AlienFTM

Summer of 77. As Squadron Leader's Land Rover driver, I was invited, after Ex Trident, to stay up in Otterburn with my 3/4 ton FFR and GW Troop for their Swingfire firing, to act as gopher. Monday, everything went swimmingly. Tuesday, front up at the ATGM firing point, only to be diverted to the impact area to put out all the fires we (they) had started yesterday when their Swingfires had embedded themselves into the peat and burnt deep. Not an easy task. Had the peat been wet, no problem.

If, like the original driver, you have trouble getting rubbers for your smoke dischargers, you might do what he (I) did. Black masking tape over the end then more around the girth to tidy the edges. Not like you (like me) are ever actually going to fire them. ;o) Then when (if) you do get rubbers, put them over the top of the black tape: nice waterproofing, reduced rust.

I see no reason for it not to be. There were many, many different patterns of flak jacket and this looks right. If it looks right to you (label is original, faded appropriate to age etc, I see no reason to assume otherwise. Looks remarkably like what I wore in 1976.

Having driven a Makrolon-plated armoured FFR Land rover in NI, my guess is that the steering is incredibly light with all that extra weight on the back.

In my experience the bridge classification number could be several tons greater than the weight of the vehicle. If you saw, for example the extra kit piled into a Saracen ACV to be unloaded in the right order at the other end to fill the penthouse and turn it into a functioning command post, plus the weight of the crew (call it 1 cwt each) and their equipment, it mounts up. I remember being tasked one cold dark wet night to lead Zero Alpha (the senior ACV) across Soltau Training area in my Ferret. It would have taken a lot less time if someone had given me a map with the bridge classifications on. My Ferret could go anywhere, but the grown-ups in the ACV were getting fed up of turning round every time I found a culvert with a bridge classification too low for the ACV.

There is a militaria shop next to the town market in ... in ... I think it's Brecon (but it might be Abergavenny. No I think it's Brecon). Enter via the top entrance, as you get down and the indoor market opens up, there is usually a poster on the right hand side with the address, round the corner. I am sure when I had a nose in there last year he had shells (might have just been empty cases) and I am pretty sure one or more was 88m. But I could be wrong.

Not sure when 9/12L came back to BAOR after Omagh. My guess would be late 77 (eighteen months behind us in Omagh then ditto in Tidworth). It's quite possible they had Saracen APCs for Surveillance Troops. (In 15/19H we had two medium recce squadrons, B and C which each had a Surveillance Troop of iirc four Saracen APCs. The official Orbat for a BAOR Recce Regt was that A and B were medium recce and C was close recce - no surveillance troops, just five big troops of eight Scimitars to be allocated around the division's other battlegroups. But I was told on my Control Signallar course in 1978 that not one of the then incumbent BAOR Recce Regts had implemented the Orbat correctly by assigning C Sqn to be close recce. So your guess is as good as mine as to which 9/12L squadron was close and which were medium recce.) Everything was green and black in BAOR (officially 2/3 green to 1/3 black: in winter, white might be applied to 1/2 the green to make it 1/3 green, 1/3 white and 1/3 black. That happened to us for one winter: a bucket of whitewash that rubbed off in the course of a two-week winter exercise.) No flashing lights. We got rid of our Saracens about 1979: Command Troop and FHQs got Sultan to replace Saracen ACVs and Surveillance Troops got Spartan to replace Saracen APCs. If memory serves, 9/12L got Sultan (and probably Spartan) ahead of us, either because they were just arriving in theatre so it saved a cycle of conversion or because their division got it before ours (3 Armd Div). But I may be wrong. Did they have "Bren" (7.62mm LMG)? I honestly cannot remember. If they did have Saracen, it might have been anything that could be provided by the Ordnance Depot at Moenchengladbach. The latter tried to fob us off with APCRA (Armoured Command Post Royal Artillery) Saracens instead of ACVs because it was what they had. We soon spotted the error and drove them all the way back across West Germany (very slowly: they were lumbering brutes) to replace them. It is quite possible that 9/12L had Saracen APCs in some role before moving to Omagh in May 1976, but sadly I'll have to leave you to research that.

