LarryH57

I coudn't find any more Dodges so I thought I'd attached a photo of a trusty Bedford MW in service condition rather than show condition. Can anyone say what unit it belonged to?

You're easy to please - I 'll have a look for M3 Tank Destroyers!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dodges in sand for you - one is an ambulance and the other is a Weapons Carrier, which may have been in use by the USAAF

Here is another of the same Jeep

I found these photos in Life magazine archive and have posted them as they show US Army vehicles in Tunisia in WW2 painted sand which is a surprise to me as I thought all US Army vehicles that landed following 'Operation Torch' in Nov 1942 were painted olive drab and got their camouflage from the dust they picked up on the way. Another surprise was that the vehicles registrations on the vehicles in the attached photos are painted in english and arabic - which is some thing I though only the British 8th Army did with vehicles that started out from Egypt.

I think Withams has the exclusive contract to dispose of all surplus MOD vehicles. My mate who works for the Army as a civi mechanic has not dealt with any other firm for quite some time now.

Probably painted red and restored to a farm truck then!

'Big Gunner - Royal School of Artillery 31st June 1st August' - is that on both dates or one long show?!!!!:-D What kind of show will it be - just like the Larkhill open days of old where they fired off as much as possible over the heads of the crowd?

This unidentified truck mounting an AA gun was apparently used in the Middle East in WW1. Have you any idea what type of truck this is?

Some time around 2003 I went to the Great Dorset Steam Fair and saw this Bussing NAG parked up not in the MV section but in the Civi lorries area. So I am told the vehicle was brought to the UK during or shortly after WW2 to be evaluated and that after some time with the War Office it was sold off as surplus. It is said to have been used by a West Country farmer until spares ran out etc - and then rediscovered and restored in recent years. However, I have not heard or seen the vehicle since - so who owns it and has it now got a rear GS body?

Antarmike, I'm greatful for the clarification. I see that the MVT and FBHVC has now been invited for talks but are they now officially on the list for consultation? BTW - although I'm not affected, I'd still like to campaign on behalf of others who are. So what is the best way of doing this? Is there a standard response we could copy off HMVF and send in to VOSA - or should we write to our MP's? We need your help to help you and we only have ONE MONTH to get mobilised!

Sorry if this sounds dumb - but having read the first PDF document I see that on Page 16 there is a list of the current exemptions with ticks next to the ten that the VOSA propose to remove - and pre 1960 vehicles is not one of them.

Dave, Is your Bedford an MWD with GS body or one with a Signals body. I could put you in touch with Julian Mitchell who owns the Fordson 15 cwt Light Warning vehicle recently featured in CMV magazine. He has done a lot of reasearch on colours and markings. Also have you searched this forum on RAF colours - as your 617 Sqn MW would not have been RAF blue after 1941 to the end of WW2 See this thread http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread.php?9337-RAF-Blue-in-WW2-Fact-or-Fiction

Its funny how 'fashion' seems to make all vehicles in a particular class and era look the same. It was the same with the Jeep - it set a style that was copied the world over for decades. Now everything looks like a Hummer clone - even the Russian Army has vehicles with that same look! Which reminds me I saw a civi Hummer in central London with thin wooden spoked wheels - yes that's right with wagon wheels just like those in cowboy films. Admittedly it was parked but I cannot see how it was street legal. Sadly I had no opportunity to stop or photograph it!

A few days ago my sister was crossing the road via a large cap between parked cars when the driver of a large 4x4 decided to reverse at speed out of his parking space without looking and ran my sister over, breaking her leg in two places. This has brought home to me how easy it is to forget to look properly, especially in my MV. I hope this warning will avoid any of you from injuring anyone while you are out and about in your MV and especially when arriving & departing from MV shows. I don't think Army vehicles were ever designed with a good rear view in mind so the risk for us is far greater!

Actually I was stopped in May 2008 on the Tube, on my way to the office wearing a suit and tie and told the Police were doing a random search under Prevention of Terrorism Act. I didn't mind at the time as I had nothing to hide but it was a bit silly when the Police acknowledged that as a white anglo saxon I was only being searched so that their figures wouldn't show a bias towards other members of the community who dress like Osama. I can understand why the youth of today feel a bit miffed when they get pulled even though they may not doing anything.

Phil, It's often the case that the men who saw real front line action in the war are least likely to talk about it. I know this was the case with my grandfather he never spoke to my grandmother or my mother about what he did and yet when I was ten I used to take him tea in the morning and ask him about his war service. Whereas my mother, like most adults would not want to impose, as a child I could get away with questions like 'did you kill any Germans' and although he would avoid answering directly he might then describe a situation where many were killed and I would put 'two and two together' (especially as he won cups at Bisley for shooting 600 yards with a Lee Enfield). However most of the time he would steer the conversation to more humourous situations and keep the worst to himself. I also know that he dreamt about being in action most nights for years and years after the war.

After reading this bit of news I'm going to make sure I don't wear a combat jacket while drive to MV events, even if I'm wearing jeans and trainers as well because it won't be long before I get acused of doing something thats contrary to the Anti-Terrorism Act.

