AlienFTM

nope - I thought that one too. The conning tower IS displaced to the starboard side. Why?

nope - I did wonder that

A friend at work suffers RSI from her mouse. Our H&S got her a small keyboard (like something out of a laptop) without number pad so she didnt have to reach for the mouse. Saves reaching so far past the number pad from the letter pad to the mouse.

The conning tower is indeed displaced to one side. Which leaves us with "Why?" (Your answer was wrong, not surprisingly.)

Bear with me. It's an unusual one this one. I just saw Sapper's signature block, reading "Indefatigable", possibly referring to his never being rubber-dicked for fatigues or to a one-time capital ship. It set off a chain of thought. I was reminded of a conversation at work this morning. One of the lads commented about two huge vehicles by the side of the M275 (visible on Google Earth at grid, I have since determined, 50°49'34.66"N, 1° 5'16.81"W). "What has this got to do with 'Indefatigable?'" I hear you ask. Indefatigable was a capital ship. In recent times, submarines have come to be thought of as the new capital ship. ("There are two types of vessel at sea: submarines and targets.") If you have gone to this location in Google Earth (other aerial view applications are available), if you now scroll northwestward a couple of hundred metres across the M275 to 50°49'43.93"N, 1° 5'32.54"W, you will see a derelict submarine. (Actually thinking about it, if you use another application you may not get the same pic, because there were two submarines but one has been dismantled: with another app, they might both be there or both be gone.) The aforementioned lad addressed the question, "What are those two giant vehicles?" at Jane, who sat next to me. Her husband served on boats, and had indeed served on the boat which is no longer at the second location, having been dismantled. I then noticed something unusual about the submarine in the picture at the second grid reference on Google Earth, which Jane could not explain. So. Your starter for 10: What is unusual about the derelict submarine at location 50°49'43.93"N, 1° 5'32.54"W? (Notwithstanding the obvious fact that anything removable has already been removed.) And your bonus question: Why? Jane immediately picked up the phone to her husband and asked "Why?" Her husband explained. She thought it would be a great question in the next Software Group UK IT Department Quiz Competition, then she remembered that my team never won without me (we won fairly comfortably in the summer and they got stuffed last month while I was absent for my daughter's wedding) and giving the quiz a question that only I would ever get in a million years was hardly fair to the rest of them. Go for it.

I wouldn't be at all surprised. As soon as somebody mentioned Bell, I thought it had a family resemblance to an Airacobra.

On the day "A white flag is flying over Stanley" I was commanding the Squadron ambulance (Samaritan) simply because it needed a commander and I was experienced. We went on a task somewhere - I forget where. On the way back, we pulled out onto a road behind a Scorpion (of IIRC 9th/12th Lancers, our enemy for the week) who had apparently managed to break through our recce screen and was in danger of causing us real embarrassment. They were blissfully unaware of us. I sent a contact report and followed him. I was all for staying with them and when they stopped I was going to capture them and take their codes - always a BIG prize in Recce. Unfortunately the driver, who was Squadron Medic, reminded me of the giant red crosses on the side of the vehicle and flatly refused, quoting the Geneva Convention, though we did remain in contact until a sabre troop relieved us.

If you ever read a Dale Brown book (Megafortress series), EVERY single one AFAIK bears a quote from the New York Times (IIRC): "Clancy's got company!" Having written this series over a decade or two, one would have thought they could have found another quote to use.

You are joking, right? Exercises were tightly controlled. Units might have very little to do on the exercise while all the umpires, DS and orange forces (we didn't use red to describe the enemy because it was too obviously the Commies. We usually fought the Fantasians) were exercising other units. Orange forces had great fun. In Recce it was even worse. Two medium recce squadrons provided the Recce screen across the FLOT - Forward Leading-edge of Own Troops, one squadron for each of the two brigades in the armoured division, and their exercise consisted of withdrawing in contact (NOT retreating), luring orange into killing zones. The other Squadron (actually a squadron plus) was close recce and spent its time attached to the other five battlegroups in the division, generally further back, manning the FEBA - the Forward Edge of the Battle Area. We referred to them as cowboys. They never ever played by the rules. For once on this occasion it was good to beat them purely using good skills and not lowering to their level.

If you read The Third World War by General Sir John Hackett (of Arnhem fame, later very senior in BAOR or NATO I forget which), the second volume relates a pair of young soviet officers wandering through a vehicle park full of captured Allied kit. They stop at an armoured ambulance. "Look Ivan, some of them have even painted targets on the front of their vehicles: they make perfect aiming marks for our tank gunners." Funnily enough, shortly after this we were issued Samaritan Ambulances which came with roll-down green blinds to obscure the red crosses when parked tactically. It was all very well displaying a red cross, but the message is sends is "Who else is there?" It draws the enemy's eyes where you don't want them to look.

I don't suppose it's a folding brazier?