In West Germany I'd expect to see a squadron tac sign: triangle = A Sqn square = B Sqn circle = C Sqn diamond = HQ Sqn There has been much discussion on HMVF how to do these: I shan't repeat. You could reasonably expect to have a callsign either painted onto the back and maybe the sides or onto a removable board on the back (per 15/19H) so that should the owner of the callsign (the vehicle commander) move to another vehicle, he can take his callsign with him. Callsign for a Saracen in a cavalry regiment in the BRD? I'd presume it would be for Assault / Support / Surveillance / whatever the support troop was called this week and what you want to represent it as. Assault Troop was, as the name suggests, a troop of mechanised infantry to assault and hold a target. Support Troop was ... a support troop Surveillance Troop carried ZB298 Doppler Ground Surveillance Radars to detect incoming vehicles and infantry. Support troops in whatever form (one troop per squadron) took the squadron number (1=A, 2=B etc) followed by the number 6 to indicate a support troop followed by: Nothing for the troop leader, e.g 26 A for the troop sergeant = 26A B troop corporal = 26B C for troop second corporal = 26C Tac signs and callsigns were applied locally, usually using local-manufacture templates. There must be pictures out there somewhere.

9/12L took over from us (15/19H) in Lisanelly Barracks, Omagh in May 1976. Istr our troop had a Saracen but tbh we did all our work in pairs of one FFR and one FSC. Bazz may be able to help more: he got there before me. Only time I came across a Saracen in Omagh was a rush job one evening when we headed off out after dark to support a troop whose Saracen had broken down. It being dark, I didn't see any markings at all and I don't recall a plethora of markings on the FSCs or FFRs (NI being an operational zone and our only other regular hangout being West Germany where there were spies on every corner, for Opsec's sake nothing was ever made easy for the other side by putting anything useful by way of markings onto vehicles). An old buddy of mine just found the RAC Resident Regiment at Omagh Facebook group and posted some pictures of our time. See if you can have a look in there and get some inspiration. Be aware that the site is rigorously policed and any movement off-topic (which I imagine includes people asking about colour schemes etc) is stomped upon. Still it could be worse. You wouldn't even be allowed into the 15/19 The Kings Royal Hussars group cos it's entirely private and by invitation only. Needless to say, If you cannot get onto the Omagh group, I cannot help you acquire other people's photographic property. ;o) I have taken a look at the Omagh pictures which whilst not conclusive tend to support my position that little if any markings were carried beyond the number plate.

I don't have a clue but I do have some thoughts. I don't believe the word DRILL implies spiralling through earth / metal, etc, but may refer to, "it isn't a real one: it's for testing your usage drills". Like drill ammunition. My first instinct was as a stereoscopic range-finding telescope as usually seen in the hands of Wehrmacht field gun NCOs. Would explain "TEL DRILL". But I struggle to see how you might use one for drill purposes, unless maybe it's a classroom module and maybe allows a lesson to be run in the classroom where focussing the telescope at, say, ten feet, functions as if the student were in the field and focussing at 1000 yards. But don't quote me. Edit Then I searched for Telescope Drill Number 3 and was taken straight to the IWM and a Telescope Drill Number 3 Mark 1. http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30025181 Unfortunately an issue between Google Chrome and the RHEL Linux 64bit I use on this machine does not allow me to view the page. I am sure somebody will enlighten us.

All I can say is it's a good job you've got a girly name. Had these words come from Bob the Brickie, I might have been seriously embarrassed. ;o)

I dunno about being spoilt, but having people on here (and Facebook) saying nice things is definitely embarrassing. ;o)

I do know that there is a member of this forum who owns 33BA81, which was a Mark 1 when I commanded it about 1980 but is now a Mark 2. To be honest, I'd rather see it preserved as a Mark 2 than used as a gunnery target at Castlemartin. If he wants a Mark 2 and that's how he gets it, all power to his elbow.

