tim gray

I seem to recall that the SLR not only had .22 conversion kit but that it also was adaptable to left hand firing by the use of apropriate bolt , top cover etc. Two guys in my first sqaudron had em. Used to hack you off on the range as the cases came at you from an unexpected direction. Only possible of course as the cocking handle does not reciprocate when firing. Did any one else notice that all firing points were designed so that the empty ejected case would hop over the guy next to you and down the neck of the next one?? Regards Tim

Hellllllooooooo you gorgous thing you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tis indeed a hansom wench..........however Ron........what on earth possesed you to dress the lady in Green with a birthday of 1941?? One has to assume you surely meant to order a fetching shade of sand and whence complete to gift the gorgous lady to the Tim Gray North Africa Trust. ( PM me for contact details!!) Regards Tim (now a fetching shade of jealouse green, not attractive)

Hi Shaun, I wouldnt bother with the paper clip, once your sorted on how its done the natural tension of the end result will hold it, if you find the last bit of the narrow tape keeps popping out and flapping around, just reduce the no of winds and tuck a longer bit in. I also found if the triangle did not quite land on the ankle bone as required during quick change parades it was possible to just grab the sucker and twist, played hell with yer socks and occasionally would almost kill the blood flow to your foot but better than being late!!!!! The result of being late was often a scream of "TREE" the aforementioned tree being many miles away and had to be circled. Regards Tim

Memory lane .............BANG......BANG..........Phut!........Mag off, thumbnail test. :-(

Hi guys,Small pic im afraid but exactly the barrell we fitted to the ferrets, if this is what you meant by coned flash hider my appologies

Hi Chaps,As i recall when we did our ferrets, the mount was obviously changed but i recall the barrel was as per the armoured vehicle types i.e the muzzle was fitted with a tubular flash hider, the barrel was also not fitted with a carry handle, but a flat formed lock lever device. ( i noted this as i had not seen one before, barrel not GPMG ) The spare barrel we had was as standard for the ground roll (just in case) and the rear of the gun as stated had a buffer unit with the butt being retained in the vehicle. First fit was not good as it fell to bits for some reason when first used and was rapidly converted for ground use (exercise only and not in any dire curcumstances i hasten to add)I would also be a bit surprised to find that the differing marks would have problems fitting the various mounts as you really do not want to be mucking around to that extent with weapon systems. Any mark of bren gun for instance you will find that the mounting point dimensions are the same regardless of MK 1,2,3 ETC. I would expect MK differences to be along the lines of various ancillairies to the gun itself, ie ground or vehicle role, dovetail/no dovetail, major or minor manufacturing points etc. Regards Tim

Hi thier, Just wombling thro the forum and saw your post, sorry for the delay in clarifying my comment. Re the scabbard being leather, yes you are correct as i have only seen the guys using the leather sheath in the field, the dpm material was wrapped and secured around the leather sheath. The larger presentation Khukri,s are also found in very nicley done wooden scabbards. The craftsmen then inlay some very nice work into them. Regards Tim

Don;t be too convinced that the "preservative" is NOT as the result of army catering :cool2: Your spanners etc should be part of the cookset, most of em in my day had been converted to calor gas, spanners were for stripping out,cleaning all the bits etc after the slops had trashed em. (whilst some may find the "slops" reference harsh, i still have indigestion from the kerosene flavoured breakfast given me 20 yrs ago!!!) Regards Tim addendum, see from the pics yours is still fitted with tank and petrol heads, may be worth your while if you are going to actually use it to find the conversion kit. The chefs said they were much easier to use.

Whilst the poor old donar gun has taken a bashing i have no doubt that Rob will achieve his aim ( scuse the pun) but i would suggest ordering in BOC now with a healthy supply of gas!!! I know youv'e done it before but remember to bend the knees and keep a straight back when shifting that gun tube. regards Tim

Hi,Just as an aside, it could also have had a previous existance with an engineer unit as you are also showing signs of the pale blue that the engineers used.Regards

Excellent discovery, as a piece of kit that must have caused some consternation, aproaching from head on you would quite likely presume you were up against a standard 25PDR. Amost unwelcome surprise would await.Please keep us updated, the collection of equipments you have is excellent and a real credit to you. Would you happen to have a 2pdr A/T ? If so love to see posts of it or even PM.Regards Tim

Excuse my ignorance on this one gents, does this mean that thier will be no change to the actuall vehicles requireing MOT or are they still reviewing the requirements for MOT vis a vis pre 60 vehicles etcRegards Tim

HI Steffano,Core your mate dont half know how to ask a question !!! Forces in North Africa.....Brit, Indian, Australian,New Zealanders,French, Italian, German. SAS all over the place and the biggest thieving buggers going...............Not much help but i can say that its green or brown.Had a look at my flimsies and cans but could not spot anything with that size of pressed disc in the side... or base. Side shot of the jeep i would say its a bit on the small side for a flimsey can. Still looking at pics to see if i can spot anything similar Regards Tim

I presume the purchase of a very large howizter is in the offing.........?

