RattlesnakeBob

sorry to butt in with a bit of a thread departure...but ..at least 25 ish years ago at the old steam and vintage show they used to have at Much Marcle near Ledbury there was a lovely Stuart (unknown model sorry !) on display in good running order... what was distinctive about the tank was that the turret had been missing when the tank was acquired so the fella replaced it with a very good immitation one built out of simple sheet steel welded to a steel box section frame and added a steel pipe to make a dummy gun barrell.......it was really well done and I wonder if that tank is still about ? .anyone know of it nowadays???

hello !

I recently read a book on farming in the West Country in bygone years and there was a bit in there about how quite a few 'horse haulage contractors' in the countryside would hide their horses during the first world war to foil the dreaded ministry man from confiscatiing them for the war effort.... ....apparantly it was relatively common for these horse haulage chaps to have 'agreements' with any number of farmers and landowners to use any vacant barns/sheds/stables etc around the district to hide their animals in overnight so that they never stayed in one location for more than a few days.......dunno what happened in the daytime though when they had to come out of hiding to do their work !.... ....they did apparantly get 'compensation ' for the confiscated horse off the government but it was never anywhere near enough to replace the animal.... especially seeing as how horses in general were in such short supply all over the country and none could be bought even if you had enough money.....especially a well trained draft horse used for ploughing or road haulage.. and ps: it always makes me laugh how a developer will cut down an orchard to build a dozen new houses.... then call the new estate 'Orchard Close'

cripes that was a close one good job there was no such thing as a seat belt back then!

not that up on these matters but...I'm guessing it would all depend on when the person obtained their full licence ?.... .I'd stab a guess that it'd be the same as a normal 7.5 tonne GVW lorry.....which as you probably already know... if you got your licence before such and such a date... you can drive on an ordanary car licence?....

hehehe..dunno where you found that photo...... ........ but I learnt from Hollywood many years ago that all Jeeps and Tanks and Aircraft ,especially when crewed by either John Wayne or Robert Mitchum, ran on never ending fuel tanks..... ...........same as the never ending magazines used in Hollywood machine guns hahahah!

awesome...one helluva job and some kind of attention to detail..........

gonna show my ignorance and have a stab at identifying... ...I haven't a clue what the tank in the first two photos is (or should I say 'was')... .but the rest I reckons is or was......2 Stuarts and a Lee Grant ???..... ...any good?........

had to google MIATA to find out what it was.... ...absolutely complete underwhelmed on learning its a flipping Mazda shopping trolley...hehehe!

nice bit of advertising for your business ! . ....for many years on the Stroud road out of Gloucester (the 'back way' up over the hill rather than along the A38).....there was a typical dorsal turret off a Lancaster or something similar complete with guns perched on the roof of a garage on the right just outside of Gloucester after you had gone past the Catholic School.. ...it was there for many years but seemed to disappear around the early 80s I'd guess..........

cracking galleries Shadoc thanks for sharing them...... such a shame they are left there decaying isn't it?.. ...do you have much info on them? I guess the range is now out of use?... or are they in for a possible further battering ? anyways hope someone rescues them it would seem there are a lot of serviceable parts to be salvaged even from the one that someone has started to chop.... I'm sure I read on here a while ago that someone had paid a grand opr so a piece for new front crew hatch lids?....if thats so... there's more than a few grand in those photos!!...what price an idler assemble complete with rollers?....even if it does need a complete overhaul??........

An awesome project and no mistake...hats off in some order to you!....:cheesy:.... showing complete ignorance here ...(and ready willing and able to be told)....but.. .whats the position with purchasing/acquiring parts from the seemingly many wrecks on various ranges around Europe?.....in my mind particularly are the Shermans that are lying in the dunes near Biville?..... ...as I said..... showing my ignorance ...but are the various authorities impossible to do a deal with ???...either for a complete tank or to strip some bits off them????... Going on what some of you lads have rebuilt in the past.... and the Sherman in this thread is a good example.....the ones at Biville look like viable rebuild projects to me....and if not rebuildable they would be a cracking source of parts... (from the little I can see off the various Youtube videos ...I've not actually inspected them)......and having done a lot of heavy plant work in my time they certainly look 'recoverable' if you had the right kit and /or money to hire it in....... ......and .....maybe I shouldn't say this but... ....what's stopping folk just 'helping themselves' to some bits of those wrecks anyways?........ .. (apart from not being of a nefarious nature maybe...and the fact that most European Police carry guns of course......:cool2:)

