AlienFTM

Willys. Rhymes with Phillys. For sale. Pedant hat. Blah blah.

I did read that they are holding back from pushing FF3 into the upgrade stream for a little while. You need to go looking for it. I have to point out that a number of other, less-well-written sites seem to perform rather less well than HMVF.

If you use Firefox, version 3 released yesterday works fine with this site (my wife has issues with Ancestry.co.uk: they'll get their fingers out eventually and sort themselves out). Though there were some issues with the install yesterday which meant I had to uninstall all versions of Firefox. It seemed to install okay, but when I tried to start it, nothing happened except the life was sucked out of the processor. To resolve this I had reboot Windows in Safe Mode by pressing F8 over and over while the text screen was scrolling before the Windows splash screen appeared, then selecting "Start Windows in safe mode" or something. Go to Start / Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs and when the screen populates, scroll down to Mozilla and one by one, delete ALL versions of Firefox (I found versions 1.5.x, 2.x and 3 all installed). When uninstalling version 2 there is an option not to delete your settings. If you leave this set to "do not delete" it will remember your bookmarks, cookies and passwords. Reboot Windows in normal mode then go back to the Firefox download you installed earlier and rerun it. Firefox comes up sweet as you like. This morning at work, this machine installed version 3 sweet as a very sweet thing coated in sugar and dipped in honey.

That is a very interesting question. The only rule I have ever seen is that an apostrophe without an 's' is used only when the word contains two or more 's's, they are not together and one is at the end. (Or something like that.) Which makes it wrong. But I only ever heard the rule once a very long time ago and my quoting of the rule may itself be wrong. However, when Newcastle United FC are allowed to call their stadium St James' Park (whereas the park in London and the football ground in Exeter at both called St James's Park), what can you do? A year or two back I heard this question raised on BBC Radio (presumably 5 - it's the only BBC radio I ever listen to). ISTR their presenter came up with an entirely different rule, so different that I could not even consolidate it in my head whilst alongside the old rule that had popped in due to the question being raised, But she agreed that St James' Park was so dreadfully wrong. But I could have told her that anyway. There are no standards. Flog 'em all I say.

Following the recent assertion that there were issues with the latest Opera (?) browser and this site, I am pleased to report that Firefox 3, which GAed yesterday evening, seems to have cured a problem I had recently become aware of. When I posted a quick reply on this machine that had a total software refresh a couple of weeks ago, Firefox had frequently (I cannot say for certain that it was ALWAYS) started to loop, trying and failing to refresh after having posted the reply. That problem now appears to have gone away. One of Firefox 3's big points is its speed of rendering a page, which I had been waiting months for. Well worth the money. Oh, hang on, it's free. (_8o())

Presumably it was about that time that De Havilland threw teddy out of pram because the RAF slapped a thick coat of matt Night Black paint onto their thoroughbred, thereby knocking a good few knots off its top speed.

18 June 2008. AlienFTM Puts on his grammar bigot hat and points out that pronouns like IT never take an apostrophe with a genitive, just as HIS, HERS, YOURS, THEIR and MINE do not. The contraction IT'S, from IT IS, is the only case where IT takes an apostrophe. For sale: one soap box. Oops wrong thread. ;o)

My employers gave me a brand spanking new ThinkPad and all the software I needed. I was happy. The only problem was that my Lotus Notes Calendar never ever notified me of calendar entries. Everything in Windows said the time was correct and I struggled and struggled to solve it. Then I discovered that Notes had its own time, which defaulted to USA Mountain Time. We eventually came to the conclusion that some bright spark in Software Development and Fulfillment in Boulder, Co had decided in his infinite wisdom to hard-code a default time in all the Notes templates, etc, that they shipped, to HIS OWN local time. Turns out my meeting notices were happening after I had gone home. Glad that was fixed in the next release. Grrr!!!

ISTR that. Was it called The Jokers? Not absolutely sure it was Ollie Reed, but I do remember "Frank."

Absolutely. I have rather more respect for Ross Kemp since he went to Afghanistan with his father's old regiment the Angle-Irons and said all the right things. He did say he did Ultimate Farce as a tribute to the squaddies. What really cracked me up was when they let him play with an L85A2 on the range. At the end of a serial the range NCO read out the scores on the doors. "Lane 1: 76. Good shoot." "Lane 2: 69. Not bad." "Lane 3: 87. Cracking job Snooks." ... "Lane 12. Kemp. 7. SAS my arrse." Oh how everybody larfed.

I'd imagine it depends whether the track snaps front or back, above or below the road wheels. Certainly we heard heard stories in my day of tracks snapping, flying over the top of the vehicle and decapitating anyone who didn't duck in time. I cannot say I ever saw it though. I'd guess it's more likely to happen in something fast like a CVR(T) (or a halftrack ...) than a Panzer, where there isn't enough velocity component in the kinetic energy to carry the track over the top. However, maybe if it splits on the rear-mounted sprocket, the turning of the sprocket might be enough to launch the track. I dunno. Only (accidentally-)broken track I ever saw was an M60 A1 on the range road at Hohne. The track was laid out behind it and with no steering on that side, it right-turned into a centuries-old tree. What concerned me in this story (which I have no way of verifying) is that the impact was sufficient to crack the glacis plate.

