More content - your content

[Jack]

Dear all.

 

It is time that we turn the heat up on HMVF!

 

We need as much content as possible to make this place a massive resource for all to share. To make HMVF the first place that you visit for news, reviews and the latest articles when you fire up your PC.

 

To enable us to that I am going to need you help. Is anyone willing to put pen to paper and write some articles? On anything of their choosing? It doesn't have to be a huge amount of words and you don't have to have an English degree to do it..........have you ever read any of mine in CMV? Then you will see my point! :oops: :cry: You can then PM them or email them to me and I will do the rest.

 

They is a story or article within everyone, it can be on your MV, your collections, favorite place to visit or even about your time in the service. Even a 'how to' piece, how to service a Land Rover, a 'how to' on buying an MV - what to look for, what questions to ask. The list is pretty endless....................but I would really appreciate your help with this as the articles are one of the most read sections on HMVF - I have the statistics!! Please share your knowledge.

 

I will try and work our some sort of review format that we canall use to write up reviews, just like the HMVF 20 Question Interview, so it is as straight forward as possible to use...

 

Also, we need links and feeds for the news section of HMVF so if anyone has any relevant news that we should know about then please PM the details and I will do the rest as we need to keep the news section updated.

 

I thank you for your help.

 

Jack.

[Jack]

Ok, Sir will be doing some more on under ground exploration and Steve aka Jesse the Jeep will being do some on the USAF..............

 

Anyone else?

[Snapper]

I will happily do stuff on battlefield touring and bits of history, reviews etc. I am also more than happy to help out in every way with editing and presentation so we can develop a house style WITHOUT (and I want to be clear about this) affecting the personal aspect of peoples' input. I think this is the angle that most suffers in print and I think it is a shame. At the end of the day the idea is to share and have fun, so it has to be part of us not an adjunct. yap yap yap. Sorry, but I am quite passionate about making something where we can all share what we know and what we've done and care about. Nuff said.

[Jack]

Hi Mark.

 

Are you volunteering to be HMVF's editor :mrgreen:

[Guest qtronics]

Hi all,

 

I’ve stuck up on the Wiki a selection of categories, each having a photo below the link.

 

Not sure if this is what people here like / want?? But if it’s kept then we need some more photos for the categories.

 

These are:

Manuals

Maps

Rockets and Jets

Vehicles and specs

Weapons

 

anyone with a login should be able to add these and change the front page or any page come to that.

 

And what other categories are wanted?

A suppliers list, tool list, howto guides?

 

Cheers.

Al.

 

[Snapper]

I'm good at the writing bit, Alex, but I am still making tentative efforts at playing around with web stuff. I'll get my son to help me. He is well up to the task being 14!

I would like to see sections for battlefields, monuments and museums (as one) and I think we will obviously have to be prepared for the MV section to expand. This is brilliant. We can write about practically anything.

 

Jack, I'm more than happy to have a bash at editing if everyone is happy about that. Not sure how yet. But there is no point in ducking. I'll discuss further elsewhere.

 

To All: Keep up the ideas please.

 

Snapper (Mark)

[Guest qtronics]

Mark,

 

Have a bash at anything you like, Wiki has a history feature that keeps records of changes. Thus if something bad did happen, although I’m sure you’ll be fine, we can go back to the old version if needed (works in 99% of cases).

 

Shout if you have any problems.

 

Al.

 

[Snapper]

Cheers Al.

[Joris]

The WIKI has been disabled for the moment, I'll try to get it working again asap.

[Guest qtronics]

Out of interest Joris, did the wiki give problems with joomla and MySQL?

 

Cheers.

Al.

 

[Joris]

Nope not at all

[Jack]

so..........WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO HAVE A GO AT WRITING AN ARTICLE FOR HMVF :dunno: :dunno:

 

Feel better now that I have that off my chest

[Joris]

I might write one in the near future.. I'll see if I can come up with something interesting.

[ArtistsRifles]

so..........WOULD ANYONE LIKE TO HAVE A GO AT WRITING AN ARTICLE FOR HMVF :dunno: :dunno:

 

Feel better now that I have that off my chest

 

 

Such as??????????????????????? :whistle: :whistle:

[Jack]

Such as??????????????????????? :whistle: :whistle:

 

 

What ever you feel like Neil - as long as it is HMV related and you enjoy doing it.

[Rick W]

Am quite happy to write the odd article using my limited knowledge, but everythings a learning curve! Everyones more than happy to share or update stuff about their restos. What about a more personal section about the people? I have been tring to find out what happened to my grandfather in WW2, usual thing, never talked about it and had medical discharge just before Dunkirk. Always a mystery. His dad and 3 brothers who lost their lives in WW1. Where did they go etc.It might be good to share experinces of how we found out and done the research so others could find out

[Snapper]

This is a great idea. A fitting link to the service of our parents, grand parents and friends.

