AlienFTM

UIN strictly is Unit Imprest Number, describing the Unit Imprest Account of the unit to the Royal Army Pay Corps, though its value became apparent outside the RAPC and it evolved into the Unit Identity Number. Major units retained their UIN permanently. Thus 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars were A0123A, IIRC 14/20H were A0122A (and note they are zeroes not Oscars - ISTR that RAPC datavet demanded alhpabetic, four numerics, alphabetic). 12 Armoured Workshop REME (12 Armd Wksp) was A1112A. Deployed to UNFICYP, B Squadron 15/19H became A0123B. ISTR that Army units always began with A and permanent units always ended with A. 10 FDWKSP does = 10 Field Workshop (REME) 1 SQN RCT = 1 Squadron Royal Corps of Transport.

ONE man shafted by the MOD. For another, see Soldier Five, by an unsung hero of the Bravo Two Zero mission. Name escapes me. Shame on me. IIRC he is the New Zealander. He went to publish the true story of B20 (in NZ IIRC), and the MOD injuncted him. He spent five years proving that his book contained nothing that wasn't already in the public domain. IIRC the last chapter of the book describes his battle with the MOD in as much detail as the rest of the book describes the Pimmelauf that was B20. As for Tim Collins: a typical CO of a combat unit and if I found myself under his command I'd march into Hell for him. I have served under a few COs to whom I could not give this accolade. (Doffs cap.)

I read SS-GB about 20 years ago. Read it once; underwhelmed; haven't read it again; don't feel the urge to; haven't even seen it squirrelled away on a bookshelf since (like any good book I ever read and reread .. and reread). Not Deighton's magnum opus by any stretch of the imagination.

Correct me if I am wrong. I am guessing from the road sign glimpsed partially in the bottom left-hand corner that the footage was shot in Europe and my guess is Germany (and I saw no other road signs to give me a better clue.) I saw no Give Way markings either. In the shot of the Stuarts, the camera once pans left just about enough to suggest there are no road markings at all at the junction apart from some very faded zebra crossings. In the absence of priority road markings (which would have been visible beyond the junction as the vehicles drove away), I posit that the over-riding European rule of the road applies: Give way to traffic from the right. This means the Beamer driver had right of way. If he was German, I guarantee you that he will not give that away. German traffic law is written such that if there is an accident, somebody has committed an offence. If the German driver gave away his way and was rear-ended, he would be to blame. If there were any other accident, the German giving way could be construed in a court of law as somehow contributory and he'd be to blame. Then there's the German ethic. Lesson number Two on military driving in Germany went something like this: If you are in the outside lane of the Autobahn and you see a headlight flash behind you, even if you are doing 150Km/h, get out of the outside lane now because somebody much faster than you is overtaking you. (Howeverfast you are going, there is always somebody travelling much faster than you.) Even if he is still on the horizon in your rear-view mirror, he is going to claim his right to overtake you and will claim you impeded him by not pulling back into the next lane after completing your own overtaking manoeuvre. He is going to close very rapidly and that's why he has flashed his headlights. I once had a German in a Merc try to pull the same stunt on the M3 between Camberley and Fleet, thinking the whole Friday evening rush hour was going to somehow get out of his way. He sat, stuck in the outside lane, just like me, all the way round Winchester through the roadworks where they were building the M3 Winchester bypass to the end of the M3 north of Southampton.

Not many. The question was addressed after the last one was awarded. There was a feature on TV showing blanks ready to be inscribed with hero's name rank and number, securely locked up somewhere tighter than a fish's bum. But no, there isn't much left of the cannon to be made into medals.

1st Battalion of the French Foreign Legion disembarked at Haiphong harbour, an act which marked the start of a conflict which was to run (for the French) for 71 years. Edited because I picked up the book again last night and realised I was a prat and got the date wrong. ;o)

Hey, it's my specialist subject. Don't get me started on how HESH works or how shot has progressed from a cannonball through AP, APC, APCBC, ADPS to APFSDS. To the ultimate curse whereby my role demanded I count flash to bang time to determine the range to a nuclear strike. To this day, thunderstorms set me counting and calculating. ;o)

Have you ever tried putting a Sarry on a train? We used to load our ACVs onto train and Murphy's Law said that each entrain / detrain involved reversing the Can on or off. On a flatcar with sides there is no room for the steered wheels to turn before the vehicle is on its side on the tracks. Careful is the word.

