H M Q's B'thday

[quote="Teabag"][quote="Shelldrake"]

Gordon. wrote:

What were gunners doing with Tele L s?


I bet this is one of those stories that can be amended to suit prevailing conditions.

For example . . .

Probably mentioned it before but once . . . (enter cap badge) . . . . with Brigade HQ had a communications problem. Our Yeoman went to have a look and decided they had a problem with the bid cards. "No problem said the . . . . . I have another set here".

This "set" had been signed as destroyed months before and as we all know they were secret. One Sergeant or whatever he was busted down to nothing.

Tickled us Scaleys that!

In my paramedic days, BID was an abbreviation for "Bought In Dead".
Had me going there for a minute !

One of the things I love about this site is how young it makes me feel, I'm just a sprog really

[quote="brum"][quote="Teabag"]

Shelldrake wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

What were gunners doing with Tele L s?


I bet this is one of those stories that can be amended to suit prevailing conditions.

For example . . .

Probably mentioned it before but once . . . (enter cap badge) . . . . with Brigade HQ had a communications problem. Our Yeoman went to have a look and decided they had a problem with the bid cards. "No problem said the . . . . . I have another set here".

This "set" had been signed as destroyed months before and as we all know they were secret. One Sergeant or whatever he was busted down to nothing.

Tickled us Scaleys that!

In my paramedic days, BID was an abbreviation for "Bought In Dead".
Had me going there for a minute !

Why would you buy a dead person? British institute something or other?

[quote="Teabag"][quote="brum"]

Teabag wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

What were gunners doing with Tele L s?


I bet this is one of those stories that can be amended to suit prevailing conditions.

For example . . .

Probably mentioned it before but once . . . (enter cap badge) . . . . with Brigade HQ had a communications problem. Our Yeoman went to have a look and decided they had a problem with the bid cards. "No problem said the . . . . . I have another set here".

This "set" had been signed as destroyed months before and as we all know they were secret. One Sergeant or whatever he was busted down to nothing.

Tickled us Scaleys that!

In my paramedic days, BID was an abbreviation for "Bought In Dead".
Had me going there for a minute !

Why would you buy a dead person? British institute something or other?

Glad to the old Spellchecker's finally kicked in teabag !

BID..bloody idiotic device

If the two i worked on at 7 Sigs are anything to go by

jim wrote:

Rodney? sure you mean Roger old boy

When did that change?

Gordon. wrote:

BID..bloody idiotic device

If the two i worked on at 7 Sigs are anything to go by

They had lots of little pins inside them. A techie had them all stood up in neat little rows with a big sign on saying do not touch. Another Techie came along and the rest is history. Not the sharpest knives in the box when it came to commonsense.

jimsigs1 wrote:

This Scaley/Gunner saga is all above my head. Think I will go down into my Anderson shelter until it's all over.

To back up Brum, I can confirm that even LAD gunners (That's Light Air Defence , a term hi-jacked from Bluebell to confuse the uninitiated) laid line..... besides laying pieces of one sort or another. Very useful for comms between BHQ & gun troop locs, and gave Regt Sigs something to do other than charge batteries.

32 (Minden) Bty used a Bedford 15cwt MWD as the line truck and sigs. were instructed to nick bits of the copper cored, blue/green Dutch cable whenever they came across any......... much better than that springy stuff we had. And remember those tubular connectors full of solder (or something ) that was melted with a built in striker ?

Quote :

They had lots of little pins inside them.

The one`s i am on about had 5 little pins..and the biggest problem was ops being unable to set the continuous tape that was required for encryption...(Comcen ops in this case)

Gordon. wrote:

Quote :

They had lots of little pins inside them.

The one`s i am on about had 5 little pins..and the biggest problem was ops being unable to set the continuous tape that was required for encryption...(Comcen ops in this case)

When Iwas in the comcen we had to set up a small box each day with diffferent settings. Haven't a clue what is was called now. Bid 150 had lots of pins, hence the punch cards.

