steveo578

There was certainly a sunken Sherman off Walcheren in the 1990s and as it was not impeeding shipping there is no reason to assume it was ever cleared Steve

AS of 2003 the last time I was at OTA there were only 2 Comets still on the range these were the ETT tank at Redesdale range abd the standard Comet at Otterburn Impact Area. chances are they are both there-the ETT in particular is almost impossible to recover unless blown up. Of the others Roman Road wrecks were partially removed in the 1980s when the range bacame redundant with the withdrawal of Wombat/ConBat To an extnet the same applied to Quickencote/Windy Haus range which was cleared of its Comets in 1995. The Comres Comet as it never was on Otterburn, (perhaps the turret was retained for future trials) the hull was placed at Windy Haus in the late 1970s at a time when concrete filling of targets was the general rule The heavily shot up hull section Rear section during clearance Front section during clearance in 1995 Steve

exactly:-) there are other functions I did not mention -as I wanted to keep the script down to a reasonable length- a major problem with all 17pdr or even 77mm A34 Comet units would be lack of smoke capability so Sherman 75 were esential until the end of hostilities as were 95mm howitzer Cromwells in Comet equiped units -which of course you'll be aware being a 15/19th bod. :-) Steve

Alastairs little joke:D if I remember correctly the sprockets are incompatalbe between the narrow and wide track types.

I thought long and hard before replying - While gritineye and rbrtcrowther and Montie got my point without the need for further explaination it looks like I have to revisit it again. Ok Jules I withdraw my suggestion of using a word which is none racist as an alternative- I suggest that the following should be default- in the unlikely event we need to refer to Roma, Sinti, Irish Traveller Comunity or other Gypsy group the term Traveller (as suggested by the management), shoud be used, but without any attempt to use it as a group or racial slur- When refering to criminal elements who steal then we call them for what they are- thieves, with no racial references-. In short if we (the Forum) continue to accept P**y or other such termonologys as OK we are racist, we have a good rep. for fairness and being a friendly and honourable forum -mainly because of Jacks rules and our moderators policing -and in part because of this we continue to attact the "right" people. While I sympathise -indeed empathise with your loss (because by the time you get to my age most people will have lost some-one dear or have some-one marred by criminality), it is not and cannot be acceptable to mark an entire community because of the behaviour of the few. Otherwise as a society we are in danger of repeating the wrongs that happened in Europe under the nazis - and as a final point the nazis murdered more gypsy by proportion than any other group. [rant over thank g'd] I apologise in advance if I have upset anyone else Steve

Thanks for the positive attitude/feedback I am aware that some ITC are a problem but it the same in any group and contrary to general perception it has little to do with poverty. Theives are thieves -no excuse -most of the metal thieves up here are not as sophisticated as those you mention- the last one we caught in the rural area was stupid enough to drive up the farm drive in a transit only to smash off his diff on one of the rocks sticking out of the drive -he should have realised why we parked at the bottom of drive- happy days:cool2:. Don't worry about it my mothers family lived in Ireland for 200+ years until the Fenians ejected them in the late 19thC and we're not Travellers. Steve

That's exactly what they are talking about, in their mind the only thing that prevents U.S. and French aircraft landing on RN ships is the arrester gear, that we have different systems of flight deck control etc etc, and never mind the french:-D, hasn't crossed their non military straight from public school/university to full time politicians minds-:-(. It would probably require an act of Congress to do it as who would give orders to U.S. personnel on a British ship:shocked:. I think I need to lie down in a darkened room:-(.

Yes quite and that's why every assembly point on British assembly lines had a good supply of hand tools esp. hammers cold chisels and files:D Steve

Thanks mate greatly appreciated, I take your point about rural thefts Steve

Yes that puts it succinctly, -you should write for the Telegraph -seriously:D. I do worry whether the Harrier airframes could last for the protracted time span before JSF turns up -probably late- even allowing for a probably pedestrian carrier build time. Trouble is JSF F35B which seems to be the prefered option is American. Steve

There is always hydraulic and cordite:-D:-D I'm sure some design facility could milk the public purse with these from now until doomsday.

The plan I heard was to mothball the redundant tanks but keep the ability to redeploy them if the situation demands it which seems to assume that the human assets will not age.