Hello Mucker. I was born in Sunderland and grew up in Whitburn. Over the past ten years or so, I and my wife have looked into our family histories. Two years we took our holiday with my aunt (now sadly deceased) in Grange Villa and soaked up her memories, also booking numerous sessions in the Archive Room of the Records Office at County Hall (01913833253 according to the phone book on my mobile). On one occasion, bored, I left Zero Alpha to her thing and nosed through the Odds and Sods cupboard. I found The War Diary of a Battalion of DLI (forget which, but it iirc started when, in the build-up to D-Day, they coincidentally deployed to Toot Hill on the outskirsts of Southampton, which I pass every day on my way to work at Hursley Park, where, also coincidentally, my uncle deployed with a Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, but that's two different stories). Being myself ex-15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars (The Geordie Hussars), I sat myself down for a long, interesting read. I went a-googling some of your names and first place I found was your thread on another site mentioned above (but I have now closed the window and cannot be bothered to go and look). My attention was drawn to an action at Villers Bocage. While I was perusing the DLI War Diary on microfilm, there was an entry relating to an action at Villers Bocage. Without ever checking the date, I have always assumed it was The Big One, but reading what I have today, I suspect it was an earlier action. It will probably not help you with your search, but it may well make for an interesting morning (or afternoon) in a dark, quiet room browsing history. Hope this helps.

As a minor unit wef 1 January 1983 (supporting a single brigade, 12 Armd, instead of both brigades of the withdrawn-to-UK 2 Armd Div), 12 Armd Wksp pay Orbat consisted of a Div 2 (Ssgt) and two times Div 4 (Pte - Cpl). Signature was by the Unit Admin Officer, a REME, who knew nothing. "Sign this please, Sir." Most of my tour, the other Div 4 was on posting, for example PGF at the Maze (I already had an inch of glory for NI and I was married so I encouraged him to volunteer). So most of the time it was Steve, the Div 2 and me. A typical morning might start, "Here, mate, get this signed by the AO then get a rover from MT and head off down the Commerzbank to draw some money for the Imprest Account." No sweat. Like I said, typical (except in November / December when the Fuel and Light Rebates came in and I'd have to draw maybe DM20 - 30,000 to issue to the Pads, in which case one of the clerks would draw an SMG and escort me. We did once drive past the local Opel dealership (which was on the corner near the bank. I remember: it was Opel Schiermeier) and I drooled at the new Opel Kadett GTe which would have been the perfect replacement for my Opel Kadett Berlina. Then I thought about my career. I remembered the instructor on my Transfer-In Soldier course. "You will always be tempted in this job. If you are going to succumb to temptation, make sure you set your sights high enough so that you can get away with it."). I got the AO to sign the cheque, then I phoned MT for a rover. I walked up and the platoon sergeant told me two of his craftsmen were just finishing a service on a short-wheelbase air-portable. I could take that. I found them and the Land Rover, took the keys, got the work ticket signed, and floored it out of the hangar, turn right, right again past the Guard Room then Left onto the Verhrter Landstrasse into Oznatraz. On the downhill stretch (Mercer Barracks was on top of a hill: whenever you went for a run, the last stretch was always uphill. Grr), I watched a wheel go by. It was a Land Rover wheel. "Wherever did that come from?" Clunk. Stop. "Damn*." Recovery was swift. So was blame. The two incompetent crafties got nailed for not putting wheel nuts back on (as their Pay Clerk, I fed their offences into the system to deduct their pay. However, as driver, it was decreed that I must also carry some of the blame in accordance with regulations. Shock horror, I found myself tapping the boards. "Damn*. There goes the LS&GC." "Do you accept my award?" Thinks, "Not likely." Speaks, "Hmmm. Not sure." You could see the Workshop 2IC (OC was on leave) had never heard this response before. "Look, Corporal Alien, this is the way it is. Just get on with it." I still wasn't happy but no way was I going to push for court martial because it simply wasn't worth it. I got a three-month warning. Next day I heard the phone ring in the 2IC's office. He summoned Steve. "That was Commander Finance 1 Armd Div. He has had a word with a very embarrassed 2IC. There is no 3-month warning." _____ * I didn't really think "Damn," but this forum is read by civvies.

