AlienFTM

I did a free-fall course at JSPC Netheravon in 1977. We jumped from an Islander, which was a good aircraft because by adding a step between door and undercarriage, the jumper could stand in the slipstream and was practically in the stable position before he even let go. However, we found tucked in the back of the hangar a Dragon (might have been a Rapide) which was apparently a far better platform and preferred by the Parachute Club at the weekend, though I vaguely recall it was VOR at the time.

Technically London is two cities: City of London and Westminster which just happen to have conurbated. Which is why each has its own Cathedral, Police Force - I mean service, etc. Charing Cross happens to lie at the centre of the conurbation.

In the RAPC when settling travel claims we used the distances as quoted from town centre to town centre as per the AA handbook held by every Pay Office. As you say, when dealing with London, the centre was considered to be Charing Cross. Never heard of using Marble Arch: it's on the periphery of the CG zone ffs.

On exercise in Central Germany. We had recced into the town of Forst and found successively an Armoured Combat Team HQ in a farmyard and a company of mechanised infantry dismounting from their 432s. A quick fire mission on each location and we were good for breakfast.Then we discovered we were out of milk so I disconnected the Clansman breastplate from its drop-lead, threw small metal gun over my shoulder and, still wearing bonedome, bimbled round the corner into the little grocer's shop (a little shop that was a grocery: no aspersions on the grocer's height). The little old lady behind the counter and her customer (who were both probably old enough to remember the last time we came through ...) were heatedly discussing the exercise going on all around them. They stopped and the grocer turned to speak to me. "Englisch, ja?" We were Orange Forces (exercise enemy). In map reading, the standard has always been to show friendly forces in blue (hence "blue-on-blue") and enemy forces in red. But not wanting to rile the Commies and escalate the Cold War, enemy forces were always "Orange". And the exercise scenario never involved the Commies coming over the IGB: they were usually Fantasian forces or Ruritanian or whatever bright idea the senior officer who wrote (or lost) the plot had chosen. Being Orange Forces, I was wearing a red - I mean orange - armband to indicate the fact. Quick as a flash, on being asked if I was English, I pointed at my armband, smiled and replied, "Nein. Bin Russki." Expression on their faces? Priceless.

My two-penn'orth. 15/19H were wiped out by the Blitzkrieg in May 1940 as Monty fought to save the rest of 3 Div and spent the next four years training for the away leg. For much of this time they trained on the frankly God-awful Covenanter, a cruiser tank with similar pedigree to the Crusader and therefore possibly a good and unusual contender for a conversion from the Airfix Crusader 3 which is a frankly poor model anyway and probably the best thing you could do with it is convert it to Covenanter. When the day grew closer, 15/19H trained to be lead regiment ashore, where they would use DD Shermans. However, because the Americans dithered over whether to use DDs or not (and then used them incompetently when they did use them) there were never enough DD tanks for training. Straussler, who invented the DD concept, had based his prototype on Valentine and all DD training took place on DD Valentines. Since Valentine was also obsolete by 1944, it is safe (I think) to assume that regular troop training (on the Plain) took place in Valentines while every available Sherman went to the front line. (15/19H subsequently did not get to open for the British due to under-capacity. However, courtesy of Options For Change, when 15/19H amalgamated with 13/18H to create The Light Dragoons, they acquired a history of going over the beaches first. I spoke last year to a 13/18H veteran who told how, finding themselves late at their launch point, were carried closer inshore by their landing craft crews, so far that they actually hit the beaches early, before the grunts who were able to advance up the beach behind 20-odd tons of steel armour. Compare and contrast with the use of DDs at Omaha.) Having been dropped from the starting line-up for Overlord, 15/19H promptly converted to Cromwell (presumably on the Plain), in which they travelled all the way to Antwerp, where they were busy range-firing their brand new Comets when Watch am Rhein kicked off and they had to remount their old tanks to try and stem the flow of three Panzer Armies. As to tank transporters. Based in Tidworth, when we needed to entrain we did so at nearby Ludgershall. AFAIK every garrison had a local railhead during the war. Come to think of it, at some point even Tidworth did, hence the main drag being Station Road (spot the clue?). We did not bother with transporters in between (though we were in CVR(T)s. I do not envisage 1942 - 44 tanks moving between barracks and railhead on transporters TBH.

You could always go for pink - there is a history. ;o)

I suspect a spot of cross threading (appropriate term on this forum). Earlier in the thread, looking at the Stolly pics, I suggested that it was the Stolly which could only have caught the last days in Aden. AFAIK the Saladin was there for a long time. Or is it me that is confused? I am not rereading the whole thread to check - I am supposed to be working.

I could have sworn Mi-8 was HIP. It isn't often I am right, but it looks like I am wrong again.

Our squadron Tiffy (REME Artificer Quartermaster Sergeant, AQMS, since you ask) in Tidworth hadn't been on our preceding NI tour but he had done his time. As he explained it to me, MOD had taken the decision to sell off the Pigs before August 1969 (to the Portugese). When it all kicked off, it was expected that Saracen would fill the APC role. It soon became clear that Saracen was too big, so the Pigs were bought back (at a premium). It was then realised just how obsolete the Pigs were and they went though a programme of major upgrades to make them fit for service in NI. (I am guessing that maybe this is Op Bracelet: the equivalent Chieftain upgrade programme was Op Bargepole; Scorpion's was Scorpole). However, the added armour put great strain on engine, gearbox, brakes etc. What Tiffy particularly dwelt on was that every Monday morning in his LAD (Light Aid Detachment, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) they would gather round and guess how much oil to put in the Pig gearboxes this week. Too little: it siezed; too much: it blew all its seals. No amount of gearbox oil gave the required results. We in 15/19H did not to my knowledge used Pig on our Omagh tour: we got Saracen APCs. Presumably because we were on an Arms Plot tour as an RAC regiment rather than an emergency tour as infantry. Though the Omagh role was as infantry and RAC regiments (including 15/19H) did regularly due emergency tours, also as infantry and probably using Pig. My appointment in Omagh was Section Rifleman, not crewman.

