AlienFTM

00CA59 rings a bell. If it was with UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron in 1976-7, there is a good chance it was driven by a colleague in my troop.

I hope you'll excuse me for being picky. Welsh, Irish and Scottish forces attended the First Gulf War, so it would be more accurate to ask about British, rather than English troops. They can get picky if you call them English. Also, British Forces did not participate in Operation Desert Storm: they were on Operation Granby.

Bumped for the benefit of Hen Hunter on the Blogs of MV Restorations forum

I do believe that question has been asked in here before and with a bit of forum searching, you'll find out exactly what BAOR was like. Here you go; http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?20533-Was-it-really-that-much-fun-being-in-the-british-army-in-germany-in-the-70s-80s&p=365825#post365825

Shame there isn't a "Like" button. Well done.

Interesting. Points: VSD Monchengladbach makes sense. Last couple of months of 1977, 15/19H and 3 Armd Div settled into the BFG Orbat and spent much time up and down the Autobahn collecting kit from Munchingstrapback as we called it. Lots of kit in the VSD (co-located with CPO BAOR where I later attended a course but that's another story). My guess is the 1979 conversion was to Clansman, since that's when 1 Armd Div got it, and 16/5L, the vehicle's next owner, were 1 Armd Div Armd Recce Regt. The 1986 15/19H line intrigues me. 15/19H left Paderborn in 1984 (the night my son was born I took a ferry home via Zeebrugge and met two old buddies from the rear party on their way). They went to Bovvy as RAC Centre Regiment, then a couple of years later went to Detmold as a Chieftain regiment. So why they took a Scorpion onto the books in 1986 is a mystery to me. Scorpion was a medium recce vehicle but MBT regiments got Scimitar for close recce (and unless things had changed - I was long gone - close recce was provided by a troop from the close recce squadron of the divisional Armd Recce Regt anyway). You may wish to clarify this with my old mucker Bazz, who was still with the regiment. Scorpole. I doubt you'll find a CVR(T) (except maybe a new build if there are any) that wasn't Scorpoled. Op Scorpole was a rolling programme of upgrades, refits and retrofits to CVR(T)s to bring them up to the current build status. When a vehicle got pulled (overdue an upgrade or too many assemblies needed replacing) it was replaced with a brand "new" one ex-Scorpole. The term "new" is misleading. Once the build runs were complete, there was no such thing as a new CVR(T). Scorpole was a mirror of Op Bargepole that kept Chieftains up to date. Nowadays Abrams (and presumably CR2) tanks go through a similar process. Watch out for an episode of Megafactories on a satellite channel. There was every likelihood the "new" Scorpion was older than the one on its way out. Oh and for the record, I crewed 02FD14 in 1981.

I have never seen or heard of the Battalion number going into a callsign in this way. However I cannot dispute that your vehicle carried it and that it tallies with the Battalion Number table you give. Everything else looks good to me, so I'll concur with your interpretation.

I wanted to use PEN15 as my password, but depressingly, the computer told me my password was not long enough.

I could name for you a member (or two) of my regiment who were attached to the Royal Armoured Corps Parachute Squadron who intervened in Nicosia during the 1974 war and can regale you all night about banks and bullion. But I shan't. Try either the Cyprus war thread on the Arrse Military History forum or the RAC Para Sqn thread on the RAC forum (both threads have been quiet for a long time so you'll have to dig).

Reminds me of something I read about 15 years ago. I could describe it from memory if I wanted but why bother when I can GIFY ... ? http://www.snopes.com/humor/nonsense/kangaroo.asp (Must have been 13-14 years ago.)

About five years ago I attended a Light Dragoons (13th/18th Hussars and 15th/19th Hussars) Regimental Association weekend. I was told that they were only in the throes of converting their Scimitars from Clansman to Bowman in preparation for their the-upcoming Op Herrick tour (they have done another since then). So to hear that second line might still be using Clansman is no surprise. As to frequencies, the Military VHF band is a given, negotiated by nations (istr that Radio 1 moved from 247 metres to two different frequencies in the 1990s because it clashed with a foreign station). Further, if NATO troops are all going to be able to communicate, they need to be capable of operating the same bands. Something like that.

