M5Clive

I always look forward to war and fleece because the sun always seems to shine and you always see so many friends from all over the country and even the world there! I too received my Xmas card this weekend but I haven't taken a Military Vehicle to the event ever since the £25 facility fee was enforced several years ago. It just goes against the grain to fill the toys up with vapourising juice at nearly £1 a litre, drive through three counties and the Dartford Bridge to get there and park our vehicles in a field for the paying public to witness AND then be charged £25 for the privilage of attending the worlds largest Military Vehicle Spectacular!!!! Ok, so I may be accussed of being a professional winger but it just ain't right - Is it ?? Think about it....................... I remember Pete Cartner's fantastic cartoon called Panama Hatty which showed a gent in a Panama Hat sat behind his desk on the telephone at the war and peace office. The first cartoon speech bubble went along the lines of "Oh yes Mr. Green, its £10 each to get into the show and see the military vehicles parked in our field." :-( The second cartoon showed the identical image with another speech bubble coming from the opposite side of his mouth and went along the lines of "Oh yes Mr. Brown, its £25 to come to the show and park your military vehicle in our field for the public to look at!" :-o The eyes were shown with ££££ signs in!!!!! :-o :-o Those who have been in the MV movement for over 5 or 6 years will probably remember the cartoon I am on about - It was magic :-D I'm not saying that I would not go to the event, because I always do. But, I would not support the event again with a Military Vehicle until the £25 charge is dropped. Me thinks I'm going to have to wait a long time for that though so I'm not holding my breath! Cds

Hi Jonny Loot :-o I spoke to Slingo (Alias Brian Slingsby Yorkshire MVT Area Secretary) today on the phone regarding the MVT council of management meeting this Sunday at Gaydon. I put it to him that he should get his GMC 352 out of retirement and bring it down to next years big bash - OPERATION BOLERO in Suffolk. He sounded surprisingly keen! Would be great to see that truck again because Brian actually drove that GMC from Wetherby to Marlborough Wiltshire in 1995 for the last Red Ball Express convoy event we did. I really admired his enthuasium for undertaking that mega journey over 12 years ago so lets see if we can both work on him and get him down for BOLERO next summer. Its looking like it will be quite a show. I spoke to Mustang Maurice on Wednesday and he wanted me to show him exactly on his map where our base HQ is going to be located - Maybe a surprise airborne ambush is in store for us courtsey of a P-51 or two ?? The event is up for discussion at the MVT C of M meeting on Sunday so we seem to be getting plenty of publicity! I will be there to answer any question personally. Looking forward to seeing that Dodge Panel van on the convoy Jonny - As for my M5A1? Well I doubt we will have both V8 engines reinstalled by then, let alone saved enough petrol money to start them up :-o :-o :-o Have you checked out the new web-site? http://www.redballexpress.co.uk - Neil keeps adding extra bit and bobs!! By hec its grim up North :-D Cds

Sounds Good Nick. Last year we had an IMPS convoy come up to Gathering of Eagles in Wiltshire that I organised. There was a GMC 353, Dodge and a couple of Jeeps if I remember correctly. The contact was Andy Foster I believe - not sure if you know him? Keep in touch - Cheers Clive :lol:

Hi Nick Thoroughly enjoyed your restoration photo's on here and it brought back good memories of when I used to actually take a vehicle apart AND put it back together again! Sadly in more recent years the taking apart comes easy then the momentum slows, then it stops, then all the restoration work that you have done to date gradually starts to undo and then all work ceases and finally the vehicle remains in many bits :-o Therefore its so nice to see a project like yours from start to finish - Its truely a credit to you and your helpers. The first vehicle I ever owned (even before a car) was a GMC 353 which I bought in 1993 at the age of 18. I did a fairly major rebuild on it, but was spurred on by the fact that my brother was also restoring one and my father and uncle were restoring one as well - Therefore we had 3 jimmy's all in various states of disrepair in one building and spent every weekend we could beavering away on the projects. It was great fun and good times and I look back on those times with genuine appreciation of all the enjoyment we had working as a good team. We got all 3 jimmy's finished and had them on the road for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day in June 1994. Since that time I have overhauled my Dodge WC-56 with the help of other friends and have had that on the road extensively for the past 4 show seasons. Its looking a little tired now though and could do with another lick of paint. Maybe you would be interested in a WWII vehicle event that I am organising next Summer in East Anglia. The Dodge would look great in a large convoy with all its older brothers! Check out the event details at - http://www.redballexpress.co.uk Keep up the good work and maybe one day, i'll post some pics of my own WWII vehicle restorations, if I ever finish it:-( Cheers Cds

