Late 1980's Ferret crew feeding arrangements?

[john fox]

Hi All

as Ferret owners some of us get caught up in the must have all the CES bug but recently I have begun to wonder why do I need the Thermos Flask food/drink container shown in the CES lists as these were originally WW2 issue and certainly many on eBay are dated in the 1950's

 

So my question is: did Ferret crews in the late 1980's actually use these Thermos flasks for keeping food or drink hot. I know they were still issued with the No 2 petrol cooker but did they have or use more modern vacuum flasks instead of these venerable old Thermos originals?

 

John

[ferret]

Hi,

 

I have 2 flasks in mine, but only because the brackets(holders) were there to carry them.

 

I believe they also had an electric boiling vessel, but have never seen one of these for sale!

 

Does anybody have one of the boiling vessels?

 

Chris

[john fox]

Chris

 

In practice they never had the BV - it is listed in the early CES but as far as we know was almost immediately withdrawn because it was too much for the vehicle electrics and there was a history of fires according to one of the US owners who has researched (and owns) vast amounts of 1960's related CES.

 

The BV you see for sale are the square ones which are for 432 and Fox and were never for Ferret. The "correct" Ferret BV was cylindrical and about 2/3rds the size of the square 432 version.

 

Like you I too have filled the flask brackets with Thermos flasks but wonder about the "correctness" of them in a late 1980's vehicle - which is how mine is otherwise fitted out. I have a couple of modern flask cosies (I assume North Flank/Norwegian issue items) which somehow look more convincing than the Thermos flasks themselves.

 

Any ex 1980's crew out there :roll:

[Bazz]

 

 

Hi all.

 

I served on Ferrets 80s-90s, we never used the old flasks as they were to fragile. they were part of the CES, but were kept nice and safe and only came out during kit checks. I personally bought a couple of metal flasks and used them in my Ferret. We also used small gas cookers to boil up water or cadge a brew off the CV crews. We very rarely used the petrol cookers, as we used double gas burners which we privately purchased.

 

Barry.

[john fox]

 

Hi all.

 

I served on Ferrets 80s-90s, we never used the old flasks as they were to fragile. they were part of the CES, but were kept nice and safe and only came out during kit checks. I personally bought a couple of metal flasks and used them in my Ferret. We also used small gas cookers to boil up water or cadge a brew off the CV crews. We very rarely used the petrol cookers, as we used double gas burners which we privately purchased.

 

Barry.

 

 

Thanks Barry

Just what I wanted to know, means I can cook a decent meal on my civi gas stove and not have to hide round the back while doing it :shake:

I'll keep my norway cosies in place becuase I have some modern stainless steel flasks I use for camping which are nicely hidden inside them too

 

Isn't HMVF great for getting answers!

[andyroo]

Chris

 

The "correct" Ferret BV was cylindrical and about 2/3rds the size of the square 432 version.

 

 

 

Is this the BV your on about?

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/andy_fv/hmvf/Pan3.jpg[/img]

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/andy_fv/hmvf/Pan2.jpg[/img]

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa14/andy_fv/hmvf/Pan4.jpg[/img]

 

I have this in my Saladin, it draws in excess of 75 amps for the first 20 seconds and drops to arround 45 untill boiled. First time I used it, stalled the engine :schocked:

Also costs you more in fule than it would to buy a coffee from a motorway....................... nahhh maybe not :-o

[MAJ G. Miskovsky]

A bit off vehicle type but.....when I was a 2LT in a mech infantry unit (1/18 INF) we used to heat up our MRE's (meals ready to eat) by taking them out of the box, rolling up the foil packet and feeding up to six of them down the exhaust pipe of a M35 Duce. This was of course just running at idle, in about five minutes we would hit the throttle and blow all the MRE packs out (it really launches them!)....only problem was soot would cover the packs so you could not read the contents, so the Joe's would cut them open and the "you got mine, here's yours" would begin.

[Panzer_peter]

A bit off vehicle type but.....when I was a 2LT in a mech infantry unit (1/18 INF) we used to heat up our MRE's (meals ready to eat) by taking them out of the box, rolling up the foil packet and feeding up to six of them down the exhaust pipe of a M35 Duce. This was of course just running at idle, in about five minutes we would hit the throttle and blow all the MRE packs out (it really launches them!)....only problem was soot would cover the packs so you could not read the contents, so the Joe's would cut them open and the "you got mine, here's yours" would begin.

 

 

That must have been a site for sore eyes :schocked: We used to sleep on the engine grid of our Leopard 1 MBT to keep warm during the winter, as it was warm for many hours after beeing shut of.

 

Nothing to do with ferrets ! sorry.

[Richard Farrant]

If a Ferret Thermos was demanded from RAOC, in the late 1980's, a modern type stainless steel Thermos was issued under the same NSN. My memory is a little vague, but believe outside diam. was about the same with a handle /strap on the side and a cup on top. Finish was in natural S/steel, with green plastic trimmings, ie cup interior and strap.

[Tony B]

A bit off vehicle type but.....when I was a 2LT in a mech infantry unit (1/18 INF) we used to heat up our MRE's (meals ready to eat) by taking them out of the box, rolling up the foil packet and feeding up to six of them down the exhaust pipe of a M35 Duce. This was of course just running at idle, in about five minutes we would hit the throttle and blow all the MRE packs out (it really launches them!)....only problem was soot would cover the packs so you could not read the contents, so the Joe's would cut them open and the "you got mine, here's yours" would begin.

 

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :help: The mind boggles, did you ever get accused of using chemical projectiles. I must admit having read a book that described the Coke bottle bomb, take the heating pack from a MRE insert in coke bottle shake and throw. It did work quite well. :-D

[Bazz]

 

Yep,

 

right about the late issue metal flask, same as the one on CVR CES and stowage diagram.

