panzerjaeger

RIP Mike, one of the earliest MV restorers and a good and generous friend. I spent many a happy hour down at Highbury with Mike and Carrie and could only marvel at the quality of restoration achieved by Mike and his team. As others have commented, he could be very difficult at times and he and I had some ding dong arguments (which observers thought would end in fisticuffs) but he and I never fell out. I will never forget loading his recently deceased goat onto a trailer and taking down to the knacker’s yard with a funeral cortège of about 50 cars that couldn’t pass us on the narrow roads in the area. Mike thought it a fitting farewell to the family pet! He was lucky to live so near to Shrivenham and Bovington and was known as Colonel Hoffman to the range wardens on Salisbury Plain. In the company of Major John Gillman (who passed away last week) he was once of the first to scour the ranges looking for Daimler A/Cs to salvage, especially 2 pdr breech mechanisms and parts. For the record, Mike did not donate his White Scout Car to the Tank Museum. He needed the funds for the purchase of his new boat and sold it to Tony Budge who in turn donated it to the TM. This donation has never been acknowledged although the TM did mount a board correctly attributing its restoration to Mike.

At last, I have found some photos of the SU-410 which I think may be better posted in the Russian vehicle section.

No idea where to begin to search. I have thousands of photographs, many of which have never seen the light of day. It would take the best part of a year to scan them all. However, the SU-420 and SU-310 photos did appear in Military Modelling and Military Machines International in the 1990s. Bob

Thanks for the photos; these TDT-55 are later versions with diesel motors not wood burners. I'll dig out some photos of the SU-310 and SU-420 one of these days. Bob

Steve I examined the SU-420 for the first time in Moscow in 1994. I asked about the SU-310 but no-one knew anything about or even if it had existed. On my last visit to St Petersburg in 1998, there it was as large as life sitting outside the artillery museum. It had obviouly been stored inside or underground because it had no traces of corrosion on it. I wrote an article about them both in Military Modelling about that time along with photographs. I have heard from several reliable sources that the Russians store much of their obsolete military equipment in former gypsum mines. I have seen examples of MG34 and MG42 from such stores and they were in excellent condition. Perhaps this is where these SPGs were stored during the Cold War. Bob

I never knew the Soviet copy existed until I saw the photograph and film in the Kirovski Museum in St Petersburg; now I know it even had a designation. What was even more sensational was the cine film of a huge cannon mounted on a pair of IS-3 chassis. It was like the proposal to mount 24 cm and 28 cm guns on Tiger chassis, similar to the drawings on page 176 of the Spielberger Tiger book. Presumably, this rig was built at the Kirovski Zavod in Leningrad also.

It looks like the 105mm SPG on a Swedish built 38t chassis. Did you know that the Russian built a "simplified" copy of the RSO at the Kirovski Zavod in Leningrad. It was powered by a wood burner for use in Siberia. Apparantly several thousand were built and I have seen a photograph of a complete train load leaving the factory on its way east.

My friend Jaroslav Janousek is restoring one of the Czech Cromwells and has purchased a Charioteer (or two) from the Finns. He is currently casting new fans and fan drives for both the Cromwell and Charioteer.

My thanks to all who responded. My friend in Prague is now much the wiser. P

A Czech friend has asked what the initials S.I.D. stand for; I should know but can't remember. Panzerjaeger

Good evening gentlemen My name is Bob and I have finally joined the HMVF. Most of you will know who I am as I have been collecting, restoring and rallying military vehicles for over 30 years. If you own an M18 TD or an M36 MGC, then it came from me. Before the recent snow came down, I replaced the track on my FV434 and removed the fuel tank from the Kubel as it had started to leak. If that wasn't enough, I had to remove the engine, gearbox and one final drive from my Kettenkrad to repair a split in the gearbox casing and replace a final drive shaft. Problems with MVs are like buses, you wait ages for one then two come along!