"We always gave those Fuzzy Wuzzies a fair trial before we shot em!"

Well, I am on first name terms with Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, Does that prove my credentials to organise the event :-o :-o Cds

Gents, Did you know that the Shuttle also landed at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire during that same trip. I have a feeling that it was on its way to the Paris airshow when it landed at Fairford and on its way back to the US when it landed at Stanstead, although i'm not 100% definate. Whatever, as an 8 year old boy mad-keen on anything that flew, my Dad took me out of school for the day and he had the day off work from British Leyland in Swindon and we arrived at the main gate of RAF Fairford just before 7am for the long, long wait. It was worth it though, as the specially modified 747 arrived in clear skies and landed right in-front of us at about 1pm. Then the pilots taxied the aircraft right down the peri-track so close to the crowd that the 747's wing hung over the crowd line - you could have reached up and touched the wing as it trundled past. Blimey, how times have changed - Today with modern security measures we would probably be allowed to view it through binoculars from outside the fence of the airfield :roll: Dad took many pictures of the days event, but all on Kodakrome slides so no good for viewing on here - But if you all want to come around for the evening, i'll happily put on a slide show :-) The highlight of the day however was when the local BBC Points West television cameras stopped an interviewed somebody right next to us. That night watching our old ITT 3 channel wooden box wonder in the living room you could see an old man in sun glasses and a flat cap and a young boy with a squint because the sun was too bright in the bottom corner of the screen - I was a national hero at school the next day for being on the tv - all be it for at least 8 seconds :-o :-o :-o The big highlight for me however was in December 1993 when I was sat out all night on the NASA Causeway at Cape Canaveral for a 4am shuttle launch. It was STS-61 (shuttle transportation system) which was the one that was launched to go and find the hubble space telescope and repair it. I had a grandstand view from within The Cape as the friends I was staying with in Florida both worked for NASA at The Cape and got us a special employers pass to get closer than the average tourist. (Still severals miles away though but with a completely clear view of the launch pad.) It was one of those occasions in life that stick with you - What must it have been like to have witnessed a Saturn V launch :-o Nice pics anyway guys of the Shuttle at Stanstead - It has brought back a lot of good memories tonight of some 23 years ago when life seemed so much simpler! Cheers Cds

hi Neil Yes - Thats the one - it was a repeat indeed. Thank you very much for the explanation. I know its only a flipping tv programme, but when you get into something and then get deprived of the end, its like reading a book with the last page missing! What you said has resolved the plot in my mind without a doubt. Many thanks indeed for your input. Cheers Clive :lol: :-D :-)

Evening all! Did anyone watch Foyle's War last night on ITV 3 ?? We were out for the evening so I made sure that I set the DVD player to record it. Only problem was the DVD player was set to high quality so only recorded one hour and then the disc was full :-o :-o Therefore after settling down tonight to watch it, we are getting right into the plot and its just getting good when - everything grinds to a halt :roll: Did anyone else recorder it or can anyone tell me how it ended? We got up to the point where a Dutch guy arrived in Hastings by rowing boat and the body of the old man had been found on the beach! All gripping stuff when you are denied the rest of the plot - Help! :? Cheers Clive

