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Churchill Tank driver's manual


Pzkpfw-e

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Not sure if it's of use to anyone, but makes an interesting read!

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Published in 1942, covers MkI-IV. Talk about maintainance intensive, 12-14 things to do daily, 23-4 to do weekly/every 250 miles, 22 every month/500 miles, 7 every 1,000 miles and 2 every 2,000 miles (Any of them last that long?)

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I would be interested in it if it is for sale .

About the light , I have got a Cromwell workshop manual , and explains the lights , I can scan it and e mail it .

Maurice

 

Maurice that would be super thank you. I have a particular interest early use of UV, IR etc. I'll PM you my email.

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Maurice don't listen to Adrian he only takes on the easy restorations ! Getting a Churchill out of a bog isn't impossible with a bit of thought. I have had a good long think about how to recover the Churchill avre's from otterburn range which Is also a boggy area. my plan was to go up during a long summer dry spell to prep the tank, this would involve lifting it on jacks and placing large c section channel under the suspension/tracks to act as skis, then leave the tank until the ground is frozen hard then winch it off like a large sled, the advantage being the ground will not be badly damaged during the recovery and the tractive effort required will be much less than if you attempted to drag it like a large plough. alternatively a 20+ ton excavator will move a tank around like a toy car but the ground conditions will limit it's use. shame it's not in the uk as I have all the recovery assets in place, including a tracked recovery vehicle but to ship it all to Holland just wouldn't make sense financially. anyway good luck with it and if you need any help let me know. a pic or two would also be nice :cool2:. rick

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......... my plan was to go up during a long summer dry spell to prep the tank, this would involve lifting it on jacks and placing large c section channel under the suspension/tracks to act as skis, ........ :cool2:. rick

always worked well with dozers and other tracked machines I had 'die on me' whilst 'in the field' especially if they had lost a track or suffered some other calamitous failure that prevented a simple 'tow out' with a bigger machine :) at one time I kept some 3/8" plate ones folded up especially for that very job.. complete with fixing eyes and lateral stays to keep them the right width apart and also a 'drawbar' to go on either end :)

PS: I'd love to be involved in any heavy recoveries such as this that might be planned by anyone.... handy on quite a bit of plant I am see! :)

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every time I have been up there it was miserable, once walked up to the 2 Grizzly tanks , and the moors are that agressive that after comming home my leather shoes started to moulder away, had to skip them .

At that time I also had a look at the cocrete filled AVRE , jee she was still perfect for restoration, shortly after that she was gone .

And about recovering tanks there is somebody who needs tracks a certain tank , just been up there today , and got bogged down straight away with a wheeled excavator.Only the bucket could retrieve it again .

I still know of a M10 in Belgium , it is 6 miles into the woods , but it is 4 miles marshland , to the tank . It was driven there when the ground was frozen , but cracked through it , and abandoned. There is now just about 7 inches from the turret sticking out of the bog .

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Strangely I've ended up with two copies of this manual - one June 1942 like yours, and one dated August 1942.

 

The August one drops all of the stowage diagrams from the middle of the book. It also drops the "Issued by Vauxhall Motors".

 

There are two corrections on the inside front cover. Turn off the engine before operating the CO2 fire extinguisher, and don't change the engine oil monthly if you run for less than 500 miles.

 

Now I just need the tank to go with them ;)

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Seldom seen in the same sentence, that might be the flaw in the plan! :-D

 

Summer of 77. As Squadron Leader's Land Rover driver, I was invited, after Ex Trident, to stay up in Otterburn with my 3/4 ton FFR and GW Troop for their Swingfire firing, to act as gopher.

 

Monday, everything went swimmingly.

 

Tuesday, front up at the ATGM firing point, only to be diverted to the impact area to put out all the fires we (they) had started yesterday when their Swingfires had embedded themselves into the peat and burnt deep. Not an easy task. Had the peat been wet, no problem.

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