Redcap

"Now hear this, now hear this, all Schnell Imbiss facilities are closed, by order. American sector burger joints now open, British sector Fish and Chip units now in place, French... well, we don't eat snails!" :evil:

We were wearing our '84-pattern combat jackets bloused well into the '90s. It was a more tricky proposition with the 68 pattern jackets though, as it seemed that they were somewhat less generous in the cut below the chest

There was an article on this landie in last months Land Rover Monthly; Rather a good read, too.

OK, lads, remember: The hue & Cry'll be out there with their ponies, so keep those carts down to a respectable amble pace, none of that damn galloping like we saw last year, there were barrows torn up and mud all over the stables!

Oh and no bloody refuelling the motors in camp - the sh1t that rolled downhill into the tent area smelled horrendous, really put us off the ale!

:nut:

OK, Finally joined the fray as a landie owner :-D

bought from another landie enthusiast who recently got himself a bedford MK, and had to make some room (his loss, my gain), here're the photos and notes...

Vehicle type: Truck Utility 3/4 Tonne, 4x4, Series 3, 12v, LWB, RHD.

AVC Code: 1710-1778

MOD Registration: 60KB62

Contract Number: FVE 22A-225 ITEM 2

Date of Manufacture: Not known, but as it's now on an 'A' plate, possibly 1983/4.

Date into Service: Not known

Date Released from service: Not known

Chassis Number: ***************** (What, you think I'm putting that down in PUBLIC?!)

Engine Type: Petrol 2283cc

Known History or information of interest: Nothing Known. History check to be made.

And now three photos...

Eventually, this will be returned to being a soft-top; I have to lay my mitts on a couple of rear bench seat frames and cushion sets, a tilt and frame, and a few cosmetic items for Living History purposes (like a respray back to the more usual camouflage scheme for an Army Landie of the 80s), but that can wait for the next year or so, until I've got a few basics sorted out (like a 12VDC accessory power socket for my phone!).

Note please, that this Landie will be my means for getting to and from work; as a result, that this was never going to be a 'project' vehicle - it had to work properly, and look reasonable, from the word go, with the exhibiting/Living history side of things being a secondary act. Remember: The best way to get to know a vehicle, is to drive it daily

Oh, the green sticker inside the left rear window?

:evil:

Google is your friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Stock_Number

Blimey, I go away for a month, and this happens! Coincidentally, I wrote a blog entry the other day around the subject of ratpacks... enjoy...

Squaddie Stew*

 

OK, a quick one this (oo-er!)...

 

I was chatting with the better half earlier via Skype, and it turns out that I am actually expected to cook for us both on Monday, rather than rely on infrequent fridge and snack cupboard raids for sustaining the two of us over the bank holiday weekend.

 

So I offered up a menu.

 

 

 

 

• Breakfast:
  Bacon grill and reconstituted powdered eggs with a slice of white bread and margarine, an oatmeal block, and tea or coffee, NATO standard.
  
• Snack lunch:
  Biscuits, Brown, AB, with beef pate spread, and either tea or coffee NATO standard, or powdered isotonic fruit drink.
  
• Main meal:
  Squaddie Stew, with tea or coffee, NATO Standard, and mixed fruit Pudding.
  

 

 

Needless to say the menu was shot down in flames before I'd even reached the main meal items. My better half can tell when I'm quoting from a 1980s British Army-issue Ration Pack, but there was a query. "What on Earth is squaddie Stew? Are there real squaddies in it? Do you lop the boots off before you cook them?"

 

After some evil laughter, and giving points for the misquote from the film "Addams Family Values", I went on to explain what went into the 'stew', which wasn't really a stew, so much as reheated tinned food.

 

Ration packs, or "Rations, one-man x 24-hours, GS", to give them their full name, were actually rather good kit. They included all manner of stuff to keep a soldier fully fed under operational conditions in the field, and contained tins of food, bars of chocolate, packs of boiled sweets, tea, coffee, biscuits (well, practically hard tack in their case), and so on. The retail cost in todays terms might be as much as fifteen to twenty quid, if bought individually. The Army paid (and still does, a couple of decades later) much less, of course.