From Orange News Children's TV presenters Anna Williamson and Jamie Rickers have revealed they were held by police under anti-terrorism powers while filming in London. The pair, who front ITV1's hit show Toonattik, were filming a sketch for the programme on London's South Bank wearing combat gear and armed with children's walkie-talkies and glitter-covered hairdryers. Their fake fatigues aroused the suspicions of patrolling police, who stopped and questioned them. Williamson, 28, said: "We were filming a strand called Dork Hunters, which is to do with one of the animations we have on the show. "We were out and about doing 'dork hunting' ourselves on the streets of London. "Jamie and I were kitted out in fake utility belts. We've got hairdryers in our belt, a kids' walkie-talkie, hairbrushes and all that kind of stuff, and we were being followed by a camera crew and a boom mike and we get literally pulled over by four policemen and we were issued with a warning 'under the act of terrorism'." Rickers, 32, added: "We were stopped, not arrested, but they had to say 'we are holding you under the Anti-Terrorism Act because you're running around in flak jackets and a utility belt', and I said 'and please put spangly blue hairdryer' and he was, like, 'all right'." The presenting duo also hit the headlines in 2008 when Rickers, re-enacting a scene from The Emperor's New Clothes, appeared to strut around the studio naked, although it was later revealed he was wearing a flesh suit from the waist down. The morning programme, which provides light-hearted links in between cartoons such as Ben 10: Alien Force and Dork Hunters From Outer Space, attracts around 616,000 viewers each weekend morning, making it the most popular terrestrial programme of its kind. So the moral of this is you better watch out, as driving a green truck may already be an offence!!!!!!!!

Some of you may remember see a program on TV a few years ago in which students from Chernobyl came to stay in the UK and it was stated that a stay of a few weeks in the UK had the effect of extending their life expectancy by several YEARS - just from being away from the area. Grave yard hunters be warned!

How about this for a land train from WW2!

Pigdog, If you own a Ferret then you may want a beret to go with the era of the vehicle rather than a current issue beret. The beret I was issued with by the Royal Engineers in 1970-80s was proper Army issue but did not have a strip sown in to the front, and so as mentioned above I had to cut a small hole in the front for the clasp/hook. To keep it in place the hook was squashed and bent to reduce the gap and help keep it in place. I never lost a cap badge though I did 'acquire' a few extra berets which allowed me to hand in the spare and keep my old favourite beret which I still have!

Jack made the point much earlier that if you don't like W&P you do not have to go - which is exactly what I have decided. It's not the £25 that I complained about - but the total lack of consideration some people have for others and the complete lack of control the organisers have over these types. Last year I had the all night party banging on till 5am Sunday. I did phone the duty person at W&P to complain about the party, the gunfire after midnight and drunk drivers wizzing past my tent but nothing was done about it! Sadly some people think W&P should be all about getting blind drunk and doing what they dam well want and F*** anyone else who gets in their way or spoils their fun. The trouble is they are spoiling my fun too. Having no sleep is very dangerous for people who have to drive a long way home, like me who was dropping off a friend on the way. I am not a killjoy but ALL NIGHT music is a bit much and as for those drunk drivers, one day you will drive in to someones tent and kill the occupants. This kind of thing is not tolerated at MVT shows, so why let it happen at W & P. Until the W&P management sort this out I won't be going any longer.

The trouble with magazines is that they start well with good articles and a lot of interest from the readers and so number of magazines sold is good, then interest drops off a little as it's no longer new, and with a drop in sales the amount of space given over to advertising starts to increase. Then the articles suffer and the sales go down and the price goes up. This is what I think has happened to Flypast magazine. It used to be interesting to read but now its like a collection of adverts inter-dispersed with a few short articles with little depth. For the price I'd rather go to a discount book shop I know that sells end of line military & aviation books for about the same price. The shop even had a good sized book on the German Army on Eastern Front Summer 1944 (Operation Bagration?) for about £7.99 full of Bundesarchiv photos! As for CMV it needs to stick with CLASSIC MVs and avoid quasi article / adverts such as that I saw for a Rangler Jeep pretending to be a serious MV - that also appeared in MMI magazine too. I like to see restoration articles with before and after photos, stories about the use of vehicles in conflict such as those that CMV did on the LRDG and coverage of MV shows. However they could do more features on a particular type of vehicle either in service from a historical point of view or as a feature on a preserved type and tell readers what its like to run, the costs and the availabilty of spares etc. We don't always know about the problems or sucesses owners face if they drive something different from ourselves. What bores me the most in military magazines are articles on some obscure prototype vehicle that never went in to service or articles where the writer drones on as if they like the sound of their own voice and never gets to the point - or articles that are too short; a bit like having Soviet Armour of WW2 covering just two pages! For the moment Britain at War Magazine is my choice.

If they could figure out a way of lowering the suspension when parked - so that no wheels show, then this would be a very useful vehicle. It could be used to stake out all types of criminals, though on second thoughts they may think things have gone to far if the skip gave chase!:-D