RattlesnakeBob

It is an absolutely ridiculous and completely unnecessary rise ......yet again!.:mad: .every single item that is bought or sold in the UK has to be moved by road.... and if you look at the price of fuel from just the point of view of a haulier..... (never mind a private individual!:embarrassed:).... it is a absolutely stupid policy to follow........

.... the wood on the Thompsons looks to me just as though its been left out in the weather for years getting soaking wet in the rain then getting sun bleached.... ......either way about it and however they came to be lying there... ......that yard is crammed full of some serious moneys worth of extremely collectable old weapons...:-D

yeah maybe that's possible.... but... ..how come the woodwork on all the Thompsons and Lee Enfields isn't burnt ??:undecided:

well I reckon you could still 'use' that sort of load bed at the back so I'd be inclined to call it a 'pick up'

I first found this series of photos a few years ago and at that time didn't think to save the link to the page.....BUT!.......I have just tonight come across it once again....... Take a look .....you will honestly..... not believe your eyes.... ....piles and I do mean PILES of old guns stacked up in a desert (well....'desert-ish'!) somewhere.... ..what 'dya fancy?... .. Thompsons ????.....M60s????? MG34s????? M3 Grease Guns????? .....Lee Enfields??? Anyone that's ever paid good money for an old Thompson or a MG34 will weep over these pictures. I haven't a clue as to where the location is and there's no info on the web site either so....any guess's where this massive dump might have been / still is maybe ???? http://www.project-x.org.uk/armsdumpindex.html

d'you know something ....:-) .....I quite like that daft looking thing....... I can just see me trundling around this summer on that ...:cool2:..

I do agree there is quite probably a lot of gear 'out there' still hidden away in barns and lofts etc... ....down the road from me is an old US Army Camp abandoned in 1946 and cleared more or less apart from the concrete hut foundations by the middle 1950s.........I must have walked through it 10,000 times with my dogs but yesterday, right in the path that I take ever single day....and not even off to one side either.....I noticed there was a piece of steel sticking out of the dirt... ..a good tug later and I had one of those 4' long barbed wire 'twisty/squirrly' support poles from the old perimeter fence in my hands!.. Yeah I know..........not much of a find in the grand scheme of things , it doesn't really measure up to finding a BAR or a Garand or a steel helmet :cry:... ....but !......

I remember reading a in a book years ago that apparently in the last few months of the war, Allied troops got very adept at searching through log piles at cottages and farms in the villages during the final push into Germany....Our boys had quickly learnt that such wood stores were a favourite hiding place for German officers to stash their pistols in an endeavor I guess to keep them out of keen 'collectors' hands.....maybe their intention was to come back themselves at some time to get their weapon but either way a lot of goodies were found and 'liberated'! Another favourite place to look was wherever there was a bridge over a stream or brook....German troops thinking they were stopping their weapons falling into Allied hands would quite often lob their pistols/rifles off a handy bridge as they retreated...........

..........it might be time to dig the old scuba gear out then ! hahahaha:cheesy:

Nice looking old tank.....:cheesy:... showing foolish ignorance or whatever.....:undecided:. but is that turret more or less the same as were on Centurions? and.....should you set about restoring a tank with damage such as that........... ......(never having messed about with trying to weld armoured steel you understand).... ......would you repair the spang / pock marks / penetration damage (whatever you wanna call it) to the turret by simply filling up with weld?........Yeah I know..hours of work...good stick practice for the workshop 'lad' though! been there you see....done many an hour on a stick set filling similar damage to boiler shells and steam calorifiers in my youth! ............... or ..........would most folk just grind them off flat, fill with metal filler , then sand them off and repaint ???????

now there speaks a man of either incredible confidence and mechanical abilities and of great wealth to boot!......:cool2:.... (or possibly another misguided fool such as I ! hahahahah ! :-D) fair play though..that would be some kinda or restoration worth watching ....:-D....

hey up and welcome..:-\ .........mooching about in disused bunkers and pillboxs happens to be another of my interests :cool2:.. ..yet another 'interest' that seems to baffle an awful lot of ordinary folk!....about the same as does 'fiddling about with old army vehicles' !.......:-D