I guess Pete Ashby has hit the nail pretty much on the head with regard to changing times - The attention that this forum creates, the many MV related web-sites and of course TWO monthly MV publications available from any WHSmiths the length and bredth of the country clearly indicates how times really have changed. When our family first got engrossed in the world of privately owned MV's nigh on 17 years ago the gap between the quarterly Windscreen magazines seemed to last for ever! Then when it did finally arrive, there was a toss-up to see whether Dad was going to take it to work with him, Neil was going to take it to work with him or I was going to take it in my school bag - Sounds almost laughable doesn't it, :-D but that was the level of enthuasium the MVT magazine created - Well at least it did in our household. You could barely wait for the postman to arrive. But of course there was no www, you were lucky if a monthly off-road magazine may have accidentally printed a picture of a GMC or Jeep by mistake and the bi-monthly green sheet/MVT sales and wants newsletter was anticipated with great excitement. I'm not sure they were good old days as such, or whether being new into the MV movement made things appear through Rose tined specs! As far as running costs of vehicles goes, I don't smoke, I don't drink to any great degree and I don't belong to a golf club - Add those three up over the course of a year and anyone could afford to get into the hobbie and attend a few shows. I have to say, one of the main reasons for selling the Dukw in 1999 was because of the huge amount of money I was spending on fuel and I simply just didn't have the financial resources to keep the old girl afloat. I reckon about 5 mpg was about the average and I had no one to split the running costs with. I remember doing Fairford International Air Tattoo and Tidworth British Army display over two consecutive weekends and being a poorper for the rest of the summer :-o :-o It also worth mentioning that in addition to the countless Area Sec's, the majority of the MVT Council of Management also do there services entirely voluntarily and this should also not be forgotten. Thats not to take anything away from other clubs and socieites - it just happens that I know more about the workings of the MVT far better than any of the others groups that HMVF members may belong to. Could it be that this reluctance for members to take on any responsibilities or positions if pretty much even across the board? Berni, I studied your comments with interest about Ex-Wiltshire Area members supporting your area across the border. I also note that Clive Elliott makes reference to the distance people have to travel. Yes, Wiltshire is a fairly vast county from tip to toe, although Marlborough/Pewsey was always pretty central and thats where I always held our meetings for exactly that reason. It didn't make any difference however, and members from the South of the county still were few and far between. It was only after I left that the meetings were re-located further North to near Malmesbury. Its a shame that none of the members who are prepared to journey up to your meetings Berni aren't prepared to grab the bull by the horns and resurect there own area or maybe they just like to go with the Flo - If indeed she even attends herself :-D Interesting observations none the less! Cds

Evening all ! All the banter back and forth with regard to the 'Post War v Wartime' debate has set me thinking and this, coupled with our recent Area AGM, has produced the following observations. Again, I don't speak on behalf of the MVT or any other organisation - Just my humble opinion for what its worth as a grass roots Area Sec. Before I moved to East Anglia in 2002, I was the Wiltshire Area Sec of the MVT for several years beforehand - And long before that, brother Neil had also been Area Sec for a few years. After a while in the chair, it quickly became apparent that it is indeed, to use a cliche, a thoroughly thankless task, with little recognition forthcoming - with the voice of criticism never too far away :roll: However, it does on ever rarer occasions have a few advantages as you are the first point of contact if someone whats something or even wants to sell something :wink: I can't remember when that last happened however as the www has opened up a much vaster audience, and all at a finger's click away. 18 months ago the Wiltshire Area MVT folded. No-one was prepared to take over from the last Area Sec who always stated that he would only fulfill the post for 12 months and already had his hands full with his own parents in ill health. Sadly, everyone was so engrossed in there own endeavours that no-one wanted to make the effort any more. I felt a tinge of sadness as I had nursed the group through the highs and lows - One meeting being so poorly attended (6 members) that we all up-sticked from the pub in Marlborough High Street and trooped up to my cottage and held the meeting in my front room and we even watched a military related video or two - honest :wink: In 2004 the Suffolk Area MVT Committee resigned on-block and who could blame them? They had run the Area for many years with little input from the members, the same old faces at the meeting, the same old few making the effort and they had decided the time had come to move onto different things. As the club reporter who had written the Windscreen reports for a year or so, I was elected onto the new committee as Area Sec - A position I was happy to accept. Two years on and the turn out at monthly meetings was dismal. As one local members said to me at a show in the summer "Its almost become cool to brag how long its been since you haven't been to a monthly meeting!" This apathy that seems to have set in, and I'm convinced that its not purely in Suffolk Area bothers me and I felt that I no longer wanted to be associated with a group/club that was a stagnant ship in the water - So in the lead up to the Area AGM this month I wrote several members a letter outlining the position. I didn't pull any punches and said that unless we had a good turn out at the AGM I would resign from the committee and the Area could bumble along without me. (It had been going long before my association with the Group and would no doubt continue to do so without me) The result was remarkable - 23 people turned up at the AGM, including some of the people who had been staying away previously. I am now enthused enough to organise an Area coach trip to London to see the HMS Belfast or the like and of course the OPERATION BOLERO event in June next year has also created a lot of interest from within the group, although its me and Ed Abbott doing all the work :roll: In conclusion, I think our movement in general is going through a trough rather than a peak - like 2004 when MV's were all the rage both in the press and on the tele what with all the 60th commemorations. Hopefully next year with the 25th Anniversary of the Falklands Conflict, our members vehicles will again be in demand and have some more front-line duties. Am I just in clocks-gone-back, winter doom and gloom apathy with little excitement on the horizon or am I striking any similar chords with other MVT Areas? Over to you! Cds

