Adam Elsdon

Get in! :yay: i personally bombarded anybody connected with the government and the Gurkhas and my own MP, makes a change to see it can make a difference!

Im not the only one thats noticed then, a mate gave us a pile of windscreens going way back, and only found a couple that covered post war stuff in any detail, other than a brief mention, or a photograph with a couple of lines. I haven't renewed my membership this year.

My dad took me to see A Bridge Too Far, i was quite young at the time, but the local picture house wasnt too bothered about a bit of film classification rule bending if you were with your dad! A few days later he bought me a Thompson Sub Machine Gun, i seem to remember been able to cock it, and it made the classic tak tak tak noise when the trigger was pulled. Our estate was transformed into a FIBUA training ground!

Just finished reading this book, presently on shop bookshelves, totally brilliant, very well written account of 809 RNAS Buccaneer squadron on board HMS Ark Royal, engaged in her last projection of power with Guatemala who were threatening British Honduras prior to its independence eventually becoming Belize. It is an excellent account of the Fleet Air Arm in action and the massive effort to get Buccaneers over Belize to provide a warning to Guatemala who were on the verge of invasion, that Great Britain is not going to tolerate that threat to her sovereignty. The story leads in with the training, exercises and operations to keep up to full alert standard with the ongoing real threat with Russia, plenty of accounts of brushes with the Russian forces on intercepts, Arks helicopters chasing submarines and the Fairey Gannets maintaining a constant AEW watch for intruders. It leaves you in no doubt that it was a massive mistake to get rid of the fixed wing aircraft carriers, especially a comment at the end of the book recorded from a Para corporal in the Falklands who said that the war probably would never of happened if the british forces had a proper carrier capability. A fast and very interesting read.

Excellent series of books, my dad had the full collection, and i read them when i was a kid! we were asked to bring a book into school that we were reading at the time, i was about 13-14 and took in O.G.P.U. Prison, the teacher thought i had just grabbed it off the bookshelf and was amazed when i gave him a detailed account of the book and most of the previous novels leading up to it, but then i had also read alot of Isaac Asimov by that point. Enid Blyton's famous five vs Sven Hassell's "Wheels of Terror" it was no contest!

Not widely known, but came up at my work, the current two part driving licence which consists of the pink photocard and the green paper slip are starting to expire, as it is 10 Years since the introduction of the new licence. It is an offence to drive with an expired licence, as it is to drive with a licence registered to the wrong address, and it will require renewal. DVLA are sending out reminders to renew two months before the event, but the sting is.......it will cost you 20 quid (Money grabbing scumbags!). So far only a small number of people have been affected, but next year will see large numbers of licences expiring. If you have a look at the pink photo part of the licence, the expiry is marked on it in tiny print, dont be confused with the date when you turn 70! MOD EDIT: THREADS MERGED

Its a slow erosion of our liberties, usually the argument goes along the lines of in the case of ID cards "But if you havent anything to hide its not a problem" personally i like responding with "I havent got anything to hide, so i dont need one" anti-terrorism laws are being used to push everything through, or if its not that its because they want to conform with european ideals that most of the europeans dont even bother with. :argh:Rant over!

You cant fool me, its brown, with a red stripe and yellow writing!:rofl:

I like it, he looks like hes been sniffing at the Belzona! and abusing a Dalek! or is that sniffing a Dalek and abusing the Belzona...

The French Foreign Legion were protecting the Airport at Sarajevo when i was on ops at UNPROFOR HQ. When they took over protection duties, they were regularly getting sniped at from a ruin of a village near the edge of the airport, U.N. engagement rules pretty much prevented them from taking action, but "allegedly" a couple of Legionnaires went for a stroll into said local village during the night and cut the snipers trigger fingers off! sniping on the airport dropped right off immediately afterwards! Never forget the French Forward Air Controllers callsign "Mickey Mouse" which came about because of Euro Disney.

KOSB, Kings own Scottish Borderers, it just goes on!

A relative of mine was in the Rifle Brigade, WW1 and was in at the very start, and survived the war, had a number of injuries and gained a Mention In Despatches and a Romanian bravery award, one of the original "Old Contemptibles". Anyway, where are the Garibaldi's, you can stick the custard creams where the sun dont shine!

As you may of noticed, this is really the Humber Military Vehicle Forum, :-D just incase anybody forgot, here is a Humber Pig!

No need to hide, its all good on here, your collection sounds interesting!

I did feel the need to put a couple of antenna's on it, even though i dont have any radios fitted, which is about as far as the "Fantasy Embellishment" went. The machete in its holder next to the commanders door had a few comments, and the fact that there was a distinct puritanical lack of soft furnishings, was the main point of conversation with mums! Oh and it smelled of petrol and warm oil.........my work is done!!

The transfer box had been leaking very slightly from its seals, over a long period, so i cleaned it up and topped it off with EP 80/90. I found unscrewing the "Grease" nipples from the housing made it easier to fill with oil, i used an oil can with a good fast flowing squirt to fill them. And yes, it is a possibility that the servo is pressurising the brake switch, occasionally on the drive back i could hear the brake light relay clicking on and off by itself, but nowhere near as often as the old switch. Im not that familiar with how the hydrovac works exactly, will have to get the parts book out and work out what goes on. I have another spare servo, so i will give that a strip clean and re-build ready to go on. And i eventually got all the markings painted on, had some nice comments from the passengers about the pig, the best one been "It doesnt look over restored like some vehicles, it looks like a proper working vehicle" which was the look i was after!