Many years ago as a lad in the late 60s, there was an old fella my Dad knew that had fought across Europe in WW2.......often when we visited talk would turn to his old army days and the war and inevitably he would dig about in his sideboard and show you his souvenirs.......he had a Luger pistol (albeit a bit damaged in that it was missing one of the grippers off the side of the pistol grip) and also a big brass signal pistol that looked to me like a very short old fashioned blunderbus..:-) ............my Dad in turn, would often relate (moan about ! haha!) how he'd tried to bring an Browning automatic pistol home from Korea that he'd swapped his guitar for with a US soldier ..... much to his disgust he would tell of how random searches were carried out on the soldiers as they disembarked from their homecoming ship and 'his' pistol was found and confiscated.The old boy would say that he and his mates brought more or less anything they wanted home from WW2 and certainly made it sound as if no searches or checks were carried out on them at all..... .....I got to wondering.......Surely there must have been literally thousands of souvenirs brought home after WW2??? ..so.... how many of you have heard of various items (not just weapons) being brought home from various wars?.....whether it was a relative or a family friend or just some old boy that used to frequent your local pub maybe?... anyone got any interesting stories ???... ..........and..with all the recent action in Afghanistan and Iraq....what's the present position taken by the authorities regarding the bringing home of a 'souvenir' of your war? PS......Understanding of course that the collector of the any such 'souvenirs' .... should remain as anonymous as absolutely possible of course :-D.. I would certainly hate for our chattering to result in some cherished old goodie having to be surrendered to the Police for the usual mindless destruction........

a lovely looking little truck this ...not long to go though .. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Royal-Navy-Bomb-Truck-FMV-FORD-/110833227843?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item19ce2cd843#ht_499wt_1416

Posted on another thread too but having read the Ebay listing again noticed that there is a BUY IT NOW for only £3000 on this one..gotta be worth nipping down to Devon to have a look I reckon ?.... Shame...! I've just bought another SWB to do up so the 'fun pot' has been spent for the next few months! ..drat !:-( http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Landrover-101Forward-Control-/120867334402?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1c24412902#ht_499wt_1416 seems like they haven't listed it as a 'car' on Ebay so it's a bit hidden .maybe thats why the bidding is low ?.....

Agree with you Dave .. ...unfortunately the attitude of 'it's worth way more than that mate!' seems to be a trait in general of 'dealers' no matter what trade they specialise in..:-( .....I used to do a lot of dismantling work and buying/selling of engineering machinery in general and lost count of the number of times I was told my bid was 'way too low and nowhere near scrap value!' .. ..it used to really annoy me because I always made it my business to find out what the best scrap prices around about were....and almost without fail the vendor would say something along the lines of "it's £150 a ton and there's 10 ton in that mate so it's gotta be a minimum of £1500 quid if you want it " conveniently ignoring that it was only £150 quid a tonne for 'OA' cut to size scrap ...'oversize' fetched way less at the yards and gascutting /labour costs would knock a good lump out of the final sum.....but would they see that ?... Also ..it's gotta be said.... if you're buying 'by the tonne' ..??. .......never underestimate a dealers ability to overestimate the weight of something ! .... It's gotta be said though that I think farmers are still amongst the worst to deal with....how many of you have tried to buy something off one only to told something like "that's a good one that is mind!...it's really old it is! I heard of one of them going for £££££££ssss (fill in the appropriate price!) ......" ...and they never seem to like your answer of "yeah but that one didn't have a tree growing up through it and a rat nest in the back seat mate!"

