Adam Elsdon

Anybody have decent records they can refer on pertaining to incidents in Northern Ireland?

I have been told my Humber Pig may have been involved in a road side bomb incident, killing the commander of the vehicle, who may have been a black soldier. It is thought the vehicle was out on its very first patrol, and was still in a desert camouflage scheme when it was hit.

There is indications still on the vehicle that it was in some form of blast and i have posted pictures in the "Humber Pig pictures" thread.

Given that it was still in desert cam when it was sent out on patrol, would put it in the earlier years of the troubles, particularly as it is a MK1 vehicle before they were uparmoured.

Would the Army have records of such incidents, i would of thought so, but i have no idea where you can access that sort of thing, must of been some sort of investigation work and outcome report of the incident?

Apologies about the vagueness, but the source was pretty vague, somebody who knew somebody who seen a photo of the vehicle and seemed to think it was the same one they drove.

Richard, that makes sense, there is indeed more marks on the panels that have apertures in them. Good info on the manufacture of the plate!:thumbsup:

Its quite odd that some of my vehicle has very few marks if any in places and then plastered in others!

The numbers in the top corner of the door may also reflect the year it was made, the HLD59 stamp would be from the right era (1959) that the Pig was manufactured.

This is pictures of the left hand rear door, the hinges have had a fair bit of work, the first picture is the top hinge, the dings in it look like it has been heated and battered back to shape, the other picture is the lower hinge, which has been welded back together, the hinges dont operate correctly as the Pin turns in the hinge as opposed to the hinge turning on the pin, and the door has a very slight bend, which takes a good hard push to latch in place. The last picture is the door stop, which is 1/4" plate and bent!

The two offside rear hatches on the drivers side have been bent flattened down and welded, it looks like the hatch hinges have gone over centre, as if been blown open, what you cant see in the pics is where the hinge stops have made quite a ding in the armour.

The bottom of the two pictures show the welds broken along the top of the hatch aperture.

The hatch above the commander is missing its hold open catch, the weld left behind looks like it was torn off, possibly when the open hatch was forced up, breaking it off.

The front commanders window hatch is bent and doesnt close properly.

I have been told by someone that knows the relative of somebody else that knows someone maybe, that they think my particular vehicle driven by them was involved in a road side bomb explosion, in Northern Ireland killing the commander who was a black soldier, everybody else in the vehicle survived, albeit very concussed.

Now i cant find anything that links a pig with such an incident, i thought i was onto the trail at one point, but it turned out to be a 16/5 lancers Ferret...so the lead stopped there, I dont have much in the way of research info for Northern Ireland so my investigations fizzled out....but surely the info would be there somewhere?

Anyway, there are quite a few clues on the vehicle that may show it has had a harder than average life, the following are points i have found on the vehicle which indicate that its had something happen on the commanders side. So here it is a collection of pictures of damage that has since been repaired, but shows it may have suffered a blast.

This is the floor, note no fuel filler/tank, and the repair is far from new, also i think the bulkhead has been replaced at some point, and no build plate on the bulkhead:-

I have seen these markings on various armoured vehicles, and have heard various explanations on what they are.

On my particular vehicle they are pretty randomly scattered about the armour, and on the top corner of a door, it looks like a manufacturers stamp.

Any ideas?

This was aired on our local TV news recently.

Picture the scene, an oil company supply yard, a few like minded individuals are working the graveyard shift and are bored after having read the six month old FHM four times over, and cant face another cup of coffee....when they remember the 360 slew digger is out in the compound.

Oh yeh!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ju8m4Y2Hf6w

Just been looking for Oil filters for the Pig, and came across this old thread. Anybody have any excess spares they dont require? they appear to be getting thin on the ground, either that or somebody is sitting on a vast stock. And while im at it, is the spin on filter conversion any good, somebody must of been using these for long enough to give a long term use opinion.

Cant see what possible civilian law you would be breaking, flags in the highway code went out when they done away with someone walking in front of a vehicle with a red flag.

If you can fly an array of football flags from your vehicle, military convoy id flags shouldnt present a problem, although if you are not sure, just dont use them on the road if you are bothered, its not as if they are performing the same function as a large military convoy with multiple packets of vehicles, with an LAD recovery service and military police etc.

Dont know much about BAA and commercial airfields, but why expand something that is surrounded by urban area, why not put the investment into the other airports like Stansted and Gatwick, looks like the government riding slip shod over everybodies opinion in some mad panic!

Thankfully i moved away from the South East years ago, just a bunch of nutters pointlessly screwing each other over for a fast buck!

Sorry about the generalisation! :-D

My interest in military vehicles is a substitute for my interest in airplanes as the vehicles are ever so much more affordable.

 

If i was considerably better off i would like one of these in my hangar, an Auster AOP MK9 a proper rugged little plane, nothing fussy, and easy to keep!

It looks straight forward to fabricate from standard steel lengths. There are no special "fancy bits" as Fred Dibnah would say. The cushion is fine grade canvas enclosing horse hair. Not much bounce but better than the Mk 2 wooden benches. I can measure the steel thickness if that helps.

Just for info, if you get hold of an old army safari bed, the type with the bent wire legs, and cut the stitching carefully using a razor, it leaves you with a big piece of the correct type of canvas to cover your bench seat with, i made one up using 1" box section in a similiar pattern, cut out a plywood base, covered it in foam and then covered that with the canvas, seems to work quite well, just need to make the back rest now!

It isnt the prettiest piece of equipment is it, and as you say it does look a bit manky.