No, no, no, you haven't got this Recce lark sorted. The sabre troops of the medium recce combat teams were spread across the divisional front (one squadron = 16 Scorpions per brigade / task force). I recently read a book "The Red Effect" by somebody who obviously knew what he was talking about ... less armour and recce ... who put 4 Armd Div's front in 1984 at iirc some 90 km. If Scorpions always worked in a minimum of two times CVR(T) per section, what was the minimum frontage covered by a recce section?) along the FLOT - the Forward Leading-edge of Own Troops. Sabre squadron FHQ (strictly SHQ, but that's cavalry tradition for you) is sat behind the sabre troops, running the combat team, sufficiently close to the FLOT to be able to communicate effectively and far enough back to contact BG HQ (see below). If this distance were too great, a Command Troop rebro Ferret would bridge the gap. Command Troop, running the battle group HQ, are far enough back to be able to reach Div HQ (or a rebro) and far enough forward to contact the two CT FHQs. This usually somewhere in front of the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area, where the tanks and infantry are sat, miles behind the lines as per the 15/19H song) but not too far, because Div will have positioned themselves far enough back from the FEBA to be able to bug out (a very big HQ) when the Russians came but close enough to contact the armour and infantry BG HQs. Div could put out a rebro forward to the BGs on the FEBA so that they can sit back; Recce BG HQ could put out a rebro (me) forward to the Recce CTs so that they can sit back and another back to Div. So although Recce BG HQ Command Troop might be forward of the FEBA, they were a good distance back from the FLOT with a recce screen of their best buddies to let them know to pack up in a hurry when the Russians came. For preference, I'd park up my single-vehicle rebro ready to bug out in seconds. One scout car was not going to attract a lot of incoming when there was so much juicy armour to engage. Only once in all those Command Troop years did I ever get caught close to the FLOT during a withdrawal. Orange were advancing on us, BG HQ Main (0A - ACV 1, 0C - Int Cell ACV, 9 - CO in his rover, 95 - RSM in his Ferret in a packet led by 98 - Rebro Ferret 1) withdrew to a new defensive position leaving 0B - ACV 2, 9A - the regiment 2IC and 98A - me in Rebro Ferret 2) to run the BG Command Net and work on the Div Command Net until BG Main were set up. It was close: we left the village to the west in the company of withdrawing Chieftains while Orange were moving into the village from the East. Squeaky bum time. Why have a recce screen and watch for Russians yourself?

The local-manufacture XPM box mounted over the engine decks of course. Oh and needless to say, it was more usually used to rest beer cans than coffee mugs, obviously. Those warm summer evenings before radio stag but still too hot from the day to sleep, you have to sit and watch the view in comfort. Er, I did mention that you needed to erect the bivvy open side out to get the view, didn't I?

The BEF used an awful lot of civvy trucks. 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars converted to tanks in late 1939 from horses (which they gave up in 1938: that's how dire the equipment situation was). They had 12 operable Vickers Mark VI tanks in September 1939 (no shoulder pads for the guns) and received almost all their mechanical transport (MT) in the form of butchers', bakers' etc lorries that has been compulsory-purchased immediately prior to shipment to France. They were painted khaki iirc either the day before they sailed or the day after they arrived. Free to download from http://www.lightdragoons.org.uk/downloads.html, select History of 15th-19th The King's Hussars 1939-1945 (21.16mb).

I can tell you the exact subunit: C Squadron (you may have worked that out!) of the Life Guards. Life Guards do not have sergeants because "sergeant" comes from the French for "servant" and LG serve only the sovereign. All NCO and warrant ranks in the LG are Corporals, so this bivvy was on the books of the Squadron Quartermaster Corporal of C Sqn The Life Guards. Somebody has suggested that these bivvies are often called Scorpion Bivvies. In fact Scorpion (and CVR(T)) got their own, bespoke bivvies, similar in design but somewhat smaller (3-man as opposed to 4 in a Chieftain) and more waterproof. 15/19H Command Troop Sultans came with brand new CVR(T) bivvies about 1978, so that our rebro Ferrets acquired the old "acquired" Chieftain bivvies that had been acquired over the years for the Saracen ACVs. A 2-man Ferret crew in a 4-man Chieftain bivvy had more than enough room for beds, folding chairs and a coffee table.