Don't know of anyone as yet looking to make the pilgrimage from Dorset or Hants, but will keep you advised as the weeks progress. Its still early-doors for most people and are currently worrying about whether to get a real or artificial Christmas Tree rather than making any firm committments as to what shows and events they are going to do in 2007 :-D Camping is available on-site, but facilities are limited. Fresh water will be available and I will hire some toilets for our use over the weekend. Electric hook-ups are few in numbers but we have PLENTY of space to accommodate everyone. The wind can blow a little off the East coast so bring plenty of tent pegs :wink: Cds

Afternoon Gents (and ladies!) :wink: It is worth me pointing out that those members who find the distance of travelling to Suffolk with a military vehicle prohibitive are very welcome to still attend the event in a 'foot passanger' capacity! Hopefully we will have enough empty GMC cargo trucks that people will be able to hop aboard and make a fuel donation towards the driver's expenses as appropriate. However, if everybody thinks this way then we will have a lot of foot passengers journeying from all across the uk to witness a real impress convoy of pedestrians stood in a field :-o :-o The event will only be as successful as the participants make it. I can lay down all the ground work in the world, but without trucks trundling through the gateway the event will be a non event. In a more postive light, I had an incredible amount of interest shown towards the event at Malvern Militaria on Sunday last. Several hundred flyers disappeared to many passers by and many people voiced there interest, including a family who brought the Willys MB to Aldbourne last year and are now also committing to OPERATION BOLERO! Phil Benham from Wiltshire has confirmed that he is bringing one of his low-loaders with a Diamond-T 969 and GMC 353 aboard. Better than that, he has also willingly agreed to transport Adrian Barrell's Sherman M4A4 and Allis-Chalmers High Speed tractor to the event to accompany Richard Doy's M18 Hellcat and Steve Silburn's International M5A1 Half-track on the WWII Armour Front. Naturally these vehicle will not be participating in the convoys but will provide much enjoyment for all concerned in the 20 acre field designated for demonstrating heavy armour. As far as low-loader hire is concerned, Andrew Blackford from Calne in Wiltshire is hoping to bring his Damond-T 969 wrecker on a lorry, but looking at the photographs of the restoration at the weekend, he still has a long way to go - almost bare chassie! None the less, if I know Andrew, he will have it done and probably only too pleased to share a low loader if 2 trucks will fit on. (Contact me for his contact details if anyone is interested.) I must also stress that the location we are using as our BOLERO HQ is not open to the public. This is mainily due to heath and safety issues, but moreso for our own security, as we will naturally not be at base camp all of the time. The general public will be advised however where best to position themselves to watch the convoy trundle through the Suffolk countryside. Lots of things are coming together and as organiser, its exciting times! Watch this space. Cds

