AlienFTM

Not overly difficult. I had three men push start a Mark 2 for me in UNFICYP 76/77. Push the wheels, not the body: something about less resistance that someone who cares more will come along and explain in a minute.

It'll go the same way on ONdigital. They absolutely and desperately must compete with Sky Sports so they'll bankrupt themselves in order to pay an arm and a leg to buy the best football. What they and ONdigital didn't understand (but Sky do) is that about 95% of fans don't want to watch a handful of clubs winning every week: they just want to watch their own team play (and hopefully not get toasted, qv Sunderland versus Man City last weekend) occasionally. Remember when ONdigital went bust and took numerous lower-league football teams with them cos they reneged on the money the lower league teams needed to survive? It'll all end in tears, mark my words. Memo to self: must tell BT I am not going to subsidise their Sports channel with my line rental. Move to Sky. Don't need 132 to access corporate magic international lines to make conference calls any more. See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya.

I hear what you say and it all makes sense. But I left the scene in 1982 and there was none of this then. A battlegroup rebro was nothing special. At brigade and higher I am sure they had more-sophisticated rebro kit, but I also fear that the latter were generally equipped with FV432s to work from, since higher formation took it a whole lot more seriously. I am sure somebody somewhere thought replacing / supplementing the antenna base layout was a good idea but it's beyond me. It isn't even as if Ferret was in any way NBC-proof and creating a dedicated armour pass-through for the coax made sense. Especially since afaik by 1990 the only Ferrets still in service (with the possible exceptions of Cyprus and NI - neither of which really warranted high-tech on Mark 2s) would be Mark 1s. Fascinated to get inside the mind of the person that thought this up. )

When we refitted our Mark 1s for Clansman, we sinply fitted Clansman antenna bases in place of the Larkspur. The alternatives shown here were not present: presumably only appeared after a full overhaul.

I crewed (drove then commanded) a battlegroup rebro Ferret between 1977 and 1980. We only ever had two times VHF sets (initially C42, replaced by UK/VRC353). I can think of no real reason why any Ferret would need more than two sets. When they were used as recce vehicle, there wasn't the room inside for three Larkspur sets; there may have been more room with Clansman, but there was no technical or tactical reason for a rebro Ferret to carry three. The question I'd ask is whether somebody thought a third antenna base mount might be a cool idea for no reason other than "I can do it" like taking an Airfix kit and mounting bombs, rockets and torpedoes simply because they were all provided.

WHAT ME WORRY sent me scurrying to the wiki page for Alfred E Neuman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman I loved this snippet: In 1958, Mad published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's Prince Charles, then nine years old.[9] Shortly thereafter, an angry letter under a Buckingham Palace letterhead arrived at the Mad offices: "Dear Sirs No it isn't a bit – not the least little bit like me. So jolly well stow it! See! Charles. P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest. The postmark indicated it had been mailed from a post office within a short walking distance of Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the original disappeared years ago while on loan to another magazine and has never been recovered.[10]

You're most welcome.

OC B Coy. CO is the Commanding Officer, a Lieutenant Colonel, which rank was an appointment until the 19th Century, he being the officer in command of the regiment in lieu of the Colonel, the man who raised the regiment, who might be any rank or not military at all. For instance 15th Light Dragoons were raised by Maj General Sir George Augustus Eliot (and known as Eliot's Light Horse). Hence Lieutenant Colonel, "taking the place of the Colonel". Apart from command of a brigade, not surprisingly in the rank of Brigadier and known as The Brigadier (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigadier_Lethbridge-Stewart), anything above Commanding Officer tends to be General Officer Commanding, for example GOC 1 Armd Div. And every officer in command of anything smaller than a regiment (infantry battalion) is for example the Officer Commanding B Company (though in the cavalry, where squadron equates to company, he is known as the Squadron Leader, whence cometh the RAF rank). If he is an NCO, he will be known as, for example, the NCO IC Marching Reliefs, the 2IC (usually Lance Corporal) to the Guard Commander, who controls the relief of the sentries on the gate and on the prowl overnight. Yes it's a mess but when you live with it, you learn it. There is a fuller explanation in Mallinson's "1914 Fight The Good Fight" but it's a tome and the middle section makes for some heavy reading.

Hard to tell. It's been a long time. The antenna base looks at first glance to be for a Larkspur HF set (with an earthing strip iirc) though expanding the pic doesn't make it any clearer. The set does not look like a basic C13. I was trained on C13 High Power and C11/R210 as fitted to Saracen ACVs. I really cannot remember what they looked at. Maybe this is one. Or maybe not, because I recall ours were caged away to protect users' fingers from collecting a high-power electric shock from the set. Not much help am I, really? Except that I can believe that in the hands of a competent operator, HF will probably work better over the conditions and distances involved in working in Aden. If this is a C13 High Power or a C11/R210, I'd posit that this LR belongs to a senior officer, either the CO or a Company Commander. Edit: Of course when I look at the picture, there is a BFO number 29 on the spare wheel and I'd bet a good wodge this is B Coy Commander, callsign 29, as I used myself in 1977 when I drove B Sqn leader.

It is not unreasonable to think you might get hold of a BID250, but what this is is actually a scrambled radio (TOP SECRET in its day), used by unit (regiment, battalion, etc) to talk in clear upstream to Formation (Brigade, Division, etc). We had BID150 based on a C42 in my day (with Larkspur and until the 250 replacement to use with Clansman became available). One of my hats being Regimental Signals Storeman I can tell you that there were iirc seven BID sets in an Armoured Recce Regiment (similar figures around the other battlegroups): RHQ ACV A RHQ ACV B CO LR Med Recce Sqn 1 ACV A Med Recce Sqn 1 ACV B Med Recce Sqn 2 ACV A Med Recce Sqn 2 ACV B Whereas the number of UK/VRC353s probably reached close to 100 per unit. (initially: after I moved on they realised that two times 353 was overkill in a CVR(T) and the fit was amended to be one time 353 and one times 351/2).

