Serving through the German Winter

alan8376 wrote:

No one can forget the 'whoose' of the No1 Burner being lit by the Chef on a cold winter morning. It was sort of an 'alarm clock'.

Yes, I can still recall that sound Alan.

Fire Piquette. In Sennelager, Celle, Rhiensalen, etc. 0500 hrs light the water immersion heaters. If you did it right, there was ungodly crack of sound. Even better the 6 ft. lenght of chimmney would take off like a rocket. Ahh the simple pleasures of being on exercise. For some reason Sgt. Mjr.'s assumed this was done on purpose.

jonathon/aka"JOHN BOY" wrote:

i remember one winter my old man left a flagon of cider on the balcony just to chill it but forgot all about it.Next morning he remembered it but to late it was frozen solid.It even broke the glass.

Should have left a stick in the neck of the bottle. Cider ice lolly....mmmm!

alan8376 wrote:

No one can forget the 'whoose' of the No1 Burner being lit by the Chef on a cold winter morning. It was sort of an 'alarm clock'.

The smell of breakfast being cooked by "Hydroburner" power is also pretty memorable.

brum wrote:

Dragging us back from Sarf East London then !

Scraping the ice from my windscreen yesterday morning, I was reminded of a car that a Sgt in our Regt had in Hemer in '71.

He'd bought it from a departing Canadian the previous year. The car was fitted with a heating system which, working from a timer, switched itself on and circulated warm air around the engine and passenger compartment so that the driver came out to a warm, defrosted car and was able to get in and drive off straight away.

When he told me that the heater worked on petrol I was a bit sceptical but some months later as I drove home one morning from duty there, in the middle of a row of refrigerated motors was the ex-Canadian car, all nicely defrosted and waiting for it's happy owner, (smug bastard !).

I wonder, was this system Canadian/American ? I don't ever remember seeing it since and I've never heard of modern cars being so equipped. I'd be nervous of a system that burned petrol like that but even so, what a great idea !

Hadn't heard of this but it's not a Canadian thing....using petrol, I mean.

As mentioned by someone else, those of us who reside in some of the frostier areas of the country (most of it! with the possible exception of the West Coast...maybe....) have plug-ins and most blocks of flats are equipped, if they have outdoor parking and not indoor, with rows of electrical outlets facing each parking spot so that one can plug one's car in over night in order to have the damn engine turn over the next morning. We call them block heaters. If not plugged in....good luck!!! Frozen solid and all you get as you switch on the ignition is a heart-dropping "errrr-errr-errrrrrrrr-er-r-r--r" sound but no kick and no booting into life. The Canadian economy takes a nose dive over winter because nobody can into work!!! (okay, kidding on that one!!).

A story: (oh gawd...not another one!!! ) Now I forget the total context of this and whether it happened to my dad or a friend of my parents or what have you, but anyway, whoever it was brought his vehicle over from Canada (so I am guessing it'd be the 70's by then) and since he was from Ontario or some such (freezing in winter!) or perhaps Winnipeg (far worse!) had a small bright orange plug dangling just outside his front grill. His German landlord, or it may well have been one of you lot actually , noticed and intrigued asked what on earth was it for. He was told that was how the Canadian auto industry made new cars (ohhhh c'mon....THINK about it!!! )

Stephen, how did they apportion the Bills for the Electric, did each vehicle have it's own parking slot with meter attached?

The Yanks stationed with us in Hemer used to have those little sockets dangling out of their radiator grilles.

We allways used to say that, if you pulled it, the car would inflate into an aircraft carrier.

Shelldrake wrote:

Stephen, how did they apportion the Bills for the Electric, did each vehicle have it's own parking slot with meter attached?

Well Shelldrake, if the plug in post was in an apt. complex they could possibly be wired through your meter, or it's included in the rent of your parking spot. (Parking spots are extra) We had them at work for us, since we drove 18 km's to the prison from Winnipeg they didn't charge us. The tax payer paid that on, but they had fuses limiting how much is drawn. This is to prevent you from using your interior heater. What's an interior heator you ask. It's a small electric heater under the dash that has the lead coming out front like the block heater and has you getting into a heated car, with clear windows. There was a popular block heating system that heated your motor coolant and pumped it around, but it was found to be hard on the hoses, but it was a good system when working. I used it in Shilo, which is in the middle of the praries and you needed a good block heating system. Incidentaly it is -22c with a -40c wind chill here in Winnipeg to-day, but as I'm now living in a Life Lease the car is parked indoors in a heated parkade. Lovely system. I sit in my sun room and watch others struggle in the snow and cold as I have my morning coffee. More to elec. block heaters. Most folks have a timer on the out let to turn it on about 1/2 hr or 1 hr before starting out to work. The yanks way down south think we're all in electric cars when they see a Canadian car with it's plug dangling in front of the radiator. Also block heaters are not an extra on your vehicle when purchased, they are a standard item. You can tell an American car from the states if you're in the market for a second hand car, they won't have a block heater.

