LarryH57

I have just had a look at the 44 Pattern pouch and it has ZA33126 printed on the reverse if that's anything to go by.

Thanks Robert, I can't say I have heard of an 88 set but I used to use an Larkspur A41 in 1970's but for the life of me I cannot remember them being in webbing. Perhaps the A40 was different from A41 thats why?

When I got my Lightweight a few years ago I found two bits of 58 webbing in it and both bits appear to be radio bags. Can anyone say what radios they were for? The first is the same size as a 58 webbing ammo pouch but has a hole in the flap and on the right as you look at it, is an open ended side 'pocket' of the same length (for a small aerial?). The other bag is 1 ft long, 9 inches wide and 5.25 inches deep. Strangely it has four long straps that go right round the outside to tighten it and other smaller straps that may connect it to a carrying frame. I have not found anything like them on the web. Thanks in advance [/url]

Thanks for your reply - most interesting. So get your Army paints out if you have a WW2 RAF vehicle!

Over the last 30 years I have seen a fair number of WW2 MV's painted in RAF blue and I have often wondered how accurate they are in that colour. When you study war time photos of the RAF in the UK you will see that from very early in the war RAF vehicles from staff cars to fuel bowsers were painted in disruptive camo that I believe was green & brown and that as the war progressed colours changed to match the Army with black disruptive paint over brown (?) and later mickey mouse type camouflage. I have not found a photo of RAF blue & yellow cab roof either in WW2 though I did see a colour photo of an all yellow Beaverette used as crash rescue on a Bomber Command airfield circa 1944 (for use by firemen in asbestos suits to get in close) So why is it that MV owners paint their 1942-45 era RAF vehicles blue and why for that matter does the film industry do the same! Is getting an award more preferable than accuracy? Finally can anyone say for sure when RAF blue was first used-1918? And when did it make a comeback after WW2?

If anyone has any wartime photos of RN vehicles I would be great if they could post them here for all to see.

I presume '58 webbing was developed in 1958 but did it have to wait for Battledress to disappear in the early 1960's before it came in to use or was there a time when it was worn in place of WW2 style webbing with brown '49 Battledress? Any photos anyone?

It's telt in Scotland too!:-D

Regarding RN vehicles I have always had an interest in these as their vehicles are not commonly covered by MV books & magazines or by MV owners - so this link may be of help. There are quite a few from Alan Brock that have never been seen before, if you scroll down http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5064&highlight=Royal+Navy+vehicles In passing it would seem that RN vehicles that were used in and around the UK docks, that were originally painted gray remained so for some years after the order to change to camo.

So how come two days later two people turn up with a completed application in hand, pay the £25 and drive on in?

We went down to W&P for the weekend, arrived at 9.30am on Saturday and found the two people in the queue in front of me at the vehicle check in were allowed in (on payment of the £25) on the basis that somehow they didn't have time to book by 1st July! Now don't get me wrong the more MV's the merrier but I know a few people in MV movement who didn't go but could have if they had only know, as they were not sure their vehicle would be ready by the booking cut off date or because of their changing work shifts. So my message is don't bother booking, just turn up and pay then and if the weather is crap (or your MV is not well) and you don't go, you won't have wasted your money. NB - I didn't get a program again when booking in this year, as I was told they were all gone, so missed the LR 60th anniversary - yet later saw a W&P person selling them near the trade stands. I felt like demanding one for free!

Jonny, I'm up for a LW event in the arena on Saturday evening in my LW

What does everyone do with their old motor insurance policies, after they have expired and the new policy schedule & certificate has been received? Is there any point in keeping them? Could someone try to make a claim on you a few years after the event claiming that they have only just got round to it or only just found you? I think the legal limit is actually 7 years. Obviously I know I have not had any accidents in my MV but in view of the above should I keep them to defend myself from any unwanted / false accusations?

Bazz, WaS the incident you mention in Germany in the 1980's? I remember a similar type of accident when on exercise one autumn during the annual BAOR exercises.

