AlienFTM

There is a great set of ROC films from the 50s or 60s on YouTube simulating a nuclear escalation and the work of the ROC. I watched them all last year and it reminded me why when I first stumbled across NBC warfare in 1975, I really, really didn't want to be party to nuclear war. Curiously, as I type, I have Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" playing. "Don’t you understand what I’m tryin’ to say "Can’t you feel the fears I’m feelin’ today? "If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ away "There’ll be no one to save, with the world in a grave "[Take a look around ya boy, it's bound to scare ya boy] "And you tell me "Over and over and over again, my friend "Ah, you don’t believe "We’re on the eve "of destruction."

The biggest tank I can think of in that hall is the Conqueror. When the Brits proudly displayed their new baby, the Cent at the Berlin victory parade, they were distraught when they were trumped by the Russians' Stalin 3 heavy tank, and even more distraught that their intelligence services hadn't caught a whiff. The British promptly produced Conqueror in response to the JS3 (or IS3 depending on how you like to spell Josef) and it did its time in BAOR but it was never the greatest tank that ever was.

I am sure there will be a historic link somewhere. Bear with me (what an amazing choice of words - I had planned to discuss 3 Panzerdivision whose emblem was the Berlin Bear): I am about to demonstrate how something we automatically associate can have entirely different connotations elsewhere. Weekend before last I heard a snippet of long-forgotten music on Heartbeat which prompted me to go and download it ("Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire - who is actually very Christian despite what this protest song might suggest). The chorus is easy enough, but in these internet-pervading days and really struggling to work out the verses, I went a-Goggling. The last verse tells us (it was written in 1965) to, "Think of all the hate there is in Red China "Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama" wtf? So I then Googled Selma, Alabama to find it was related to the Civil Rights marches, also of 1965 where the Americans had their own Bloody Sunday. Isn't Google great?

In the entire in-flight Apollo programme. A lot of the behemoth mainframe as we know it today (a few days ago an IBM mainframe became the first machine ever to run in excess of 1 Petaflops - thousand trillion floating point operations per second) owes its existence to Project Apollo, notably System 360, which through System 370 and System 390 led to System z (for zero downtime. The standard service level agreement for an IBM mainframe is five minutes' unscheduled downtime per annum. One unscheduled reboot will cost you that on a Windows machine) we have at the heart of the mainframe today. TSO (Time-sharing Option) owes its existence to Apollo because the massive (in size if not power compared with what is in the room next to me) mainframe needed to be able to do more than one thing at a time. It was a quantum leap in computer processing like when with Windows 95, suddenly you could have two programs actually RUNNING at once rather than one running and anything else just sitting there waiting for its turn. JES (Job Entry Subsystem) was explicity written for Project Apollo. JES is an input queue where the machine sits and waits for instructions (in those days, on 80-byte punched cards: now it's card images). Throughout my mainframe career (23 years) I have been aware of a legend that if JES has an error, there are deeply-embedded error messages, never seen for decades that are prefixed NAS- (for NASA) instead of JES-. Despite my best efforts / worst incompetence, I have never managed to generate a NAS-message. When input comes into the JES queue, it gets validated by an interpreter that verifies the JCL (Job Control Language) is valid; otherwise it abnormally terminates ("abends"). JES then starts grabbing the resources requested for the job, including data sets ("files") for input and output, hardware such as DASD ("Direct Access Storage Devices" or disks) and tape drives, processor space, etc. When all the requirements have been satisfied, JES checks for an initiator to run the job and places it in the queue for that initiator. One a modern mainframe, well-maintained by its System Programmers, there will always be enough initiators, of the right sort for the jobs coming in, just like Tesco putting the right check-out operatives on the right tills according to whether they all have large loads or small loads. And the figure I was quoted for "computing power carried on an Apollo mission" was equivalent to the engine management system in a current BMW. But that was a few years ago. Remember as a rule of thumb that whenever the computing world as a whole announces some stunning "new" technology, it's been there on the mainframe for 25 years.

There was a VEHICLE in the pic???

Just because I am paranoid, it doesn't mean they are not all out to get me.

Even more curious. Numerous sSSPzAbt 101 Tigers are shown, all bearing the crossed keys in a shield above oak leaves indicating that the "independent" battalion (an organic battalion would be styled "Battalion" in German exactly as in English and French: an independent battalion was styled "Abteilung") was attached to LSSAH (1 SS Panzer Division). It was "permanently" attached to LSSAH - so not particularly independent. What made it different was that organic tank battalions did not get Tigers. They got Mark 4s, or Panthers in elite units like the Waffen SS. The Tigers went to independent heavy battalions, e.g Schwere SS Panzerabteilung (sSSPzAbt) 101 (originally numbered 501 when formed in 1943 IIRC). So the elite Divisions (SS and rarely elite Wehrmacht formations like Grossdeutschland) had an extra, heavy, tank battalion. Anyway back to the point ("Not before time." Ed). The tank pics show the crossed keys. But check out the chart at the very bottom. One of the links shows the divisional symbols of the participating Waffen SS divisions. And the one for LSSAH shows only the single key.