Its interesting to see that the rift between some of the WWII vehicle owners and Post war vehicle collectors is never far from the surface and surprisingly enough, has always been that way during the many years I have been associated with the MVT. I think the comment that got this rather heated discussion going was from a ferret and fox owner (amongst many other vehicles he lists as owning) saying the following "Yet another MVT bash where the postwar owners aren't catered for?? lets play spot the postwar vehicle on the MVT Xmas card this year, that won't take long" Negative comments like this aimed solely at the organisers of WWII related events make me chuckle more than anything else, because you just can't take them very seriously! Incidentally, I don't have anything to do with the design of the MVT christmas cards, but I did a couple of them. That said, if I owned a humber pig or a CVRT I would probably be a bit peeved that there wasn't any option of a PW vehicle card also. But, if it bothered me enough I think I would raise the issue at Council of Management level where the people that make the decisions hear what the grass-roots members have to say, rather than linking your complain to the publicity of an event which has no conection with christmas cards whatsoever! To those select few (and looking back at the posting over this issue, it really is a tiny minority of PW vehicle owners) who have got pretty steamed-up over OPERATION BOLERO not being open to PW vehicles, I have one pertenant question to ask, which was mentioned to me last night during a phone conversation with a founding member of the MVT who was still in stitches from what he had read on this forum. If the event had been open to all vehicles or all eras, would you have honestly made the effort to attend the three day event anyway and taken a day out of the working week to support it?? I think most people reading this will form their own conclusions and know the truthful answer, immaterial of whatever reply is subsequently forthcoming. Those of you who cannot see that a 65th Anniversary commemorative event, organised to mark the occasion of the first United States Army Air Corp servicemen being stationed in East Anglia is not suitable for Land Rovers, Humber pigs, Bedford RL's & TK's and ferrets needs to read-up a little more on history. What possible relevence would the attendence of these vehicles have upon a 1942 period convoy event, where most people in addition to bringing their vehicles also make the effort to look the part themselves. Would you honestly feel comfortable joining in that convoy with a PW vehicle, knowing that the entire group of people you were with, would all be saying to me as organisers, "What the hell is that ruddy PW whatever doing here - That not relevent to this event!" Enough said really! Clive D Stevens