[quote="cartav

To back up Brum, I can confirm that even LAD gunners (That's Light Air Defence , a term hi-jacked from Bluebell to confuse the uninitiated) laid line..... besides laying pieces of one sort or another. Very useful for comms between BHQ & gun troop locs, and gave Regt Sigs something to do other than charge batteries.

32 (Minden) Bty used a Bedford 15cwt MWD as the line truck and sigs. were instructed to nick bits of the copper cored, blue/green Dutch cable whenever they came across any......... much better than that springy stuff we had. And remember those tubular connectors full of solder (or something ) that was melted with a built in striker ? [/quote]

Linelaying was a huge undertaking.

Fire Orders lines ran from OPs to gun batterys, (first priority).

Then all the HQs in the regiment had to linked up.

Virtually impossible when the days of fire & movement became the mode.

The only thing I remember about comms, was the cry "The shots out" whenever we didn't have any?

Quote :

When Iwas in the comcen we had to set up a small box each day with diffferent settings. Haven't a clue what is was called now. Bid 150 had lots of pins, hence the punch cards.

Was that in the day`s of BRUIN or PTARMEGEN (sp) Teabag?

brum wrote:

[quote="cartav



Linelaying was a huge undertaking.
virtually impossible when the days of fire & movement became the mode.

Take your point Brum and we only wired up Tp HQs to the BHQ Light Ack Ack CP.
I'm harking back to the 1960's, not quite heliograph stuff, but when a simple layout for the 12 Bofors sited individual guns as far as 1300 yds from BHQ and up to 500 yds from the next gun it would have been a mammoth wiring task.

I remember in the 70s, on exercise, we were complacently jabbering away on our static-free VHF radios when, suddenly everything was jammed.

No amount of changing to alternative freqs would help, it threw us back to the Crimean war only we had no signal flags or heliograph, (mine was in wksp).

Some Scaley EW mob was responsible, swine !

brum wrote:

I remember in the 70s, on exercise, we were complacently jabbering away on our static-free VHF radios when, suddenly everything was jammed.

No amount of changing to alternative freqs would help, it threw us back to the Crimean war only we had no signal flags or heliograph, (mine was in wksp).

Some Scaley EW mob was responsible, swine !

Might have been me. Did a little bit of that and it was good fun. It was even better when we rebroadcast two Yank tank formations together. Confusion reigned.

Shots out refrers to Radio Relay or Delay as we fondly called it. Bruin in my day.

Quote :

Shots out refrers to Radio Relay or Delay as we fondly called it. Bruin in my day.

So 40 years on i finally know what they were on about

[quote="Teabag
Might have been me. Did a little bit of that and it was good fun. It was even better when we rebroadcast two Yank tank formations together. Confusion reigned.

Speaking of confusion (and this has NOTHING to do with H M Q's birthday !).

One day, early 70s, our squadron had a troop of Centurions from the Danish army attached to us, for an exercise.

Night fell, and while they were attempting to practice a co-ordinated Advance to Contact in a forest, it became rapidly apparent that not one of the Danish tank commanders spoke a word of English.

That was confusion.

That was the reality of NATO in battle.

(Thank you, Ivan for not bothering to try your luck !).

How about the English guys Brum???Did any speak Danish?

I love their bacon and pastry.

Any particular order????

I recall that on Lionheart the Danish Army fielded ladies on their Tank Crews, never did find their Mobile Bath Unit.

Gordon. wrote:

How about the English guys Brum???Did any speak Danish?

Danish ?

What the bloody hell for ?

Everybody should speak English don'tyerknow !

Quote :

never did find their Mobile Bath Unit.

The siggys got there first....As per

Gordon. wrote:

Quote :

never did find their Mobile Bath Unit.

The siggys got there first....As per

And then we found out later that, to confused the 5th Columners, the Danes had dressed some of their men as ladies.