What is this

[Tony B]

 

Was it the worzills or the yetti's who sung about that operation........???

 

the Worzills was combine 'arveters and tractors mut have been the Yetis. I've always wanted to drive a combine up to a zebra crossing and drop the table and start the reel. :evil:

[LeeEnfield]

the Worzills was combine 'arveters and tractors mut have been the Yetis. I've always wanted to drive a combine up to a zebra crossing and drop the table and start the reel. :evil:

 

 

 

Hmmmmmmm :whistle:

[AlienFTM]

They are at an ATGW range but dont appear to have been used as targets either for AT or small arms fire. The mound you see behind it is the soil banking protecting the rear of an effects and firing bunker.

 

As far as I can establish this part of the range was originally for Milan but is now being demolished.

 

Perhaps that has wetted your appetite,, Centurion

 

 

The range I was thinking of predated Milan. In July 1977 GW Troop B Sqn 15/19H fired Swingfire from their Mark 5 Ferrets at an ATGM range at Otterburn. It was flagged as the last firing of Swingfire by the Royal Armoured Corps as control of ATGMs passed to the Royal Artillery (it may or may not have subsequently passed back, though throughout my time in BAOR, our battlegroup took its ATGM capability from J Battery (3 Regt I think) RHA).

 

When I saw these pics, my immediate reaction was to wonder whether they show the range control vehicle used in 1977. Because of the volatile nature of a Swingfire ATGM (which carried fuel to keep the engine burning through a 4000m flight before command wire expiration IIRC), range safety demanded that everything on the firing point happen under armour. ATGMs were fired from inside the launch vehicle (even though remote operation was a feature) and range control was undertaken from inside a vehicle which, according to legend, had been Monty's desert command vehicle which I thought was an AEC but was never sure.

 

When I read mention of Marmon Herrington I stopped reading.

 

However, if the range was made over for Milan and the control vehicle(s) became redundant, it might well have ended up on the range.

[Centurion]

Do you know the nameof the range within the training area. I believe only silloans and wilkwood were used for ATGW. The vehicles are on Wilkwood all the command points are in bunkers. thee are numerous hard targets there some of which are used for aircraft attack.

There is nothing that looks like it may have been used as a command vehicle still after possible 30+ years thats hardly suprising.

 

Centurion

 

[AlienFTM]

Do you know the nameof the range within the training area. I believe only silloans and wilkwood were used for ATGW. The vehicles are on Wilkwood all the command points are in bunkers. thee are numerous hard targets there some of which are used for aircraft attack.

There is nothing that looks like it may have been used as a command vehicle still after possible 30+ years thats hardly suprising.

 

Centurion

 

 

 

The only hard I can remember ... pull up a sandbag: it's a long one. Swing the lamp.

 

On the Monday, GW Troop converted Swingfires into smoking holes. On the Tuesday morning, upon returning to the range, we found the holes still smoking. Range staff were not happy. We all jumped into the four tonner and, followed by ATO (required by Range Safety rules to deal with misfires and blinds) in his smart Safari hard-top Land Rover with blues and twos, we drove the ten kilometres round range roads to get to the back end of the target area 4km away.

 

All morning we stomped on the glowing leading edge of the fire as it burned across the range. One of the guys called out. As he stomped the leading edge of the fire, he noticed we were getting closer and closer to a mortar round embedded in the peaty turf. ATO came across and declared it a blind and set to work dealing with it. One of the vehicle commanders had been attached to ATO on our tour of Omagh which had finished a year earlier. He had made the mistake of mentioning this to ATO previously, and he found himself volunteered to help. He wasn't exactly chuffed.

 

ATO threw his Land Rover keys at me and told me to leg it back to the firing point and collect his "toolbox" (full of dets, etc) from the firing point where he'd left it, not expecting to be doing his day job down this end of the range. I floored it back to the firing point, experimenting with blues and twos as I went, which came in useful when a flock of sheep walked onto the road in front of me.

 

On my return, ATO got to work. He had examined the round and he decided to move to into a nearby target tank to destroy it there. The fire was now very secondary to the more immediate thrills of blowing things up (which is what we were here for anyway).

 

ATO set a 30 second fuze. I had my Kodak Pocket Instamatic to hand, ready to catch the moment, but of course I didn't get it. The photo came out a blur because of course I jumped. Which was a pity because the dynamics of the explosion were quite impressive.

 

He had placed the mortar round on top of the breech, so that when it went off, the explosion forced the breech down, causing the barrel to erect itself in a phallic motion, before slowly going limp again as it settled back.

 

The hatch had been rusted part-open, but the shock of the explosion smacked it back and it rebounded shut just as the explosion ballooned the turret for a split second. Instead of the turret hatch smacking into the recessed lip and stopping, it passed clean through because the lip had expanded enough that it didn't stop the hatch.

 

There was a shower of rust everywhere and a curtain of flame out through the turret ring. When we went back and examined the wreck, the commander's hatch cover was now INSIDE the turret. Impressed? Certainly, except that now we had to revert to putting out the peat fires.

 

As for "What was the target tank?" An M47.