Think I might have started this by organising the OPERATION BOLERO - Tour of the Dromes event which excludes Post War vehicles, so I will put my four penneth in as well! As Suffolk Area Secretary as well, you could say I do also have a connection to the MVT Committee - but I don't serve on the council of management at National Level or attempt to speak for them. I will also comment on the MVT calander as John Cashmore and I were responsible for the 2005 version. Those popst-war vehicle owners that grizzle that events are not organised for them have an easy answer - Organise your own! :-oThis is exactly what I attempt to do with both Gathering of Eagles and Operation Bolero. This is not an MVT main event, it is an MVT affiliate event where I promote the Suffolk Area. which I chair, as a recognised platform to give the event a little credability for those who don't know me personally. Yes, this event does exclude PW vehicles because I don't want a dozen Land Rovers and Bedford TK's interspersed with WWII vehicles trying to replicate a 1944 supply convoy, just as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight doesn't have a Harrier Jump Jet in its formation when it flys over Biggin Hill! Where is the problem with trying to recreate history to the best of ones ability? If one of the PW vehicle owners decided to do a 1960's convoy tour of Salisbury Plain just like I did with the 1944 Red Ball Express re-creations, you would probably be inundated with support from likeminded vehicle owners - And if your not, you know who to blame! :-o This past July our Suffolk Area had a request from The Korean Veterans Association who were holding their East of England annual reunion in Ipswich this year, asking for British Army vehicles of the period. I read this letter out at several monthly meetings beforehand hoping that the many PW vehicle owners within our ranks would support there casuse and guess what - On the day, not a sign of anyone. Next year however, we are aware that the 447th Bomb Group (Eighth Air Force WWII US Veterans) are returning to their WWII Suffolk airfield and I am already having to keep interested members with vehicles at arms length - And I don't just mean a gaggle of Jeeps! :-P In my experience and generally speaking the WWII vehicle owners are more proactive, spend less time grizzling about the PW members and just get on and achieve things - If you need an example, look at the 2nd Armoured crowd that took all those vehicle to France this year as featured in the current Classic Military vehicle magazine - Talk about pro-active and I for one admire them for it! - Just as I would admire anyone who organised a BAOR (British Army Over the Rhine) European trip, and believe me, if I was into collecting kit from that era, thats exactly what I would be doing too - AND under a Suffolk MVT banner as well :-o :-o When an ordinary member (because that is exactly what I am) gets off their backside and committs several months of their free-time to plan and organise a designated event catering to the needs of whoever (in my case owners and operators of Allied WWII heavy vehicles both) the event is bound to succeed. If you doubt me, check out the Simon Morris Photo Gallery on http://www.gatheringofeagles.co.uk With regard to the MVT calander, it is always a struggle to find a willing Area or group to take on the task of this incredibly time consuming project - I know because I've done it. If you look back to the 2005 version, we tried to make the calander balanced, but still in-keeping with our rich heritage, that the Suffolk region has to military history. Therefore the Suffolk Regiment, the Eighth Air Force and the current TA Regiment in Bury St Edmunds were included along with a selection of Area members vehicles ranging from a British Army Sherman M4A4 to a Centurion AVRE which I nearly got run over by when trying to photograph it for the project!! The MVT was founded by Peter Grey in the 1970's when some PW Vehicles hadn't even been designed - Peter himself had a Diamond-T cargo and an M-10 Tank Destroyer that he saved from being scrapped at Pounds Scrape Yard in Portsmouth - Of couse the club is always going to have a bias to WWII kit, but if you when to the MVT National Show at Kemble this year, you wouldn't necessarily think so - with acres of PW vehicles including a Centurion MBT, Cheftain MBT, countless Land Rovers, CVRT's of many guises etc etc, many of which owned by friends of mine. Contray to some peoples thoughts, I am not anti-PW. In fact I have always wanted to get a Saldadin and paint in up in the colours of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, where my Dad used to serve. Some of the eraliest photos of me ever taken (less than a year old) show me as a baby in arms watching Cheftain tanks driving through Marlborough on exercise in 1975 - And later on came the Dinky Toys, then the Tamyia models, and in August this year I was seriously thinking about swapping my Dodge Command Car for Phil Benham's Centurion MBT !! To conclude, this frictional problem (Post War - WWII vehicle) has always shown itself ever since I became involved with the MVT in 1989 and shows no sign of changing - Its not the vehicles that are at fault, its the frame of mind of a certain proportion of the vehicle owners that operate them. The MVT does its best to strike a balance, anyone who has read the last copy of Windscreen cannot deny that PW owners are well catered for - At one point I thought I had been mistaken for picking up a British Army post war TM! But, although not particularly appealing to me, it clearly appeals to many other members and its therefore a question of balance. (Similiarly, not everyone is going to want to read the forthcoming Windscreen article about the Gathering of Eagles vehicle convoy, other than webmaster Jack, who thinks its his own version of This is Your Life! Yes I speak frankly on the matter and for no-one other than myself - Which is why I was never in the given a job in the diplomatic office at Whitehall![/b] But, having got off my backside to stage an event, on a self-financed, shoe-string budget, it is a little irritating to read from the wingers out there about "Oh no - yet another event from which we are excluded!" If you feel strongly enough about it, organise your own show specifically tailored to what interests you - but don't moan at the very people who's voluntary efforts make events happen in the first place. No doubt this posting will put the cat amongst the pigeons! :-D Clive D Stevens