I got a General Service Medal 1962 (Clasp Northern Ireland) for turning up - "For Campaign Service" as it says on the back - for 28+ days in 1976. By the end of 1976 I had also been awarded an UNFICYP Medal ("In The Service Of Peace", as it says on the back) for turning up to the United Nations Force In Cyprus and sticking around for a simlar period. Brave? Moi? Well I admit to supporting Sunderland AFC. Does that count?

I thought so. I was going to guess at the casing for a 500W ganerator until I exploded the pic, which was only a help in deciding it wasn't off a 500W genny.

Hardyferret is spot on. the SR (Station Radio) A41 manpack is the military radio in use through the 1970s, though other sets like Storno and Pye, as mentioned might be used on inter-branch nets where the A41 was incompatible. We didn't get Clansman in BAOR (and I believe we were among the first to get it) until about 1980. If you want a Clansman manpack, you are looking at a UK/PRC (Portable Radio Comunication) 351. This could be enhanced by the addition of a booster to become a UK/PRC352. However, these were full manpacks. Infantry kept demanding smaller, less obtrusive comms, which led to the introduction of the 350 and 349 (the numbers were meant to be ascending in order of power output but having gone backwards to 350 already, they had to use 349 where it didn't fit into the structure. These were pocket sets. These miltary sets all worked in the military VHF frequency range between about 30 - 76MHz depending on the radio. The non-military sets didn't. In built-up areas, radio nets would be rebroadcast on duplex frequencies: everybody transmits on one frequency and receives on another. High on a hill overlooking the built-up would be a rebroadcast station transmitting and receiving on the reverse frequencies, improving everybody's reception. If you can remember Z-Cars, whenever people spoke on the radio, everything they heard came from base: this was because of the reduced rebroadcast they used. Typically you might hear a muted warbling when other outstations were talking to base, so that you knew not to interrupt (you can only have one, the strongest, signal coming in at a time). In the late 80s, early 90s, my father-in-law used to work as a chemical specialist for his local fire service. He had a radio receiver permanently monitoring the Operations net so that he had a heads-up before he got called out. When other people were talking, unheard to everyone bar the controller, everybody else was still getting the warble. All the nonsense you see in films about operators talking at once is just that, nonsense. What you get is known in the trade as jamming. I undertsnad that Bob Marley was a specialist in this field. I imagine that the civvy nets were used in NI to implement existing police infrastructure without having to commit Army resources to run a separate rebroadcast net, hence the more-appropriate non-military sets discussed. "Hello all stations, this is 98A. This is an automatic rebroadcast net. Out"

Top picture looks like a row of 75mm holes, either from a Mark 4: 75mm L/43 on a 4F or G or various Mark 4-based StuGs, 75mm L/48 on a 4J or L/70 on Panther of Jagdpanzer 4 L70. I'd guess the bottom one is 88m, either L/56 from a Flak 88 or a Tiger 1, or L/70 from a Pak 88 or a Tiger 2. IMHO of course. Where L/nn is the ration of the length of the barrel to the calibre of the weapon. Higher the number, higher the muzzle velocity and the deeper the hole. AFAIK, none of these weapons used Hohlladung rounds, forerunners of HEAT rounds found in modern hand-held AT weapons (and rarely in tank AT rounds but not in British tanks). I vaguely recall that HEAT (High Explosive, Anti-Tank since you ask) rounds have a tendency within limits to turn perpendicular to the target as they strike, though the limit is extremely minimal and a non-perpendicular shot will tend to malfunction. A property of explosives is to generate a blast perpendicular to the surface of the explosive material. A HEAT (and a Hohlladung) round is designed with the explosive face focused on the tip of the round (HEAT round has a distinctive pointed tip; Hohlladung (meaning "hollow charge") has an empty ballistic cap allowing it to fly better over longer distances. Thus when a HEAT or Hohlladung round strikes a target, the explosion is focused onto a tiny spot on the target and a jet of what is usually termed plasma (though I don't personally believe this is entirely accurate) is fired through a tiny hole, vapourising the the crew and firing off the stowed ammunition. These holes are not the latter. They look, as described, like solid shot penetrations to me.

