Adrian Barrell

1 1/2" plate and yes, 3/4" rivets. It doesn't take too long to drill the holes, either on the radial drill or with the magbroach. My radial drill will drill up to 80mm dia so a 19mm is no problem! I can't remember how many rivets we put in altogether but there were four different sizes, 3/4, 5/8, 1/2 and 3/8 and a large number of different lengths.

Resurecting an old thread here but here are a couple of pictures of the said Ram. A before and after of the rh front. We had to put a new side and centre floor in as well as sponsons, floor angles and many other parts. All hot rivetted too. My neighbours ears are still ringing!

Birmingham Small Arms

Jim, thanks. I'll look forward to seeing some more pics.

Hanno, the Bedford is long gone but I don't believe it was a wartime vehicle. The owners have replaced the side rails and fitted ramps, they used it to carry a crawler tractor of some sort. The plate states it is for 'medium tractor' which was a D7, so perhaps this is a 16 ton trailer though it looks a bit short to me. The plate also calls it a full trailer so clearly it was not intended to operate as a semi.

Ain't that the truth.....

I'd be very surprised if Iraq had any 17 pdr ammunition. I believe most other users gave them up long ago partly due to the lack of any. I wonder when the last 17 pdr ammo was made.

Rick, stowage. The British Army had different stowage requirements to the US and there are quite a few brackets and fittings spread throughout the turret peculiar to a British one. There are also a few external additions too but I can see none of them in the pictures so would expect it to be US Army but a closer inspection would tell for sure.

There was quite a few M42s on Hohne I seem to remember.

Hanno, there is one of these near me and it was used as a semi-trailer behind a Bedford. It still has its plates on but the pictures are in my other 'pooter. I'll post them tomorrow. I do not know if it was converted to a 'standard' fifth wheel but they did use a Dayton coupling on the Bedford so I assume it was able to seperate from the dolly though with the lack of legs it doesn't look like there was any intention to do so normally.

If you remove a range target without permission, assuming you even get away with it at the time, that is theft and you can expect to get in trouble! It is much harder to get access let alone permission to remove anything nowadays for a number of reasons. Not immpossible, just harder. There is a survey of all range targets in the UK being undertaken, as I understand it and this will make it next to immpossible to get anything. Of course, there are old targets that no longer feature and these will possibly 'get out', time will tell! Some range officers are more amenable than others, I've had dealings with both ends of the spectrum....

It would be easy enough to tell by looking inside whether it is ex- US or British Army.

I assumed that was someones attempt to cut it up for scrap. Though the odd square cut out behind the cupola does look more like a deliberate section.

Thanks for the lecture Eddy. Your grasp of the technical terms shows you are an expert.....:-D

I nearly added 'Steve could confirm or deny this, but.....' I think I'll stick to Shermans and Cromwells! Thanks for the correction Steve.

That would be a Mk VI then!

That T54 always amazed me! I've driven it and I can't believe any other nationalities vehicle would do the same.

Rob, yes the 17 pr is on the IOW. Rick, Julians comets came from STANTA (Thetford) and Pirbrite both via East of England Museum.

Of course there was a large influx of American built tanks into the British Army during the desert war all of which had white interiors so that may be what was being referred to.

Originally silver but a shortage of the aluminium pigments, for it was a special paint with high metal content, led to using white for a short time before returning to silver. There seems to be some uncertainty as to when the changes took place and how widespread it was but from my observations of original vehicles that have not been painted post war, I would think 1941-1942 may be white and other periods silver. Certainly silver had come back by 1944.

Are you saying I'm insane? Actually come to think of it......:nut:

We were having that conversation 20 years ago! The problem is we all felt, naively that the old stuff would always be out there. I kick myself when I think what I could have done..... The large influx of Chieftains and similar due to CFE started the clearance of the old stuff. That and the fact it was all getting a bit tatty. With the withdrawal of forces from Germany, the UK ranges and training areas began to see a large increase in use.

Hi Jim, welcome to the madhouse! Please do post any pics you have, I'm particularly interested in any armoured stuff.

No Cromwells as far as I know but lots of Comets, a Tortoise, some Churchills and a Conqueror. Also a 17 pr AT gun in a bush! There are some trials Chietain variants that are a bit secret.... All fairly well picked over but apart from the 17 pr, all still there I think. Very rusty though, the sea air has not improved them!