The pig had its first outing on the 3rd of May to a Kids charity driving event, a number of very different vehicles turn up and give rides. The pig was checked to make sure it was lubricated up properly, the inner CV joints didnt have alot of oil left in them, the transfer box was about a litre down on what it should of been, and the front diff was nearly empty, which was strange, as it was checked/filled last year, on further investigation, the diff cover had a small hole in it, the alloy cover had corroded to a point that it was leaking, after cleaning it i put some quiksteel onto it, as a temporary fix, until i get one off my spares. So it pays to go around and check all of the levels and top them off. I replaced the brake light pressure switch on the end of the Hydrovac servo, as it had a habit of remaining on, and then it was ready for the trip out (more on this later!) The twenty mile trip went by with no problems, until i stopped for fuel prior to entering the event, after filling up, started the engine, went to pull away and it wouldnt move! the brakes were on solid, the pedal was rock solid and wouldnt move. I checked the master cylinder, the rod was in its non depressed return position, the only thing i could think of was i had bled the hydrovac servo after fitting the brake switch, so i got out a bleed tube and put it on the bleed nipple and opened it up, the fluid almost exploded out of the servo! i got my normal pedal action back and everything was fine afterwards. The only thing i can think it was, was some dirt/grit had jammed the servo on, bleeding it cleared it returning the normal braking. I have a spare servo, so i think i will be stripping and rebuilding it, and then giving the brake system another going over. The pig then proceeded to go on working fine, with lots of stop start driving up and down the gears for four hours, idling while changing passengers and drove the twenty miles home, and then collected a slide from a friend for the kids in it, so overall it worked fine with exception of its braking fault. The Pig out doing its thing!

Nah, the little open topped Morris must have been older, although it wont be getting much older if he keeps trying to cut up armoured vehicles with it! he came close to being a little pile of scrap and splinters a couple of times.

No fun here, the Austin had it beaten hands down on the cute looks front!

Crocs Scammell (Daddy i'm Scared!) Explorer, we were the only ones to take advantage of the fact that you could go off the track onto the surrounding grass verges, which was fun! The ass engined nazi slot car, by comparison, was no fun at all apparently!

Not a Military event, but more of this sort of thing should take place its great! "Ride on" was held Sunday 3rd May at Alford, its a charity event, open to the general public and aimed at kids, so they can have a ride on allsorts of vehicles, this year there was a Dennis fire engine, Ambulance, Liebherr quarry loader, old buses, Corvette, Transam, BAA Fire response vehicle, Porsche, Crocs Scammell Explorer, Thomas the tank engine, Austin A30 a Morris 8 open tourer and my Humber Pig. Joe public buys a ticket, and then lines up for a ride around the race track, the event running for 4 hours, most of the vehicles are privately owned, and the museum pays 30 pounds for fuel and a snack/drink from the stalls on site, they also temporarily own your vehicle for the period, covering it with their insurance. Its an excellent day out, and the kids love it, and the parents even more! I lost count of how many loads i took around, but i was getting 10 plus in at any one time, and a vendor somewhere was doing a roaring trade in plastic pistols and rifles, going by the amount of them getting poked out of the hatches shooting at Thomas the Tank Engine! they are a blood thirsty crowd in Aberdeenshire.

For cleaning your tank try this, its sold by a company called Frost, they arent particularly cheap, however this stuff does work well, i have done 3 fuel tanks with this stuff, and it works a treat, the marine clean stuff strips the goo and varnish out, i used boiling water with it, and the sealer if you need it does an excellent job, it even seals pin holes in the tank up. http://www.frost.co.uk/how_do_i_explained.asp?hdID=3

Pictures of Green Howards Pigs in Germany. Shows some strange variations, the first picture is the Bridge plate at 8 Tons instead of 6, got carried away with the Tac sign numbering, and the side shot shows the platoon marking triangle on the upper side of the hull in very heavy lining, which would be covered by the canvas roof cover if fitted, normally they are painted on the door.

No idea! after spending ages trying to find out any history on it, i have finally gave up! i have done the RLC museum thing, looked at allsorts of leads i have been given, but basically the only thing i do know about it, was that it was sold at Ruddington in 1967 for £60 and it never went back into Army service after that, escaping Northern Ireland and any later conversion. So it has been painted up to reflect a vehicle used by the Green Howards in 1963 at Iserlohn Germany BAOR, part of 5 Brigade. I have a number of reference pictures from the Green Howards, 5 Brigade was mainly an Infantry Brigade, that was eventually brought back to the UK on standby reinforcement of BAOR. So for the time being its an anonymous Pig, so i am putting it back to the way it would of being used for what it was designed for, a stop-gap APC to give the BAOR troops some protection, until the FV432 tracked APC came into use in 1967.

If its the same as the one i was issued, they had a PVC coating on the inside, if it didnt condensate up inside, making your clothes wet, the PVC coating would crack or split and it would leak in. They also done a DPM jacket trouser set, very similar and it was stiff, cold and would condensate up inside, it was rubbish stuff. Fortunately i was issued the Goretex equivalent not long after, which was a big improvement. People used to moan about the lack of pockets on the goretex C95 jackets, but they are designed to be worn under the combat jacket, protecting the goretex jacket, and leaving you with all the pockets etc, it was also quieter as the goretex jacket rustles quite readily.