Cars owned whilst in BAOR

What a nice selection of cars Mal, which ones did you have the second year

An old mate Johnny Patm,,, owned a Renault Dauphine low slung two seater sportscar in Bunde in 1964. He was the mt lancejack and quite enterprising. There was nothing comparable by any of the Seniors.

Blimey !

We've gone Cinemascope !

Absolutely amazing, it will be trying to go 3D next, very hard on the eyes for those of us used to seeing things in B/W 405 line

The "Titanic" has just been re- released, as it's in 3D they spot the iceberg this time.

In certain light conditions it is very difficult to see an Iceberg black side up. Of course the black water leaks down eventually.

Ahem . . .

I think the cause of t"he cinemascope effect" has revealed himself !

Dead Slow ahead No 1.

OK, at the risk of getting back to thread I'll play along for no other reason than it's blast for me. let's see first car in Germany...well I drove to Germany in a Datsun 120Y stop laughing! (I sold it to a bloke who drove it back to the UK and drove it for a few years) but of course I didn't buy it in Germany so the first car in Germany would have been... the Talbot Solara SX, I have fond memories of that car, the gearstick tended to come out in your hand at the most inconvenient of times but it mattered not it was a nice car. That was followed by... the 205 GTI I bought off a guy from RAF Gutersloh, then the 309 GTI (Same engine) in metalic gun metal grey with red trim! I was at that age I guess. Then came...a wife! and the first estate car, a Mitsubishi lancer which I chopped in for a Galant (Mitsubishi fad) which was the last car I bought in Germany. I have to say none of them were new, in fact the newest was the 309 which didn't have much more than delivery miles on it but if truth be told, I didn't like it much.

I've spent far longer on this post than I intended, each car comes with a thousand memories. They really were the days, happy days.

Ok who feked it up...

jimsigs1 wrote:

If I were to go back to BAOR again, the vehicle I would like to own is one of these :





Cruising all day at 50MPH - Great!!

50mph! In our MK2 Millie's the best we ever got was 30mph, unless of course we happened upon a downhill bit of autobhan, in which case it would have been rude not to engage 'silent sixth' a white knuckle ride unrivald by anything on offer at Alton Towers.

But still great Wilf and the various smells of oil, sweat, petrol etc.

jimsigs1 wrote:

But still great Wilf and the various smells of oil, sweat, petrol etc.

My everlasting memory of driving a 'knocker' is not the size of the steering wheel, or the fact that you froze in the winter or in the summer you would push the (front) windows open and spend all night picking bugs out of your teeth, the thing I remember is lip reading. The passenger on the other side of the engine cover could be seen but not heard.

Jim, you certainly got about more in your day than I did in mine however, what were you doing on HMS Santon?

Hi Wilf,

Travelled back from Cyprus at the end of my 3 year overseas tour (Korea, Egypt & Cyprus) on HMS Santon because I was bringing my beloved Triumph Speed Twin home to the UK. I started to think about the idea in early 1957 and sought the help of HQ Cyprus District & one or two other people. We used to play host sometimes to the RN Petty Officers from ship which were patrolling Cypriat waters during the Eoka crisis. One of them suggested using one of the minesweepers as a means of getting from Cyprus to Malta. So off I went aboard HMS Santon with my bike wrapped in a huge tarpolin on the upper deck.

HMS Santon was accompanied by HMS Sefton (M179) and the route we took past Crete to Malta. The Lt Comdr gave me a copy of Admiralty Orders with red pen, glue & a pair of scissors and told me to get cracking with all the amendments.

Duly arrived at Grand Harbour Malta, quarantined, de-ammo'd and finaly moved into the dry dock where I stayed on board until arrangement were made for onward travel to Sicilly and Italy.

Was made most welcomed by the ship's company, especially the PO's Ward. Great time and great memories of 55 years ago.

jimsigs1 wrote:

Hi Wilf,

Travelled back from Cyprus at the end of my 3 year overseas tour (Korea, Egypt & Cyprus) on HMS Santon because I was bringing my beloved Triumph Speed Twin home to the UK. I started to think about the idea in early 1957 and sought the help of HQ Cyprus District & one or two other people. We used to play host sometimes to the RN Petty Officers from ship which were patrolling Cypriat waters during the Eoka crisis. One of them suggested using one of the minesweepers as a means of getting from Cyprus to Malta. So off I went aboard HMS Santon with my bike wrapped in a huge tarpolin on the upper deck.

HMS Santon was accompanied by HMS Sefton (M179) and the route we took past Crete to Malta. The Lt Comdr gave me a copy of Admiralty Orders with red pen, glue & a pair of scissors and told me to get cracking with all the amendments.

Duly arrived at Grand Harbour Malta, quarantined, de-ammo'd and finaly moved into the dry dock where I stayed on board until arrangement were made for onward travel to Sicilly and Italy.

Was made most welcomed by the ship's company, especially the PO's Ward. Great time and great memories of 55 years ago.

I notice M179 is in Wilf's photo, Jim !

Great story Jim, you obviously look back on those days with great fondness and rightly so. Memories like that are priceless.

Brum,

I have a photo somewhere of both M178 & M179 which I took in I think malta at the time. Sadly both ships belonging to the 'Ton' Class were srapped some time ago. HMS Santon served with the New Zeland Navy as HMNZS Santon 1965-6 then with Argentiniasn navy as ARA Chubat in 1967.