My feet just came out in blisters and my brow in a cold sweat. I did my last ever Combat Fitness Test at Longmoor either late 88 or early 89 (the entire computer centre staff less essentials went off to play soldiers for a week and decided a CFT would be good to include). The CFT involved an 8-mile squadded walk/run in two hours followed by some other tests (phase 2 was to carry an oppo of the same size and weight with both sets of equipment in a fireman's lift over 100m; phase 3 was special to arm: being RAPC, some wit decided that phase 3 would be "Get on the truck; get off the truck" so we did just that ... except that after all this, "Get off the truck" amounted to "step off the back of the truck and don't give a toss how you land cos the CFT is finished when you hit the deck. The kit included 35lb of webbing, personal weapon and so on. Done in full combats. The run started off well enough except that: 1. It was routed round the old (now lifted) railway line. Nice and level, but we were running on hard core. Eventually I lost touch with the racing snakes. 2. It turned out that the route was only about seven miles long, so the PTI had thrown in a one-mile loop at the end. So as I staggered up toward the end, I found a PTI who (assuming I was coming off the loop) told me I was still in time if I puched. I didn't have the heart (or the breath) to tell him I'd only done seven miles. Having broken the back of Phase 1 (by cheating, albeit accidentally), I found my second wind for Phase 2. But trust me, the sight of a Bedford to climb up nearly broke my heart. Only nearly though. And as I said, 15 stone of me stepping back off hurt when I got back down. Next day, last day of the exercise, I spent having me blisters syringed while the youngsters got to play with bayonets. I didn't care about the bayonet drills: the young female medic was more than welcome to caress my weary feet.

My bold. Explains why the canopy appears to bulge in an unsightly manner.

Are they 14/20H (the memory is going: a quick Google confirms I was right about the budgie on the yellow background)? Change the cap badge and the colour of the woolly pulley and they could be 15/19H (or practically any other cavalry regiment).

Not my first instinct, though the wagon looks new, sharp edges etc. I was surprised even to see track guards: not robust enough in service + no spares = never seen them. In which case 3/75 might well be the right time frame but more by fluke than intention imho.

I too think it's Bovvy (no particular feeling other than gut) and someone is being escorted out of the post in traditional fashion. The last pic, the guy with back to camera reminds me awfully of my first squadron leader (major, 15/19H, 1976-78ish) who went on to command the regiment in the 80s, but it certainly doesn't look like him sat on top of the Chieftain. His PerSec precludes me from naming him. But I cannot be 100% sure. Not a lot of help sorry.

I am clearing my recently-deceased father-in-law's estate. He did his National Service in the RAF. He had one or two interesting books that I have borrowed and read, one being about TSR2 and its development and cancellation and various weapon systems, some intended for TSR2 which eventually led to the Tornado GR4; another looks at how close the UK came (weeks) to breaking the sound barrier and 1000 mph in 1946 using the Miles M52, a year before the Americans got through the sound barrier (having acquired their technology by looking at the M52) and ten years before the FD2 (which F-I-L worked on as a plastics scientist) broke 1000 mph. The third book is "Wings on my Sleeve" an autobiography of Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown RN, tagged by Amazon as "The World's Greatest Test Pilot". The latter two are both signed by the author, Eric Brown to F-I-L. But that's neither here nor there. Eric Brown is certainly a legend having flown iirc 487 different types of aircraft, a Guinness World Record (note variants, for example dozens of variants of Spitfire and Seafire count as 1). Not to mention first man to land a jet on a carrier, etc. He went to university in Germany and was interned (briefly) by the Gestapo in 1939. While in Germany he met Hanna Reitsch and Ernst Udet, which ensured his love would always be the aeroplane. When the war started he went straight to join up and by quirk of fate found himself in the Fleet Air Arm. He was a natural for deck landings. When his only (wartime) operational tour was brought to an end by the sinking of his carrier, his obvious skills ensured he was transferred to become a test pilot. At war's end he was sent to the Reich to grab as many German aircraft, technologies, secrets, whatever as possible. And he did tours in the USA. So he flew just about everything, up to at least the F104G. He comments on the Do335. Istr that it had a pilot ejection system that included charges to blow off the tail propellers and part of the cruciform tail so that the pilot did not get decapitated on ejection. I commend the book.

