M5Clive

After telling Dad to go online and find his pictures on here, it has enthused him enough to join us band of merry surfers and join HMVF ;-)

Look out for more pictures of military interest - If he can ever work out how to use photobucket!

It took me 3 months and Suzanne's tuition before I finally mastered it but now there's no stopping me :-o :-o :-o

cds

25 Pages of National Lottery Application Form my have something to do with the delay!

Will take you a day to catch-up on everything you has missed Jack!

Speaking of missing, I see that there is a big gap where a picture of your GMC should be on the

OPERATION BOLERO - Post a picture of the Military Vehicle you will be bringing thread :whistle:

Have you seen what vets charge these days for a sprained hind-leg on a Labrador?

It would have been much cheaper to tow it myself :oops2:

In reply to the earlier question, Ike was actually about 5 1/2 there. Pic was taken about 18 months ago.

He was a Millenium Labrador - Born in Lambourne, Berkshire in August 2000 :-)

Jim Clark (HMVF member and owner & restorer of Sherman Tank - Sloppy But Save) called me last night to say that he had a set of the Stuart Tank Bearings I was looking for on the HMVF Classified thread - Excellent news!

Whiltst chatting he told me how much he had enjoyed this thread and did I have any pictures of the recreation we did of the original photograph at the MVT National Show at Kemble last year? Well, yes I have and here they are Jim :-)

Ok so its not an M-10 and its not in Marlborough - But we are working on that ;-)

Enjoy!

Jim Clark loads the Sherman aboard Andrew Blackford's M19 Combination!

"Keep her straight and power-on" Martin Hammond guides Jim up the trailer bed.

All aboard!

Jason Jefferies joins in the fun and couples-up his Diamond T 981 to Andrew Blackford's Diamond T 980.

Off we go! - As we were only doing a couple of laps of the Arena the rear trailer ramps were not secured particularly well - as can be seen :-( ?

What a sight - Inspired by the original photograph!

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/DadsPhotos070.jpg[/img]

Things were getting so bad that we were forced to take emergency measures

to keep our military vehicles on the road :modpwr::-o :-o :-o

cds

During the Christmas holidays we were staying with my parents in Marlborough, Wiltshire and I took the opportunity to copy a few of Dad's military vehicle pictures from his time in B Squadron, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanary, stationed at Devizes Camp, Wiltshire. I think John from the Essex and Armour Softskins Group will approve!

These two are amongst my particular favourites.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/DadsPhotos046.jpg[/img]

Coming off the Ranges at Bovington after live firing with the muzzle covers removed from the Alvis Saladin - approx 1965. Thats Dad up-front driving the lead vehicle.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/DadsPhotos034.jpg[/img]

A short break in activities during camp at Layburn in Yorkshire - Approximately a year after the first photograph was taken. Note the turret on the Saladin Armoured car is traversed because they were retreating from the mock enemy, which also makes getting out of the vehicle quite challenging as the driver has to get out through the turret, unless he is particularly agile! (I wish he had kept that Tank Suit :-()

Its howling a gale tonight in Suffolk and the rain is coming down stair-rods, but it doesn't stop Howard from being down the farm tonight hard at work on his Diamond T 975 :bow: :bow: :bow:

I wonder what the next installment will hold in store?

cds

Would you believe that the picture has the original caption typed onto the back of the photo, but my original is away in Yorkshire at the moment with the poster design team for Bolero. When I get it back, i'll type tha caption exactly as it appears on the back of the official photograph. Something along the lines of a wet road and loss of traction!

I'm really glad the picture has generated so much interest!

cds

Howard asked me to post-up a few photo's that I took of the day his new toy arrived!

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics031.jpg[/img]

Here is the vehicle just arrived, direct from the Cobberton Combat Collection in Cornwall.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics037.jpg[/img]

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics049.jpg[/img]

Howard tugs the Diamond T off the low-loader with his DAF wrecker.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics045.jpg[/img]

As Area Secretary I always like to keep a good selection of obit photos close to hand!

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics055.jpg[/img]

Suffolk Areas best and longest standing MV Doctor, Roy Baker, revs the engine and Howard and Tony Butt listen for any nasty rumbles! Do you think they have both got their eyes on the oil pressure gauge?

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w205/suzannewitton/Feb2007MVpics053.jpg[/img]

Ticking over after being tow-started by the DAF - Next Stop OPERATION BOLERO - Red Ball Express Tour of the Dromes!

