RattlesnakeBob

My thoughts today are for my lovely old Nans youngest brother , 21 year old Great Uncle Leslie Jane of Herefordshire who never retured from North Africa in WW2 .I would give anything, to somehow be able to shake his hand and tell him how profoundly grateful I am, to him and the many thousands of men and woman like him that gave absolutely everything they had, so that we could live as we do. RIP and Respect to them all.

With all due respect Tony, I'm not talking about any nature of 'field modified' ammunition such as dumdum or whatever......from what I have read I understood the deliberate design intention of the high velocity /small calibre SA80 round was so that it 'tumbled' on hitting something?....This idea (again.. as I understood it ...but I accept that I could be wrong...) was as a result of battlefield expiriences in Vietnam with the M16 round ???? If I'm wrong I accept it completely.... Mind you I do have to add this...... ...I've just read a book on the war in Burma and I don't think the Geneva Convention figured very highly out there (nor quite probably in many other theatres?).. the absolutely viscious nature of the hand to hand fighting left very little room for a man to worry over how he actually killed an enemy soldier.........I know full well, the very dark thoughts must have come later over how you may personally have 'done the job' but on the day?.....in the middle of such combat?... I don't think a soldier should really be held accountable over how he got the job done...and if the guys sat in their foxholes now and then and 'doctored' their ammunition a bit to make it even more effective???. .....who was honestly going to worry about it when at the end of the day those same boys had managed to hold a hill or take a position against a formidible and absolutely determined enemy?..... ...I know this is a terrible issue to think of especially on this day .

I'll measure them up.... ...yes I will sell , make me an offer.I think the whole lot together makes a nice collection seeing as they all belonged to one man who had a helluva service history too..... ..but...I could split them all up I guess... it all depends....:cool2: I also have a very tatty B2 USAAF Groundcrew jacket...tatty is the oprative word mind you.... but it is a genuine WW2 jacket. The B2 was made specifically for USAAF ground crews....its the same as a flying jacket but money was saved in their manufacture by not having sleeve zips and by having one central zip (not a sort of double breasted style like the Irvings) and no belt....make a rather cool jacket for riding around in yer Jeep maybe ?

they gott be kiddin ain't they? 25 grand !?!?!?

Just wondering if anyone has any interest in these uniforms?.. ..I mentioned having them a day or so ago on here but mistakenly put the post in 'aviation' instead if 'uniforms'.... I do have an excellent history to go with them.....they all belonged to the same person who saw service in Burma ,The Med and the Middle East, Burma for a second term and then back to the UK....during his service he flew just about everything you could think of up to and including Lancasters.He was a Sqd Leader of 67 and later on 619 Squadron and eventually promoted to Wing Commander winning a number of medals including the DFC and Bar along the way. Uniform 1:Battledress style tunic suit Uniform 2:Longer tunic suit Mess suit 1: RAF blue with waistcoat Mess suit 2:Formal function Black tunic with tails.

good job the IRA didn't realise there was a pile of Brownings and ammo lying there a few years ago... ....

that mate, is a point I have tried to explain to folk before...you're absolutely correct.. As I understand things.. .the design of the SA80 and its ammunition was decided upon because it was more likely to cause traumatic injury.....the theory being that a wounded man is a more of a drain on resources than a dead one....and also I guess more 'unsettling and upsetting' for the wounded mans comrades ........ This theory only works however.... when you are engaged against an enemy that might actually give a monkies about their own wounded... The theory falls flat on its backside though when you are dealing with an enemy that doesn't give a toss about its own wounded ....and in many cases actually welcomes 'death' because of some daft logic/dream/faith in the hereafter .... Bring back the heavyweights I reckon.....