Another "interestingly." In the picture I mentioned above ("Tiger "211", the 1st Section Commander's tank, Ustuf. Georg Hantusch seated on the right in overcoat of the 2nd Company commanded by Wittmann."), the LSSAH badge is clearly on the same side as the hull MG, whereas in my colleague's Big Book of Pictures of Tanks there is another contemporary picture of a Tiger in sSSPzAbt 101 with the exact same LSSAH badge on the driver's side. Which proves to me that you can never state as fact that this marking must go on that side or whatever.

Funnily enough when I think about it, on the few occasions I played Battlefield Vietnam, ISTR the tank available was an M47. Takes cover from incoming shoot-down.

Curiously, shortly after posting my previous yesterday, a colleague and I looked at his Big Book Of Pictures of Tanks or whatever it was called and I explained some of the technical errors and minutiae to him, where we found an M48 and compared the turret bulge with the pic above and it would appear I was right. There is a tiny amount of turret bulge to accommodate the hatch on the left-hand side of the M48, but in this pic the bulge goes practically to the turret ring.

Makes perfect sense to me. Funnily I was just talking in the office about failing to get on a Long-Range Comms Course at Bovvy (that's a Morse course), but who cares since it was declared obsolete a few years ago because all over-the-horizon comms can now be done by satellite, data burst, etc.

Something else that I omitted to mention. There is (WAS in my day before they wrote manuals ;o) a right way and a wrong way to fit the tracks to a CVR(T). The right way round, the pitched rubber pads struck the tarmac flat. The wrong way round, the rubber pad would have a lot of bite as it dug into the tarmac, which Bundesverkehrsministerium no likee cos they'd be forever relaying roads behind CVR(T)s (and is why they only ever let heavies play in designated training areas; and why they no likee when CVR(T)s chewed up cobbles and kerbstones. The word was that when the Cold War went hot, the tracks would be off, rotated and back on before the tail of the Soviet first echelon cleared the IGB. Let's face it, the West Germans would have far more to worry about (smoking, city-sized, glass-filled craters; ponds of nerve agent, etc etc) to worry about that roads chewed up by CVR(T)s ... and the Chieftains. who'd be off the leash.

Of course they have reworked the suspension on CVR(T) since my day: new idler, new track etc. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it. Manuals? What they???

Don't see why not. The configuration reminds me of the F22 Raptor now in service. It's all a question these days of whether you can pack enough computer in to fly the plane.

WOOOSH. Not a clue. That went right over my head like a Sabot round fired off the HESH scale.

In UNFICYP, one of our patrol routes was East out of Nicosia along the Green line between north and south, Turks and Greek Cypriots, often the width of a residential back street wide. This was through the CanCon (Canadian Contingent) sector, so the section commander's driver/operator would remove the B47 B Set and install a Canadian set in its place. The set had been pre-mounted onto a B47 tray so it was a simple unscrew, disconnect cables, slide out, install job. But the frequency range of this set must have been a much lower frequency than that of the B47, because the antenna it came with was permanently mounted on its antenna base, must have been something well in excess of 12 feet long and being permanent, the antenna where it entered its base must have been an inch in diameter. It was flexible, so we removed a bolt from the Ferret's rear bulkhead, reattached it, holding the antenna base in place, and bent the antenna forward in an arc over the top of the turret and secured it to the front of the Ferret. It did its job. We were able to establish and maintain radio contact with the Canadians (even if their Voice Procedure and ours were worlds apart). We also still had contact with our own HQ and the section second vehicle. At the end of the patrol we returned to our camp (a former refugee camp during the recent war) and reversed the procedure. Except that I'd forgotten I'd tied the top of the antenna to the front deck, so that when I undid the antenna base retaining bolt, the antenna base flew off and split the skin on my left index finger first joint wide open. A trip to the UNFICYP Medical Centre and I had a stitch in the finger and a leather sheath over the top. My troop sergeant asked me about the prognosis and for no obvious reason (certainly not the truth) I told him I had seven days' no driving. Which meant that I spent the next week swanning in the turret instead of sweating in the driving seat. Nice.

For reception, as much rod / wire as you can throw up is good.

