Safariswing!! One for your Collection!

[Sylvester]

Hi Matey, :-D

 

Was going through some old photo's the other day n found this one!

 

One of our ferrets in Cyprus, I used to teach some of the lads how to drive it on this one,

Just wondered if anyone now owns it?

 

All the Beast

 

Fred :banana:

[john fox]

what date is that?

 

Sadly its not mine but I like to collect info re Cyprus ferrets (I have a Mk2)

 

John

[ferrettkitt]

It's not on any of the old Ferret Scout Car pages but that doesn't mean a lot there's plenty off Ferret owners who didn't get involved with the forum (ferretheaven) or the old Ferret Scout Car site. Ferrets restoration wrecks r still turning up which at the moment is keeping Ferret prices down below the £6000 mark. As soon as they dry up so will the prices go up.

 

Andy

 

Contract details one part isn't correct

 

http://www.ferret-afv.org/oldfh/FH3.htm

 

This isn't up to date it's positively out of date

 

http://www.ferret-afv.org/oldfh/FH4.htm

[Marmite!!]

Cheers Fred, can never have enough Ferret photos..

 

http://www.ferret-afv.org/oldfh/FH4.htm

 

That's me at the top of the list :-D

 

[Bazz]

Was the picture taken at the Force Reserve Sqn HQ in Nicosia what is the time frame.

 

Baz.

[AlienFTM]

Was the picture taken at the Force Reserve Sqn HQ in Nicosia what is the time frame.

 

Baz.

 

 

Baz and I did UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron Sep 76 - Mar 77. That the Ferret is being painted tells me this would have been in March of 77 prior to the medal parade at Nicosia Airport.

 

That the Ferret is a Mark 1 tells us that is was the Squadron Sergeant Major's Ferret (the other 24 were all Mark 2s).

 

For the actual parade, the SSM manned the airport terminal roof with (IIRC) a B47 VHF complete with harness and ancillaries so that he could control the 25 Ferrets on parade remotely. He might have taken an A41 manpack, but put simply I don't recall us having an A41 in the squadron.

 

The OC led the parade from the turret of 29Charlie (the SSM's Ferret). We all wore full No 2s (we had been entitled to wear the medal ribbon since about October 1976: the SSM had caught me taking my No 2s into the tailor's to be UNised so that I could wear it for walking out in winter. I also needed the ribbon for my GSM 1962 after our Omagh tour that had ended earlier that year. Having just had his own ribbon put up, he informed me that he was about to publish a Part 1 Order advising us all to get UNFICYP medal ribbons on our No 2s. So I was second person in the squadron to wear it).

 

Commanders were without Larkspur headgear throughout the parade, simply standing to attention in the turrets, while drivers monitored the Command net, being run as said by the SSM from the airport roof.

 

25 Ferrets paraded in a single line with 29 (pronounced two-niner) commanding 29C on the right, followed by the six troops of four cars, Troop leader, Alpha, Charlie and Bravo. In front of us were paraded the British Army grunts who comprised Britcon (two subunits, one shared medal parade). You know after all these years I forget who they were. It had been B Coy 2 Para but I am sure they rotated out a month or two after we arrived.

 

After the grunts had been inspected, medals dished out, etc, we went for a drive-past. On the SSM's word of command, 25 Ferrets turned over their engines simultaneously. Mercifully they all started. Imagine an oval running track around the formed up infantry. We were parked outside the back of it, facing in. 25 commanders leapt, because they got no warning.

 

On the SSM's word of command, 25 Ferrets rolled forward at once, turning right to occupy four imagined lanes around the anticlockwise track. 29 took the centre of the track. The six troops each rotated as a troop, each car occupying its own lane, troop leaders on the outside, the troop taking dressing by the right. The Charlie callsigns had to turn at speed to stay with troop leaders who had a short sharp turn.