..........I'm with you all the way on that one mate.........A very very suspect purchase:( ...........the daft thing don't even look good to my eyes ! hahaha :-D PS: I got a mate that served for a long spell in the Legion.......I asked him , out of everything that he must have handled ...what would he choose to carry given the choice?.. ...he said, very quickly and without a second thought,..........an AK 47 every time.. Reasons?....very reliable, very hardwearing, plenty of firepower and clout ...and ammunition in plentiful supply wherever in the world you may be.... now...I may be nothing more than an interested onloooker.........but given that thought.... .....how on earth did they decide on the SA80? ....... ..........as I said at the beginning.....you're bang on with your reasoning Sir :-)......... bring back the Lee Enfield I say.....but make it self loading ...and change the name to SLR ! hahahah!

it's been asked before but.....what on earth were the Army thinking of buying that heap of junk???:-D

Fair play Tony.... I know when I've been told hahaha! :cool2: tis a grand rifle for sure.....I fondly remember the whacking my 13 years old shoulder took during a weeklong summer camp with the ATC firing them more or less every day

thats some cracking info there foks ! many thanks!...It is amazing to me that the old Lee Enfield with only very slight modofications served us very well from basically before the First world war up til 1957..........I somehow doubt the SA 80 will be around that long.........anyways ! thats another debate altogether ! hahaha! Hey ... When I was a young lad in the ATC back in the early 70s we drilled for hours with LeeEnfields (and rifle Drill was one of the very few 'qualifications' I achieved...even my ol' Dad was moved to congratulate me getting that one!!)...I presume air cadets and the like drill with SA80s nowadays or possibly FNs?....anyways... what I wonder ... would have happened to all of the LEs that the air cadets and army cadets throughout this country must have had....??? would they have been sold off somehow to collectors or just scrapped/destroyed???

great stuff,,,so the basic differences between the WW1 and WW2 ones was prinicpally in WW1 you changed the mag to load the weapon and with the WW2 ones you used a charger clip???.........I'd seen/heard of the Jungle carbine before but understood that was a bit of a blind alley experiment ???............so apart from the mag/charger business.the rifle was basically the same for over 60 years??..

Just been watching a Forgotten Heroes of WW1 episode and a thought struck me.... ......the Lee Enfield Rifles the lads carried into France in 1914/18 looked (at least on screen) to be the same as the ones their descendants carried into France once again in 1939/45 .. ........so.. ...was there any difference at all/if any between WW1 Lee Enfields and WW2????.... and seeing as the British Army carried them for a good few more years after WW2 ..was there ...any much of a difference between the last ones issued and the very first ones??

I have in my possesion a number of old RAF uniforms..... They belonged to a distinguished Wing Commander who fought throughout the entire Second World War winning a number of Medals including a DFC in 1941 and another with a Bar in 1945 plus a load of others........ no medals are with the uniforms but the medal ribbons are all still there... PS: Now.... the fella in question flew throughout the entire war ending up with Bomber Command on Lancasters having flown in Burma, the Med & The Middle East and then back to the UK for the last year or so of the war.....he left the RAF in approx 1959 and stayed in avaiation for the rest of his working life flying with/ for the CAA.........I met him a number of times and grew very friendly with him and he was an absolute gentleman and a real delight to be around...his credentials and his record .....is impeccable. I also have a a lot of fantastic aviation stories that he happily related to me over the years I knew him which I can attempt to write down or at least tell anyone interested in the uniforms history........ All of the above has been kept in his old fashioned pre-war travel chest that has his name stencilled on. ........the thing is.... I'm on the move again and for various reasons I think I should sell them on....they've been sat in the trunk for almost 10 years now so...... ...but .....what interest might there be in his uniforms.... and what sort of money is it seriously worth? There's quite a bit of info on him on the WWW including a film that he made on his time in Burma which is held by the IWM in London ..so....my first question is.......Is anyone on here interested? Obviously its worth something and I'm not in the manner of giving anything away...but.......I thought I'd start on here before doing anything else....... Any ideas?........ Many thanks Bob.

well if two idler wheels are worth 1200 quid that certainly puts a whole tank completely out of my price range ! heheheheh!... ....on that basis I 've probably got enuf to buy a small tin of green paint to touch them up with... ..as long as it's not genuine Sherman paint of course cos christ knows how much that'd be ...it'd have to be a bit of cheap DIY store colour match I reckon ...:cool2:

I dunno mate.. ..if my expirience of those old round heaters is anything to go by your Landrover will be warmer without one......