Suggests to me that it works in the HF band? For maximum transmission power. the antenna needs to be exactly 1/4 the wavelength. Since you cannot keep chopping off an putting back the odd millimetre of rod, you have to compromise. So long as the antenna length does not exceed 1/4 of the wavelength, the antenna tuning unit (Larkspur ATU; Clansman VHF TUAAM - Tuning Unit Automatic Antenna Matching; Clansman HF ARFAT - IIRC Adaptor Radio Frequency Automatic Tuning - but I stand to be corrected on that one), the transmitted signal can be elecronically enhanced to believe it is going through a 1/4 wavelength antenna. If you imagine a 1/4 sine wave propagated about the vertical rod, the amplitude at the bottom of the rod is the maximum possible. Larkspur VHF transmitted between 36 and 60MHz. At 60 Mhz, the maximum permissible rod length is eight feet, so no more than eight feet of rod was used. More than that and the ATU would try to retune to 1/2 wavelength very inefficiently. Clansman, transmitting VHF at up to 76MHz, carried 2m of rod and no more. With HF, the range of possible antenna 1/4 wavelengths across the frequency spectrum is huge. 12 feet of rod was all we could erect for Larkspur, which required an adaptor to slope the rods so that the antenna did not snap off on the first bridge we went under. In a static location, the entire mast could be used as a rod to transmit HF which gave scope for a very powerful signal, or a single mast could be used to erect a droopy dipole with wire trailing from opposite sides to the ground. Because the wire was wrapped like a kite wire, its length could be adjusted very close to the length required for the frequency in use. Or two masts could be used to erect a dipole clear of the ground, which could be useful in adjusting the dipole height to maximise the signal reflected from the ground. How long would a dipole be? Once, bored out of my skull on radio stag in the middle of the night, I plotted frequency against 1/4 wavelength for every channel available to the transmitter. 1/4 wavelength at the bottom of the frequency range was unfeasibly long, whereas at the top end, starting to bump into the military VHF band, you were talking rods only for maximum transmission power. Rods on a mast was better because it helped clear the ground clutter. But it has to be remembered that if we could transmit from RHQ forward to FHQ and back to Div, or from FHQ back to RHQ and forward to the troops AND NO FURTHER, there would be no signal for the enemy to intercept. "Use the minimum power necessary" was the byword. UK/VRC353 has a 50W power setting. This was illegal in Germany because it would fry nearby telephone lines. Besides, Clansman was issued with a 20W adaptor to mount at the top of the mast to boost the signal from 16W, the standard power setting. Putting 50W through that would also fry the 20W adaptor.

I once (in the early 1970s) saw a source which quoted the total number of Luftwaffe sorties flown over the invasion beaches on D-Day as ... three. This source preferred to use the term "air monopoly."

With a good picture of the front of a Tiger of 1st Kompanie of sSSPzAbt (Heavy Independent SS Panzer Battalion) 101 of LSSAH, showing the crossed keys in shield with oak leaves I have discussed in another thread. How spooky is that?

My guess was M47 in Vietnam (mainly because I cannot honestly remember there being a bulge in the turret wall of the M48 to cater for the hatch on the turret LHS as we see it). I'd be prepared to bet that flame tanks in Vietnam were M47s because, having developed a flame tank on an M47 chassis, there wouldn't be a great deal of loss of function and no need to prepare a flame kit for the M48, which would primarily be a gun tank (though I am having serious doubts about whether the Americans even took M48s to Vietnam, when I'd guess the M60 was available). And I cannot recall ever seeing M47s / M48s in Korea. But as usual, I haven't bothered checking so it's all wild conjecture.

Sadly due to work commitments this year, I shall be heading to Wales this weekend on my holidays.

ISTR we used to bash tracks every 500 miles. They also stretched. The correct tension was when the top centre of the track was four inches above the centre roadwheel. A quick measurement was to ensure a clenched fist would fit comfortably between roadwheel and track. Tension was adjusted by greasing a nipple in the idler suspension arm which pushed it back to increase tension (when bashing the tracks, the tensioner would be reset to zero tension, then tensioned up as required). If the tensioner had no more give because the track had stretched, a track link could be removed. There was a minimum number of links permitted. If the track could not be tensioned sufficiently, the track was condemned and a session of track-bashing ensued. The minimum number of links permitted on a Scorpion / Scimitar sticks in my mind as 76 but I could be wrong. Because of the extra body length of the Sultan / Samaritan / Spartan / etc (note extra 3" gaps either side of the centre roadwheel), ISTR their permitted minimum was 78, But, usual, I could be wrong

I am disappointed. I really really expected to see film of Lewis Hamilton at yesterday's Canadian GP. I have nothing against the lad, but I makes me larf so when ITV (in particular and the media in general) big up the Englishman / team in any sporting event then wonder why they fail so and the whole country must get out on the streets and self-flagellate in mourning. Do they not understand that we are not all as rabidly blinkered and gung-ho about our sportsmen as they are and in fact some of are in fact quite capable of our own minds up about whom to follow. I shall be SO glad when ITV lose the rights to their last televised sport because it really is unfeasibly poor and bigoted. Hamilton's mishap yesterday did make me larf.

I rest my case lol. I remember the Royal Armoured Corps Signals School at Bovington had vast numbers of C42s (we were one of the last Larkspur-trained Control Signaller courses - getting only a cursory look at Clansman and having to undergo conversion training almost immediately I returned to unit and we got Clansman issued), one to a desk for our training. The antennae were all wired up to a closed loop so that we only transmitted within the building, not across half of Dorset. For added effect, in other room was an "Armoured Command Vehicle" in the form of a plywood immitation of a 432 as used in the Armoured regiments (Recce had Saracens, to convert to Sultan as they came off the production lines). This meant that when we were running an exercise, the students chosen to be FHQ could not hear radio traffic in the same room by ear if they did not have their sets tuned in correctly. I was volunteered to play FHQ for Exercise Warburg on the day some Brigadier paid a visit. I was told afterward I was sufficiently draconian to run Command Nets in RHQ, which was nice, since it was to be my role upon return to my troop, which was RHQ. Mmmm radios. Gotta love 'em.