Military Transport

No that's not him Gordon, I can still see his face, he had a sallow (pasty) almost triangular shaped face, large bug eyes with horned rimmed glasses. We often wondered how he got past the medical. In BD he looked so out of place it was almost funny.

Len (Ciphers)

alan8376 wrote:

I never came across a 27.5KVA with a Starter Motor!

The only methods of starting were:

1. Handle with decompressor ratchet engaged. Usually it kicked in on 5th or 7th revolution of starting handle

2. Air start. This involved air via a 2 stage air feed tilt handle

3. Explosive Cartridge. This method was also used on many RAF planes. The cartridge looked basically like a big shotgun cartridge without the lead pellets.

Alan
As a former Royal Signals ED (Electrician Driver) B1 we were trained on these...thanks for the memory!
Cheers
Steve

BobG wrote:

I remember attending a fire power demo at Larkhill in 1965. The 40/70 and FCE7 were supposed to engage a target being towed by a Meteor which was flying so slowly we thought it would fall out of the sky. The gun was pointing in one direction and the radar in another, they never did manage to get it right and engage the target - red faces all round especially the AIGs.
Bob

Watching a Divisional firepower demonstration in the late 60s, (y'know, the kind, of thing, Ivan obligingly bumps into the Teutoburger Wald on his advance into the West and packs all his kit into a killing ground). This was to show how the Soviets could have the shite blown out of them.

To fill in time, while everything was being set up, our attention was drawn to a group of un manned L70/40 Light AA guns deployed to our front. After a brief explanation over the PA we sat watching said guns with some scepticism when suddenly, all the barrels whipped over to the right. A few seconds later a Hawker Hunter, (for the younger reader you'll find it on wickipedia, next to "Sopwith Camel"), flashed across our front with the guns tracking it all the way.

That was impressive. There was more to come !

Nice to know something worked, but there's a lot of sky, lots of variables and a barrel nearly on target doesn't guarantee a hit. At Todendorf firing camp, on the Baltic, in the summer of 1955, 32(Minden) Bty won the challenge cup for best light ack ack unit....... not sure what this cup was, maybe just for BAOR, maybe just in Regiment, maybe there was a Sunday Times Cup like TA units shot for, but we won it. Much was due to one layer, an Irish lad who'd been posted in after losing his three stripes following some nastinesse in 2 Div.

Sleeves towed by a Mosquito were the target, Paddy used the Bristol Bofors like a shotgun. put it on single shot, squinted through the oval graticule on the reflector sight, swung the barrel round to put the front of the target on the proper speed ring and pointing to the cross in the centre. He thumbed the trigger lever. BANG! another sleeve down! Before that shoot, the regt.'s best had been an average of 1 sleeve for 70 rounds. Paddy got 32's average score, for all layers who fired, down to 1 sleeve for 40 rounds.

It would have been better, but the Brigadier was miffed, maybe had a bob or two on another Bty. " It's an automatic weapon, use it like one !" he ordered. Didn't make much difference, we still won.

Quote :

Alan
As a former Royal Signals ED (Electrician Driver) B1 we were trained on these...thanks for the memory!
Cheers
Steve

My memory of those THINGS was the distribution cables,with the brass coupler and bakelite insert,which tended to crack very easily,After a couple of belts i became very safety minded when handeling them.
Happy days when they were replaced by the plastic couplers.

Gordon
Yet another memory thanks...I was passed a cable at in the early hours trying to synchronise a pair of these beasts and the bakelite cap was broken…ended up several feet away…happy days!
Best regards
Steve

Having broached the subject of cam., I'm reminded that, for vehicles which needed to blend into the background, there was a surprising amount of colour on ours in the 1950's . For a start, the basic green was almost shiny, not matt like the Yanks or the rest of NATO. And we had to wipe it down with diesel for parade ground smartness, but at least this allowed N.German dust to cling to it when we were on the move & kill some of the gloss.