yep 'The Forgotten HIghlander' is a grade A 100% of a book.... ......I'm just reading one of the 'forgotten voices' series of books ....midway thru the one on Burma which was written / collected by Julian Thomspson the retired British Army fella of Falklands fame........awesome stuff very good indeed..... one part relates something that whilst being rather grim, did make me chuckle a bit... some Ghurka fellas were orderd to bury some dead Japanese....apparantly in those days the Ghurkas didn't really hold with this 'burying' business ...especially when it concerned burying dead enemy soldiers...but they eventually set to..however.... being of an ingenious nature they didn't bother to dig any graves........the Japs in that particular battle had been fighting out of very small one man foxholes.......so the Ghurkas started chucking the bodies back into the foxholes instead... only problem was ...having been dead for a few days the corpses were stiff with rigor mortis....... .so the Ghurkas simply set to with a will and used their kurkri knives to chop the bodies up into smaller bits that would fit in the holes better....arms legs and heads were all uncermoniously chopped off... ....apparantly when their CO found out exactly how they'd achieved the job he was rather appalled and ordered them not to do such a thing again.....

brilliant stuff...... .....disused airfields are to my mind probably the most evocative of second world war sites.......what was once an absolute beehive of activity, of aircraft and men... .... now lies silent and deserted...with often nothing more than a bit of overgrown perimeter track, a few mouldering huts , maybe a contol tower with no windows and just a bit of concrete runway left........ ......fantastic and yet profoundly sad places to visit on your own I've found....I love just mooching around them... nice and quiet....just thinking to yourself.......

Thats a fantastic looking truck mate...gotta be honest ...I've never ever seen one before but I do like...a lot!. PS; I never fail to be amazed by the sheer quality of the restorations undertaken on here and yours is right up there with them.......A brilliant resurrection !

Anyone got time on their hands here's a bit of work to occupy yourself....... ..... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940S-WILLYS-JEEP-MB-FORD-GPW-MILITARY-MB-WW2-/270835210827?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f0f095a4b

Thats an absolute beauty.....any more info on it?...can't find anything out apart from it seems like its somewhere in Eastern Europe..really does look great though

Yer a lucky fella...it looks an absolutely lovely condition vehicle......but that fact alone does baffles me...... Has the Army withdrawn the FV seris vehicle now from use?????? If they have ...fair play to sell them off.......but if they haven't? Just why is the MOD dumping a vehicle in such good condition as that one?.. I can easily understand flogging off the worn out or broken down ones that are beyond economical repair anymore but.... ...... if we're still using them where is the sense in selling good ones off 'cheap'???(in relative comparsion to a new vehicle that is) I don't think I shall ever understand how the MOD decides to use our hard earned tax pounds........

love it!.. ...mind you.... I have to admit that when I was a nipper..........you know the round canisters that WW2 era German soldiers carried their gas masks in?.... ......My dad takes great mirth in still reminding me of the day I came out with this classic....... Me:.."I think the German Army was better organised than ours Dad!"..... Dad: "Oh Yeah ? whys that then Son?" Me: ...pointing to the gasmask canisters on World at War.... " cos all the German soldiers went into battle with a flask of tea for when they got thirsty and our soldiers didn't have a flask of tea did they !"

whereabouts is the range in Cyprus??

I really don't like to see the Chieftains reduced to rusting battered wrecks on ranges.... ...I was at Junior School in the 60s when they came into service and I remember chat in my family amongst all the ex- military menfolk of how awesome a tank it was...how modern and how it was....(probably)...at that time, the best tank in the world.... ....I also remember getting a poster of one to go on my bedroom wall and also!.. ........for a while ..... (as one of a series of military vehicles/planes etc) ...a Cheiftain was on the back of Kelloggs Cornflake boxs (along with Harrier Jump Jets..also now more or less scrapped and gone) as a beautifully detailed line drawing to show off our 'modern' military equiptment for eager young lads like me to collect the series........... Basically I guess ......it makes me feel very old to see them now as just heaps of scrap.......... I also remember how envious I was of my cousin when he wound up as a Chieftain driver in The Guards....altogether it makes me rather sad.......ah well