 

Now in a single column of six troops, four cars abreast, we circled the track in impeccable style. After completing a lap, we were dismissed to make our return to RAF Nicosia and our vehicle park at our own speed. My own car was quite new out of overhaul, replacing my old one which was in turn in need of overhaul. On a recent Periodic REME Examination (PRE, yes?), the Tiffy had expressed his delight at the handling of my Ferret, deeming it the fastest in the squadron.

 

I knew my own way back, so upon being dismissed, I was off. I had a New In Green troop leader in my turret, straight out of Sandhurst, so when he started to shout and hit me, it seemed entirely appropriate for a cavalry officer exhorting his driver to head for "Home, Alien, and don't spare the horsepower."

 

I smugly pulled up on the vehicle park first. Rommel gave me a good smacking. It seemed he hadn't got his hand to his beret before I floored it and it was lying somewhere on the tarmac back at the airport. I was just restarting the beast to wend my weary, embarrassing way back when my old troop leader (callsign 26) pulled up alongside and passed Rommel his beret.

 

Well it saved me a trip out.

[AlienFTM]

Oops I now realise Baz was replying to Fred, the OP. Scratch my comment about March 77. The rest still applies though.

[Davie]

Here are a few more photos of ferrets in Cyprus. I got these from my Dad who was the Padre with 1st Bn the Gordon Highlanders at the time. He is the wee guy in the light shirt in some of the pics. I think they were taken in 1971

[ferrettkitt]

What I should have added but forgot in my hurry to reply and get out of the house

 

Cracking pictures I prefer looking at in service shots not sure if it's nostalgia or the snapshot in history bit, they always look more interesting can't quite explain it well enough at 00:35 (poor english). Thanks for sharing anyway Fred and David the close up of the UN transfer will come in handy for my restoration 02CA35

 

That's me at the top of the list :-D

 

Lee is your Ferret the earlist Ferret still in existence?

 

Andy

[Marmite!!]

 

Lee is your Ferret the earlist Ferret still in existence?

 

Andy

 

Yep :-D

[Snapper]

Brilliant thread.

 

Alien, hurry up with that book.

 

 

MB

[AlienFTM]

Brilliant thread.

 

Alien, hurry up with that book.

 

 

MB

 

Had a couple of months' break after the burst in the summer. Encouragement like this might get me going again.

 

;o)

[Sylvester]

Its A Small World eh!!!

But as Spike Milligan said...I wouldn't want to have to paint it!!! :whistle:

 

Sept 76...That means you two took over from me!!! I was there in March to Sept 76!! :-D

 

Now... I have a question for you two then (Alien n Baz ) Do either of you two remember a painting on the wall in the billet across from the radio room??? A painting on the wall about 3'by 4' of a Black Panther on a Red background!! :tup:

 

If you do....It Was Me!!! (Who painted it that is!) :banana: :banana:

 

Anyway,

I have some more pickies of those times but not very good quality now!

 

All the Beast

 

Fred & Annika :banana: :yay:

[AlienFTM]

Its A Small World eh!!!

But as Spike Milligan said...I wouldn't want to have to paint it!!! :whistle:

 

Sept 76...That means you two took over from me!!! I was there in March to Sept 76!! :-D

 

Now... I have a question for you two then (Alien n Baz ) Do either of you two remember a painting on the wall in the billet across from the radio room??? A painting on the wall about 3'by 4' of a Black Panther on a Red background!! :tup:

 

If you do....It Was Me!!! (Who painted it that is!) :banana: :banana:

 

Anyway,

I have some more pickies of those times but not very good quality now!

 

All the Beast

 

Fred & Annika :banana: :yay:

 

 

Fred, you and I discussed whether we overlapped previously but when I posted above I couldn't remember what you had said (and I never bothered referring back to the PM).

 

During our tour the Nissen huts down by FHQ were occupied by the REMFs and base stallions who didn't cycle round the outstations. We sabre troops hung out the other side of camp beyond the NAAFI and the chuggie shop.* I don't think there were enough Nissen huts to house six sabre troops, but there were always troops deployed. (I am struggling to count six: hopefully Fred or Baz will help me out here.)