I'm pretty sure I got that book in English....mmmhh... ..or at least one called the same anyways...'Panzers in Normandy' definately........ ..come to think of it I think the one I got is by a fella called Jean Paul Pallud...or something like that.... and was maybe published by the folk at the After the Battle mag....???..... so..... maybe it isn't the same book.... .dither dither etc etc.... but anyways!.. ...if it is the same book???......... its a cracker and jam packed with many photos and info!. EDIT:::::] right then..ignore the above........this is the one I have http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panzers-Normandy-Then-Eric-Lefevre/dp/0900913290 and it's by the same fella as the one you're looking at ...Eric wassiface....not who I said it was at all .....tsk! ha! so I can confirm its an awesome book and well up to the usual standard of ATB publications!......... EDIT 2 !!!!!!! best I give up I think...having looked again... it isn't the same book at all............. and I should read things a bit closer ..ah well .....................I'll got and sit over there in the corner with a pointy hat on......... sorry!

There is some crazy stuff on there but check this one out that I found...... apparantly it's a Fordson Snow Motor from 1929 and it really is awesome...seriously!.. .....wonder why it never caught on???????? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBjlSJf4274&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3

one pig ...not under 40kg..... love that bit !

Agree entirely with all the above I too rode about on them a bit many years ago and never hurt myself........ ..saying they are 'lethal' reminds me of the knee jerk reaction a few years back to Suzuki SJ and LJ Jeeps... ....everyone seemed ready to repeat the mantra " oh they're dangerous!!! they fall over in corners!!!!! " well yes...they could be made to fall over occasionally whilst cornering... but only if you drove them in a manner that paid no attention to what you were doing or what you were driving /riding........Suzuki Jeeps and these kind of trikes are / were no more dangerous than any modern Quad or ordinary motorcycle or any other vehicle for that matter ....as long as it driven with due care and attention and awareness of it's capabilities and limitations...Y Yes accidents can and do happen to the absolute best of drivers out there but simply labelling a vehicle as 'dangerous' isn't a really a sensible attitude to take.

Rare vehicles hey????? Well....I got a wheel barrow...... ...it's not got a wheel ......and the barrow bit fell off years ago ......but... ....it's definately old.... ..and has definately been used...... ...probably on D-Day in fact....... ..to shift a load of bricks to build a manhole that Patton almost certainly might have walked by....... should I sell it or rebuild it??? :cool2:

Yeah Rangie I often do the same kinda thing...on more than one occasion I've actually been told . ..(on trying to explain to the youngster and some not so young exactly why I'm offering them a bit of loose change) "nah mate I can't do it like that ....... ..it'll mess up how much money is in my till at the end of the day see!"

not a clue mate...but they were cracking fun...they sort of came to fame in a Bond movie where the bad guys chased our man James.not sure of the film but was around mid to late 70s I'd guess......as I recall they fell out of favour due to their uncanny ability to be tipped over relatively easily..which... I suppose if you cornered them whilst forgetting you were on a trike I guess they were easy enough to fetch over :cool2:... ..Heath and Safety and Construction and Use Regs and all that sort of nonsense got involved and after a while Honda stopped importing them to the UK..... .....they were popular on farms and estates until Quads started to appear and you can still find a few around the odd farm sale but I'd guess they're getting thin on the ground nowadays........

in the first pic is ( ?) a relatively rare/late war version of the Browning .30 calibre converted to the more 'portable' light machine gun role...(they bodged a wooden butt and a front stand on it !)........I don't think there were many of those made/issued?..... ...As I understand it.... it was an attempt to make the .30 cal easier to use in the field (after the Americans had got the idea off the MG34/MG42 ).... rather than having to lug the tripod stand about and thereby needing a minimum of a 2 man crew.... A cracking old picture !.PS: also.....whats the differance between the 2 M1 Garands on the left??? ...apart from the obvious length that is?.. ..I didn't realise there were different models made or...am I completely wrong and one of them isn't a M1 Garand?????