It may be that we need to do a few people as a case study to see the best methods.

[Jack]

Am quite happy to write the odd article using my limited knowledge, but everythings a learning curve! Everyones more than happy to share or update stuff about their restos. What about a more personal section about the people? I have been tring to find out what happened to my grandfather in WW2, usual thing, never talked about it and had medical discharge just before Dunkirk. Always a mystery. His dad and 3 brothers who lost their lives in WW1. Where did they go etc.It might be good to share experinces of how we found out and done the research so others could find out

 

 

Ok Rick - that sounds pretty extraordinary and would make an wonderful 'series' of articles.

 

More than happy to talk this through with you if you would like me to call?

[Rick W]

OK Jack, lets get xmas out of the way first. Email me your number and I'll get in touch.

[Jack]

OK Jack, lets get xmas out of the way first. Email me your number and I'll get in touch.

 

 

Have PMed you my full contact details :-D

[Joris]

With the new site up we have even more space for your content, so write about your favorite museum, the best book you ever read or the fantastic battlefield tour you participated in!

[David Ives]

who do we send these to :?

[Joris]

jack @ hmvf . co . uk

 

But remove all the spaces.

[Jolly Jeeper]

Here's something - slightly secondhand I'll admit (but I doubt many people here saw it - offered it to CMV and MMI neither replied so it's yours. Feel free to move it somewhere. Will find a pic and post it to illustrate what we were up to. JC

 

 

 

Jeeps to Bailey Bridge

 

Have you seen the movie A Bridge Too Far? It’s about the ill-fated parachute drops on strategic river bridges in Holland towards the end of WWII. The British 1st Airborne were cut off and surrounded in Arnhem, the US 82nd Airborne captured the Grave bridge completely intact but the Germans managed to destroy the Son river swing bridge before the US 101st Airborne could capture it. This was crucial because the British XXX Corps was driving along the single road over the bridges to relieve the Paras at Arnhem. To keep things moving the British had to supply bridging materials to the Americans and in the movie there’s a scene where Lt. Colonel J.O.E. Vandeleur (Michael Caine) and American Colonel Robert Stout (Elliott Gould) are discussing how to get the portable bridging equipment to the bank of the Son river.

 

Stout, ‘Hey that Bailey crap, you got it amongst this stuff?’

 

Vandeleur, ‘When you refer to Bailey crap I take it you mean that glorious, precision-made, British-built bridge which is the envy of the civilized world?’

 

Bailey Bridging was developed during World War II by Sir Donald Bailey and adopted in early 1941 as the standard Military Bridge. To enable bridges of varying spans and carrying capacities to be speedily erected, manually by unskilled labour the basic components were standardised and fully interchangeable, each individual component was capable of being carried by a six-man party and the component parts were transportable in a three-ton truck. Seeing as we knew where there was some ‘bailey crap’ crossing a Scottish mountain stream we thought we’d go and see it in something else that was also ‘the envy of the civilised world’ namely the Willys Jeep. It was so envied in France that French automaker Hotchkiss produced licence-built copies of the Willys MB referred to as the M201.

 

One weekend, in late July, last summer found us preparing and loading up the Jeeps – a 1943 Willys MB ‘Elusive Elaine’ and a 1961 Hotchkiss M201 ‘Hot Rod’ - for an overnight trip. As we swapped the split ‘combat rims’ and bargrip tyres of the Hotchkiss in favour of a set of Firestone SATs on Hotchkiss steel rims, photographer Wayne and I were reminded of our earliest days in Land Rover clubs when the, then expensive, SAT – Super All Traction – tyre was the king of off-road tyres but didn’t last long at all on the road. We’d drive to wherever the tarmac ended on compromise tyres and swap them for the set of SATs. More than that though the whole low key start to the trip was like it used to be; a few mates, tents, stoves, the all-important OS map and a last minute stop at a Spar for the makings of a couple of meals and a few tinnies to drink around the campfire were all the necessaries for great weekends in the great outdoors.

 

‘Things are already more complicated than they used to be even ten years ago,’ I thought at the filing station as I added octane booster to the unleaded fuel I’d just filled my Jeep’s underseat tank with. The flathead engines warmed up as we headed for the Spar shop and then, under a cloudy sky, we headed for the hills and a military road. Military roads are nothing new; the Romans were among the first road builders in Britain and, although our Jeeps belong to the era of General ‘Vinegar’ Joe Stilwell’s Ledo Road, (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, China built during World War II by African-American Engineer Units), our route would take us along a road built two centuries earlier. It was one of the many roads built by General Wade and his successor Major Caulfield to suppress the Jacobite Scots and their armed risings against the English and their supporters, the Corrieyairack Pass. It is a 770m (2526 ft) high pass in the Scottish Highlands and would be relatively obscure were it not for Wade's military road built over it in 1731, between Fort Augustus in the west and Laggan to the south east. It is the highest motorable road in the UK and has been being driven by 4x4 owners ever since recreational 4x4 use in Britain was just beginning and referred to as ‘boggling’, forty years or more ago when Willys Jeeps were just £25 each.