There were small Union Flags front & rear, red & white nuts on the wheels told which held them on & which split the rims. Tyre pressures were marked on wheel arches, yellow bridge plates gave the load classification. For our LAA unit, halved red & blue signs with a white figure "73" proclaimed we were part of an armoured div's. air defence. Smaller red & blue tac. signs indicated the bty. & status of the main user, a white Mailed Fist on a black square front & rear was 6 Armd's div. sign. Inevitably the rear diff. housing was painted white for night moves, & "73" was repeated in black.

Added to all this, with hearts & minds in view, 32 Bty. reminded the locals of the unit's involvement at Minden in 1759, when we helped the Krauts against the French. On cab doors of trucks, bonnet sides of Champs and gun shields on the Bofors, "Minden 1759", in Gothic script around a red rose, was stencilled in bright yellow. I don't think it cut any ice with the population of Osnabruck. If they thought about it at all, they probably believed we had been with the French in 1759, for 60 years ago the Brits were hardly made welcome.

Quote :

the bakelite cap was broken…ended up several feet away

I was asked to plug a fan into one of them.Fortunately i had the sense to stand on the cable and pull my hand away..The guy who gave me the invitation thought it was a great joke untill he was rattled round the lug with an SMG.

I always thought the Austin Champ was a nice looking vehicle.

Certainly remember cold winters Gingerjim..........The Baltic Sea froze at Todendorf in Feb '55 when we went to do layer classification with Brens clamped to Bofors barrels, balloons & radio controlled drones were targets. The Champs were moved by rail and were hesitant to start at the railhead. "Tow them!", said the officer, " Make it so! " ordered the Sgt. Not sure how many of the half dozen were tried before someone realised the water jackets were frozen solid. All that towing had done was to strip bits off the water pumps.

Then there were nights in the woods when engines had to be run for five minutes every hour, and another time when Regt. ordered that. in camp, batteries were to be removed overnight. That saved an MT guard some trouble. In short, he should have been patrolling the MT sheds at Quebec Bks., in fact he was curled up in a cab. Orderly Officer came round, found no guard so made out a 252 sheet. In the BC's office, guard swore he must have been at the far end of the vehicle park, and he may well have been on a warmer night, for just over the fence lived a lady who never drew the curtains when it was time for bed. Orderly Officer was determined to win his case, went over the top & was adamant that he sat in a truck & sounded the horn. Clever Gunner jumped in, just like one of those fatuous legal programmes on tele, & asked how could this be in a truck without a battery ?. Case dismissed.

When I was in the Australian Army Reserve - 1967-1973, we had some Studebaker trucks left by the yanks post WW2, crash gearbox the lot, also some 42 Harley WLA motorcycles, as I was in the Provost Corps.

Just a bit of trivia from the Colonies, sorry if I have woken you up.

Quote :

for just over the fence lived a lady who never drew the curtains when it was time for bed

Funny how we always remember the trivial things..Naked ladies and guard duties??I might have stayed in,if that had been guaranteed

cartav, those winters in germany were blinking cold as you say , do you remnember when they first introduced anti freeze, some silly buggers had a go at drinking the stuff , we had a csm who was keen as mustard, university education and all , when the russians started getting restless , we always had to make our way to the forests around venlo and dig slit trenches, i have spent three days and nights languishing in a snow filled slit trench in venlo woods with temperatures at minus 25 just past midnight. with our blinking tin hats covered with snow and ice to blend in with the scenery, i often wondered what would happen if the russians had advanced , we were that blinking cold we could never squeeze the trigger of our weapons, but never mind we saw a bit of history, ginger

[quote="gingerjim"], we always had to make our way to the forests around venlo and dig slit trenches, i have spent three days and nights languishing in a snow filled slit trench in venlo woods.

I have a pint every Sunday with a mate who was RAOC. From the way he tells it, he thought he was having a rough time when the heating broke down, or his typewriter ribbon ran out. I've more respect for your lot now, Gingerjim !

