RattlesnakeBob

mmmhhhh.:undecided:..now pardon me.......... but...isn't that a little like saying "if gunpowder had never been invented, castles would still be worth having".........??????? those beastly Germans!...fancy doing something like that what?!?!...they've only gone and built a tank with thicker armour and a bigger gun than us! ..damn it all to harry I say !....it just isn't on you know !...that's simply not playing fair !..:D:D:D

Brave man indeed.. I have to ask...... :-) ............what the hell did yer missus say about your new ...ahem....'vehicle'..?

my thoughts exactly Sir!... I'd honestly rather pay a grand or so for one of them than even contemplate finding/justifying 'proper' jeep prices........ and anyways.... I was in the AWDC club doing some serous off road work for years and.... a lot of fellas back then were running Mungas and Champs (and a few very foolish people even tried Gypsys but we won't go into that at the moment heheheh! :cool2:).... .and ...I've seen those vehicles being 'worshipped' on here ...... and to be honest they were absolutely terrible and almost useless....or at least 'useless at their designed task' of being an 'off roader'.... ...I'd take that Mahindra with no worries at all.:-D

well its cheap and practical but not a Willys ! heheheh!. anyways...the Mahindra had a Peugeot engine and Dana axles and gearbox as I recall...nowt wrong with any of that stuff.....and the Mahindra jeep itself was a good rufty tufty little truck...... at the end of the day if all someone wants to do is own and drive in a smart little truck that looks just like a wartime jeep then this one would do the job fine I would have thought.......we can't all afford 10 or 12 grand or thereabouts you know!...:-D

dunno never seen it put there before but.... my Dad told me years ago that when he served in Korea with the RE they altered the exhausts on the jeeps to run thru the cab..just to get the heat off them basically

.........as a small lad I once had a beautiful childs size Lee Enfield that actually ejected a plactic shell case when you worked the bolt!.............a year or so later I had another cracker..a Thompson that fired little grey plastic bullets but you did have to pull the bolt back to fire every shot...... ...that was before graduating to a Webley Ranger .177 purchased from the 'Exchange and Mart' shop for the princely sum of 4 guineas!

Way to go Tony ! pass it up the chain and see what comes back.....heheheheh! just out of interest.... why do the RTR get so mad at folk calling them tanks?....cos they could, as I suggested, surely have been pressed into service as a 'tank' should the need ever arose ?........ I can't believe that in such a situation as I'm suggesting that a RTR CRV(T) commander would have said to a desperate plea for help off a beleagured Infantryman.... "no son.....I'm sorry....it might look like one but!!!!...this isn't a tank....I can't help you ...you'll have to find a proper tank to take that machine gun nest out"............... I'm definately gonna go and hide now.....................

OOOOOOOEEEEERRRRRRR TONY!!!! I'm gonna put the cat in amongst the pigeons now fer sure !!!!!!!! Now I know a CRVT (whatever model ) is not strictly speaking a 'tank'.... ......in that..(deep breath!!!!) .........it was never intended for 'tank on tank' action....:-) but!!!!! ( and thats a very big but by the way !!!!!) to me..........and to 99% of folk.........a CRVT is a tank....... Lets have a look at the beast . ..its got tracks.......it's got a revolving turret............it's armoured ........ and ..........its got a biggish gun........ Now the way I see it is this........ ...despite whatever it's designated 'job' was to be on a battlefield....and despite whatever it was designed to do....I'm sure that if 'needs must'.........and if a CRVT had been involved in a 'full on combat situation'..... (and please forgive me if they were put to the 'acid test' anywhere in the world).. .....sooner or later a CRVT would have been, and could have been, used as a 'tank'....... ......certainly not for taking on maybe a T55 or something similar... but.. ...what about a situation where the Infantry had come up against a well positioned machine gun or a fortified barn or something similar?.. ..surely if a CRVT was available in that situation (and assuming no 'proper' tanks were available to the troops with the problem) then... surely......a CRVT could have made just as good a job of solving the problem as a 'tank'?.......... so.. In as much as we know they are not 'tanks' in the strictest sense.... .....could they not have been used as a 'tank'???.... therefore...........(well!.....I'm in deep now...no going back !) ...........to conclude (as they say in court!) I put it to you m'lord......that..... a CRVT is a...........'tank'.... ..................I'll stand way back now and get down behind a wall. and yes I agree... .......'Escape to Victory' is truly awful and should be avoided at all costs! great debate by the way everyone!