 

In the east there was a troop at Larnaca (from the turret roof of a Ferret parked on the driveway of the UN Bungalow, you could just see the runway at Larnaca Airport). Austrian Contingent (AUSCON)

 

Just up the road a troop was located near Ayyios Nicolauos between Famagusta and the British Eastern Sovereign Base Area at Dekhelia. I think we were supporting the Swedes (SWEDECON)

 

A troop was located at the opposite end of the island inside a mine or engineering complex near Skouriotissa high in the Troudos Mountains. Danish Contingent, DANCON)

 

A troop, based in Nicosia, supported BRITCON West to the west of Nicosia.

 

A troop supported the Finns (FINCON) but I cannot for the life of me remember where they were based.

 

A troop was on R&R.

 

We did two weeks per location, theoretically we visited each location twice and the six-month rotation gave each troop two periods of two week's R&R.

 

So, there not being enough huts to go round, we hot-hutted, handing over and taking over a different set of huts every fortnight, always nearer the toilet block than FHQ.

 

I do remember rotating back into Nicosia toward the end of the tour. Our SSM had suggested it might be a good idea if troops gave the inside of their Nissen huts a lick of paint prior to handover to A Sqn. (If you haven't yet worked out how rough these huts were, they were Class D Accommodation. There was no Class E Accommodation.) Paint would be provided.

 

One troop had taken the SSM at his word and got hold of some paint. Navy Blue, Post Office Red and Sunrise Yellow GLOSS and had painted their rooms Navy Blue with a yellow line through the middle above a red line, 15/19H Regimental colours. (Yes, to the REEMs on the forum: exactly like REME colours but without the repetition.) They were in the throes of painting this lot out with MATT emulsion pastel shades when we returned. Another room they had painted matt ... black. Yes, vehicle black. They painted that out as well.

 

There were only two relics of the LG A Sqn tour that marked my memory. The squadron offices all had nice wooden plaques on the doors describing the appointment of the occupant. Two that confused me beyond words were SCM, occupied by our Squadron Sergeant Major and SQMC, occupied by our Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant. Now I knew that the infantry had a COMPANY Sergeant Major (CSM) COMPANY Quartermaster Sergeant (CQMS) whereas the cavalry had an SQMS (often pronounced Eskimo Ness), but I simply did not get these LG appointments, SCM and SQMC. Had these plaques been created by a dyslexic carpenter?

 

THEN I learned that the LG did not have Sergeants. Being, as Fred recently pointed out, a senior regiment, they were servants to no-one bar the monarch. Since "Sergeant" comes from the French for "servant", all NCO ranks and appointments were / are filled by Corporals, hence Squadron Corporal Major and Squadron Quartermaster Corporal.

 

Also down by FHQ we found that somebody had prepared us a Chuff Chart. Whenever a squaddy became demob happy and started counting down to the end of his tour / course / service, he prepared a chuff chart. As every day passed, it was crossed off, and squaddy would be able to recite how many days were left. The last day invariably started at dark o'clock, long before sparrows' fart with an early call and an early breakfast, followed by transport to the airport and a flight home. The last day therefore consisted in the squaddy's eyes of nothing more important than the early breakfast. When a demob happy squaddy walked by, he might greet you with, for example, "Six days and an early breakfast."

 

The chuff chart prepared for us was a masterpiece, the size of the sort of office wall planner you see in any office today, but it only catered for our six-month tour, was entirely hand-drawn and every day included some sort of motto. In the early days it might say, "Picked up your UN kit yet?"; "Sunburnt yet?" etc and toward the end, "Getting excited yet?" There was one that particularly amused me.