I got caught up with the digging game eventually. Never did much when I was dodging about on the Matchless, but some fellow with red tabs concluded that, after the bomb went off, the motorcycle was likely to be the only vehicle that was usable. If it was dug in, that is, if there was a foot of earth on top. Shovels were hard to carry on a bike, but I palled up with the Battery Runner, a quiet lad who didn't have much to do in a hide when most recipients of bumf were only yards away. But they gave him the Bren to look after, a mistake really when he would have been more of a danger to his mates than the Red Army if he'd been called upon to use it. However, Bert had been a farm labourer, one who'd been conned into signing on for nine years. And, as a sideline, he used to help the sexton dig graves. For 20 Senior Service, Bert would fashion a wonderful pit complete with access ramp for the bike, he even pinched a door off a German outhouse to hold the foot of earth on top.

cartav wrote:

Having broached the subject of cam., I'm reminded that, for vehicles which needed to blend into the background, there was a surprising amount of colour on ours in the 1950's . For a start, the basic green was almost shiny, not matt like the Yanks or the rest of NATO. And we had to wipe it down with diesel for parade ground smartness, but at least this allowed N.German dust to cling to it when we were on the move & kill some of the gloss.

There were small Union Flags front & rear, red & white nuts on the wheels told which held them on & which split the rims. Tyre pressures were marked on wheel arches, yellow bridge plates gave the load classification. For our LAA unit, halved red & blue signs with a white figure "73" proclaimed we were part of an armoured div's. air defence. Smaller red & blue tac. signs indicated the bty. & status of the main user, a white Mailed Fist on a black square front & rear was 6 Armd's div. sign. Inevitably the rear diff. housing was painted white for night moves, & "73" was repeated in black.

Added to all this, with hearts & minds in view, 32 Bty. reminded the locals of the unit's involvement at Minden in 1759, when we helped the Krauts against the French. On cab doors of trucks, bonnet sides of Champs and gun shields on the Bofors, "Minden 1759", in Gothic script around a red rose, was stencilled in bright yellow. I don't think it cut any ice with the population of Osnabruck. If they thought about it at all, they probably believed we had been with the French in 1759, for 60 years ago the Brits were hardly made welcome.

Wasn't there a symbol painted on the bonnet to indicate that there was or wasn't anti freeze in the engine ?

"OMD 110/40" was painted somewhere, "OEP 220 on the transfer box and diffs and the summer/winter grades of oil for the gearbox was in there too (the memory's failed on that one !).

Just to top it all off, we had little pennants fluttering from the antennas !

'Lo Brum !

To be honest I don't remember any lubricant info on the trucks, but that's not to say there wasn't any. I seem to recall the guns had various greasing points and, as a unit, 32 Bty bought washers from a local ironmongers, painted them in different colours coded to tell which stuff went where. & screwed them down under the nipples. Little flags sound very twee, though ! I'd have liked something like that.

Antifreeze ? No external signs on ours, and we did have antifreeze in all year round. I know that because a small plate on the front of the waterjacket of a 1-tonner corroded away when I was miles from anywhere with an OP, and there was quite a fuss about the cost of the coolant I'd lost, as though I'd drained it off deliberately. I remember doing a bodge job by cutting up an old compo tin, pushing 4 holes in it & sticking it behind the damaged plate. REME were unable to get a spare for weeks, but said they couldn't do any better as a temporary fix. That either said a lot for me, or not very much for our LAD.

I've just been looking through my photos, there's a RA Champ, (with a 19 set in the back), which is well endowed with signs.

The anti-freeze symbol I was thinking of is there, on front of the bonnet. It's a white square with a red disc inside it. On top of the gearbox it looks like there's painted "OMD 110".

If you drop me an email address on PM I can send you the photos mate.

'Lo Brum ! Thanks for the pics. That's some tidy Champ ! Those all fully treaded tyres,
must be worth a bob or two. And all that polish ! Somebody had been busy....

I didn't dispute the red- on- white, Jap type flash on the bonnet, but I'm just
confused by the logic of it, if it did refer to anti-freeze. Did some squaddy have
to rush round with a pot of paint if it was drained off for some time, and then
mark it up again when it was refilled ? Sounds like it was dreamed up by the
same chuff who found work for idle hands by having coal whitewashed.