I went to photo mine on my LW but the carb in your photo doesn't look like a standard Zenith like mine, so what is it? Hopefully someone with the same carb can help you out

When doing the lighting for a military band events on Horse Guards Parade in the 1980's we mounted our carbon arc searchlights on scaffold towers on three sides of the square in advance and then turn up for each perforance over a few nights. It was great fun having such a good view and seeing the Blues & Royals & Guards in action often in the presence of the Queen. To incident spring to mind - The Lister generators were parked round the corner to keep the noise away from the crowd during the event. One night after going home we left one of the Lister Generators running and when one of the Squadron returned the next day it was still running! Once when I was working in Central London , I said to the lads I'll meet you up at Horse Guards rather than go all the way out to W3 and back. So I went to HG with my kit in my ruck sack and sat down on a Lister Generator right next to the rear of 10 Downing St. As I was in civys at the time a Policeman asked me what I was doing. I told him I was with 873 Mvt Light Sqn RE but he didn't like me being there so told me to move on. So I walked over to the gents toilet in St James and changed in to my uniform and then walked back to the Listers and started removing the covers and getting them ready, without interference, while the same Policeman looked on!

WOA2 you are right! Until 1977, 873 Movement Light Sqn RE (V) had been equipped with pre-war 90 inch Carbon Arc Searchlights, as used in the Blitz, which it had used since its formation in c.1947! The old Carbon Arc Searchlights were mostly dated from 1938 and each was mounted on the back of a Bedford RL towing a pre-war 15 KVA Lister Generator trailer. As you can imagine these ‘Searchlight portee and trailer’ combinations were very unwieldy and difficult to manoeuvre in to position at night. So during 1978 the unit re-equipped with new AN/TVS-3 30-inch Xenon Searchlights imported from the USA. The Xenons wererated at 800 Million Candle Power; more than double the power of the Carbon Arcs. (After the Xenons arrived the old Searchlights were retained by ‘873’ for ceremonial duties including lighting up events at Wembley Stadium, Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace till about 1985?)

Later! 49 HG 92 Ex-Searchlight Operator RE (retired) (B2 Trade)

Go on have a guess when this type of pre-war searchlight stopped being used on active duty by the British Army?

Does the Frost stuff fill holes? I have a spare fuel tank I am working on and it has a very small hole in the front face - about the size of the tip of a pencil. The hole is in a place that I cannot reach with my arm in the tank.

17 Sqn was in the Far East & Japan in 1945-46, so I wonder if your BSA was used by the unit at this time. Incidentally your when I first saw your photo I thought it was some kind of tattoo on some guys beer gut!

The springs on a Series 3 Land Rover are handed; the idea being to compensate for the weight of the driver. So have you put each set on the wrong side?

Actually most people in my street think that my MV runs on special fuel rather than unleaded, which helps people leave it alone. Perhaps you could stop your Jerrycan being nicked, when its on your vehicle, by marking it up with a tag to say 'Combat Gas' or 'low octane MV use only' which would make some opportunist theft think twice.

I have just been reading in 'Windscreen' about a military vehicle auction that occured last August at the Grampian MV tattoo. While I am pleased that the vehicles have gone to new homes I am shocked that someone could own so many vehicles and yet leave them out in the open for so long! One vehicle listed as an 'aero screen Morris PU' in the magazine is a Morris CS8 4x2 Air Compressor and as it has the 51st Highland Div sign showing on the front mudguard, it may well be the same CS8 I read of some years ago in an early copy of Classic Miliatry Vehicle that had been used by a Scottish builder up to the 1980s and that it had been with the Royal Engineers of the 51st Highland Div at El Alamain and that the then current owner had been in contact with one of the veterans who drove it at the time. Let's hope the current owner restores it to its former glory as if I am correct, it really is a HISTORIC military vehicle.

Sorry to say I preferred the green colour to the original HMVF! Blue & grey makes me ill! I need my fix of green on a daily basis!