIK there is no difference between HF and VHF Larkspur antenna bases.

Didn't he become a music teacher in the Black Coontroy, with a colleague called Amanda Holden?

There is an apocryphal story (one of a large series about communications between airliners and control towers). BEA pilot is on final approach at Frankfurt and asks a question which the controller considers rather bone. "Haff you never been to Frankfurt before?" "Yes but it was 1944 and I didn't stop." Another. Lufthansa pilot in a Fokker Friendship to tower. "Bitte wie komme ich nach Flugbahn Zwei?" "In Englisch please for ze benefit of the other aircraft." "How do I taxi to runway 2 please?" Pause, followed by a muttered "I am a German pilot flying a German aeroplane for a German airline at a German airport. Why must I speak in Englisch?" Unknown station with a BBC accent in the stack: "Because we won the war." I could go on ...

It is indeed RCP or Regiment de Chasseurs Parachutists. I Googled for rcp french army and it would seem they were (are?) an elite unit.

A young man parked his BMW and walked into the barber's shop. He was shown to a seat and told it might be wise if he removed the earpieces to the iPod in case they accidentally got cut. He told the barber in no uncertain terms that the earpieces stayed in, so the latter started cutting round them. Needless to say, his overcaution led to him cutting the lead. The BMW driver turned blue and fell to the floor. By the time an ambulance arrived, nothing could be done for him. A policeman picked up the iPod, which was still playing, though silently. He took out his own iPod and plugged the earpiece into that of the BMW driver. "Breathe in ... breathe out. Breathe in ... breathe out. Breathe in ... breathe out. Breathe in ... breathe out."

Well that's very curious. Sorry but I vividly remember climbing in through the side. Maybe there is only one and it is on the other side from that pic?

I am sure the official opening is scheduled for February. I expect to be invited as an alumnus of the RAC and a contributor to the funds. Hang on I got "Tank Times" last week. Let's see what it has to say. Here you go, from the horse's mouth, dated September 2008. ALMOST THERE! A major milestone in The Tank Museum redevlopment project has been reached, with the completion of the building work on site. The new tank arena was completed in time for Tankfest in June 2008, and spectators were treated to vastly improved views of arena eventss; with banked viewing areas and a new sound system improving the quality of in-show commentary. The new 5000 square metre display hall, with new reception, gift shop, visitor facilities and restaurant was completed in late August, and the exhibition fit-out commenced almost immediately. "There is still four months of hard work ahead of us until we can open the new hall to the public," said Museum Director Richard Smith. "But we are still time and on budget - and this represents a magnificent achievement on behalf of our main contractors Norwest Holst." "We are now planning a spectacular launch event for Saturday 4th April 2009," he added. Preparations are underway to move the thirty or so tanks that will form the basis of the new exhibition from their existing locations in the present Museum halls. Only then can the process of installing the exhibition hardware begin in earnest. But this is no simple task, as Richard explains: "Many of the vehicles we will be transporting have not been moved at all for at least 25 years. Like all mechanical objects we are not 100% sure of the condition they are in or what problems we might encounter in manoeuvring them. "Some will run under their own power, many will have to be towed, but they must all be treated with the upmost (sic) care as even though they are tanks - and built for warfare - they are now all historical relics of varying fragility. Cutting corners is not an option and every movement has to be planned in the smallest detail."

The bit about omitting the side bins makes sense. I remember we climbed inside through a side hatch, but of course if there had been side bins, this would have had to come off to open the hatch.

My wife recorded something last week looking at the people building the aircraft that beat the Germans. I saw a clip that showed a bomber (the story concentrated in the first half on Spitfires and on Lancs in the second half, but some of the clips were Stirlings and Halifaxes and one might even have been a Liberator) dumping its load on a target. I had read about a typical load comprising a single cookie or a blockbuster or something and the balance of the load in dozens of incendiaries. The big one was supposed to blows roofs off and the incendiaries would set the inside alight. This film showed this load being dropped. The big one was BIG. It looked like a number of 45 gallon drums end-to-end. Never seen that before.

It's a female Fox. i.e. with just a machine gun and without a main gun (like Great War Tanks). Was to replace Ferret with CVR(W) technology including warmth and cover and I'd like to think a boiling vessel (these three were the most important for the crews), NBC pack (I think - cannot imagine where they'd pack the NBC pack) and flotation (see pic)