C11/R210 is a helluva sledgehammer just to get IC. Once you go the obvious Larkspur route, C42 (or C45 for RA) and / or C13 (NOT high power) would be far easier to source and more typical of the fit in a Saracen, whether it be an APC or and ACV (sorry I saw somebody's list of Larkspur fits earlier in the thread but I cannot remember if anything had been posited about what model of Saracen we playing with here. And I am suffering side-effects from a flu jab, so feel free to call me Grumpy).

You may be pleased to know that even regiments might name vehicles after people. In 1976-7, the Saracen ACV of A Squadron 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars was called GARFORTH VC, after a VC won in the early days of the Great War, in my opinion probably one of the last VCs won for mounted cavalry action.

UIN is the Unit Imprest Number. Each unit had an Imprest Account by means of which the Royal Army Pay Corps (now a branch of the Adjutant General's Corps) handled money to and from the public purse. The UIN became a de facto Unit Identity Number. This may even have become the accepted definition. It doesn't actually you much because the unit name is in the next column anyway.

Like others, I am sure there was a valid (but now long-forgotten) reason why we did not / could not fit Clansman in Saracens. I also remember that we got Sultans to replace our Saracens and had to fit Larkspur for the first six months until Clansman was issued to 3 Armd Div. I believe the two events were connected but it was some 34 years ago.

I might be wrong so don't quote me. A couple of years ago I reviewed a book: http://www.arrse.co.uk/content/204-review-pathfinder-company-graham-gilmore-reviewed-alienftm.html The book discussed the various weapons and mounts they used on their vehicles, and even Zero Alpha on my Domestic Command Net commented that there were lots of pretty pictures (she didn't see the snaps taken by these mercenaries - as many saw them - taken in the minutes after fire-fights, with blood still soaking into sand). The book itself may or may not be useful (primarily because I cannot now remember whether they even used Land Rovers) but it will give you an insight into what weapons can be stuck onto such a vehicle with a little ingenuity.

For a small fee he can join http://www.forcesreunited.org.uk/home.asp (he can join for nowt but you know how limited free accounts are in general), enter his service details and it will spit back the names of people who served with him. Not something I get hung up about as I have Arrse (see above) and administer a regimental Facebook group, but just occasionally Forces Reunited will find someone of interest to me.

[PEDANT]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangar_(fortification)[/PEDANT]

In Normandy they left them bare metal. Why paint something else over the top if bare solved the problem? Since then, the interiors of British armoured vehicles have been painted with a "silver" paint with entirely different qualities that does not flake.

The white paint was thick. Sheered off by the strike of a round, I can believe it could take an eye out. Even if it only stung a bit, it might stop the gunner from getting the decisive reply back before another round finishes the job or the driver fails to back around the corner to safety. Such margins could be the difference between life and death. I do believe the author referred (but since I canot even remember which book it was, I cannot find it to refer) to his own or others' experience and in his experience it was usual practice.

Third Troop A Squadron. (Triangle is the A Squadron symbol.) The vehicle might be the troop leader's vehicle, since the rest of the troop might have alphabetical suffixes to indicate the hierarchy, e.g. A = Troop Sergeant, B = Troop Corporal, C = Troop Second Corporal (quite possibly a lance corporal but these are actually appointments not ranks even though they might look like ranks). But it might not be the Troop Leader's vehicle because they didn't always suffix them. And if they did, and Troopy's vehicle breaks down and he boots Troop Second Corporal to tell him to walk, he's now bearing a tac sign that allows people to think he is a minion, not a leader. the route to chaos. Of course for Squadron/Troop, it is possible to read Company/Platoon, Battery/Troop etc. Hope this helps.

Furthermore after the race to the Channel in 1914, the Germans stopped and help high ground. Being there to stay, they built extensive (sometimes iirc several storey complexes) trench systems. The Allies on the other hand, down in the low ground, had a water table to deal with and the trenches were nothing like as sophisticated. Don't ask me where I read / saw that, but it was only in the last couple of years.

Nothing unusual. Good RAC drills. We used to pack three Saracen ACVs (later Sultans) four Ferrets and two Land Rovers into a hangar that probably wouldn't have held more than one Panther (I did at the time read that in 1944 Panzer Lehr occupied our barracks, so even though it was called Infanteriekaserne, I imagined it containing armour). If we needed to get from one side of the hangar to the other (note: there were doors both ends), we climbed over the top. If we needed room to work on a vehicle we moved it or its neighbour outside.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I have seen something like that on a military vehicle but a quick search through the mental archives returns zero. I am seeing a leg, put down to stabilise a vehicle when something heavy is mounted behind the back wheel. First thing that crossed my mind was a 12m mast on the back of an FFR Land Rover but it does not compute. I'd say "Yes, it's military, but no I don't know what from."

I have a book somewhere about tanks in Normandy. It tells how, having been issued with a new tank, first thing they did was remove as much of the white paint as they could so that when hit, the flakes would not come off at speed and injure the crew.

By January 1944 it was clear that it would not be possible to produce the required number of DDs in the UK in time. When the concept was shown to the Americans, they started production immediately and met the targets (with numbers to spare: 15/19H retrained on DD Shermans in the days before the invasion but no space ever appeared on the loading list, so they retrained again on Cromwells and finally got to France in August). So while I do not believe that Shermans were transported back to the USA per se for conversion, I do believe that the DD conversion was taken to the USA and DDs were built there from scratch, before transported across the Atlantic once, not three times. It's a question of how you read that one sentence I guess.