Whittingham warrior

Was that the one with the post-war Swiss tank for £150,000...........

A possible reason why Jagdpanther or Berge Hetzer were not mentioned, could be that the episodes are not shown in order they were filmed or a could be a hotch-potch events? For those that had nothing better to do last night the 'Australian Hetzer' appeared in a workshop shot. Which is odd as we all now know it is now in Australia and the only one there!

Combat Dealers certainly broke new ground in the 'any tank on a bit of film will do' clip tonight. After banging on about building a jagdpanther, a random clip of wartime film was shown with a brief clip of a panther and then a hummel firing its 150mm gun..

But the best was yet to come. On a trip to Lorraine to find parts for the broken down half track there was a montage of footage representing the battle for the said place. Not only T34s (knocked out) but blink and you would have missed it, a Vickers Medium speeding past the camera....

What ever will it be next week?

In 1913 the rejection rate for Army recruits per 1,000 was:

 

Defective intelligence 1.42

Other diseases of the nervous system 0.63

Not likely to be an efficient soldier 2.49

 

Quite low figures but as you indicate the most vulnerable would have been locked up.

 

I have the Army Medical Dept Reports for 1884, 1901 & 1913. These are very comprehensive but curiously the returns for the sick in South Africa for 1901 "cannot for the present be prepared" odd as the report was published in 1903.

From the book 'Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War' comes a census of service patients in English and Welsh county and borough asylums (90), on January 1st 1922, there was 4,985. Which seems a remarkably small figure considering the millions that served. It is more than likely that many men suffered at home rather than be admitted to t'sylum

There are another six volumes to go. However, look away now if you don't want to know the ending.

The report later became the 1912 Mental Deficiency Bill, which was passed into law in 1913, a date overshadow in the nation's celebration of the Great War. One of the main worries was that in the Boer War British troops had been found physically inferior to their enemy due to 'bad blood.' This was further added to by the Eugenics Movement, a cause taken on board by a Mr Churchill and a certain Herr Hitler, the latter to a more extreme level.

The Act allowed for those with an IQ of 70 or less would be taken into certified institutions for the mentally deficient either voluntary or against their will. Three main groups made up the institution's occupants, the idiots, imbeciles and of course the largest group, the feeble-minded. Those that had a vicious propensity for which punishment could not correct and despite having an IQ greater than 70 would also be admitted as moral imbeciles later renamed moral defectives. The relatives of the patients would be required to pay for their upkeep whilst those patients in a county asylums would be classified as pauper lunatics and instead paid for by their local parish. Patients could and would spend their whole lives in such institutions.

There might well be a sequel.

The sale of the Hetzer, I must have missed the bit where he tells the audience how much he paid for it and the massive price he sold it for. Can anyone enlighten me?

Today I have mainly been reading, The Royal Commission on the Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded, Volume II.

Anyway back to CMV, why is there no adverts via Milweb ? I have internet but not every one has it.

I've wondered that, yet we still get three pages of the thoughts of Nigel Hay, but nothing to show for it.....

Would not a an additional three pages of photographs be better, and not the cock-eyed or twisted ones which appeared in the last edition of CMV.

Time to go back to the ward

It could also be they might not have enough guns to go around. The GPMG did have the famous Military Muckabouts washer welded to the muzzle, whilst both guns had the customary nails to hold a belt of ammo in place.

There was also a Challenger 2 parked up as well.

Some of you may find this hard to believe, but the Army in the shape of the TA in Wigan use 'weapons' supplied by Military Muckabouts! At a show of strength in Preston town centre this past Saturday a sand yellow Land Rover from the above unit was parked up next to the Harris Library with both the infamous GPMG and a 0.50 calibre Browning mounted. A separate non-attached unit displayed a real GPMG on a tripod. So if its good enough for them .............

It appears according to the local mayor that the vehicle was trundling about in the 'snow catastrophe of 1978' So it wasn't some secret weapon ready to spring from its lair and head for Poland!

Never a good idea to appear with a portrait of Herr Hitler in one's home

Not forgetting they must have been very cheap and quick to build.

An example is the steering as someone said ' Never had a mechanism been invented which could remove tracks with such regularity.'

As I said Zee plane Zee plane,

I bought a Windsor carrier in around 2000 for £6,500 it was an older restoration and almost 100% intact.........

If anyone does want drawings for all the above missing or rotten boxes let me know.

Today on Milweb there are 11 carriers in various states, is this a record? And do any sell or it is it more a trip to Fantasy Island for some of the higher priced ones?

Zee Plane Zee plane!

The fluid fly wheel can be drained as you say. There will be two drain plugs set at 180 degrees to one another so to balance the fly wheel. There is a special tool basically a hexagonal box spanner with a central threaded shaft to screw into the plug, although a socket can be used. However, don't let the screwed plug fall inside the bell housing as it can be troublesome to extricate. Then it's a question of filling to the brim, replace plug, run engine, recheck level of fluid and refill if need be.

Mark

Its surprising what The Telegraph can find to write about, although not much on HSBC though................

Is that Private Charles Godfrey MM to the left?

Was there not one done up made up of 24 other Panzer IV's, tons of mild steel topped off with a 432 engine and that was meant to be from 1944. Imagine taking a vehicle like that to the DVLA and asking for an age related plate!

Certainly puts the navvy's spade in the shade.

No doubt some local worthy reported him to the State.

In a local paper in Lancashire an incendiary bomb was taken into a school as part of a 'What our relatives might have done in the War project' The thermite core had been removed years ago all it was, was just a metal cylinder. It was blown up by bomb disposal !

For those that have missed 'Combat Dealers' either by accident or design it can now be seen today (Sunday) on Quest in EIGHT back to back episodes. The programme starts at 10am or an hour later on Quest+1.

If you get in quick, have a look at "The Science of D-Day": http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b045gr8m/the-science-of-dday :cool2:

If I heard right during the clip about Dieppe there was wild and reckless talk about the RUBBER tracks of Churchills snapping on the beach........................

The £300 may be the money you receive after he had taken his commission out of the sale......

It might be worth asking if he could supply a couple more at that price.....

Roll on the Tank Museum's Vickers Independent?

I'm reading the Fifteenth Annual Report (1879) of The Royal Albert Asylum for Idiots & Imbeciles of the Northern Counties.