Rlangham

I'm intrested to see RNAS on the loory sides. Were RNAS totally in charge of home defence during the early part of the Great War? The site of the current Joyce Gtreen Hospital at Dartford had some intresting 'Flying' style buildings in the undergrowth.

Only for London, the rest was left to the Army, up until mid-1916 I believe. There's some great photos out there of the De Dion Bouton armoured 75mm auto-canon in RN service in London

I apologise but can I hijack this thread for a little bit.:blush:

 

I am building a 1/35th model of a Free State Army Crossley Tender circa 1921-4 as a present for someone currently serving in the Irish Defence Force Cavalry Squadron.

 

I have a drawing from Irish archives and thanks to the members of this thread, a fair bit of photo references. However my trip to the RAF Museum at Hendon did not work out as intended and I appear to have no photo references for the instruments and controls, the rear undersides or the truck bed.

If any one has any pictures and would be kind enough to share them I would be very gratefull.

 

regards

Paddy

Paddy, PM me your e-mail address and i'll get photos sent to you of all those parts

Glad you like it, it's superb! I don't know if I mentioned but one of the BE2's is being restored to fly again - the engine was ran for the first time in a long while a week or so ago

http://www.biggles-biplane.com/

A Crossley staff car appears at some point, and the Napier re-appears in Season 2. There's also a lorry with solid wheels which i'm not sure is original or a replica which was also in 'Aces High', as well as at least one German staff car and a Renault-esque British staff car.

I was very impressed with the Royal Aircraft Factory set, be a shame if they removed it again after filming. Season 2 is a lot more action and less of the home front scenes

Unfortunately it's not an 'actual tank', it's a film Tank known as the Holt G9, made out of wood - and collapsed on the set of the film it was made for! The film was called 'Patria'. As the British found out during tests, armouring a Holt Tractor was useless as it meant a high centre of gravity and zero trench crossing ability - although the Germans and French used the Holt track unit for the A7V, Schneider and St Chamond Tanks

No wonder this got past the censor! One of many artistic impressions of what the Tanks looked like before the official photos were released - obviously based on the Holt Tractor. Love the pincers at the front

Very nice - is it just me or do the headlights on Jay's example give it a 'face'?

Not quite as cool as the armoured version though

It's the Shuttleworth Collection's Crossley, the large building is right next to the hangars of the collection. All the filming was done at the collection site, even the segment where the car, with Trenchard, is driving down a country road is literally just off the runway

Those who watched 'Fighting the Red Baron' on Channel 4 a few weeks back may have seen the Crossley Staff Car briefly used - here's some photos I took during the filming of it, which I can now publish

The problem with the Lewis was it's bulkiness compared to the Hotchkiss, and the vulnerability of it's cooling jacket and fins to damage. There was also something to do with the cooling system, designed to suck cool air in and over the barrel through the jacket, in fact blowing more hot gas into the machine gunner's face.

Good point - looking at photos, it does appear to be the 10.5cm leFH16

7.7cm FK16, one of a number of interesting WW1 German artillery pieces collected in a small corner

40hp 'Protected' Simplex armoured petrol powered locomotive for use on the 2 foot War Department Light Railway

Railhead

FWD (Four Wheel Drive) Model B three ton lorry, built in the USA but used by the British Army

FWD Model B with the 6 inch 30 cwt Howitzer - one of the main uses for the FWD Model B in the British Army was as the towing vehicle for the 6 inch 30 cwt, and the later 6 inch 26 cwt Howitzer

13 pounder limber from L Battery at Nery - the battered 13 pounder from the same action is at the IWM Lambeth

GS Wagon Mk X minus the seat

Fiat 15 TER light truck, Italian but used by the British Army in Italy

20hp 'Open' Simplex petrol powered locomotive for the WDLR

British 4.5 Inch Howitzer

American M1917 75mm field gun, based on the British 18 pounder

How many complete B types are there? I only know of the ones at the IWM and the London Transport Museum

Aside from the IWM example, does anyone have any images of FWD's in British service, especially during WW1, they could upload here or e-mail me?

Cheers, Rob

Uniform is unfortunately not much of an indicator - it changed very little from WW1 up until 1937, the webbing stayed the same, and aside from minor modifications (the jacket and perhaps trousers were tighter fitting with the 1922 pattern service dress, and the peak of the cap was slightly bigger with the 22 pattern SD cap) looked pretty much identical to WW1 soldiers. That said, by the general 'look' of the lorry, it seems to be rather glossy and very highly maintained (and VERY clean, ie no extra camouflage netting, petrol cans strewn about), so i'd plump for 1920's too

Fantastic Clyno Motorcycle combination, as used by the Motor Machine Gun Corps

If you want larger copies of these photographs, let me know your e-mail address and i'll send you the originals

Kettenkrad footprints

All the good stuff happens when I don't have my camera.... so poor quality phone footage/photos only - Phil's 1944 built Kettenkrad playing in the snow

Rick

 

I have sent you an E-mail.

 

These bonnet muffs appear quite often on new trucks. They seem to dissapear when they have been in active service for a while. They would probably make quite a cosy blanket for the driver too.

 

Tim

Have you seen them on used on non-Albions before? I've got a great photograph of a line up of Albion A10's down one side of a tree lined road, all with the blankets on

Started watching the RFC drama 'Wings' again a couple of days back and aside from the metal hoops rising above the rear body, the one used is identical to this one. Is the body original or a post-war mod? The only one's i've seen in photographs show the body like the one at Hendon

Be interesting if it was for Tanks - I know next to nothing about the mid-war Tanks, did they have to be started manually from the outside? I know with the WW1 'Rhomboids' they were started from the inside with a crank operated by about four men

i thought that too - maybe the whole cab area with the starter attached moves up, like a lift?

Great stuff, currently saving up for a WW1 Douglas for some 'Don R-ing' later this year. Photo 6, with the motorcycle named 'Zu-' has a very elaborate mudguard! 8th photo down is interesting as the rider has an Officers Sam Browne pistol holster, looking at his cap it looks more Officer-like too which would account for the holster.

The coat and overtrousers were made of the same rubberised fabric as the groundsheet, the coat is fairly similar to the type used in WW2 - looking at getting reproductions of both made. Also interesting to see on a couple of them, on the front mudguard, the blue/white flash for signal service as a proper plate.

Plenty of interesting photographs of these in 'War Cars' by David Fletcher, a very good book if you're interested in anything wheeled and armed used by the British/Commonwealth in WW1. Seem to remember these found use at ancient Forts by knocking holes in the walls of the forts for artillery positions?

Oh, and I agree about the weight - got them at Stoneleigh, and had the Mk 1 in my backpack whilst carrying the Mk 2 - the walk from the show to the car seemed a lot longer on the way back than the way in! They're currently both sat with my 18 pounder shell, which looks absolutely tiny and puny in comparison. The 18 pounder shell is also a shrapnel shell - the Mk 1 60 pounder design appears to basically be an upscaled version (or the 18 pounder a downsized version)

No idea on the yellow crosses i'm afraid - the band around the Mk 1 indicate that it's filled. Unfortunately the only 60 pdr in the UK I know of is, as mentioned, the IWM example, if only someone would repatriate one of the US examples, from personal accounts they made a very distinctive sound when fired, like a huge whip cracking the air