schliesser92

That camo scheme wasn't "lizard" - it was known as MERDC, and came in several varying schemes depending on the theatre of operation.

It was also used by the Light Regt RA supporting 48 Gurkha Infantry Brigade in Hong Kong. It is made by Oto Melara, and is also used by a number of Commonwealth and NATO armies. Fired a 35lb shell some 10,000m. It could also be dropped down into the low anti-tank position (with the shield removed it had an extremely low silhouette). Was also broken down into about 9 mule loads (or underslung loads for small helicopters like the Sioux - tried a couple of times in Hong Kong). The normal tractor was the 109" Landrover.

The Artillery Pigs in my father's regiment were in the Op and CP role. The introduction of FV432s was slow due to the Infantry having priority, so that is probably why cast Pigs were replaced by Saracens. There was also the problem of driver training - a towed field regiment was 100 % wheels! Nobody with a track licence.When he took over as RSM in 1965 , Saracens were already in the Green Archer role. Before that I don't know, as he came from Light Air Defence (steam gunnery, not missiles, as he said!), and he hadn't worked with real artillery since 1950!

Sorry, misread your post - I thought that you were referring the disassembly of the TSR-2s with the Defence White Paper. I still think that the TSR-2 was the best strike aircraft the RAF never had!,

I don't remember Pigs towing stuff. Saracens did - in the field artillery regiments in the mid-1960s the radar troop had two towed Green Archers and two silenced generators towed by Saracens. With the artillery (typical was 18 Fd Regt in Dennis Barracks,Munsterlager 1964-66) Pigs were replaced by Saracens, which, in turn, were replaced by FV432s. Strangely enough, a Pig was NEVER replaced by an FV432. The rotation sequence Pig-Saracen-FV432 was strictly adhered to! I can't explain why, and my father , who as RSM knew why, died some 25 years ago. So maybe the secret/reason died with him.

It would be nice, but generally we didn't use them . We were usually moving too much, mostly at night! (certainly from division level downwards). At Rear Corps HQ we left them in stores. Park the beast inside a barn - who needs the Penthouse then?

Ptarmigan wasn't fielded until after my discharge! But that installation would now be in FV432s (or the original FV439s used in that role somewhat temporarily), as well as Bedfords and I saw somewhere that Mowag Duros are in use Incidentally, Ptarmigan was already obsolete at the time it was introduced!.

Apart from which, if you want to display the pack-howitzer in the "pack" role, you're going to have to find about 9 mules from somewhere, Mark!

ZB298 (aka Zebedee) or Radar, GS No.14 ??

Any artillery experts know what this is? All I know is that it was installed in a vedette covering the entrance to Village Bay on Hirta, in the St Kilda Group, in late 1914 after a German U-boat shelled the islands. Once, whilst stationed there, we were doing some PT when a Spanish trawler came in after fishing our waters clean of Cod! The skipper just saw half a dozen squaddies running towards the gun position, turned tail and legged it at about Warp 9!

Actually the FV439 set up was at the periphery. the Centre of the hub was the Corps Comcen (A and B), which then branched out back to the loggie chain, Corps assets, and Divisions. The Division Comcen was at the middle of it's own little world, branching out to Div asets, back to Corps and the Brigades. I was a radio-relay technician, and repaired the C50/R236 setup (amongst others in my lifetime!) - hence my contribution to the Sankey communication trailers post. The generators were Onan 3.5 kVA, which was standard for trailer, Bedford and FV439 mounted radio-relay systems. The terminal equipment, apart from FV439, used 6 kVA generators - so I guess there wasn't enough juice for some people.

The half-track is in British (or Free-Allies) service - note the red ross is on a round background. US ambulances had a rectangular background.

As a prison officer, and therefore (under German law) an officer of the court, I can only comment that Jackson displayed some criminal energy in exporting these vehicles. There was a blatant attempt to obviously circumvent the laws on exporting military equipment. That corruption is rampant in the "third world" is neither here nor there. That top executives get away with it is mostly because of political interference in the judicial system. That someone else will, if you don't is someone else's problem! They have to carry the can if they get caught. You break the law, you get caught, you get punished. It's as simple as that!

Triffid. The yagi array was used for the lower frequency ranges 8300-500 MHz) for brigade/task force links. The dishes referred to were for higher frequencies and used in the div/corps links. This meant that these vehicles had a different transceiver element fitted in the Triffid installation. Triffid was carried in Bedford MKs.

Jimmy is "GMC" apparantly

You probably remember the Malkara then?

looks like the donkey won!

It wouldn't be unusual for Germans to use a Bedford. Both sides made use of captured vehicles and equipment. Some trucks changed "owners" several times during the North African campaign

Barrels were regularly changed, they have a life of so many rounds EFC (Econonic Full Charge - whatever that means!). I think the 25pdr was something like 10,000 rounds. So the muzzle brake doesn't indicate that it was the first barrel change.

I would suggest that the staff car up to it's axles in water was in Holland/Belgium/Northern France. The Dutch opened some of the sluices, causing some flooding. the last picture of the first set looks like a Horch - probably Russia or eastern Germany/Poland

I would recommend the following book for Bundeswehr enthusiasts - it's in German, but quite comprehensive: Title: Die Rad- und Kettenfahrzeuge der Bundeswehr 1956-heute Authors: Karl Anweiler and Rainer Blank Publishers: Bechtermunz Verlag ISBN: 3-8289-5369-7 there is also a similar book about NVA vehicles, which I haven't found yet.

Seems to about cover it - I should imagine that the Ordnance units (formerly known as Ordnance Field Parks) were depots of some sort. Cadre would indicate that the company consisted of just a few souls and a lot of equipment tucked in sheds. ie ready to be activated as a full-blown supply unit, should the excrement hit the fan again!

The SdKfz10 was originally used as a control vehicle for launching V-2s. I think they ended up using modified Sdkz7s for the task. The unusual shape was for protection - originally, more V-2s exploded on the ramp than actually flew!

The Fennek was delivered to the Bundeswehr from1998. the first 202 vehicles were destined for armoured recce units and engineer recce teams. The second delivery is to replace the Luchs (Lynx) vehicles.It has a 3-man crew. Length is 5722 mm , width 2497 mm and the height is 1789 mm. It has a 3m wheelbase and is driven by a 243 bhp diesel motor. It tips the scales (recce version) at 7.9t, and has a range of 850 km (road) or 400 km (off-road). The Dutch are already using ATGW equipped versions, and a SAM version (with Stinger) is on the cards, subject o financial approval from the Dutch parliament. Dutch ,and German, Fennkes are currently active in Afghanistan. Fennk is German for the Desert Fox. This name was (confusingly) also used for the Siemens EA037 radio-monitoring systzem supplied to Saudi Arabia. Fotos of Dutch Fenneks can be found in the excellent PLAIN MILITARY forum.

Anyone notice what was wrong with the K2 ambulance in the Battle of Britain?