Wasn't there a thread, (Maybe this one) that talked about being able to buy cars in Germany that had self heaters?

Thanks for that, Hardrations - case explained. -22, I don't suppose you are in Shirt Sleeve Order yet? It's bloody freezing here and it is +8, Southern Softies, eh?

-20 to -30 in the winter, thats why we went to Shilo to carry out cold weather trials on the Midge Drone in 1967.

Bob

BobG wrote:

-20 to -30 in the winter, thats why we went to Shilo to carry out cold weather trials on the Midge Drone in 1967.

Bob

?? You'll have to enlarge on that for me Bob.

Talking about winter trials of equipment. I was posted in CFB Shilo 1963 (Campb Shilo in that time). When trials were being done by the British with a 105 mm gun. Can't remember the proper name for this item, but I do remember it was to be air portable, able to break it down for mule transport, etc. I have some pictures of the lads who were involved. Also in 64 just before being posted to Germany, the Germans came over for winter trials on the Leopard . Our unit got tagged to supply a few bat men for their officers. One of our lads from the RC Sigs Section got nailed for this job. Amazing the damage that can be done while leaving the iron on a pair of trousers for an extended time. Seems that this particular bat man was carrying memories from Norway, where his family were abused by the occupying Germans. He had mentioned this to the TSM, but it didn't cut any ice with him.

I should imagine that would be the 105mm Pack Howitzer, Hardrations.

Shelldrake wrote:

I should imagine that would be the 105mm Pack Howitzer, Hardrations.

Right on Shelldrake, the name popped into the old noggin after I posted.

Jim,
In 1965 I was attached to an RA Trials Troop to test a new surveilance drone being developed by Canadair of Montreal, an aircraft company who at the time was building the Canadian version of the F104,in addition to civil aircraft. After equipment training in Monteal we moved to Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, to complete contractor and engineering trials, we then moved to Shilo, west of Winnipeg, to carry out user and cold weather trials. The drone eventually entered service and was given the designation of 'Midge', NATO designation was AN/USD 501 Drone, it saw service in the first Gulf punch up and was then retired, being replaced by the 'Phoenix'.
Hope this clarifies things.
Bob

BobG wrote:

Jim,
In 1965 I was attached to an RA Trials Troop to test a new surveilance drone being developed by Canadair of Montreal, an aircraft company who at the time was building the Canadian version of the F104,in addition to civil aircraft. After equipment training in Monteal we moved to Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona, to complete contractor and engineering trials, we then moved to Shilo, west of Winnipeg, to carry out user and cold weather trials. The drone eventually entered service and was given the designation of 'Midge', NATO designation was AN/USD 501 Drone, it saw service in the first Gulf punch up and was then retired, being replaced by the 'Phoenix'.
Hope this clarifies things.
Bob

Bob,
In the fall of 63 the RC Sigs Sec. for 2 SSM Bty (Trg) RCA were employed in doing comms for some detachments of met. types from the RCA School and 2 RCHA. The job was to do hourly readins of wind drift with the small met ballons. My location was Trig. Point Gulf in the training area, one near Brandon, one in the Carberry Hills and one near the main gate in Shilo. This was to do with a Drone set ulp. Would this possibly to do with your trials the next year?

Spotted out side BMH Iserlohn heading for an Iserlohner Pils mit curry wurst and palm frits.

Hardrations,
We did not move from Yuma to Shilo until June 67 so I doubt if your trials had anything to do with us as we were testing an airborne surveilance system - smile please your on candid camera!!! That said there was a met input by the Gunners during the flight planning and programming stage, where they got the met data from I dont know, being REME I was only there to mend it after they had bent it.
Bob

Thanks Bob, all is now clear.

LOL, Love the photo of Hardrations.

Interesting video of snow removal here in Saskatchewan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLvosGsiKI

Thast`s one way to do it

Hardrations wrote:

Interesting video of snow removal here in Saskatchewan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaLvosGsiKI

Y'see, now we couldn't do that in this country, "wrong kind of snow".

On top of that, think of the Risk Assessment, Health and Safety considerations . . . . . .

I heard an article on the News this morning about Train delays from West Sussex to London, apparently they were caused by "Dew" on the rails - you couldn't make it up FFS!!

Shelldrake wrote:

FFS!!

"FFS" never saw that one before.

Could the "S" stand for "sake" ?