 

Barry.

[john fox]

Is this the BV your on about?

 

 

Thanks - never seen one pictured only heard it described. Makes sense if Saladin kit so I guess yes it must be the "correct" Ferret Bv

Thanks again

[Poptopshed]

A bit off vehicle type but.....when I was a 2LT in a mech infantry unit (1/18 INF) we used to heat up our MRE's (meals ready to eat) by taking them out of the box, rolling up the foil packet and feeding up to six of them down the exhaust pipe of a M35 Duce. This was of course just running at idle, in about five minutes we would hit the throttle and blow all the MRE packs out (it really launches them!)....only problem was soot would cover the packs so you could not read the contents, so the Joe's would cut them open and the "you got mine, here's yours" would begin.

 

Another one is on the radiobody 404 Unimogs. You have a heat exhanger tube under the front bumper to use with a swingfire heater for engine pre heating. We discovered that wrapping pasties with foil and putting them in side the tube, after driving for a while the water heated from the engine made a very good pastie warmer. :-D We then had the game of fish for lunch getting them back out with a hooked bit of wire.

[AlienFTM]

In a Recce Regt we often found that good, new, CVR(T) kit quickly found its way onto the Command Troop Ferrets. Not by stealing, you understand, more by creative accounting along the lines of, "Look at these two BVs. They each broke in half. Can you replace them both, please?" It was by such creative methods that my driver and I shared a four-man Chieftain bivvy instead of the usual three-man CVR(T) bivvy (or the ... er, there is no bivvy on the Ferret CES).

 

Though TBH I cannot honestly remember using a BV. Like Baz says, we were slick at making brews with a private purchase camping gas stove (much cleaner than the issued petrol cooker and less tactically LOUD AND BRIGHT!!!)

 

I do remember once we were heading out of area for the annual FTX (field training exercise) and my driver thoughtfully made up an issue Thermos of coffee. We cabbied on round the ring road to the Paderborn North railway station and sidings and proceeded to entrain. This was usually at early o'clock, long before Sparrows' Fart so as not to gridlock Paderborn in the rush hour. We got our rebro Ferret loaded and chocked, then I broke out the Thermos for a swift coffee to brace us for the train journey ... only to drop it.

 

Bugger.

[Marmite!!]

Thanks - never seen one pictured only heard it described. Makes sense if Saladin kit so I guess yes it must be the "correct" Ferret Bv

Thanks again

 

 

Well here it is again & in service this time...

 

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e132/safariswing/set%202/fb8f8087.jpg[/img]

[Bazz]

 

 

Another method of heating food was to wire unopened compo tins to the outlet louvres on your ferret and the heat from the engine running used to have your food hot by the time you got to where you were going. The main problem was by the time you got your brew and food served it was guaranteed that you would get a order to move.

 

Barry.

[Tony B]

An old friend's Farther told me the had racks welded inside the REME truck engine bays, just right to stack tins in.

[ArtistsRifles]

I remember bing on a sigs ex in the late Seventies down on the Plain. In addition to our own traffic we were monitiring other units. End of the day a Troop from, I think, 1 RTR were calling in ammo expenditure on the Batt Net. All went OK till the troop commander came on line - every one else had reported 0 rounds, 0 charges remaining, he reported 0 charges went to say 0 rounds and changed abruptly to 1 round left followed by a highly unorthodox "Here - wheres my flask of soup gone?" :-D :-D

[LeeEnfield]

I remember bing on a sigs ex in the late Seventies down on the Plain. In addition to our own traffic we were monitiring other units. End of the day a Troop from, I think, 1 RTR were calling in ammo expenditure on the Batt Net. All went OK till the troop commander came on line - every one else had reported 0 rounds, 0 charges remaining, he reported 0 charges went to say 0 rounds and changed abruptly to 1 round left followed by a highly unorthodox "Here - wheres my flask of soup gone?" :-D :-D

 

 

 

Oops.................. :whistle: :rofl:

[Tony B]

Making a splash then :-D

[Bazz]

 

A similar thing happened to me on Hohne ranges in Germany. I was commanding a Scimitar in A (cowboy to some) Sqn 15/19H and we were completing a section (2 veh) battlerun when I started to engage a pair of soft veh tgts on auto with the 30mm. half way through the engagement I noticed through my sight that there was a strange object following the rounds down range, :dunno: on returning to the firing point after completing the run I noticed that I was missing the flash hider from the end of my barrel. This is what I had seen accompanying my rounds. :whistle:

 

Barry.

[Tony B]

Do I really want to know who's popping out the hole? not you in younger days by anychance?

[AlienFTM]

Do I really want to know who's popping out the hole? not you in younger days by anychance?

 

 

I looked at the pic and wondered if I might know him. Bearing in mind that Saladin (which is what I presume we are looking at) was before my time), the face did remind me of a younger Ted C [third person identification suppressed for PerSec reasons], who became my my troop sergeant in Tidworth / Cyprus 76 - 77.

 

Opinions, Baz?

[Marmite!!]

I looked at the pic and wondered if I might know him. Bearing in mind that Saladin (which is what I presume we are looking at) was before my time), the face did remind me of a younger Ted C [third person identification suppressed for PerSec reasons], who became my my troop sergeant in Tidworth / Cyprus 76 - 77.

 

Opinions, Baz?

 

 

Have you had a look at this lot (Parts 1-5)... plenty of faces there...

 

http://www.hmvf.co.uk/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=38&topic=6253.msg59562#msg59562

[Bazz]

 

 

Neil,

 

You could be right, the face does ring a bell.

 

Baz.