The fella/family that owns that museum in France is onto a winner there I reckons..... ..Jaqces Limeux or summat like that?..... ..crikey ...as I recall from visiting the museum back in 2004 and what I've read elsewhere he was one of the main contractors after the War that cleared a lot of gear off the beaches and the seabed....they logged the positions of a dozen or so more of those sunken DDs....... ......if he manages to sell that one for half a million Euros he could easily enuff start fetching a few more up from under the sea.........you can bet a canny fella/family such as that kept hold of the salvage rights :-)

Came home the other night and turned om the TV for some pacification before bed and I find a 1960s supposedly 'classic' war film on.. .......I remembered seeing it as young lad many moons ago so thought.... ..."ah why not? ...lets have a look!".... and the result???......well... ..I don't think I've ever actually seen as a film so inept and ridiculous... ..So!....... I thought I'd start a thread for a laugh and see what the rest of you think of this and other films! Now then we need to establish some 'categories' .. ...you can dislike a film for any reason but.... it just being 'fiction' and not true..... is not really enough......some daft old tosh such as 'Where Eagles Dare' which is absolutely and totally 'fiction' ....is still, (IMHO) despite it being rather silly and boys comic-ish, sort of entertaining for a wet sunday afternoon.. ...and also.. I know certain SKY TV channels often air some truly terrible 'war films' but to be fair.....everyone already knows they are rubbish cos most folk have never even heard of them ...so they must have failed dismally when they were originally released... ..what I'm after is films that were 'big' and 'successful' in their day...but that we now know as.. ...'tripe of the highest order'???????? you also have to give a brief reasoning as to your descision by the way !!!!! so!.......... Here's mine: The Battle of the Bulge. Resons for disliking: 1:The whole film They take a very real & important point of WW2 and call it 'the Battle of the Bulge'.......then more or less totally ignored any of the salient facts regarding said action and make a full on comic book fictional war film instead . 2:The vehicles in the film are just about entirely wrong... Chaffess as Shermans / Pershings as Tigers / M38s as Jeeps / White halftracks painted up as German halftracks etc etc etc etc !..... 3: The clueless casting and hilarious scenes/direction/screen play. ... the worst of which has to be Telly Savalas as a fat 50 ish grizzled tank commander who (amongst other 'heroic' deeds as the token 'crazy but good hearted' American soldier) survives a direct hit that smashs the turret clean off his tank and yet no one in the tank has a spot of blood on them and he's still ready to stop the Nazi advance with nothing more than a .30 cal.... / an archtypical blonde fanatical German tank commander complete with a 'zis iss gud!' accent/.....an equally archtypical 'good' German who wants the war to end / All uniforms worn are spotlessly clean and very new / the 'brave' young Lt who takes to the skies in a spotter plane and thereby single handedly turns the course of the entire war / a climatic tank battle that looks very much to me as though it took place in Montana rather than the forested landscape of the Ardenne / ....aw gawd ...need I go on??????? So there ya go! FIRE AWAY!

......and thats just Okinawa and Korea........start imaging how many there were when you start adding in the Phillipenes/Burma and all the other islands etc and then start counting Italy/France/Germany.............cripes...........:undecided:....and I only want one!

so....:-|... in the RAC everyone carries a sub machine gun?...bugger me..:shocked: ...I won't be calling them out to change a flat tyre again then.. I'll be sticking with the AA ....far friendlier chaps!...:-D:cool2::-D:cool2:

Lovely photos......a mate of mine has opened the 'Flying Shack' at Gloucester (Staverton ) Airport and he had a Rapide there on the weekend giving pleasure flights.he has regular 'fly in BBQs' and anyone is welcome to drop in and say hello ....

Just an idea ..... but..it may be worth having a look in your area for someone that repairs horse rugs/blankets etc.....they'd have the kind of machine nescessary and would probably give you a way more realistic qoute than a specialist canvas company would?.. ...what are known as 'New Zealand Rugs' (all weather rugs for nags) are usually made of heavy grade canvas with leather straps etc so they'd probably be able to supply the material as well as make it for you??????????

back around from the mid 80s onwards a lot of those 'new age' travellors had ex army gear of some sorts .. .sad but I guess 99% of them ended up scrapped and abandoned somewhere along the roads....:embarrassed:

Dunno if it'll be any helpat all?....... but ....... there is /was a very similar one in the Dean Heritage Museum at Soudley down here in the Forest of Dean a while back.....they had a pair of them on display a few years ago for a special exhibition on the local timber industry through the years....and I think ....both saws were on loan from the Forestry Commision.....believe it or not.....the other one they had on display would actually make yours look...'small' !!!! As I recall they were issued to Pioneer Units based down here in the early war years to assist in the timber cutting.....I'm sure the folk at the Msueum would be happy to pass on any info they may have.....might shed a bit of light on things?.... you never know?..

Interesting to hear that the one you found had been 'converted' for ploughing... ...many years ago there was a small yard just outside of Gloucester that had a lot of good kit still lying about when the old boy that owned it passed away.Vehicles I recall included 2 very rough Jeeps , quite a few Austin Champs in various states, a Canadian Chevrolet or two and a few other ex British lorries...think they may have been Morris's??? and ......the scant remains of a number of what I vaguely recognised as being 'bren gun carriers' of some sort...... Anyways.....They eventually had a sale to clear the yard a year or so later (bout 1985 ish?) and I got chatting with the owners son and he said that in the after war years his father had made a name for himself in Gloucestershire for converting 'Bren gun carriers' of various types into very handy little tractors.These were quite in demand across the locality by farmers and particularly timber contractors...I guess this must have been quite a common fate through the 50s/60s for many of these great little machines?.. ...One had been sold apparantly to the large private timber and farm estate just down the road from me in the mid 1950s but despite me hot footing it onto the trail.....she had sadly long gone.....then again!!!!! ..... .as this thread proves .....'barn finds' do still crop up so you never know .. ..somewhere in Gloucestershire there still may be one of those 'converted' carriers?????????????