Not really a competition-type question. Did anybody clock Ultimate Force a couple of weeks ago in which Red Troop tested the security at a nuclear power station. When they had spent fuel rods to ship, they sent out a mighty armoured beast with convoy of escorts etc. Then shipped the rods out the back door in a converted dustbin truck. The mighty armoured beast? Strip off the fibreglass bolt-on high-tech-looking "armour" and there was the unmistakeable running gear of ... Well did anybody see ir?

15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars Battlegroup exercised in Nordrhein-Westfalen. LCpl Alien, commanding a Samaritan ambulance tried to get his driver, B Squadron Regimental Medical Assistant to stalk an Orange Forces (9th/12th Royal Lancers) Scorpion which had got remarkably sharp and had cut the ambulance off from Forward Headquarters. The RMA was having none of it and started quoting Geneva conventions at me. Pity: I could have done with those radio codes. I just got back to FHQ in nice time to hear the CO come up on the BG Command Net and quote the QM of the Gurkhas, "The Union Jack is flying over Port Stanley." It was a very warm moment. It was probably my last ever exercise as a cavalryman.

I am sorry. You expect me to believe a single word from a document that spells canvas with 2 "s"s? I think not. (Slinks off quietly, quitting while he's behind.)

I do feel a prat, going back to the OP and seeing that he wrote "Saracen Command Post", which I took to be a mis-type of "Saracen Armoured Command Vehicle" and clearly you took to be a contraction of "Saracen Armoured Command Post Royal Artillery". My apologies.

No a Saracen ACP RA is still a Saracen, and still obviously a Saracen, but a foot or two higher than other Saracens. It was issued to the Royal Artillery ONLY as an Armoured Command Post (for the Royal Artillery - hence ACP RA). Saracen was originally built as an APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) and over its lifetime the APC probably comprised the bulk of the Saracen fleet. Toward the end of its lifetime I am prepared to bet that apart from the Cyprus Armoured Car Squadron and the Royal Armoured Corps Regiment in Omagh, Co Tyrone, the Armoured Personnel Carrier had been retired, leaving in service only the ACV (Armoured Command Vehicle) in service with the Armoured Recce Regiments to cover until Sultan came along to provide a CVR(T) option in CVR(T) regiments, because Armoured and Mechanised Infantry regiments were predominantly diesel-fuelled (Chieftain and FV432 respectively) and used diesel-fuelled FV432 ACVs to aid logistical support. Apart from presence / absence of turret for a Browning Three-Oh, different external storage and antennae configurations, there is not a lot of difference at a glance between an APC and an ACV. Interestingly, ISTR that our Zero Charlie was or had once been tropicalised in that the airflow through the engine was reversed, thereby sucking in air through the external trunking above the mudguards and blowing it out through the front grill (which ISTR came with a rubber flap to push the air out sideways instead of down into the sand and blowing it back up into the driver's face). As I understand it, ALL Saracens were FV610 (but to those of us who crewed them they were just Saracen - or Sarry Can or Sarry Bus - we never ever referred to our vehicles by the FV number apart from those FV400-series that were never deemed worthy of a real name). Nobody ever called a Scorpion FV101 or Scimitar FV107. The OP said he had a Saracen ACV, so that all the references to ACP RA and APC are irrelevant. I just Googled for "Saracen ACP RA" (no quotes) and found a document which lists among lots of other things, a couple of entirely different radio fits for it including: Station Radio C11-R210/C45/R209 in Saracen, Mk 2,ACP, RA, Adjutant Station Radio C11-R210/C45/R209 in Saracen, Mk 2,ACP, RA, CPO and ACPO The link was: http://www.megacycles.co.uk/byequip.pdf The OP may find some documentation relevant to the ACV: I am going to get on with some work. ;o)

Forget the ACP RA. we got three issued to us by mistake in late 1977 instead of ACVs. The ACP RA is a huge, heavy, slow, lumbering mutant of a Saracen. We took them back to Paderborn, shoe-horned in all our radio sets, took them out on a warm-up exercise and spent two weeks in the German winter, never exceeding 15 mph. If you then rule out the APC configurations, you are essentially left with what I described, apart form the fact that a decade later, there was also a BID installation. ISTR that the BID installation, consisting basically of the set and a one-set harness and being physically separated from the main harness, was a one-size fits all (the CO also had a BID150 in the back of his FFR Land Rover so that he could remain in contact with Brigade / Task Force / Division as applicable whilst separated from his HQ) installation in addition to the standard installations shown above for the battlegroup HQ of the mid-70s.