 

The tins usually comprised one tin for breakfast, normally bacon grill or similar, two tins for the main meal, and a dessert tin, such as mixed fruit pudding, fruit in syrup, or something along those lines.

 

The two tins for Squaddie Stew to be available were minced steak in gravy (with onions), and Mixed Vegetables (in water). the normal way to cook these were to bang a dent in the sides of the tins, and plonk them in a mess tin, which was then filled with water to half-way up the dented tins. you then cooked it over a 'tommy cooker' or "cooker, field, individual, hexamine fuelled, folding, soldiers for the burning of", until the sides of the dented tins popped out again. You then opened them very carefully, considering that the contents were now supernova-hot and under pressure (Boyles law, anyone?)...

 

Squaddie Stew, on the other hand, was a damn sight easier. You dumped the contents of the tins into the mess tin, sprinkled a sachet of 'Beef Stock drink' (basically a powdered OXO cube in a sachet) over the top of it, and cooked away, stirring as required to prevent burning, and unless you were a complete Muppet, good flavour, consistency, and a satisfying meal - even when it was bucketing down with rain - were pretty-much guaranteed.

 

There were pros and cons with both methods, of course. The dented tin method meant that you had a clean mess tin at the end of the day, and a quick rinse with cold water sorted out the tin for next time. The Squaddie Stew method resulted in a tin that really needed to be washed and cleaned immediately you finished your meal, which meant that two of you grouped together, one of them cooking the pairs main meals in his mess tin, over his cooker, the other keeping a simmering - or at least very hot - hot mess tin of water on the go, for tea/coffee and washing water.

 

You also found out who your really good mates were with Squaddie Stew if no-one yelled something like "OI! you greedy gannet!" or suchlike (normally rather foully-worded during the meal)!

 

Anyhow, back to the present, it looks like I'll be doing some other, more civilian menu instead, requiring about ten times the effort, come Monday.

 

Oh well. It was a nice idea while it lasted!

 

* No Troops were stewed in the making of this entry!

 

 

 

 

 

:nut:

LOL, not at the moment, mate, any ideas that I *do* get will, of course, be tested to destruction at this end of the string-and-can line first, to ensure that they work properly :nut:

Jon -

seems to me that from perhaps the mid eighties onwards, maybe as early as the late seventies, there were third-party kit manufacturers making kit to generally preferred troops requirements, not neccesarily the MoDs requirements, eg the SASS kit carry smock of the nineties, and the para smock you appear to have found.

Now, while in most cases the labels will bear the makers name, some, like the one you found, seem to go out of their way to try to appear to be 'issue kit', with an NSN and so on; now, I don't know if the one in your example jacket is a made-up NSN or copied off an actual para smock, but you can figure that one out, I'm sure, but it seems that there may, if yours is a classic example, be a fair few of these knocking around, undocumented, and lying in wait for the unwary... might be an idea to see what others you can find, and make notes about them for the rest of us?

Just a thought, anyhow :nut:

Sorry, mate, it looks to be a repro. Para smocks are noted as "Smock, Parachutist", on the label, and there will always be a contract number as well, as Eaglehurst mentioned.

I'll add my thanks to all our Event Provost Team Honourary 118-118's

Many many thanks one and all, you made our lives a darn sight easier, and next year, folks, the CWP static display WILL be properly set up, as I finally know how it'll go together

Anyhow, many thanks one and all again, and most especially to Lee and Ian for all the hard work in getting the event to run, and we're looking forward to next year

Oh, and for those of you who saw me completely... erm... well, ten thousand sheets to the wind on Friday night (and that's putting it mildly), WHOOPEEEEEEEEE!!!, lol Ain't been that fizzed since Ex Cop Shoot '93 at Hohne And no hangover on the Saturday, either! Heh, 40 years playing the drinking game, and I've finally got it cracked :nut:

Stolen within the last 24 hours, along with my car:

Full set 58 pattern webbing less bayonet frog and pistol holster

Mess tins (not that important, frankly, they can be had for peanuts)

Folding skeleton bed (1980s issue, replica)

Roll mat, issue (genuine)

reconditioned 58 pattern sleeping bag

Sleevelets, traffic directing, silver/white

Tabbard, orange/silver, marked "MILITARY POLICE"

Sleevelets and tabbard are in the right ammunition pouch of the webbing.