It was pay at the Pay Office 12 Armd Wksp REME and the Unit Imprest Account needed some cash. "Corporal Alien, get the Admin Officer to sign this cheque, sign out a vehicle and head off down to the commerzbank in town to cash the cheque." I had the forethought to phone MT BEFORE I took the cheque to the Admin Officer. "A couple of Craftsmen have just finished servicing a nice little lightweight. You can take that." The cheque signed, I walked over to MT and collected the Land Rover. I jumped in and drove off in my take-no-prisoners style, out of the gate and down the hill toward downtown Osnabruck. As I motored down the hill I was surprised to see a wheel go rolling past me. The bad news it was a Land Rover wheel. clunk, clunk, clunk as the wheel hub grounded. The two dozy little <expletive deleted>s had not reattached the wheel nuts. I had to tap the boards in front of the Workshop 2IC so that justice could be seen to be done. I got a slapped wrist, suspended for three months and quietly forgotten for having driven a vehicle in an unroadworthy condition. I did smile when Part 2 Orders passed through my possession (I administered MT Platoon) showing the punishment of the two guilty barstewards for putting the life of their glorious Military Accountant on the line made me feel a lot better.

I once started an exercise two hours early because of this. Our recce screen was laid out along the divisional FLOT in front of the FEBA, awaiting first contact. slightly left of cantre of my arc there was a small hill. A road ran diagonally from my left of arc, away round the back of the hill and into the distance to my immediate front. It was joined at a T junction out of my sight behind a hill. We were on electronic silence. These things always tended to kick off just before dawn so I was surprised about 0300 when, over the otherwise total silence, I could just make out the sound of J60 engines behind the hill. The lead vehicle came upon the junction more quickly than expected and the driver fluffed his his change from high to low range. The sound was unmistakeable. I had the codes ready, having filled in the boards myself for the sake of my reputation as a recent Command Troop Control Signaller and I knew the contact would happen on my shift. I powered everything up, broke electronic silence and issued a contact report. I knew the other end would be caught asleep, so I was quite patient waiting for them to act. Of course the pink said that contact would not be for another couple of hours, so they did not believe me. They authenticated my breach of electronic silence and asked me to verify. They whinged that the grid reference I had sent was not in my line of sight. I put them right. We caught them cold. The pink went out o the window.

Ferret rash: easily avoided once you know what you are doing. Ferret? To drive? You will find numerous posts by me here telling you that the Ferret is the best ride you will ever had, even including women. In tank regiments just before my time and the advent of CVR(T), I have it on good authority that a lot of cavalrymen fought to get into Recce Troop, just to drive Ferrets.

Baz and I went with "B" Squadron 15/19H to Cyprus in 76. "A" Squadron (on Foxes) stayed in the UK and replaced us as UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron in March 77. We quickly learned what A Sqn had been up to in our absence. They undertook a KAPE tour to Keep The Army in the Public Eye. The regiment's recruiting area was in the North east of England. One Friday morning, a convoy of vehicles, mainly Foxes, set off the length of England from Tidworth. According to the REME (who always travelled last to pick up the deaders) there was a trail of dead Foxes all the way up the A1. Anyhow they all eventually arrived safely at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle and parked up. The senior NCO on the tour excused himself to take a comfort break. Meanwhile the subaltern addressed the troops. "Well, men, you've all done very well and here we are up North, where it's grim." (Young cavalry subaltern had probably never been North of Berkshire before.) "You can all go home for the weekend and see your loved ones. Just be back here first thing Monday morning. Oh, and why don't you take your shiny Foxes home to show Mummy and Daddy?" Before you could say, "Ha'way the Lads," the vehicle park was empty and the sNCO stepped back out of the building to an eerie silence and leaves eddying and resettling on the vehicle park. "Where's all the <expletive deleted> vehicles, Sir???" "I sent the boys home." sNCO was not happy spending the whole weekend driving around every council estate in the North east of England rounding up Fox CVR(W)s. He made damn sure the subaltern came with him. Oh how we all larfed.

Centaur. I (and Baz) was in Aliwal Barracks Tidworth 76 - 77 and saw the Centaur travelling from wherever out onto the driver training area on the plain just at the back of our camp.

The Scorpion in the last but one pic. I bet it has production roadwheels fitted. Wouldn't it be clever of Bovvy to swap the inside roadwheels from this Scorpion with the spoked prototype outside roadwheels on the display Scorpion so that they both look like all Scorpions in service, not (in the case of the one on display) the handful of prototypes?

