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Do yourselves a favour and watch!!!


paulbrook

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I quite liked the music as it happens - and there are bits with real sound on. That said I think we are a bit spoiled these days as to have a home movie camera with sound in the early 80s was pretty special. I have a few snippets of Super 8 from my time in 7 Regt but I had no idea that this footage existed or had been "remastered"

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Oh and for Brooky the majority of footage is of 16 Tk Tptr Sqn but there are bits of 617 and 3 in there too. Much of the footage is Fallingbostel and Hohne Ranges, with lots of memory jogging footage of Reinsehlen Camp (http://www.baor-locations.org/Reinsehlen.aspx.html). Happily the camera man decided not to add any of the graffiti from the toilet block there.

 

16 Sqn at the time was half and half Brit and half Polish. 617 (from Hamm) was Polish with a single troop of Brits (Warsaw Troop) whilst 3 (Sennelager) were all Brit.

 

Whilst the Antar stuff was lovely (I had forgotten the sheer scale of things) I did like the 'Can at the end during NI training.....

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Why were some loaded backwards?

 

Because they had blades on them which reduce the approach angle to the point where they would dig into the ramps before the front of the tank begins to rise. Loading backwards they get very close to the ground instead but do clear usually. I see they used auxillary ramps when loading the FV434 to reduce the ramp angle. A Chieftain can manage the very steep ramps because it is much longer but the 434 would be entirely on the ramps which would then be too steep for it to go up safely.

 

David

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You could get a 432 on easy enough without extra ramps - but the driver had to boot it. Certain 50 ton trailers had double loading kit fitted (which as the name suggests allowed two to go on by putting the first right up over the tank stops onto the swan neck). It was only when they were double loaded did the extra length ramps come into their own as there were only a few inches between the two APCs when loaded - without them (unless the second APC driver had the reactions of Lewis Hamilton) it would pile into the back of the first 43.

 

You might also notice tanks seeming to be coming on and off at the same time. Anyone care to guess why?

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Nope, they were going off because they were not going to land straight on the trailer. It was a matter of professional pride that the No1 (the chief crewman of the tank transporter) could get the panzer dead square on the trailer - and it needed to be especially with the 50 ton trailers (the ones with the manual ramps) because the tank tracks were actually wider than the trailer bed. In addition a non-central load would put extra weight on the already stressed tyres on one side of the trailer. On the way towards the ramp the No1 would watch carefully to see if the tank were pulling to one side or another (due to slope, camber, track tension or any one of a hundred reasons), then aim off accordingly before waving it up the ramps.

 

If the thing was not coming up as he wanted it, the good No1 would chuck it off and get it lined up again for another go. Manoeuvring on the way up or on the trailer was a no-no for reasons stated previously (it was the quickest way of losing one off the side) and in all the 20 minutes or so of footage I only saw one little illegal wiggling on a trailer and that was on a 60 tonner which were wider. Taking the tank off again took seconds but saved hours if it all went Pete Tong.

 

The Saracen clip was excellent I must say....

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