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Posted

Hi all,

 

as some of you know, I am a member of Forces 80 reenacting group, brilliant bunch of blokes, mostly they reenact either Royal Marines or Army, me I do the Regiment, and I need a bit of info.

 

What was the cemo/cefo of the average Rock Ape in the early 1980's? Was it the same as the the army/marines?

 

All the best

 

Mark :cool:

Posted

Something you need to remember is that armies try to make their men uniform and soldiers immediately try to personalise that uniform. I'll bet if you arrive in re-enactor world with your webbing any different from anyone else's, you'll be told that that is NOT how webbing is / was worn. Your reply to this is, "This is how *I* wear my webbing. Get over it." And your answer will be 100% valid.

 

For example. the yoke straps go through the loops in the ammo pouches (IIRC), back up on themselves and through a D-ring. By tugging on the loose ends, the length of the straps between yoke and pouches could be shortened, thereby lifting the belt and pouches off the hips, reducing chafing to the hips when running wearing webbing.

 

In the cavalry, I had a weapon (a CVR(T)) to carry me into battle instead of me carrying my weapon into battle and running in webbing did not compute. I did not therefore need to be able to adjust the strap length. Rather than having the loose ends dangling in front of me like nipple tassels, when I fed the end of the strap through the D-ring for the last time, I fed it through from bottom to top into of top to bottom. Then having adjusted the straps for length to my own satisfaction (long and low on the waist worked for me), I could coil up the ends into tight bundles like a fabric tape measure.

 

Some people used "Black nasty" aka "Black masking tape" or duct tape to secure the ends of the webbing straps. I found my solution more aesthetically pleasing, no loose ends, no slippage. Excellent.

Posted
cemo/cefo :confused:

 

Something like Combat Equipment Marching Order / Fighting Order.

 

= webbing.

 

No not belt and suspenders: wrong sort of webbing.

Posted
Something like Combat Equipment Marching Order / Fighting Order.

 

= webbing.

 

No not belt and suspenders: wrong sort of webbing.

:tup::

Posted (edited)

CEMO= Carrying Equipment, Marching Order in this case is Fighting Order plus large Pack

 

CEFO= Carrying Equipment, Fighting Order. more populary know as Skelly(Skeleton) Webbing. consisting of, belt,yoke,ammo pouch x 2, kidney pouches, carrier canteen, poncho roll. and resp bag.

 

This obviously refers in this case to 58 Pattern Webbing. The attached shows it as C =Complete, where in fact C = Carrying.

 

Bazz.

58 webbing.pdf

Edited by Bazz
more info.
  • 1 month later...
Posted

ok, another question, when that "brilliant!" rifle SA80 was introduced, was the amount of magazines carried the same as the SLR? I assume the 30 rnd magazine was replaced?

 

Mark :cool:

Posted

I did an SA80 conversion course in 1989, using 58 pattern webbing. The disposable Colt mags we used because there were no local manufacture mags available yet certainly looked and felt about the same size as those of the SLR.

Posted

The ammo allocation for a rifleman is 6 30rd mags for own use, 2 30 rd mags for the Sections LSW and a bandolier of 150 rds in clips of 10, thus giving another 5 mags worth of ammo.

 

Barry

Posted
ok, another question, when that "brilliant!" rifle SA80 was introduced, was the amount of magazines carried the same as the SLR? I assume the 30 rnd magazine was replaced?

 

Mark :cool:

 

When the L85A1 (SA80) was introduced. It had 15 round mags. The LSW (L86A1) had 30. It was found that because of the prolifferation of different types of magazine (Colt M16, French Famas Etc) that 'crept' into usage. (Again, troops attempting to 'customise' equipment, even in the Weapon field!) :stop:

there was a possibility of a Weapon malfunction/ Ammunition incident with non standard issue equipment. :shocked:

To standardise things, radway green were contracted to manufacture the Allimiinium 30 round mags that became standard for both types of Weapon.

These were found to be not strong enough in Service use, & subsequently. Changed to the steel pattern encountered today. Now weapon is L85A2.

With Health & Safety rearing it's head. There is now a Blank Ammo Only Mag, used in conjuction with a New Pattern BFA (Blank Firing Attachment)

This mag prevents the loading (& subsequent usage) of live ammo 'accidently' being used on Exercises. Distinguished by a Yellow stripe on each side. (I personally find this incredible, that after training a man with small arms. He cannot distinguish between live & blank ammo! If this is the case, then he/ she should not even have a weapon!!) :nono:

So basically, in answer to your original question: Was the Mag replaced,then yes it was. Fully explained above. :coffee:

 

Mike.

Posted

Firing of live on a blank exercise was/is a very common practice, that is why the new Blank Firing Safety System was introduced. As well as a seperate magazine the BFA is designed to stop up to 3 live rounds before failure. The magazine has a piece fitted to the front to only allow the slightly shorter blank round to be loaded. see attached article, (shows New Cadet Rifle, but more or less the same.) There is a small piece on the mag and BFA top right corner.

l98a2.jpg

Posted

SAS in the Falklands. Hmm. I cannot think of any primary evidence, but my gut instinct is that the SF did not, for preference, take SLRs to the FI.

I remember once watching a programme about the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre of the Royal Marines (the elite of the SBS). They used M16s and learned the hard way that 5.56mm does not stop you like 7.62mm.

They attacked a remote farmhouse. Argy troops came out. Bloke put half a dozen rounds into one, who still didn't drop before he got one round off from his FM, which blew the MAWC's leg off.

MAWC's mukker, with an LMG, got down behind him and proceeded to lay down fire with the LMG's muzzle a couple of inches from the wounded guy's ear. He screamed throughout the engagement, and not just cos he'd lost his leg.

It's been a while since I read any McNab / Ryan / other stuff about FI, but I am fairly sure M16s crop up.

Posted

i have a couple of pics with several troops one of which contains 4 troops 1 has a m16 203, 2 have m16's and 1 has the S.L.R, So used that as a referance point, and with most thing sas its the troopers preferance!

Posted
sorry to go off topic, i re-enact the sas of the falklands conflict am i able to join forces 80?

 

James,

 

use my link to go to our site, then the contact email is at the bottom

 

All the best

 

Mark

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