 

The pics in this thread show olive drab Ferrets. However, while the embers of the 1974 war in Cyprus were dying, four UN-attached Australian Civilian Policemen (AustCivPol) were attacked by Turkish fighter ground attack on the main road between Nicosia and Larnaca and died in a storn of napalm, despite their vehicle being clearly marked as UN. Directly because of this, EVERY UN vehicle was immediately painted gloss white to prevent this sort of tragedy ever occurring again. AFAIK, there is still a cairn by the roadside at the site, topped by four blue UN helmets in their memory.

 

Cyprus in the 1970s did not have the sort of sewage system we don't even think about in the UK. Septic tanks were the norm. They needed emptying regularly. The local sewage truck was a Bedford MK, from the front at least exactly like the 4-tonners in use by UNFICYP. And painted white so that it could be seen to be clean.

 

As I described above, UNFICYP comprised a good number of contingents from disparate nations (there has as yet been no mention of the Canadian Contingent, CANCON because Force Reserve Squadron only deployed a single section on an infrequent basis to patrol the CANCON sector East of Nicosia and off toward Larnaca). Most of these troops were conscripts (in the mid-70s, the British Army was the only, or one of a very few entirely non-conscript armies in the world. Expecting these conscripts to recognise and correctly salute officers from all these nations would have been a silly. The UN's solution was to decree that ALL UN troops were to salute one-another regardless of rank, to show recognition of their comrades in arms and not to cast insult upon foreign officers. This protocol was relaxed in camp where we all knew each other, but out of camp it was extended to vehicle commanders. (In camp, vehicle commanders might very likely salute one-another with just the two finger.) Every vehicle commander was expected to salute every other UN vehicle regardless of who was in it.

 

So about Day 7 of our tour, the chuff chart read: "Have you saluted the sewage truck yet?"

 

In my case the answer was yes. It was SUCH an easy mistake.

 

Sorry, what was your question?

 

* Chuggy shop: spellings vary. These days the term would be outlawed by the PC brigade. When the army deployed to NI in the late 60s, NAAFI could not or would not send staff to the temporary forts which sprung up all over town like desert roses, despite having been granted sole franchise to the sale of goods and services on military land after the Great War.

 

Throughout the 20th Century, overseas stations would often find private enterprise right outside the camp gates - if there were any. The NI situation led to camps being sealed up tighter than a fish's bum, NAAFI as I said did not fulfil, so there was a niche in the market for somebody to provide boot laces, tea, coffee, burgers, egg banjoes, etc in the forts. After WW2, there had been an influx of immigrants from the Commonwealth, many of whom had a nouse for business, and of Commonwealth and Chinese ex-merchant seamen who hadn't bothered going home.

 

These people saw the niche and grabbed it with both hands. They worked from buildings no less temporary than the forts themselves, usually something like a 20' container, made of wriggly tin, like the fort. Many of these people never saw the light of day throughout a tour except when they left the fort to get supplies. Many squaddies used and abused them, for instance running up credit tabs in the name of M. Mouse, but to the vast majority of the troops of the day, they were life-savers, loved (in a brotherly way obviously) and respected for their hard work and dedication.

 

UNFICYP Force Reserve Squadron was located within the wire of RAF Nicosia (closed since the Turkish invasion of 1974 that brought the UN to patrol the demilitarised zone) on a site which had formerly been a refugee camp (as testified by the troop sergeant from our own A Sqn who arrived with their advance party to take over from us. His first words when he walked into our Nissen hut were, "This was a refugee camp when I parachuted into here with the RAC Para Squadron in 1974 during the invasion. It's gone downhill badly since then."). Unusually, therefore, the NAAFI complex had the usual NAAFI bar, lounge, cinema, billiards room complex ... and next door was the chuggy shop, whose proprietor presumably had laid his towel on the right chair in the confusion.

 

Around Northern Ireland and AFAIK RAF Nicosia, in the rest of the British military world any private enterprise (which included YMCA, YWCA, Church Army, Salvation Army and Toc H) existed only OUTSIDE the confines of camp. But this is a generalisation.