IIRC the No 3 smle was discontinued in manufacture 1943 within the UK, principaly due to the quantities of No4 rifles from UK and American manufacture being on stream, manufacture continued in Australia and India.By WW1 the No 111 and 111* were the principle rifle manufactured in UK, strangly post war they reverted to the earlier standard ( the little they did make anyway as huge stocks were left over from ww1) then back to 111* for early ww2 manufacture until quiting and producing the No4 ( I have a No4 dated 41 with mag cuttoff and various other features of the trials models from the 20,s. I presume they were using up parts in early manufacture. The rifle is also marked with a suffix A to the serial denoting unusual non standard parts to let armourers know not to bother to repair and condemn instead. Dont know how it survived to be honest)A truly great pair of rifles.

Pretty sure "impressed" will refer to civilian vehicles taken on in the event of war emergency. RASC vehicles in theory would already be on the books as it were as direct contract vehicles. Some annotated as impressed may have been sourced from the subsidy scheme. This is where a civi vehicle deemed suitable for military conversion or use could be purchased by a company in conjunction to having a loan given them by the government. This loan on the basis of should hostilities break out the vehicle would be called in for military use.The government have a symilar system in relation to transport aircraft and shipping, a small sum is paid to the owners annually on the principle they will have first call on them during an emergency. I presume this is how the QE2 and canberra ended up having a trip south to the falklands. Some contractual arrangement for compensation if the vessels or aircraft are lost would also be in the total package i should imagine.Regards Tim

Hi thier,Reference the Ghurka kit, dont be too disgruntled with the fact that the DPM sleeve looks home made etc, the regiment i served with had 2 Ghurka sqdns and it was common practice for them to have two or three that they used for various purposes. The cam sleeve was quite common as you just spoke to the clothing storman for a knackered jacket and cut the thing to bits for the material. It was either that or the green fabric tape wrapped round the scabbards.The issue khukri was not regarded very highly at all, certainly used as a cheap tool by the engineer guys, even reversing it to hammer nails into things if required. The guys also had in thier lockers a pucker fighting Khukri they would take on operations. These were much larger in length and had better wieght. You would not want to meet one! They were never ever used as tools and were reserved for the original use and intention.With regards to the cam, several of the brit guys including myself made DPM covers for the for grip and butt stock of our SLRS, complete with lacing eyelets etc from the equipment store. Regards Tim

Hi thier,I seem to recall that NBC threat was described as a "state" one two three etc, each state having a particular level of dress, (have to dig out some information on what exactly) Any body got a "survive to fight" handy ??The colour banding sounds more like the security levels described at the gates of establishment known as the "bikini" levels, red as mentioned in previous post being, near as dammit, incomming and stand too, as red was a confirmed threat to the establishment.Regards Tim

Ensure on re assy that the return rod (rats tail) is centralised and close firmly..........do not slam shut!RegardsTim

mmmmmmmm. looks horribly like those gizmos for removing foriegn objects from wounds......smooth on the outside and cupped on the inside. Bits of splinters etc......available in different sizes i believeyuck.... regards Tim

Your memory does not decieve you as they were both in service together, smaller fords most definatley with the ADR teams fitted with front brush and occasionally the towed box sweeper. Correct with the reference to the Pheonix chippng spreader, nice piece of kit to use. We had fords and counties in Cyprus, but by preference the county was used for the soils work as it had more oomph as it were. I was grandley announced as the NCO IC ECP equipments in Cyprus, i suspect on the basis that i was most recently off the course and no one else wanted anything to do with them as repairs could be rather awkward out on the island. Found it not too bad to be honest as long as you kept aboard it.RegardsTim

H , Iappear to have got crossed wires, the photo of the proofed version was the one i recognised. As tony B stated, initialy developed for the RNLI. See attached pics. Note the reg No with the previous photo. This machine was classed as obsolecent when spotted by the boat ops in a depot. Just the item needed for launching the boats off the hard. Whilst not classified as amphibious........its does float with about 6" of freeboard as they discovered one day when the medway current grabbed them and took them off the hard. Snagged on a handy bouyline and dragged back in . Interesting to see the basic tractor within its sealed body, reminds me of the principle of the DUKW. Regards Tim

We had normal control counties in the engineers proir to the falklands, classed as Engineer Construction Plant. Used in the main with sweepers or the rotavators in conjunction with powdered lime for soil stabilisation.Have to check on the forward control model as its ringing bells on a recent spot........must interigate brainRegards Tim

Sitting in the sun on the north africa bit, ignoring the world and recovering from the night before. Very nice young lady dressed as a nurse pulls up on pushbike and asks to take happy snaps. Fill yer boots i say................unfortunatley realsing afterwards that one leg up on the edge of a trench in shorts is not the best idea when you happen to be commando that day. Please god no photo,s appear !!!!!!Tim

Splendid time had by all this year, lots of lovley kit to goggle at.Very pleased to meet fellow forum members Steffano and Glyn. ( next time glyn when some loop runs up dressed in desert kit remember your actual name is not Early War British ) Yes i still want your truck ! Only glitch on the week was i left the fuel tap on and everything evaporated from the auto vac .........DOH! Well done to andy on the replica MK3 Marmon..................whilst not everyone may be in agreement with replicating vehicles where do you get a Mk3 from?? Regards Tim