Ted, sounds a bit like my list!

DH Chipmunk (as a cadet, and still a lovely little thing)

Loads of gliders, Sedburghs etc aerodynamics of a brick.

VC10 tanker (as a cadet got to see a lightning refuel, 14 and it didnt get better than that!)

Sea King

VC10 cargo & Tanker

Jet Provost

Victor (In the Gulf, all the electrics packed up!made for an exciting jolly!)

Ilyushin IL76 (a real shed, Sarajevo airlift, Estonian crew & adrenalin for all the wrong reasons!)

Hercules (Hydraulics spraying me with fluid halfway to Gulf!)

Hercules (Nose wheel doing a dodgy shopping trolley impression on take off in Italy)

Hercules (I think i spent most of my RAF career getting a lift in one)

Gazelle (They let me have a go....hehe!)

Wessex

Puma (Fast roped out of one)

French Puma (Got out of Sarajevo in one!)

Norwegian Bell Iroquis (Fast very low level in fog, just wanted out!)

Tristar

YAK not sure what model, three engines like a big business jet, belonged to UN, jinking about on the way into Sarajevo.

The above isnt necessarily in chronological order, and never been on a plane on fire just under fire!

This photo has been described as a WW1 RAF mobile Oxygen Plant, that came into service as WW1 Aircraft attained greater Ceilings, but obviously the RAF did not exist in WW1, but were formed post war.

 

Can anyone give a better date for this Standard Sentinel mounted Oxygen Plant.

 

Apparently it has a Peter Brotherhood Compressor driven by a 10 HP Petrol Ricardo engine. A flask sits on a weighing scale on the side board, and when full holds 5 Gallons of liquid Oxygen..The Flasks are transported to the Airodrome inside Wicker Baskets like the one on the ground.

Tut! no Royal Air Force in WW1, Lord Trenchard will be turning in his grave!

Anyway after having to endure the shock of that light handed dismissal of one of the three services from WW1.........:n00b:.

I take it the large coal fired steam engine situated just a few feet from the oxygen plant had to be well and truly cold, before they started Oxygen production.

I'd heard that somebody wanted to swap a Tiger tank for it!

Ah, now you see there was no need to camouflage an ASSFART, as the cloaking device was a cunningly effective piece of kit :-D

How easy is it up upgrade from the yellow useless ones..

 

can you get a kit? ie new reflectors and bulbs? I have been looking just cant find..

 

as you all know series ones are terrible.. may as wel have a candle on the wing!

Paul, a number of companies make 7" Halogen conversion kits that contain reflectors, the H4 halogen bulb also comes in 24v for use by commercial vehicles etc, it is a very easy replacement/swap, and a massive improvement over the pre focused original bulbs, i think WIPAC do reflectors at reasonable cost.

As mentioned above it is used to break up the shape of the vehicle, and cover the reflective parts of the vehicle, this is used in conjunction with camouflage net and cam poles for best effect although it can be used for short periods when vehicles have to make a stop, and pull off the road to reduce their visibility.

We used to use one big piece of hessian, ordered in big black rolls, and stitched together with cam string, then hang it up over a fence around the back of the hangar for a while until it started to look faded, it goes a brown colour, what you would have is a mottled black brown effect, this would be kept on top of the vehicle, when you parked up, the bonnet was lifted on the landrover, to help break up the shape and the hessian pulled over the entire vehicle and the trailer that was brought alongside, the camouflage net would then be pulled over pulled reasonably tight and pegged down, then the cam poles would be put on and around the vehicle holding the net away from the vehicle like a big cam net bubble, rendering the whole affair near invisible particularly in woodland.

During an exercise on Stanta training area we had a 3 man comms team with Wolf, trailer and 9x9 camouflaged as above, all movement is restricted to within the camouflage netting once set up to minimise foliage flattening in the surrounding area, and making it harder to see.

Anyway a large amount of trucks and troops turned up, i seem to recall it was the Royal Logistic Corp and proceeded to set up operations 25 metres from our site, which was a surprise as we were supposed to be the only unit operating in that area, anyway after 6 hours, when a female captain went for a jimmy riddle in the woods nearby we decided that this would be an opportune moment to notify them that they had set up in our back yard! we scared the hell out of her! and she couldnt believe that we had been there the whole time, she thought that we were a patrol passing through! we showed her our setup complete with miniature aerial farm out back to prove otherwise :cool2:

I used to teach/demonstrate vehicle cam techniques, and if done correctly it can be very effective.

Paul, i have 24 - 12 volt vehicle convertors 10 Amp i think, might be higher rated i cant remember, collecting dust, as new ex Fire Brigade, i think they are suppressed for radio work, Drop me a PM they be cheap!

16:1 ratio petrol/oil mix, same as my Bantam many years ago :shake:

 

As a child I remember the council using these on the verges. Apparantly they had a habit of dropping into gear if left in neutral with the engine running.........you can just imagine one of these chasing the operator!

They are also slow to shut down, once the drive is disengaged you shut down the throttle until it blocks the intake, but it takes a little while to kill, todays health and safety goons would have a fit! but never had a problem in two years with it, who wants to hover when you can annihalate!:-D

If it still isnt coming back off fast enough, put a return spring on the throttle linkage, done this to my Pig which needed a bit of toe under the accelerator to fully return it.

Quite right, it looked like a very nice truck, alot of quality vehicle for the money, compare it with a modernish defender, 7K wouldnt get you anything particularly special.