I like that one Ivor :-D .."and what colour is your Dakota?" .......heheheheh!.....that's a perfect put down.........:laugh: Reminds me of many years ago a mate in the AWDC built an absolutely beautiful and radically shortened and soft topped Range Rover....it honestly was superbly built and looked an absolute treat ....then.......he proceeded over the next 2 years or so to give it some kind of battering racing and trialling it and not giving a monkeys as to how much of an hiding it got nor what damage he did ........we lost count of the number of people that in the first few months or so of him rolling it out came up to him to berate him for knocking such a gorgeous truck about........ ..............his answer was always the same "I bought it and built with my money and whilst it's mine I'll do what I want with it.....if you want to make me the right offer you can buy it off me and do what you want to with it as well !"

very interesting thread this one...:-) .having looked at all the photos and read the posts I'd like to ask what the Sherman was generally like 'off road'? ...the standard (sort of) Sherman track with the rubber 'road pads' doesn't look as though it would be very good off road and it does also look very narrow..???? .the steel version with no pad and a sort of a 'V' shaped grouser looks like it would perform a bit better though..????.. ..... and the later much wider track (like on the Sherman outside of the Utah museum) with the pronounced 'V' grouser starts to look like the real deal.......??? so .....did the tracks make much difference ?........and what in general was their off road performance like???? Also..... I would imagine if the Sherman was a bulldozer model then the 'rubber pad' type of track would be next to useless off road? can't imagine they would give a lot of traction with no grousers at all???? anyways.............enlighten me please ! "Ta" in advance !!!! PS: Mind you .....although they look much more 'serious ' ,,,,,,,I guess the later type of 'full steel grouser' track isn't very desirable for a restoration vehicle though??.....can't see many towns or Rallies etc wanting you tearing their tarmac and grass all to hell?.......

hello there :laugh:.....whereabouts in deepest darkest South Wales ?..only just over the border... hidden in the woods

crikey :wow:that's got some serious holes ! .............nothing a good fella with a stick welder couldn't fill tho ! heheheh!:cheesy:

you knows yer Shermans fer sure Adrian. ........incidentally ..the one you mention that used to be outside Bovington?.....I first visited there around 79 /80 ish I guess and I recall one outside that looked that one...it was alongside an 8 wheel armoured car of some sorts?.lovely bit of kit.what happened to that one then ?do they still have it? also.ps: in the photo of the inside of the turret....there's a small square hatch? was that to lob the spent shell cases out of ?..or for something more technical?...

That Sherman is confusing me:undecided:.... .....wide tracks and horizontal suspension denotes a fairly late model Sherman doesn't it???.... but it's got (what looks like to me anyways) the 75mm 'stubby' earlier gun??? or am I completely and hopelessly wrong !? hahah?.... she does look pretty smashed up too .....what a shame...... see what you mean about the corrosion ..it does look really bad...even stripping some useable bits off her would prove a challenge I reckon ...you'd want more than a bit of penetrating oil I reckon !

Great photo...:cheesy: ....at one of my jobs many years ago I worked at a big old outfit that dealt in all manner of secondhand materials and machinery . They'd been established since the 1930s and through the late 40s and 50s had made a handsome living out of a lot of ex military kit ... lorries , excavators , generators and such... they had 2 very similar ex aircraft tugs as 'yard tractors' along with some other really interesting stuff...These little tugs were used to shift stuff on a selection of ex-RAF bomb trailers/trollies that had been modified for their purposes... ..One of the drivers of these tugs was an ex army fella and I used to watch him with awe as he could back up the ex RAF draw bar trailers with more ease than most folk could back up a wheelbarrow. At that stage I'd already done a year or so on a farm and was very well versed in how hard a draw bar trailer is to reverse having once got into a right proper mess with a huge hay trailer 'stuck' in an awkward corner of the farm with the drawbar all tangled up under the back wheels of my tractor... Unfortunately many years later the Grandson of the old man was now running the show and he had a big clear up in the early 90s and the 2 tugs were cut for scrap along with all their trailers and also 2 massive Jones yard cranes that had come from an admiralty dockyard somewhere .........

Loving your pictures but I hate seeing armour all smashed up on various ranges .....especially Shermans! oh I could cry :cry:

yep I reckon that's a scrapper that was dumped probably around the time the US pulled out of the Phillipines..........either that or they got some kind of currents in that bay to be able to strip the gearbox off the front of the tank :-)