steveo578

Hi Tim The tank 34ZR42 is a Post war Mk7 AVRE which mounted the 6.5inch BL gun similar to that later fitted to the Centurion Mk5 AVRE and similar type used in the US M728 CEV. It has nothing to do with a 95mm howitzer tank as the Mk7 AVRE were converted from Mk7 75mm gun tanks -the Mk8 95mm Howitzer tank having a completely different turret. A wartime AVRE petard turret would not be appropriate for a Mk7 hull as Petard armed tanks were square doored A22 Mks. Steve

I thought it was my job to split hairs on the forum:nut: the document of surrender actually said German forces in Europe were to surrender -cease active operations at 23-01hours central european time on 8th May- so technically you would have been right if Britain had not been on Double Summertime at that time;) -in actuallity the british were on the same time as CET. the Reims document was signed on 02-41 hours on the 7th and the majority of German forces in the West regarded themselves as under armastice from the 7thMay but were still mobile. as an example of this US forces on the Elbe did not fire on or attempt to impede or assist german forces escaping Soviet forces. Anolilies of surrender occured in Norway the German O.C. surrendered as soon as informed of the Reims treaty on the morning of 7th May. Army Group Centre (Czechoslovakia) did not cease operations until 12th May. The Channel Islands were not liberated until 9th May -Alderney garrison did not surrender until 16th May and scores were not settled in Texel (Netherlands) until 20th May.

s Only cute in Ice Age (the movie), but my favourite is scratchy:laugh:

way too harsh -there are worse things normally commited by older kids ie teenagers> such as wrapping the car around a tree, through a wall or over a roundabout and burning down the kitchen after leaving the chip pan on> so it could be worse.

As mentioned previously a pic of an M4105 howitzer tank getting a facial , the tank in post 1 has the concrete restricted to the main glacis leaving the pannier section of the glacis exposed -whether this was to allow retention of lights and lift lugs or to save weight on the front suspension units in a 76mm gun tank (which is already nose heavy) is conjecture but it would significantly reduce the effectiveness of the proceedure- Panzer faust because of the nature tend to be fired from the flank rather than front on -although there is evidence for a few shooters firing straight at an advancing tank- probably shortly before they were squashed:nut:

It is fairly common for point tanks in battalions without an M4A3E2 available purely to contact detonate hollow charge panzerfaust style weapons. It is about the nicest job I've seen but othe photos exist for example page 319 of Sherman by Hunnicutt unfortunately scanner not on line at the moment.

Thanks for the clarification - Iain, as I said I apologise for the error. The core of my argument remains 3months ago a complete partly restored project for £10k vis one for £20k now -either a case of huge inflation during a massive on going economic depression, but as economists say the price is what the market will bear. Steve

Having said that do things actually sell- as an example on Milweb -which does has a rep. for high prices - about 3months ago there was a Marmon Herrington Mk4 of sale as a part restored project for £10k. Currently what I assume is the same vehicle (I apologise now if I'm wrong) is marketed for offers in excess of £20k -so was the first ad. a ruse to test the water? or is it a case of wishful thinking:??? IMO if it didn't sell for £10k it's unlikely to go for £20k. As to the grizzlies all three I mentioned previously were reported to me as available for sale back in 2001 and probably not by one dealer -so possibly a large ticket item traded around for speculative purposes perhaps:undecided:

It might be available on somthing like T.V.blinkx. but BBC Iplayer stuff can be difficult to locate on the web. Although it was very interesting-(really good link which I wouldn't have bothered to watch otherwise) there is nothing really new in the documentary, miscarriages of justice and abuse of the English legal system have been rife for more years than I can remember, years ago the journalist and legal commentator Ludovic Kennedy pointedly remarked at the end of a rather inglorious episode in English juris prudence that "english justice was the best money could buy" and if anything I doubt things have gotten better despite the swingeing criticism of the english libel laws by the European Court (highest appellant court available to British subjects) in striking down the matter of the Mclibel two trial. IMO the major problems with english libel law is the fact that truth is not actually a defence -that damage to reputation may be weighed more highly than the truth, that legal tourism is permited and the lack of an effective separation of powers in legislature -effectively a society that allows lawyers to become politicans and therefore law makers will have problems with its legal system, in the last 10 years about 1500 significant changes of law occured each year- the 17thcentury philosopher Decartes noted that a multitude of laws hampers justice- (Discourse on Method 1.)

Seems fairly par for the course - obviously if one had the forsight to buy one in 1984-5 or in 1991 when the market bottomed, and kept it for 20 or so years then you would be very happy:D while i assume you mean that Grizzlies are possibly the most common Sherman type in exsistance today they aren't that common -or do you consider the late model bulged hull the most common type? the most common Grizzly is the applique hull model with the early carapace type the least common. Anyone got an idea which Grizzly this is -there are at least 3 bulged hull Grizzlies in Calinornia Shop No. 125 143 and 166

Rick,- the turning radii are given in the Churchill service instruction manual which I assumed you have and are 8.8ft in 1st to 71ft in 4th which I would think are on a hard surface and of course the pivot turn in neutral -which is the Merrit Browns claim to fame.