Just about on-topic, as told me some 20 years ago by someone who was close to the events ... 24 years ago a Guards batallion landed on the Falklands and helped push the Argies back to the sea. When they overran an Argy command post, they liberated a very nice, pristine black Mercedes staff car. They managed to smuggle the Merc back to Chelsea Barracks, proposing that it become the Commanding Officer's unofficial runabout (by 1982 I think the issued Car, Staff, 2*4 (Morris 1800) had been replaced by the Car, Staff, 2*4 (Ford Cortina Mark 4)). The CO instructed his driver to take the Merc round the corner to the Merc dealership in Park Lane and get it serviced. At 0900 the following day, he pulled up thereat. He made his request for a service and everything else, no doubt subsidised by the Commanding Officer's Personal Fund. He informed them that he'd be back to collect the vehicle at 1700 that day. At 1700, CO's driver arrives back at the Merc dealership and asks about his black Mercedes staff car. "Which black Mercedes staff car might that be?" asked the receptionist. "The one I brought in for a service and everything this morning," replied the Corporal. "I've come to collect it as agreed." "Oh you mean the black Mercedes staff car that, according to the chassis number, we sold to the Argentine Army?" "Yes, that's the one." "Ah, you see, we've done some checking ..." (can you tell what it is yet?) "... and Mercedes records show that the bankrupt Argentine regime defaulted on their payments for this staff car, so it's ours. Thanks for bringing it back for us. Goodbye."

As the man put it on the twice-weekly public vehicle demo at Bovington, the Army's decision to retire the Ferret after GW1 has been a Godsend to Miltary Vehicle afficionados. Cheap (ish), no bigger than a Landrover and without doubt the best ride you'll ever have.

Late autumn 1976, 01EC28 would not start for me while our Troop was deployed to the UN outpost at the mine at Skouriotissa in Western Cyprus, high in the Troudos Mountains near the western end of the Green Line. Each troop had a REME VMA attached to keep the Ferrets rolling. Ours diagnosed a faulty starter motor and ordered a replacement to be shipped out from Force Reserve Squadron HQ in Nicosia. While he awaited its arrival, he started to prep, by removing the starter motor. As you have read by now, this was a non-trivial task, especially since there were no lifting facilities available. Three bolts mounted the starter to the floor of the engine compartment. This particular Ferret was blessed with the early, small, inspection hatches under the engine. It was just about possible to get a OJDE spanner (9/16" AF IIRC?) through the hatch but it was impossible to get the spanner to locate onto the bolts as there was no room. The VM cut his spanner up (no simple task in itself and set to work). I spelled him once or twice, but essentially he spent the night with his arm deep inside the ferret handling its nuts. By morning the new starter motor was available and the next 6 hours were spent putting it back. (No engine lift involved, remember.) By mid-afternoon, we were ready to go. Turned on the master switch and hit the big black button ... still it turned over but still it made no attempt to start the engine. It was decided the Ferret needed to be returned to Nicosia for further investigation. Luckily our billet was in an engineer's house at the top of a ramp. With Troop Leader in turret (there was an Officers Mess function, so he had a great excuse to travel, especially since it was his vehicle), the troop push started the Ferret down this ramp just as it was getting dark. The UN's record journey time between Skouriotissa and Nicosia had been set in an airportable Landrover at 34 minutes. We did it in the dark, over muddy mountain tracks in 45. The REME sent in the big boys and by morning 01EC28 was fit again. The problem? During our patrol that morning, we'd hit a rock whilst navigating a narrow track through a minefield. The right-hand battery had become dislodged and shorted out on the battery box. While it was running, everything was well, but as soon as the engine was stopped, 12 volts were never going to be enough to turn it over. Those muddy tracks were fun on 12 voltsworth of light through a 24 volt system ... So it is possible to change a Ferret starter motor without a pack-lift - I was there, but I think the consensus is that it isn't worth the effort.