 

For once though, where we were going was of less importance than what we were doing which was driving the most classic Jeeps off the tarmac in the type of terrain they were designed for. Most restored Willys Jeeps nowadays, it seems, do little more than park in static rows at military vehicle rallies. This always seems a shame to me as the Willys Jeep is one of the most capable off-roaders ever built and while they fetch big money now they can still be used and, with a degree of care, come away unscathed. The Willys and Hotchkiss Jeeps are remarkable similar although the Hotchkiss chassis is of a heavier gauge steel and has 24 volt electrics unlike the 6v system of the original. Both have flathead, or sidevalve, in-line, four-cylinder engines with a three-speed gearbox and two-speed transfer box. Four-wheel drive is engaged by means of one lever and low box by another, both of which are alongside the normal gearstick. Both four-wheel drive and low box are required to attempt the boulder-strewn track where the red coats once marched. The torquey engines and pliable leaf springs meant that the Jeeps eased themselves over the rocks at speeds low enough to preclude damage. The degree of flex in the suspension was surprising and allowed the wheels to stay in contact with the ground even on a couple of stretches of road where rainfall and snowmelt run off had taken its toll on the track’s surface. As we drove towards the corrie’s headwall the track began to climb and passes under the line of electricity pylons, the maintenance of which are probably the reason that this track survives as a road. The track then climbs up the corrie on a series of hairpins and, on this particular afternoon, saw us climb into the rain.

 

This restored pair of Jeeps are both painted as US Army models and both carry the markings of Jeeps used on D-Day in the opening phase of the liberation of Europe – Willys Elusive Elaine carries the markings of the 82nd Airborne while Hotchkiss Hot Rod wears the colours of the 29th Infantry Division. Painting post-war Hotchkiss Jeeps as WWII models is a common practice frowned on by some and carried out with varying degrees of success depending on how many of the obviously French parts including hoods, blackout lights, wheels, tyres and wipers are supplemented with American components. Almost as much as possible has been changed on this particular Hotchkiss although, as noted above, the Hotchkiss wheels were reinstalled for this trip.

 

As we rolled down the hill to the Bailey Bridge built here in a quiet glen by 278 Field Squadron Royal Engineers (TA) in November 1961 as an exercise. Forty five years later, rusting gently it still spans a stream where a granite stone bears the logo of the famous Highland Division. Battle honours and casualty lists made this division into a household name during World War I. More of the same came in World War II when the 51st embarked for Egypt and the North African campaign and fought at El Alamein, Mareth, Medenine and Wadi Akarit. After North Africa the Division landed in Sicily and were then moved back to the United Kingdom to prepare for the landings in Europe. In the hedges and narrow lanes of Normandy’s Bocage they had a difficult time and fought on however through France, Belgium, Holland and across the Rhine into Germany. In August 1945 the 51st Highland Division ceased to exist as a separate formation and became part of the 51st/52nd (Scottish) Division. Their wartime battle casualties in killed wounded and missing from D-Day to 5th May 1945 totalled 9051. The 51st was revived as a Territorial Division in 1948 and survived as such until 1967 when it was redesignated as a Brigade of the Scottish Division.

 

In keeping with the nostalgic nature of the vehicles we opted to keep our night’s camp almost as nostalgic to somewhere in the postwar years. This meant, for some of us, eschewing the comforts of modern dome tents and thermarests for equipment much more basic; small cotton ridge tents and camp beds. Tilley lamps, paraffin Primus stoves and aluminium mess tins were the majority of the other kit. On a flat bit of grass below the bridge a circle of blackened stones indicated that others had previously camped here. We felt that the spot was as good as anywhere and opted to reuse the fire circle. Camping the fifties way was fine although my cotton tent – new around the time of the Suez Crisis - and a jumble sale purchase wasn’t as waterproof as I’d have liked. It also wasn’t as midge proof!

 

The early morning midges were out in clouds and drove us from the stream bank early. The upside was that it was a beautiful day and we drove part of the way back the way we’d come before getting the pans and stoves out for tea and a fry up. Back in the fifties, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said to the British people ‘You’ve never had it so good’. As we soaked in the sunshine and the view from the top of the Pass, I thought that thanks to our time machines and old tents we’d had a glimpse of that much vaunted decade and he was right; we’d never had it so good and still had a whole day ahead of us dawdling back down the Pass in the sunshine in one of the greatest places in the great outdoors.

 

[Jolly Jeeper]

Here's a couple of pics from the above trip;