Doubt there would be any valentine remains on the REME training area so the underside plate weld and the suspension unit should be either Cent or Chieftain. The tooth pattern welding was also seen on the underside of Churchills but as there are no rivets it's not that and i doubt there are any Churchill remains on the REME training Area these days or eddy would be down there begging from his alma-mater

It might sound unbelieveable but at least one Humber Scout Car was used as the basis (shorn of armour) for a buggy on a grouse/dear/game moor in Scotland so quite possible a Humber or other scout car could have been bought for similar purpose.

good links I wonder if any of those that went to Iran survived -2 of the larger TNH survive.

Possibly this is the camp/depot of the trials of remanufactured Churchill Tanks code name Trent-certainly none of those in this test were lost. I would imagine any other tanks bogging would be recovered in short order after all there would be loads of willing hands to help out from the trainees:D I'm sure. Having looked at a few War Diaries I have never seen any recording officer admit to loosing a tank to bogging.

Tank races have happened in the past -the US Ordnance ran a comptetion on a 4mile course at the Churchville cross country course APG between a T25E1, T26E1, M4A3E8, M4A3 VVSS and a T23. The T25E1 did the course in 23minutes with the last tank the M4A3 VVSS finished +8min, with the T23 failing to finish after loosing a track.

I thought a ZB30 had a long piston rod tube similar to the ZB26. AFAIK ZB30 were 7.92 x 57 in service with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Rumania Turkey,Spain and Iran (+ 30-06). So what is it Chris? ZB33? perhaps

There were 6 tortoise built 1 is exhibited at Bovington,1 is the wreck on Kirkcudbright (which might be the disarmed A39 used for mine tests) of the others 1 was at bovy until around 1972 (and was largely intact) it went to Lulworth and the remains are believed to have been cleared -although one of the tracks lay next to the Tank Museum car park for at least 30years. So if the story of another buried in SPTA is correct that leaves 2 to be accounted for -1 went to Germany in 1946 for various trials for running excessive loads -perhaps it was struck off over there?

The weapon in the foreground is a swiss Solothurn S-18/100 trialed by many axis nations and others. The second weapon is a Schwarlose M/07-08 which was the Austro-Hungarian standard heavy machine gun of WW1 The third weapon is a Maxim possibly a german 02-04 weapon but could be any early 1895 to 1905 type image isn't sharp enough to be sure.

Arranged as three rows as far as possible following original PDF some of the images are not too clear esp T70-80 T50 and Tiger 2 T60. (soviet union).................... T28.(soviet union)................................... M3 GRANT MK1. (britain) T70 or T80(soviet union)............. Pzkfw 3 Ausf L to M(3rd reich) ...................HOTCHKISS H39 (france) SU76(soviet union) .....................Pzkfw 4 Ausf F/2(3rd reich) ......................A12 Matilda (britain) T50 little klim(soviet union)...........Tiger 1(3rd reich).................................... M11/39 (italy) T34/76 1942(soviet union)........... Panther Mk unclear(3rd reich)....................Type 95 Ha Go (japan) SU100 (soviet union)................... Tiger 2 Henschel turret(3rd reich)............. Type 97 Chi Ha 47mm gun (japan) IS3 (soviet union)....................... Leopard 1(germany)................................ M1A1(USA) T72(soviet union)....................... Challenger 2 (britain)............................... Leopard 2 (germany) S tank STRV 103 (sweden)

The Manual for the Churchill mentions the steering being reversed in reverse mode and advises it is like moving a bycycle in reverse and advises the following to avoid steering incorrectly, Forward motion -pull the tiller arm (handle bar) right side backward to steer right and pull the left handle bar grip backward to turn left. Reverse motion push right hand tiller arm forward to turn right and push the left hand tiller bar handle forward to turn left. The max speed of a Churchill in reverse at nominal (350BHP) at 2,200 r.p.m was only 1.3 m.p.h so the idea that it reverts at higher speed is probably moot. Hope that helps Beat me to it Adrian as usual:D

They are probably in storage as they are still fairly common place, OTA has 2 large mobile targets at Crigdon hill (Stone in the mire) and Bushmans road whether this one is still operative I don't know some track work took place some time ago but it could have been replacement of damaged sections of track. -There is also a small one near the firing point at ATGW 1. but is a different guage and general size than the other 2.

I'm sure it's a mistype but I sure Ebuyer.com are a bit tired to be mistakken for ebay:-D -samsung stuff is really quite good but there is also a Western digital ITB on Amazon for £43.

Remember that USB sticks have huge capacity these days and can be quite useful for short term storage until weekly updates to external hard drives can be done. 16gb sticks are common but higher capacity are becoming common -Corsair are really good and especially so if a USB stick becomes faulty. Eventually they will develop into "solid state" external memory which are unlikely to break down. Correction of all mb references to gb - old enough to have used and even built Zx80s and Nascom 1 so the idea of gigabyte memory is beyond my conception

Scientists and weapons technicians can be very analy retentive:D suppose they have to be, potentially proximity to loud noises and long lunches:-)