Items were in the boot of the car; car is a Silver Ford Modeo, V59NGY. also insude the car a two-way amateur radio tranceiver, a dual band (2m & 70cm) Yaesu FT-7800E, with remote mounting kit, radio s/no 6H531885.

To say that I'm exceedingly hacked off is putting it mildly, of course. This has been reported to the Police, and any information should be passed in the first instance to them. Thanks.

[C0] NO FETCH SUNRAY YOU DAFT BRUMMIE WEST MIDLANDS CONEHEAD IDIOT

OK, and now I'm making with the kitchen roll, having sprayed coffee, well, everywhere, really :nut::evil:

Wow :shocked: And they both walked away with only minor injuries? Incredible :wow:

The buses I drive in London are equipped with CCTV that's on a constant recording loop that lasts a week; it's aimed at on-board security and deterrence against thuggery, but you will notice that the cameras also face outwards, precisely to see who caused what in the event of a bus bumping into something for whatever reason. No video-tied GPS log, though. The Police still have to do the resulting AIs the old fashioned way :nut:

Even so, look on the bright side... at least it's not another bleeding Chelsea Tractor :nut:

Ahem. I'll get me coat

(From my smartphone)

Yeah, that's the plan, depends on a lift from the 2i/c, mind ;-)

Roger

For your script...

Roger so far = did you get what I just sent you?

Say again = you what?!

Say again all after ... = I'm a deaf git, say that last bit again wouldya?!

Say again all before ... = Some pillock was talking while I was trying to listen to you. Say it again, mate!

Hello Charlie Charlie (number) = everyone on the group calling list that I just numbered, pay attention!

Contact, wait, out = I say, we just had a spot of bother with the blokes over the border, give us a few minutes to sort it out, eh?

Contact reports were sent in clear (for the original reason stated above by AlienFTM). Pretty much everything else went in BATCO, except code words, which were often sent in clear. eg...

"Hello Zero, this is Lima One One Bravo, STRAND operating, ACORN clear, BROADWAY ready, over."

Translation:

"Boss, this is one platoon, two section. The Main Supply route from Bremen is up and running, the bridge over the Rhine is now clear, and the alternate route to Hohne is ready to accept convoys."

Hope that helps

Jon -

Certainly appears to be.

Hiya matey

Dunno about a size 4, my ones are size 3 - I'd give my right... um... cheek... yeah, that's the word... "cheek"... for a size 4 - not getting any younger, middle age spread, and all that smelly stuff

DID manage to find a pair of truly massive aertex jungle shirts last year - Olly was excreting breeze blocks in amazement, I lifted then right out from under his still somewhat dozy schnoz at a stall at the Chatham Militaria Fair at about 9 in the morning, lol, though no NSNs on them, just the old white tags from the 50s :-(

Talk soon!

(snip)

 

Itchy Shirts or Hairy Mairy I beleive are only 5 sizes

 

Shirt, Man's, Combat

Size 0 8405-99-132-178

Size 1 8405-99-132-179

Size 2 8405-99-132-180

Size 3 8405-99-132-181

Size 4 8405-99-132-182

 

Can any one confirm the above?

Ta

Jon

Jon -

I can't make out the stock number on the green Hairy Mary I've got (looks like an old style stock number, not an NSN, but it's too faded to make out, but the khaki one I have shows a very odd NSN - it looks like it reads "8405-99-132-1810", for a Size 3.

I'm sure that's sticking a spanner in the works somehow, but that's what it looks like it says!

Lee -

Get well soon, mate, we wanna see you next year giving stick where it's required :nut:

Ah, yes, "Bob".

Many thanks to all of "Delta Team", made the job a damn sight easier all round for all of us

In the diary, don't yet know if I'll be able to attend. Calendar not worked out that far!

Two days off for kit prep and pre-packing (ye gods, I'm gonna be running around like a madman!), two more days of work after that, then fun time :-D:nut:

Mark -

Note to self, have word with c.o. and hit him hard to remind him to let me know what he is doing!!!!)

It's been my experience that occasionally, Jon actually does remember what to do :nut:

And you'll see us first as you come up the slope, of course, so remember to say "Hi"!