Shot in the dark. Might this cable have have a metallic core? Is it marked in one-foot steps that can be felt in the dark, like knots? If so it might be dipole cable, allowing you to erect a dipole (in any of a number of ways) in a static location to significantly increase HF range.

My enduring image of Bucanneer is from March 1967. Family returned up the Channel returning from South America where my father had died, got home, learned that we hadn't by much missed the Torrey Canyon going aground on the Seven Stones reef between Cornwall and the Scillies. News was full of pictures of Bucanneers trying to torch the crude oil slick with napalm. Huge black almost mushroom cloud hung over the wreck but the Cornish beaches got well lubricated. Read many years later that Bucanneer stayed in service well past its planned end of service date simply because it was such a rock solid platform from which to launch ground attacks that nothing could beat it in the NATO competitions. Edit: Wiki has some interesting comments including HMGs denial of holding napalm stocks. Have a gander.

TBH I thought it looked bigger than the Gazelles I remember. It isn't just me that's got bigger then.

Reminiscent of the Dark Earth / Mid Stone camouflage I once applied to a model Spitfire (might have been an Airfix IX or ditto V but it was decades ago) with Azure undersides, the cam scheme having been lifted from a book. Cannot remember the squadron but istr it was based in Bari.

I (used to, probably still do - I know where it will be if I do) have a book on PzKpfw 4 in Action from the 1970s. I am fairly sure that the last recorded action by Mark 4s was indeed on the Golan Heights either in the 67 or the 73 war, where the Israelis had used the turrets to make anti-tank bunkers. But I haven't seen the book in at least 25 years so I could well be wrong. I also seem to recall (from the companion volume Panther in Action) that the last recorded action involving Panthers was in the same war, firing across the Sea of Galilee.

I wonder if I am one handshake away from the pilot. 15th/19th The King's Royal Hussars Unit Paymaster introduced me to Offshore Yacht Racing (and my wife). Whilst cruising the Baltic (some time about 1978-80) he told me about being in hospital after a helicopter crash (he had transferred from the RA) where the man in the next bed was a Lightning pilot. The Lightning pilot was in traction with an even worse back than the Paymaster. He'd ejected from a Lightning. Twice. He'd been doing a simulated scramble somewhere (forget, this was decades ago), rotated too sharply and left his bottom engine on the runway. Punched out far too low. Claimed that the Martin Baker was so violent that it compressed his spine. Off light duties and back in the cockpit, he was tasked with flying a Lightning from East Anglia * to RAF(G). Over the North Sea he encountered a sudden violent thunderstorm, double engine blow-out and another encounter with the silk canopy. So soon after his last ejection, he had been in the hospital bed in traction for some time. _____ * Thinks: "RAF Swanton Morley was a Lightning (and TSR2 however briefly, even if not in service) base. It's now Robertson Bks, home of the Light Dragoons, children of the marriage of 15/19H and 13/18H under Options for Change, born 1992. Wonder if there is a link there?"

Doubt it will be a Gazelle. Fails on the "small" criterion. I surprised myself a couple of weeks ago. I drive to and from work via a narrow country lane. One morning as I drove past a clearing, I saw a bright yellow fenestron tail that looked extremely like that of a Gazelle just the other side of the fence (hasten to point out the the rest of the helicopter was in fact attached). As I creamed past I barely had time to clock HAMPSHIRE (maybe?) AIR AMBULANCE on the side before it was gone. And to marvel at the pilot having got it into what was a rather small field. Didn't rank anywhere near Capt Singer 14/20H att 3 Regt AAC who regularly liaised with the 15/19H battlegroup on the North German Plain. About 1978 I was standing in as RSM's driver. He had me take the Ferret to a very small clearing in a wood and Big Lou and I debated whether the clearing was big enough. Gazelle turned up and the downdraught as it lowered toward the clearing pushed the branches aside. No problem. I didn't get the pleasure of watching him take off, but I guess he made it as I heard no reports of a helicopter crash and Capt Singer fronted up again next time out.

Yep, that's the badger. And if it looks really, really tatty, it's fresh from behind a guard room somewhere.