I've often wondered what happened to the hundreds of rubber inflatable Shermans that were littered around South England during the months leading up to D-Day..........did any survive ?? anyone know of any???

A little duck walks into a pub at dinner time and ask for a pie and a pint.. Landlord: "Wow! a talking duck!" Duck: "Yeah yeah what of it? look come on mate, I don't get long for my dinner break so serve me up" Landlord: "I'm sorry mate but I have never seen a talking duck before!...what brings you in here then?" Duck: "Well I just started work on the building site over the road mate and fancied a pie and a pint" Sure enough the Duck comes in every day for a week and just before he comes in on the Firday a circus ring master rushs in and orders and downs 4 double whiskies....... Landlord: "Whats up with you then mate you loook a bit stressed ?" Ring Master: "Stressed! you bet I'm stressed mate !...We've just set the big top up on the village green down the road and the dancing pony has dropped dead and we've got a kids matinee at 3pm ...I don't know what I'm gonna do" Landlord : "Hey mate stop fretting ! There's a little talking duck comes in here everyday for his dinner why don't you have him instead? that'd be way better than a dancing pony!" Ringmaster agrees it would be indeed be a lot better a draw and asks the Landlord to offer the duck 10 times his weekly wage if he'll come up to the Circus for the afternoon whilst he goes and changes all the posters to say 'talking duck instead of 'dancing pony'......... sure enough an hour later the duck walks in and orders his usual pie and a pint... Landlord: "never mind that, get yourself up the road to the circus and the ring master will pay you 10 times what you're earning on that building site!" The little duck looks completely confused and more than a bit disinterested...the landlord tries again " go on! get up the road whats the matter with you?" the little duck replies: " Well I would , but what the hell do they want with me in a Circus? I'm a bricklayer!"

I don't know what others on here think but ...I always find 'lone' servicemens graves hidden away in ordinary 'public' graveyards very sad.... ...with WW1 and nowadays also WW2 causalties, often the poor fellows families have long since passed on and there is no-one left to look after their graves unlike when they are 'all together' in a Military/Commonwealth Services Graveyard..... ...I can't help feeling the poor chap must feel 'lonely' not being buried along with all his mates that he served alongside..........maybe a bit sentimental of me but ...ah well.... many years ago I came across this tiny little graveyard at Highnam just outside of Gloucester.. ..I haven't been back there for many many years but I do recall that in the corner was a lone servicemans grave.....forlorn.... and forgotten..... http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.8886799&lon=-2.2976232&z=19&l=0&m=b

.don't get me started ...... ... stupid stupid stupid. There's no replecement yet 'on the line'......and .....the replacement may well be (apparantly) a lot better ...but we don't actually have it yet do we? ...and not by a long long way yet either.....and I'll bet...when it does come ..... it won't be anywhere near the originally agreed delivery contract price.....and I'll lay even money it won't be half as capable as they tell us it will be.......not without a shed load of alterations and redesigns.....and millions more £s .. So........ no matter how good it is going to be........(if and when it is delivered) ... until then....could we not keep the Harrier ....?... ..failing that... whatever money we are getting for the Harrier Fleet.. ..could it at least.... please be spent on a couple of dozen helicopters ...maybe ???........ .....I doubt it. Appalling descision. like I say...stupid stupid stupid.

Many thanks Tony..I'm always ready to learn mate and you obviously have far more expirience/knowledge than I do on this subject.....and I understand entirely what you mean about 'I survived' and thats good enough...I've just finished reading the Julian Thompson book on Burma in the Forgotten Voices Series... and it's got to be said... ...'hand to hand' nor 'close combat' isn't really an accurate description of what went on there is it? ........