RAF Militant.....or not?

[Braillescaledave]

A question for those in the know....

 

Did the RAF ever have any AEC militants on strength?

I ask because wandering through the AEC Militant thread I noticed a restored 'knocker'(?) Ops Caravan with 'RAF Geil'n' (RAF Geilenkirchen) on the front. The marking is absolutely correct for a vehicle, in RAFG (Or 2TAF, BAFO etc.), and based at that station, from the end of WW2 to, roughly, the 60's...

Aand, there is a FV reference (FV11022) for a 'Truck, 10ton, Heavy Duty, Cargo, RAF, 6x6, AEC'......

 

I know the RAF had a number (IIRC, 50) of HP aircraft refuellers, and some HTP (rocket fuel) refuellers on the Miltant Mk1 chassis. And of course there is the perpetual rumour of the Militant Mk3 Medium Recovery on charge in RAFG.

 

TBH, I would be surprised if they did, seeing as how the Leyland 19H seemed to be to the RAF what the Militant was to the Army, but you never know do you. After all I never thought the RAF had Commer Q4 tippers and yet there were two on charge in Aden, and don't even ask about the Stalwarts...

 

(Edited for spelling....)

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Braillescaledave

[ted angus]

Dave those journals provide lots of good info. The guy who wrote the article in Journal 35 has a similar article on a BARNHAM website, on the site he mentions the Scammells but I don't see mention in the Journal 35 article. The time line would be Hippo load carries, then Pantech trailers towed by Scammell Explorers and Hippos, then Hippos with the Pantech, then when WE177 came into being the AEC TCHD in 1968  pic taken from another journal.  We had trailers of the same design as the Geilen Beast , they were lying derelict  when I arrived at Bruggen in early 79  possibly the best equipped machine shops I have ever seen.  plus there was a battery charging one  dug into the woods which acted as our secondary charging facility- I don't recall if it was original or the lads had created it . As for MilMods   too dear, wrong scale Mnn  not for me I am afraid. Ted

 

[Braillescaledave]

Ted, They certainly do! I read the RAF Barnham website which led me to the journal. I've also picked up a few others on different subjects too.

 

So it sounds as if the Geilen beast may have been a workshop trailer, which the chap put onto a knocker to give him some rather spacious accom. I suppose the marking was a nod towards the trailers history, given that it would have been even more of a nightmare to manoeuvre than the knocker.

[Braillescaledave]

Couple of questions on the nuke convoys...

Did the Morris LD fire tenders have any external mods?  (The one picture I've got of one only shows the standard front 3/4 view. I assume they were BS381c: 633 tint.

What colour were the TCHDs? There's a colour photo of a silver one, but the phot above seems to be much darker, maybe dark green? I believe the fire tenders with those were the HCB/ Bedford TK, later replaced by Volvo FL6s.

Finally I believe the TCHD were replaced by that astonishing Foden 8x4/ semi-combination, but when did that immense Foden 8x4 Wrecker come into service?

 

It's just that I can feel a nuclear convoy coming on...

[ted angus]

re the Morris- no external visible Mods. I am thinking the AEC TCHD were a glossy green- they predate our mattgreen era  so maybe BS 241 - same as the ac colour;  we was the glossy colour we used post BS 285 on GSE and some MT.  there were other van tenders before we got 3 Bedford HCB tenders from the RN, then there was the Bedford HCB with crew safety cab thenVolvos

[Geoff F]

I can confirm that in May 1962 four tippers were transferred to the RAF 33 BM 09 became 35 AL 56, 33 BM 14 became 35 AL 57, 32 BM 66 became 35 AL 58 and 30 BM 83 became 35 AL 59.