I remember once seeing a set of photos purporting to show how great the US Armed Forces (I hate hearing people using the adjective "military" as a noun) were at shooting up Soviet kit in Afghanistan. The series was entitled "US jets destroy BMP" or somesuch. I spent some time picking holes in the article that went with the photos before I noticed that the "BMP" had wheels. Still that was poor journalism. I remember a Household Cavalryman (cannot remember whether it was pre-Granby or pre-Telic) was hosting a bunch of US airmen around the unit to familiarise themselves with CVR(T)s (maybe on reflection it was Telic, to avoid what happened on Granby). Imagine how the cavalryman felt when a pilot chipped in, "Gee you guys drive BMPs?"

I remember about 1979 being volunteered for HMQ's Official Birthday Paraded at JHQ Rheindahlen. Stood at the edge of the square in Adam Ant kit, with cavalry sabre on the shoulder, I watched the VIPs roll up, junior VIPs first then rising with rank and status to the Big Boss. I remember seeing a lot of the (black) staff cars being Ford Taunus (West German Cortina - Mark 3? ) but I vaguely recall seeing an Austin Maxi (dunno when the Maxi came out) and I do distinctly remember seeing a big boss roll up in an Austin 1800. Wiki tells me the Austin 1800 was around from 1964. It certainly looked old (but loved) in the late 70s.

Too kind. :-)

Next door (upstairs) neighbour was REME attached 5DG on Chieftain. He told us what had happened that day in Imphal Bks, Osnabruck. Two new VMA postings-in, a corporal and a new in green craftsman, fresh off the bus from the air-trooping flight into Gutersloh. Get shown to accommodation, throw on a pair of coveralls and head off down to the tank park. They find the LAD and introduce themselves. "Before you go any further, have you worked on Chieftain equipped with with laser range finders before? No. Then you'd both best get up the Medical Centre for a sight test. Fail the sight test, you might as well get back on the plane." The two start to trudge up the hill to the Medical Centre. LAD phone ahead. They arrive at the Medical Centre where the RAMC Sergeant sets about testing them. They both fail. "Best get across the the Orderly Room and sort out flights back to the UK." They set off toward the Orderly Room. The Medical Centre phone ahead. "We cannot organise you flights back until you've done clearance. Pay Office is that way." They walk off down the corridor in the direction of the Pay Office. The Orderly Room phone ahead. The Pay Office give them a Leaving form, to be signed by all departments to say they are cleared to be struck off strength. First department on the list is their normal place of work (the LAD). They start to trudge back down the hill to the LAD where they are met. "WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" To be fair, they reckoned the corporal had cottoned on fairly early and played along, but the CFN was heartbroken.

You too mate. Maybe next time if I flutter my eyelashes you'll let me show the entourage around the inside?

I was dead lucky. In RAC Basic Training I had already done RMP Basic (before telling them where they could shove their truncheons, but that's another story). RMP were far too straight-laced to pull stunts, but I learnt how to be what Andy McNab always calls the grey man. RAC Basic was a doddle. I joined the regiment running in Omagh as a section rifleman. Stop me if I have told this one before. Day 1 and I was officially issued 40 rounds of 7.62 (4B1T) for the SLR. Section Lance Jack promptly took one ball round and replaced it with a yellow-tipped round. Incendiary, I was informed. This not not a war according to the Geneva Convention. Top off your first mag with a trace round followed by the incendiary. When you shout "Watch my trace" we'll see it, and when you fire the second, the incendiary, we'll be in no doubt. Fast forward to the end of the tour. We were about to hand back our ammo. "Psst Franky, what about the incendiary?" "Incendiary?" I held out the yellow-tipped round. He scratched off the Humbrol. "Wahhhhhh!" By the time we left Omagh I was an accepted member of the troop, there was a lot of churn in the Orbat as we reroled onto CVR(T) and any question of my being the New-In-Green member was forgotten as all the under-aged ex-brats ... I mean Junior Leaders ... were allowed to join the regiment.