Autumn of 76, patrolling the Green Line between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on the outskirts of Famagusta, aka Farmer G. Must have been based at the box factory at Ayyios Nikolauos (sp) aka Aye Nick. Must have been in the Swedish UNFICYP zone (give us a break: it's 30 years ago ;o). Drove Mark 2/3 Ferret 01EC28 out of the box factory and all was well. Patrolled as far as the first Swedish Observation Post. Carried out a halt parade. Eye drawn to the first traces of oil behind a front wheel. Memo to self: keep an eye on that. Next halt parade at the next OP, I noticed that whereas one front wheel was aligned with the hull, the other was slightly but noticeably toe-out. Drove round the DMZ around the western edge of the ghost city Farmer G, long since emptied of British Sovereign Base families and totally looted by occupying Trukish forces. Though it was rumoured that the main street in Farmer G appeared totally untouched. But that was because the UN occasionally drove through there and it was meant to look untouched. Apparently the city was like the set of a Western: everything was fake behind the facades.. We reached the coast at Fig Tree Bay (which I believe is now a tourist hot spot). In those days only our own C Squadron (based in the ESBA) and we, B Squadron 15/19H, UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron ever visited Fig Tree Bay. Our gloss white UN Ferrets looked much smarter (and, strangely, bigger) than C Sqn's olive and black Ferrets. We set off back round the outskirts of Farmer G. Just getting to the most sensitive spot on the Green Line and my front whells went in opposite directions, each now toe out by about 30 degrees. Section commander left us and went after recovery. We sat under Turkish guns investigating the four-man Compo pack stowed on a rear mudguard in case of breakdown. ---ooo0ooo--- Which brings me to another embarrassing breakdown. We'd been in-theatre (UNFICYP again) a week or two, maybe a month before the above tale. We had to travel to the ESBA to zero our Small Metal Guns (come to think of it we never did zero the Three-Oh Brownings in the Ferret turrets). We travelled down from our base at UN HQ in Nicosia through Larnaca and on toward Dhekelia in a UN Leyland Sherpa minibus. During the recent war, the furthest Turkish advance south of Nicosia had been to cut the main road between Nicosia and Larnaca, and only the UN were allowed to traverse the Trukish Zone. Everybody else had to take the scenic route further west. We got to the ranges and got off the bus, only to find there had been an administrative Pimmel-auf, so we got back on the bus, turned round and headed back to Nicosia. As we traversed the Turkish Zone, we marvelled at their forts high up on the hilltops. There is a stretch of road where UN vehicles are proscribed from stopping. At the bend in the road at the northern end there is a cairn comprising three UN blue helmets in memory of three Australian Civilian Police (AustCivPol) attached to the UN who were napalmed by a Turkish jet and thereafter all UN vehicles have always been painted gloss white with highly reflective UN badges. Not a good place to break down. So we did. While we nervously (we were new in theatre) awaited recovery, we became aware that a squaddie had become detched from the fort on the nearest hilltop and he was sandsurfing down to us. He approached our vehicle and asked, "Cigarette?" Somebody gave him a packet and he legged it back up the hill, pleased as Punch. ---ooo0ooo--- Halfway through the tour, it was again decided we'd zero the SMGs. This time our section would call in from patrol. As Troop Leader's driver, I led. A farmer pulled his tractor into the road as I passed. I was able to swerve and avoid him without slowing from flat out. The driver of the second vehicle was less lucky (but not as unlucky as the tractor driver, whose clapped out old tractor, his pride and joy, broke in half). ---ooo0ooo--- Back to the box factory. We'd finish a patrol, park up the Ferrets and chill. Being billeted in a derelict box factory, smoking was not permitted indoors, so the smokers in the Troop would go out the front door and round the corner into the wind shadow for a quick drag. We junior ranks had not been aware of just how close we were to the Turkish lines. I was stood outside the front doors when a colleague walked round the corner, putting out his fag, looking pale. "I was smoking on me tab when a voice called, 'Gizza fag mate' in a loud cockney accent from nowhere." (Our regiment recruited from the North East, though my colleague was a Jock.) When the request was repeated, Jock realised that the request was actually coming from the Turkish trenches. "Wittafu?!?!?" exclaimed Jock. As UN troops we were supposed to be neutral and proscribed from speaking to the belligerants. However, being out of sight and out of mind, he pressed for clarification. As Tommy Turk put it, "I'm a cockney ain't I? Chelsea supporter. But half Turkish. I went over to Istanbul to see me pop in 1974 and the barstewards conscripted me didn't they? I've been in this trench for two years." Edited cos I cannot believe that the expletive checker objects to the letters cock in cockney Edited again cos I found another instance of cockney. grrr

I am upset that I cannot now even find an Airfix or Revell model of a Satrfighter, for, in the words of recruit von Trippenhoff: http://www.starfarer.net/captlock.html

Flashback. In 1977 I was Squadron Leader's Rover driver and invited to stay up at Otterburn while 15/19H GW Troop converted live Swingfires into smoking holes from their Mark 5 Ferrets. Note I was actually a CVR(T) crewman by trade and although I had entered the Army already in possession of a full class A driving licence, I hadn't been trained on the Land Rovers or the Ferret I'd driven on ops in NI. I had the licence: that was enough. Toward the end of the day I was invited to get my kit off. Turns out they meant a wheel off the Rover (77FM51 since you ask) so that I could wind in all the 4000m lengths of cable GW Troop had plastered all over OTA using a hub attached to a wheel station. After a couple of minutes of winding in, I was asked if I was sitting with my foot on the brake. "Course I bliddy am: the thing will roll off down this hill if I don't." "Well your wheel station is smoking quite nicely now. Trust me: you don't need to brake."