Seen the PM, thanks, Jack. Jack has asked me if I could write a full review - I thought I had! The prologue finds a man walking his dog through a wood, which sniffs out a human arm along with millions of pounds'worth of money in numerous different currencies. We then meet the hero, Matt, who, not in the least surprisingly, is an ex-SAS soldier trying to earn a living as a bar owner on the costas, and failing quite spectacularly. He owes a six-figure sum to an ex-KGB gangster who wants his money back. The time is the aftermath of 9/11 and the Americans are pulling weight to close down terrorist bank accounts around the world. Terrorists (Al-Qaeda in particular) are busy converting the cash in their bank accounts into gold and diamonds to be taken away and kept out of reach of the Americans. He pulls a fit attractive blonde (it turns out she has pulled him). She is from MI6, or "Five" depending on the edit (see above). They have a job for him. They have got wind that Al-Qaeda are about to move 30 million pounds'worth of gold and diamonds across the Mediterranean in an inconspicuous small freighter. "Five" want the ship and crew sunk without trace. Matt is to assemble and lead a five-man team on the mission. "Five" do not want the money for themselves so long as Al-Qaeda don't have it. The team's payment will come from liberating the gold and diamonds, fencing them and splitting the money five ways. Because the op is black, they must fence the goods on the black market. Matt chooses a pair of his former-SAS colleagues who could each also do with an instant couple of million quid, and signs them up. He also has a boyhood friend who is something of a big cheese in London gangland (whose sister just happens to be Matt's fiancee). He insists that his friend be a part of the team, against the wishes of "Five", who only agree to his participation if they appoint a turned renegade IRA man as the fifth team member. The SBS train the team in assaults on ships at sea, the assault takes place, they get away with the gold, then one by one, the team members start to die at the hands of an Al-Qaeda assassin. Nobody knows who or where they are, so the assassin must be being tipped off by an insider. Which of them is getting the rest killed because of his greedy desire to increase his own share of the bounty?

I have had time on my hands the last couple of weeks. I lifted this from the shelf of books for a rainy day having just finished Dark Winter - Andy McNab (qv). Sadly, on ARRSE, as I struggled to get into Greed, I discovered this book featuring on the "Worst Book Ever" thread. I am not even sure Ryan even read the book himself: if I had been the author I'd have sacked the ghost writer for this travesty, asking, "Do you want the world to think I am a stupid, thick Geordie?" Never mind the countless trivial errors regarding tactics, etc, get a load of this: The ghost writer attributed the mission (to sink an Al-Qaeda boat laden with gold and diamonds to be laundered after 9/11 before the Americans twisted Swiss bankers' arms to impound terrorist cash) to MI5. Throughout the book there are countless references to MI5 and "Five." If Ryan did see the book, he must have told the ghost writer, "You stupid <expletive deleted>, this mission would have been sanctioned by MI6." The ghost writer duly performed a global edit to change "MI5" to "MI6". Shame he did not change a single reference to "Five" to Six, so that we see "MI6" and "Five" throughout the book, often IN THE SAME SENTENCE. The ghost also did not seem to know that rounds go into a magazine, which is fitted to a weapon during loading. He kept calling them magazine cartidges. WTF?!?!? The twist in the storyline to tidy up the mess the latter had got into did impress me though. I never throw away a book. This one will find its way onto the communal office bookshelf. IT IS DIRE.

An ex-SAS black operative (surprise) is tasked to intercept a delivery of pneumonic plague serum (codenamed "Dark Winter") to prevent an Al-Qaeda atrocity in London. It is McNab's usual style, well-written and a good read, sadly over all too quickly. BTW if anybody wants to meet McNab next month, see http://www.tankmuseum.org

Hand up: I missed that one. I watched the series THEN reread Normandy to the Baltic and realised they ought to be 15/19H but did not consider that we had converted from DD Shermans to Cromwells before going to Normandy. I had previously thought Shermans and Cromwells a curious mix but never bothered to think it through ("You never do" I hear you say)

Hans von Luck. Otherwise agree with the whole thread. Von Luck became a lecturer at Sandhurst and great friend of John Howard, Ox and Bucks who dropped on Pegasus Bridge, who also lectured at Sandhurst. ISTR von Luck died in 1997

Actually Spielberg did. If, during the Market Garden episode of Band of Brothers, you freezeframe on a picture of the troop leader's face, underneath his goggles is something looking more like a 15/19H officers sewn beret badge than anything else. They could have put anything there, but bothered to get it right. Bravo! See link: http://www.regiments.org/img/badges/uk-crest/robinson/cav/d15-19h.gif (ignore the blue / yellow / red diagonal stripes and focus on the badge on a red background). On the DVD box there is also artwork which shows a Sherman with British markings, including an "A" Squadron triangle: According to "Normandy to the Baltic", "A" Squadron 15/19H was the only 11 Armd Div unit to participate in Garden, attached as Baz points out to 506 PIR.

I think it was on 17 May that 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars, 3 Div Recce Regt, were ordered to fight a delaying battle back I think from Brussels to the River Escaut in order to save the rest of 3 Div dug in on the river, and by the end of that day had ceased to exist.

I know other weapons were fitted, but between 75 and 82, the only weapon I ever saw on any of our 15/19H Mark 1s or Mark 2s was a .30" Browning.