I would take it to be a distress signal if it were flown the right up on the jackstaff, but the ship was upside down.

Excuse me! What about: ? You just can't get the staff. Tcha.

Something like - I spent seven years on the FLOT. Drunk goes without saying. Aah halcyon days.

Our regiment shared a barracks with Task Force Echo HQ and Signals Troop (it had been and would again be a brigade HQ & Signal Squadron after they gave up with the Task Force concept). I am sure it was one of their Scaleys who told me that when they set up in a location, the first message they sent by way of radio check was the Morse for THIS IS HIS SH!T for no other reason than it amounted to one long, 32 short, 1 long, with no valid context or hidden meaning but immediately recognisable, a bit like SOS. Can you shed any light on this?

In RHQ there was also a third ACV, Zero Charlie, which the Orbat said was the Intelligence cell. Since we had no Intelligence (cue Team America jokes) cell with us on exercise, Zero Charlie simply followed RHQ around like a bad smell providing extra crewmen to stag on. I do not believe Charlie had a BID and I could not swear to it having a high-power HF set for the Guard Net. That would suggest a C42 / C42 radio fit. Maybe C42 / C42 / Standard C13. Not a lot of help. Sorry.

In 1978 - 79 we had Saracen ACVs as Recce Battlegroup and Combat Team command vehicles in 3 Armd Div in BAOR. The radio harness was Larkspur. Zero Alpha and Zero Bravo were the two Battlegroup command vehicles, running the 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars (15/19H) Battlegroup Command Net and reporting to Division. They were essentially identical since one or other was always filling this role. Static (back-to-back with penthouses end-to-end), one would be running the net while the other was available for backup. During a move, Bravo would assume control (seemlessly to anyone outside since the pool of operators comprised both crews) and Alpha would move to a new location and set up. After a radio check to verify comms, Alpha would assume control and Bravo would relocate. (It was normal for Alpha to move first but this was purely SOP: if conditions demanded, Bravo could move first. I crewed Zero Bravo during this period. The exact radio fit is now long gone. I am sure one of the two had a C13 High-Power to monitor the Divisional Guard Net in the event that nuclear escalation and EMP wiped out VHF comms. The other had a C11/R210, which was functionally similar to the C13 HP (these were very old, obsolete sets and in practice never switched on). There was a C42 for the Battlegroup Command Net forward link to the Combat Teams (Medium Recce Squadrons). There was a Top Secret BID150 (Google it: it isn't secret any more. I know of at least one person with a BID150 in private hands). The BID150 was externally essentially a C42 painted Post Office Red (to indicate Secret kit). Its internal workings may still be secret so I shall not comment further. This was used to speak to Division and the other Battle Groups. This net allowed Commanding officers to talk to the Brigadier in clear without having to use all the security measures that applied on unscrambled nets. That's three sets. I am sure there were only three sets, but my gut is suggesting there was another C42. I must be wrong. IIRC In early 1979 we were issued Clansman and for that exercise period we had a VRC353/VRC321/BID150 radio fit. (Although the BID150 used Larkspur harness, it was entirely isolated from the rest of the harness so that there could be no crossfeed of in-clear speech from the BID to the unscrambled BG Command Net. As well as the set, the harness boxes were also painted Post Office Red.) I am really dragging my brains here and these are the best I can do. I could be wrong. Remember that BAOR was issued Clansman a division at a time, so that dates for other divisions probably vary. During the period where we had Saracens, I never served in an FHQ (Combat Team HQ) so I cannot be certain of the radio fit. My gut instinct is C42 forward to the troops / C42 back to BG HQ / C13 Guard. But don't quote me. Then, having ripped the Larkspur out of the Saracens and replaced it with Clansman, we finally got the Sultans that were built for Clansman (but HMG told the MOD they could afford CVR(T) OR Clansman, but not both; take your pick). So we ripped the Clansman harness back out of the Saracens and installed it into the Sultans. That was about 1980, by which time I was commanding a Rebroadcast Ferret in Battlegroup HQ.

There was a lovely story on a precursor to this thread a couple of years ago. I only read the story, which makes this hearsay and not eligible in court so please do not quote me. A member and his 12-year-old son parked their Saracen (Ferret?) and stood while civvies stood and admired. Civvy approaches Dad. "What's this then?" "A Saracen." "Oh. That Browning three oh on the hatch ring mount is wrong: it ought to be a Bren." Cue nipper clearly stage-muttering, "Not bad for somebody who didn't even know what sort of vehicle it was two minutes ago." Oh how I larfed.

I presumed he meant Castlemartin in Pembrokeshire which throughout the Cold War was Bundeswehr tank ranges, due to Hohne Ranges belonging to us (fair swap IMO). The picture reminds me of the road down to the ranges, but I don't remember crossing any sort of bridge, as the vehicle appears to be parked on one. However I have only been there once so I could be so-o-o wrong.