Went to see a new customer today, what a guy.

He was in the ATC in Woodbridge, Suffolk during WWII and lived in Debach village, when all of a sudden the Black Engineers arrived in his back garden to build a Class A Standard Heavy Bomber airfield!

Long story short, he ended up taking 7 pleasure flight from Debach aboard B-17 G's, even one to Thorpe Abbotts, where he ended up navigating them back home to Debach in the dark, because he was the only one of the 4 people aboard who had any local knowledge and the pilots had had a drop too much to drink in the Officers Mess at Thorpe Abbotts :whistle:

An amazing story - It should have taken me about 40 mins to fit his Water Softener. I arrived just before 1pm and left after 4pm..............! And whats more, his wife who was also there, lived in Eye during the war, and saw the airfield at Brome (where we now live) being built, activated and operational. She was one of the locals who counted them out and counted them home. Both now in their late 70's, when you find people like this they are a real gem!

Told them I will return again soon with some recording equipment!

cds

Just worth mentioning that if you look closely, you can see both Marlborough High and Low Level Railway stations, long since disappeared thanks to Dr. Beeching back in the 1960's.

You can see what looks like a Pannier Tank 0-6-0 steam engine sat in the station, with what appears to be the Donkey. The Donkey was the nick-name given to the short branch line train that went between Marlborough and Savernake Junction, 5 miles to the South where the Midland and South Western Junction Railway met up with the Berks and Hants mainline, which still runs to this day from Reading to Westbury and onto Plymouth.

Sadly there are now modern houses built upon the old railway line track bed and a mentally handicaped residence on the site of the goods depo and sidings.

When you consider that Savernake Forest which borders Marlborough's southern boundary was the site of the largest open-air ammunition dump in Western Europe during WWII and Tidworth, Ludgershall, Chiseldon and Ogbourne Army Camps all had railway stations on this same railway line within 12 miles of Marlborough, one cannot imagine the sheer amount of military transport traffic both on the roads and on the railway that trundled through Marlborough town.

Ever since the late 1980's both Neil and I had heard local's tell of the convoys that lasted all through the day and on into the night that passed through Marlborough. For years and years we could only imagine at what the site of this specticle would have looked like. In July last year this photograph dropped into my lap and I was asked to guess its location. Of course I recognised it instantly. I had walked that hill a million times and both Neil and I were literally blown away by the picture - I can't stop looking at it - call me sad I know!!

I keep trying to imagine what it must have been like to have been an onlooker sat on that steep hill during the lead-up to D-Day watching those kinds of convoy trundle through day after day after day. "Got any Gum Yank??"

cds

Ok Joris,

It has taken me all morning to locate the photos and then ages to figure out how to get the photo off a CD, but here is the exact location in the summer of 2006.

Its disappointing that the trees have grown up so tall and so little of the distance detail can be seen from the exact same spot from where the photographer was positioned in 1944.

2 mins after I put the camera away a British Army Foden came past the same spot. What a pity I had to settle for the B&Q truck!

See the White House top left, buy the telegraph pole? You can see the same house below!

The White House in the middle distance in this photo can be seen on the original photo. It is in fact on the Northern side of Marlborough on the Green. This picture was acheived by venturing into the field just West of the road where the original pic was taken. Dad tells me that in the 1960's the road was built-up to try and take some of the steepness out of it. This is why the road doesn't seem to be in such a deep cutting as the 1944 shot.

Ike stands guard at Orchard Road, Marlborough, Wiltshire. These are the houses shown in the original photo, where my grandparents lived and I spent many wonderful hours playing on my BMX bicycle along this road, trying to immitate Bo Duke off the Dukes of Hazzard and making jumps for our bikes. They were great days and its not until you look back to your childhood you realise just how good they were. I know its not that long ago, but time has a habit of passing you by when your not looking.........

Maybe I should have posted this thread in Tracked vehicles :dunno:

cds

And what would people say if you turned up at a show with a ply-wood box over the top of your tank :-o :-o

I would like HMVF's members opinion as to what exactly they think these wooden boxes were for. The only assumption we could come up with is that from above, enemy aircraft might think the convoy was only carrying boxes of supplies and not tank destroyers.

What do you tanky types think ??

cds

True, but here we have a very negative, one sided viewpoint of an organiser. :naughty:

Like all things, I'm sure that more goes on in the background than the typical vehicle owner who turns up to a show knows about or really particularly cares about.

cds