Jack has been on at me to officially join HMVF for ever and a day, but we have just updated our pc from my 1995 vintage machine which has literally melted into a pool of moulton plastic after I tried to install talktalks new broadband - So now we have a nice shiney silver one which plays brilliant flight sims! First got into the Military Vehicle scene when brother Neil bought a WC-51 in 1989 and then Dad bought a GMC 352 a few months later. Was only 14 at the time so all I had to do was help pool my pocket money towards the fuel bills! Since 1993 I have owned a GMC 353 non winch, GMC 353 ex Norway, Dodge WC-51, GMC DUKW, Stuart M5A1 Kangaroo, GMC 352 winch, Willys MB, GMC 353 with Maxson turret, Dodge WC-56 Command - And soon to be another GMC 353 ! Well after reading Pete Ashby's vast list of 33 years in his welcome message, I thought I better pull the stops out! :-P Now at the grand old age of 31 I still have the Stuart M5A1, which I bought from John Marchants retirement auction in 1999 and its still in a million pieces, although it was all together and running when I first got it. Have spent many many many hours on this project but still keep getting sidetracked. Still have the Dodge WC-56 which is bags of fun, particularly in the summer and is more reliable than any modern car. (Nice pic of it on HMVF at the Debach Airfield Open Day - Events picture section. Rebuilt this in 2003 and completely took the front end off and tidied all the panels. Have used it so much since then it really needs doing again! My GMC DUKW that I bought off of Bob James in Evesham in 1998 after he had rolled it (Literally) on the M6 going up to the Lake District for the amphib weekend when an artic lorry hit him up the rear and launched him upside down onto the central reservation is sadly now painted yellow. (He got out shaken but not stirred) After I finished the restoration of this vehicle in 1998 abily assisted by Uncle Steve and Rex Ward, I finishing it off in an olive drab, but after only one seasons use was made an offer for it from a Dukw tour operation in Dublin Harbour that I just couldn't refuse, so sadly it had to go. Its untimely sale did however finance me getting on the housing market in my home town of Marlborough, Wiltshire which was no mean feat for a single chap of 23! If you happen to be in Dublin and you see a bright yellow dukw go chugging past on the River Liffy, don't mention my name as it won't get you any discounted tickets - I think I may have failed to mention to the chap that bought it that it had been upside down at one stage during its chequered career!!! :-o :-o Just like brother Neil, I also have a soft spot for the classic American GMC 6x6 truck and just can't resist them. The last belonged to the late Malcolm Parker of Lincs and had the maxson turret mounted in the rear cargo body. I actually saw it at Beltring this year and the new owner has given it more love and care than my limited storage/workshop facilities would have permitted. Good on him! My local Suffolk MVT buddy Howard and myself have just put a deal together to buy a Diamond-T 969 Wrecker and GMC from Norway, which should hopefully be here by Christmas, so thus the GMC love affair continues. We decided as OPERATION BOLERO - Tour of the Dromes is aimed at this heavy US kit, we better get ourselves fully equipped being the organisers! :wink: Be sure to check out the postings that will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead with regard to this event. Word on the street says that Jack has already started filling his spare jerry cans with juice and stock-piling them in his outhouse ready for the journey in June 2007 :wink: Maybe if I gave organising events a rest for a while, the Stuart M5 would finally get finished - but then how would I afford the fuel for twin V8 Cadillac engines? - I don't drive a 1.1 Peugeot 206 and live on the flatlands of East Anglia for no reason you know! Good on you Jack and the entire HMVF crew for this site - Its far more vast than I first realised, and keep getting lost! Clive D Stevens

What older brother failed to mention was that it was MY EFFORT in selling his reproduction Eastman B3 Sheepskin flying jacket at Beltring in 2005 for £350 that was the difference between him having raised enough money to book the weekend trip to Michigan in the first place! - Oh how these seemingly immaterial facts are overlooked after the dust has settled - And I didn't even charge him my usual commission!!! Joking apart, on that August Sunday afternoon that he was in the USA, I was driving my Dodge WC-56 Command Car around the arena at a village fete type event near Stowmarket when my mobile rang. I pulled the Dodge to a halt and answered the withheld number call. "Listen to this" he said and all I could hear was a terrific rumbling noise. He was in the nose of the B-17 with all four fans turning and I was posing around at a bloody village fete!! My only satisfaction came from the fact that I had done exactly the same in the USA seven years previous aboard the Collins Foundations B-17 Nine-O-Nine and I was allowed on the flight deck for take off and landing, whereas Neil was merely strapped in at the waist! Then I got the text the following day to tell me that they had also decided to go up for a hop in the B-24 Liberator.........Oh well, you can't win them all! Maybe I should post my pictures of my surprised flight in the back seat of Maurice Hammond's superb P-51 Mustang, Janie? 2 - 2 ! Now when is that blooming B-29 Superfortress FiFi of the Confederate Air Force going to be back in the Texas skies?? Clive