Hauptbehaelter. Behaelter translates as container. Haupt- prefix indicates main. Confirmed it by Googling and selecting "Translate this page" but none of the search results was readily translated into anything meaningful and it was far too technical in content for my military German

No it is an M4A3E8. Note the HVSS suspension with open roadwheels, the flat glacis plate unbroken by hatches and the larger turret for the US 76mm gun, their answer to the Firefly's 17 pdr.

Just like real life. As a Recce Regt on CVR(T)s, we could park something four vehicles in the area required for one Chieftain. In Command Troop hangars our Saracen (later Sultan) ACVs had to be parked side by side one inch apart in order to get everything (three ACVs, four FSCs and two LRs) in and still have room to get around the outside of them (walking by the walls and between front / back of vehicles). Having got on top we could walk from front to back of hangar without touching the ground. H&S would have a fit. Never mind how we walked across them in total blackness under the cam nets in the woods. That's something I never saw: training recruits on a high-level confidence (ropes, nets, walkways, etc) area in the dark. Just what the RAC need.

As you head toward Southampton, I find the distance always tallies with the distance to my house. I also find that converting miles remaining into minutes remaining (assumes 60mph) gives me a very accurate ETA.

I have always assumed so. 58 pattern was barely preceded by 57 pattern, intended for jungle wear over the top of green denims which were subsequently made of DPM as the first combats as we now know them. I am guessing that the revised 58 pattern simply took the place of 57 pattern in non-jungle environments. And presumably by 1958, webbing for wear in combat was worn over cheap denim rather than expensive BD which was reserved for in-barracks wear only. But it is just a guess

Too late. Osnabruck closed at the end of last year. ISTR QDG moved from Osnabruck to Paderborn, removing the possibility of LD (due to move to Paderborn last year) reliving the best years of 15/19H back there.

ISTR once working out that a Mark 1 Ferret is actually shorter, narrower and lower (but heavier obviously) than a LWB Land Rover - but I could be wrong.

"Norman" being a contraction of "Norse man."

Have a look at this item on Ebay (warning, parental advisory): 250280309940

My SLR alternative personal weapon training was at Catterick courtesy of 5 Innis DG. My instructor told us that the normal gas setting was about 6 or 7, but he personally preferred 4. I adopted this, which meant the SLR had a fair old recoil and whever I fired, I went down with rifle rash, a big bruise under the right eye where the rifle recoiled into the cheek bone. IMO it was no worse than a 303 that I'd fired in the ACF anyway. But I never had a misfire and it cannot have adversely affected my shooting as I have a series of 15/19H Regimental- and RAPC Corps-level shooting trophies for SLR (, LMG, SMG and pistol). Only years later did I ever stop to wonder whether we had been kidded by our instructor.

... and me. 35 years old today (in hexadecimal - oh the joys of counting in base 16 to make you sound young again). There's stickies at my desk. Help yourselves.

Regimental Sergeant Major is an appointment, not a rank. An RSM will hold the rank of WO1. WO3 is an extremely old rank not seen, I think, since the early Second World War (Guards Regiments had the appointment Platoon Sergeant Major who may have held the rank of WO3. Staff Sergeant Major 1st Class? Never heard of it (and for four years I worked at the RAPC Computer Centre handling Army Pay and Records). I know that there are a couple of appointments which were considered to be senior to "run of the mill" (which is hardly an apt description for a soldier at the pinnacle of his career) WOs1 including RAOC (now RLC) Conductor. I don't know if the appointment of Conductor was carried over to the RLC when the RAOC ceased to exist. Some more junior ranks which occur: RE = Sapper; Rifles = Rifleman; Guards = Guardsman; Military Police ... ("No, don't go there!" Ed) You will also find a unique rank structure in the Life Guards who, believing themselves to be Second to None, refuse to accept any rank of Sergeant, derived from the French word for servant. Their Sergeants are variants of Corporal of Horse and their appointments equating to Quartermaster Sergeant and Sergeant Major become Quartermaster Corporal and Corporal Major. There are also Lance Segreants elsewhere in the Guards. If you want the horse's mouth, better than Wikipedia, try http://www.arrse.co.uk/wiki/Rank

Your'e sure the first wasn't red oxide primer to make green coming along after stick and the second "much lighter shade" wasn't the surface of the red oxide primer that lightened when sanded or left so long in the sunlight before the application of green that it faded right down? Cynical? Moi?

I don't remember our troop having SUIT, but I do remember a motley collection of two different types of II sight.

... although my memory may be flawed here since, reading Clive's work, Twiggy was bigger than I remembered and tripod-, not weapon-mounted. I suspect we did use Twiggy in OPS and I am sure we also had two different flavours of SLR-mounted night sight. Baz, thoughts?

In addition to the SUIT sight for general issue to the infantry, we did have NOD sights for SLRs. ISTR they were mounted onto a spare cover and simply swapped in / out for night / day use, which raised the question of breaking the zeroing every time you changed sight. This was an issue with the SLR anyway because backsight was mounted on one half of the broken rifle and foresight on the other half, so that shooting pedants would never break the rifle for cleaning after zeroing. If this caused a stoppage, the SOP was to wind up the gas setting until the gun fired. In checking the derivation of the acronym NOD, I managed to find Clive's own work on this subject on this forum at: http://www.hmvf.co.uk/pdf/Tabby04.pdf Note it also refers to Twiggy. In 1976 in West Tyrone and Fermanagh we used both of these at the same time as one was replacing the other.