I don't remember anything like that on our trucks. Maybe, just maybe, such a
flash might tell there was no anti-freeze in the system..... Is that possible?

Yes, I see the stencil on the bell housing cover, I think that could be a local
application too. We may have had it, but it's a long time ago to remember.
OMD 110 ? could be, but I'd have guessed an OEP might have been in the cog
box.................... "Hallo Bluebell, this is Cartav. Come back over"

cartav wrote:

'Lo Brum ! Thanks for the pics. That's some tidy Champ ! Those all fully treaded tyres,
must be worth a bob or two. And all that polish ! Somebody had been busy....

I didn't dispute the red- on- white, Jap type flash on the bonnet, but I'm just
confused by the logic of it, if it did refer to anti-freeze. Did some squaddy have
to rush round with a pot of paint if it was drained off for some time, and then
mark it up again when it was refilled ? Sounds like it was dreamed up by the
same chuff who found work for idle hands by having coal whitewashed.

I don't remember anything like that on our trucks. Maybe, just maybe, such a
flash might tell there was no anti-freeze in the system..... Is that possible?

Yes, I see the stencil on the bell housing cover, I think that could be a local
application too. We may have had it, but it's a long time ago to remember.
OMD 110 ? could be, but I'd have guessed an OEP might have been in the cog
box.................... "Hallo Bluebell, this is Cartav. Come back over"

I'm as much in the dark as you are on the "Jap" symbol. I was a signaller first and driver later.

I remember someone mentioned earlier that there was a time when drivers had to drain their cooling systems in the winter, perhaps he can come back on the subject.

OMD 110 was the standard engine oil used in Champs and other vehs of that era, OEP 220
was for gearboxes and OEP 330 in axles. I have no recolection of any markings to show that the coolant system was filled with AL3, the only thing was a 'Drained' sign hung on vehs to indicate no coolant.

Bob

Thanks Bob, that's pretty conclusive. To clarify it all, I should say that Brum's pic certainly shows the red on white flash centrally on the front of the bonnet, just above the grille but I suspect it's a shot of a re-enactment vehicle & not one still on military books. Whatever it is, the vehicle's in pristine nick & a credit to ever put it on display.

Just turned up some old bits & pieces & found a small, grey, card backed book, BAOR Publication Code No. B54....... Manual for Drivers in Germany. Don't know if all you late comers had the same one, but I guess it's the Englisch Sprache version of the Kraut Highway Code of the 1950's and, certainly, the illustrations are basic line drawings from that period.

On page 43, it says "...... driving or marching columns should not be broken up...". Thinking the civvy HGV lads were law abiding citizens, I put this to the test on one of the early occasions I was entrusted to shepherd a column. I stuck the Matchless in the middle of a cross roads, raised an arm in the manner of that done in UK by the constabulary at the time & expected the Henschel god-knows-how-many-wheeler and trailer to pull up to give 32 Bty precedence. He had no such intention, big truck out-ranked 350cc bike, the blast from his horn made quite a rude noise. Driver leered from the cab as I stretched legs & paddled to get out of the way.

Only once did I see the rule obeyed........ that was when the Brits were a three unit troop of Centurions. That was satisfying!

I encountered a similar situation in Lemgo . I was guard commander and the unit was being given the freedom of the city. I was instructed to stop all traffic outside of Stornaway Barracks as the return of the battalion. The German refused to obey the raised arm to stop. I was told later that they only obey a policeman or a person with a lolly pop sign.
I recall seeing school kids outside German schools directing traffic, with the lolly pop and crossed vest, and every German motorist complied.

When I was with 617 Tk Trptr Sqn all M/C and L/Rovers were issued with the lolly pops for traffic control, mind you the sight of an Antar with Chieftain on board was enough to encourage any other road user to get out of the way.
Bob

do you lads remember the old diamond t. or the mack , scammel , austin tilly, bedford 15 cwt water bowser, now they were the days, , ginger