Interesting mix of indicator and stop / tail lenses. Big, flat (post about 1985?) indicator lenses and small domed stop / tails. Not a criticism - merely an observation. ;o)

'Scuse me? We've been Alpha (I will not have Americanizationismatings forced upon me) all summer: we've reverted to Zulu.

Our (1970s) 4-man and 10-man Composite Ration Packs were dateable by the tin of red fish in every pack. After Tuna became iffy because of Mercury in the seawater, we continued to see it in Compo for many years until it was replaced by Salmon. ... which in turn got removed - I suspect for the same reason - by Pilchard. We ate like kings on exercise. With a 3-man CVR(T) crew, we might get 3* 4-man ration packs for four days, but if an exercise ran Monday to Friday, we'd get another 4-man pack for the 5th day, total 16 man-day-meals for 15 man-days. Note also that after crashing out at 0200 Monday and not eating until maybe 1600, then being back in camp by 1600 Friday so as not to upset the Germans, we ran up a lot of spare Compo. Singlies had a daily Food charge deducted from their Military Salary at source, so back in camp, there was no necessity to acquire surplus Compo. Married "Pads" paif for their own food and many a cavalryman's child grew up familiar with Chicken Curry, Chicken Extreme, Stewed Steak in Gravy, Snake and Pygmy Pudding etc. Even so. with BAOR on permanent 4-hours' notice to move throughout the Cold War, there were vast stocks of Compo and the QMG must have got in a sweat when he realised just how old some of the Compo was. We started having Compo Days, where the whole Army ate Compo - nothing at all fresh in order to shift some of the older supplies of rations. The Catering Corps were not allowed to use anything but Compo on Compo Days. That said, after I left the cavalry for the Pay Corps, I was attached to an Armoured Workshop REME. Because of my Control Signaller skills, unlike any other Pay Clerk - sorry Military Accountant - who ever walked the planet, my going-out-on-exercise frequency actually went up. Incredible, but my skills were in short supply, even if my trade pay for Control Signaller was ceased six months after transferring in. Happy teddy bear was I ... NOT. Now instead of messing by crew, the Main REME group with which I exercised, like most non-combat units messed centrally, i.e. the cooks went on exercise and cooked for everyone. But here's the rub. The cooks were on exercise; virtually the whole unit bar a VERY small rear party went on exercise, because the nature of their work and how they procured parts actually made their job EASIER on exercise because, for example, suddenly there WERE Chieftain engines in the whole of BAOR and we couldn't have Chieftains standing idle in the field, could we. So the cooks went on exercise and they took all their fresh rations with them, even though Compo was available. So for the first week or ten days of an exercise we ate essentially fresh rations, and only when that was all gone did we resort to Compo. And boy did the REME not like Compo? I remember the last day of one exercise, the cooks were really down to the bare bones of their Compo and one of the choice (CHOICE?!?!? FFS!) of dishes was pilchard pizza. Notwithstanding the fact that Pilchard is simply adult sardine, NOBODY would touch these pizzas. Me? I had a feast. Especially since the cooks and the MRG HQ all knew that I maintained their pay accounts and that their radio work became very poor when I made them learn to get by without me because I was due to be posted out you know? Mmm Compo ... drool.

LH front wing (I'd say "nearside" but if it was LHD ...) of a Bedford Q or R Series lorry - a 3 tonner.

The second pic made me think of the suspension arm tensioning strut (equivalent to a jack on a tracked vehicle) but the CVR(T) model looked nothing like that and on reflection it's far too complicated.

Strangely, just yesterday as I gave our Industrial Trainee a lift home, I mentioned items that were planned but we never saw. Navaid: a gyroscopic positioning system designed to fit in a small space in the Scorpion engine compartment. Radiac mast: a small mast to be mounted on the top centre fitting of a Scorpion turret. Are you telling me that Radiac masts ever actually existed then?!?

If you mean what I think you mean, it allows pressure balancing in the air-filled respirator surround cushion. There is a SOP for its use. I believe it was to be carried out daily when the threat of an NBC attack existed. Open the valve briefly and allow the air pressure to balance, then tighten it back up. Some people used to believe (mainly because they were gullible and people told them) that you needed to blow up the cushion like a balloon via this valve in order to maintain the gas seal. WRONG!!! All it did was remove the flexibility of the cushion and REDUCE the gas seal.