Ark Royal the one that paid off in Feb 1979 had 2 steam catapults at its completion whereas it would have had 2 hydraulic accelerators if completed to its first build (wartime) spec. Hermes which outlived the Ark Royal had 2 steam catapults until 1971 when it began reconfiguration as a helicopter carrier Steve

I'm sure film/cartoon bods could date it fairly closely assuming the person who drew it copied it fairly faithfully -perhaps from a comic book -my immeditate reaction to it is that it has two eyes -from my memory of Popeye in the late 50s early 60s is that the right eye was a slit -but that's a recollection from about 50years ago. Steve

very nice find, it reminds me of the question asked by Ernest Shackleton when he met the boss of the whaling station after his epic voyage. "So when did the war end" - answer "it hasn't the world has gone mad"

With respect Mike it's a matter of english, Andym corrected me succinctly without any affront, by using the word ridiculous you immediately offend, -ridiculous -def. arousing ridicule-contemptuous laughter;mockery;derision. I'm sure it wasn't your intent but that is the way it came across, so I suggest we both move on and as Lee has said keep it friendly. Steve

Standard Comets on OTA, the turret remains of the Comet previously on ATWG 1 has already been shown. The scraped up remains of the 2 Roman Road Comets await disposal. Windy haus/Quickencote HESH concrete filled comet target Rear of the Comet with blanked off ehaust outlets- something that is new to me:nut: so possilby an early model or some other experimental model as it is contemporary with the Comres Comet Turret during clearance of the targets on this range. note the impact marks of full charge HESH from wombats. Comet on Otterburn impact area Same tank on its bad side Steve

Yes Andy you are correct I was under the mis-impression that Stormer was an Alvis design I was unaware until I did further research that Alvis bought the original rights in 1980.:embarrassed: AFAIK it is the licensed manufacturer that is the primary source for CU -for the simple reason that a design may have been modified since the selling of the licence by the original designer. With regard to being "ridiculous" it is my opinion I'm entitled to it (I'm often wrong and am happy to admit it) -just as you are entitled to yours and as your bye line states you are not legally qualified -you're not a lawyer and certainly not the Commisoner therefore although your views are often very interesting it is not acceptable for you to have the attitude you have to others on the forum,-enough said:??? :argh::argh: moderators informed Steve

gentlemen, I've mentioned this before (Other Chatter Scum 8-6-10) and am asking you to play nice -I find the continued use of the term Pikey on the forum offensive -it is certainly unacceptable to anyone with Roma, gypsy or ITC ancestry- no-one would use the term N***er with regard to Afro-Carabean or African-American persons or Y*d or Ky** for Jewish persons -so please stop:stop: otherwise I will have to reconsider my association with the Forum-. I had hoped that the moderators would have given guidance on this after the previous matter(Other Chatter Scum 8-6-10.) If you need a shorthand term for scrap metal thieves may I suggest TOTTER which is a term for a Steptoe and son style rag and bone man. As to the meat of the current debate -if the objection is to aerial photos I really don't think it is reasonable to ask for the information to be collated in any other form -that seems to be a somewhat nimby attitude. AFAIK there have been no cases of thieving at the lower end of the criminal fraternity using GE -if there had been it would be all over the Daily Mail/Telegraph front page, -most of the criminals involved at best wouldn't get much beyond looking at porn or downloading illegal music. GE aerial photography lags far behind real time -at least 2years and longer in rural areas -probably street view is more up to date but only because it hasn't been around for so long. Steve

bug**r wrong again:nut: -the good thing about track pins being loose -its not necessary to modify the track to make a new style, -did the circlip apply to both track widths?

for my 2p worth- the MOD is in effect the previous owner -not the manufacturer -therefore they might as well say they got the opinion from "Steve down the pub"

According to the manufacturing diagrams it was refered to as austenitic welds -if you think about it there isn't really any option than using a form of stainless steel medium on armoured plate- standard M/S rods just wouldn't be effective. Steve

Nice photo, most of the tanks are Sherman 2 (M4A1) but without any visible Tac markings or a definate place and time it is difficult to tell which regiment or brigade it is- considering the crews seem to have distinctly black berrets and as 4AB had numbers of Sherman 2s I would lean to 44btn RTR. The Guard AD were largely equipped with Sherman V and VC with a few IC coming in as replacements later on. 8AB was largely a Sherman 3 equiped unit with VC as support, but some Sherman 2 DD were used by 4/7DG on D.Day but not standard Sherman 2s

Otterburn Comet Evasive Target Tank. This concrete filled tank was formerly a 3RTR tank called Cheetah, the remains of the additional armour along the air intakes for the motor are visible in this photo. Additional armour on drivers doors and turret ring. Detail of turret ring armour Shortened barrel and closed off besa mount Additional armour around the cupola. Details of the drivers and co drivers hatches additional armour Steve

An early Cromwell -possibly another Cavalier turret resting on the remains of a Comet turret -apparently abandonded in a ditch this object actually provided a function -which will become apparent in a future post.:nut: The turret is recovered by a Foden. The Cromwell and Comet were targets for Hesh weapons for many years but were probably out of use before ATWG became commonplace. The interior of the Blue Cavalier all the Cromwell/Cavalier turrets shown in this thread still had their gun mounts. The bad side of the tank it had received a spay of 20mm canon from aircraft The front of Blue was strange in that it had a shell hole properly repaired, additionally the hole is too large for a 2pdr and too small for a 6pdr -it is speculation that the repaired damage could be battle damage -there have been persistant rumours of Cavaliers being used as OP-RA in NWE. On its way to a new home. Steve