definately...they will fit more or less any Series Landrover except possibly 80" models......use them on front / back / top and bottom of the shocks....one either side of the shock 'ring' then a big flat washer on the outside and a thick spilt pin shoved through the hole to hold the lot on and as tight as possible. ..mind you ...they probably fit loads of other vehicles of that era too.....:D

What is also interesting to consider is that having 'won' the Battle of Britain , by 1941 RAF Fighter Command were indulging in fighter 'sweeps' (sometimes known as Rhubarbs) across Northern France....the idea being to tempt/lure the Lluftwaffe fighters up for a scrap.. ..Yet in doing so, we completely surrendered every advantage that we had held during the BoB.... especially those of fighting/flying over home territory and hence aircrew shot down were 'recoverable' and also the short 'service time' we preciously enjoyed to get an aircraft re-armed and re-fueled & back up in the air etc etc etc .. .......and as a consequence... we lost a staggering number of pilots . .....in fact, significantly more in the period from the Spring of 1941 thru to Spring of 1942 than we lost in the entire periods now recognised as the 'Battle of Britain' and the 'Battle of France' put together....

I'm not even gonna comment on this thread..:-|.......hahah!...apart from writing this bit that is!... ..because......... the last time I commented on our Governements (ahem!) "strange behaviour & attitude" over such things... ... I was told off by the 'powers that be' for being too 'political' ...:cool2:

yeah ...know what you mean... ..see a lot of those choppers belting up and down the Wye Valley near Monmouth....with some very shady looking lads gurning out the doors....someone reckoned they come from Hereford..............dunno why they gotta waste all that money travelling by helicopter.......the bus is only a fiver from hereford to monmouth.......:cool2:

looks absolutely fantastic..really loving the Dozers......dunno bout the dead horse though! hehehe! nice range of armour on display too.....couple I'm not sure of...whats the Brit one with the sort of Centurion turret and sort of Chaffee road wheels?..is it a Black Prince??? nope....maybe Cromwell ????......also the one about 3 or 4 below that .... below the T34s...is that a Soviet tank too?........

Hey no offence intended cos I know an awful lot of you do 'British' and well done to you :-) ! Incidentally if I ever own a Sherman ...usually seen as a 'Yank' tank I guess..she'd be done up as one from a British Armoured Reg.. ...but it does nark me ...especially to see so many 'American' Jeeps and hardly ever one carrying British Army markings.. ..there'll be plenty along shortly to prove me wrong though I expect ! hahahahah!

for what my two penneth is worth..... First off: whatever the uniform..... I don't think there is a place for them in the 'bar' after the 'show'. If you are serious about a 'real and true portrayal' of any soldier then thats fair enuff....but if you start marching about at night with a drink in your hand whilst still 'in costume' that makes you a proper prat and of quite probably questionable intelligence in my eyes. Second: It is entirely beyond me why anyone should wish to dress up as an SS soldier in anyway whatsoever....be it in any way ..... 'educational' or not. Thirdly: Please PLEASE!!!!! for God Almightys sakes!!!!! . .. lets not have any more CRAP along the lines of "lots of the SS were decent men who didn't know anything about what happened in the camps etc etc " I view anyone that spouts 'revisionist' tripe of any description such as above with absolute revulsion.... ......and if you like strutting about in an SS Uniform whilst claiming "they weren't all bad" ...??? then that mark you out as being as bad as the worst kind of vile racist moron and you are an ABSOLUTE BLOODY INSULT to the millions that died as a result of the Nazis..... and one more thing... Read you history.... The Wehrmacht weren't as white as snow either...A lot of the extermination work carried out earlier on in Barbarossa and also 'Police' actions in Greece and Italy and France and The Balkans was done by (ahem!) 'ordinary, decent German Soldiers of the Wehrmacht' Face facts....... All Germans at that time whether soldiers or not had a pretty damn good idea of what was going on in Hitlers Germany and also of what his plan was for the rest of Europe..... stop deluding yourself .....you would have had to have been a simpleton of the highest order not to have worked it out by about halfway through the war at the very latest.... ........ PS: and to finish on a lighter note. ..Yes I agree with someone that posted earlier on.... ..why oh why do so many folk want to dress up as GIs?...whats wrong with portraying a British /Canadian /Polish Unit ????? Its gotta come down to the fancy Uniforms I reckon... as the late great Spike Milligan once said in one of his war memoir books... "No matter how hard a British soldier tried to look smart when going out on the pull , next to a Yank in his fancy uniform he always looked like a sack of sh*t tied up in the middle"

also I would say that 2 Grand is way off...there's a few bout if you mooch around and thats a lot of money for one...