This is the younger brother of the two reporting in Jack! Yes, after a great deal of interest in staging another Gathering of Eagles next year, we felt that holding the event every year in Aldbourne could jeopardise our good relationship with the village and its people. Therefore after much egging on by Neil to resurrect our famous Red Ball Express heavy convoys from the early 1990's when petrol was 10 bob a gallon and you could take the entire convoy out from Marlborough and across Salisbury Plain without the British Army thinking you were a terrorist target, we have decided to organise another WWII Allied vehicle convoy event. Seeing that I have now been away from Marlborough since 2002 and up here in glorious Lovejoy County, I decided that I would organise the event a little closer to home for a change! Base HQ for this three day event will therefore be in Framlingham, Suffolk - very close to the famous wartime airfield of Parham where the US Army Air Forces Eighth Air Force - 390th Bombardment Group flew their B-17's from for the bulk of their time spent flying operations from British soil. The event itself is aimed at exactly the same type of participants that attended Gathering of Eagles in Wiltshire, but with a slant towards the USAAF rather than the US Airborne Paratroopers - But hey, we don't want to turn anyone away - All Allied vehicle collectors and re-enactors are welcome to attend, just as long as you wear the kit properly and with respect for the men who had to wear those uniforms for real. We will take the convoy out on a different route on each of the three days where Ed Abbott aboard his trusty Matchless will guide us through the leafy lanes of rural Suffolk - Just like he did so well back in May at Aldbourne. Highlights will include a visit to a private airstrip to view an impressive collection of fully operational WWII warbirds and the opportunity to get up close and personal with a P-51 Mustang. Weather permitting, the aircraft will also no doubt take to the skies but there is also an excellent aviation museum on-site honouring the men who flew from this airfield. The evenings will also be packed with a host of things to keep everyone amused including a 1940's jitterbug dance (optional of course!) and illustrated talks by WWII historians and authors telling the wartime history of this particular region of Eastern England. Neil is also preparing a presentation called '36 Wright Cyclones' - detailing his trip to Willow Run, Michigan last year to see the Thunder Over Michigan airshow, where the largest gathering of operational B-17's & B-24's amassed to wow the crowd - and he even got to fly aboard the bombers and take some great video! It is also hoped to include WWII Veterans in the event, but at this stage things are still very sketchy. So if you have a WWII vehicle and you fancy an action packed three day event in East Anglia from the organisers of some of the very best WWII vehicle and living history events over the past 15 years, then look no further. You will truly have a weekend to remember - Just ask webmaster Jack for a reference! Suffolk has an active MVT Area with many GMC and Diamond-T's amongst its ranks. Phil Benham from Wiltshire has already expressed a very keen interest to bring several of his low-loaders full of classic War Metal to the event, along with several others from the South. As a little aside, my love of Suffolk came from when I first visited the county in 1992 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the USAAF's arrival in England. Having driven my father's GMC 352 from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Framlingham in Suffolk, a distance of some 185 miles, I am aware that this event is not going to be on everyone's doorstep! So Jack, I don't want to hear you claiming that its too far to bring that splendid GMC - We did it back in 1992 and had the time of our lives and look where it leaded - We now have a house on the edge of a WWII heavy Bomber airfield on the Norfolk/Suffolk border and I have a P-51 Mustang trying to take the TV aerial off the roof of my house on most weekends during the Summer months - Heaven! Anyone who wants further info on OPERATION BOLERO - Tour of the Dromes, please feel free to contact me on willowrun@talktalk.net or on the phone numbers on the colour poster . Cheers Clive D Stevens