National service

[fleetwood]

In the early 60s the army were dumping their Austin Champs on the Terretorial units, the Champs were giving way to Landrovers.

 

I might have been a little premature when I mentioned Land Rovers in 53, maybe they did'nt come out in the traditional format until years later. I do remember the Jeeps we had on signal dispatch being replaced by another utility type vehicle though.

[flyer]

I might have been a little premature when I mentioned Land Rovers in 53, maybe they did'nt come out in the traditional format until years later. I do remember the Jeeps we had on signal dispatch being replaced by another utility type vehicle though.

 

No you're right 1952 we had both jeep & land rover's for the most part it was land-rover, all our long term outings was L.Rs, I seem to think we didn't see Champs untill return to U.K late 54 but on that i could be wrong.

[flyer]

Now you;ve got my interest that vehicle in the back-ground of pic doesn't look quite like jeep or Land-rover I'm just have to short through all my old pic's,I was B.E.M.Es operator on a long term outing i did have a photo of me siting in the back. Wireless house did we not call them Gin palace's i remember going around 200 miles over soft sand jerry can of petrol on my lap filling the bust auto-vac from a cup it was well over a100 degs & i'm still giddy from the fumes

[Texas]

Sounds about right, regarding the razor I mean. I seem to recall the name 'Rolls', and the sound they made when they were being stropped. My demob number was 51/13, but it was around that time anyhow, I got out in July.

Interesting shots though fleetwood, where are you on there? And where did you all get the headgear, bush hats indeed, everybody looks lean and mean though.

The vehicle being discussed looks like a Landrover to me. I thought the Landrover, originally, was an Army vehicle anyhow. Sort of a British Army equivelant to the U.S Army's Jeep.

Getting back to razors though. I bought a cutthroat in the 'wog' market in Fayid. It had a green handle,only cost me 15 ackers. Somebody nicked it.

Hey,that's good, nicked/razor?

[fleetwood]

Re flyer and Texas - I remember the name 'Gin Palace', they might have been a smaller vehicle, the CV's (Command Vehicle) were a 3ton Commer with a side access for the radio compartment and a door into the office area at the back. As I have said before, these were in very poor shape overall and had seen better days. Incidentally the open truck in the photo, I think was a newer 3ton Bedford. ------- Hi Texas I get the humour and always look forward to your 'posts' on the various threads. Now the 'Bush Hats', funnily enough some guys tried to stiffen them up to make them look a certain way, one fella there had each side tucked in in such a way it almost resembles a Baseball Cap. I'm sorting some more photos to post and if nobody objects I can identify a few people. Nobody has come forward to say they know a person so far, but is it little wonder given the time frame involved?

[JackD]

The vehicles we had in Aden 1957-59, were 3 ton Bedford RLs, Landrovers, Austin Champs,Ferret armoured cars,Saladin armoured cars, Saracen armoured cars ,and a couple of old bedford QLs (3 tonners) left over from the war. Oh what memories.

[flyer]

We had one of the commers all very hush hush operated by one of the special's, our two C.Vs where 30 ton with half inch steel plate huge 6ft tire's it was said Winston used one when he came over,our gin palace's were rough but as long as you kept to the road they ran,some bright spark wanted to see them go over sand that was when i was B.E.M.Es operator we had 3 skamells? & nothing was let behind us, we pulled & dug out 24 trucks per mile for 300 miles we never did make it to Kufra, my poor major (or col) was digging with the rest of us & he must have been well over 50 should have been back at the war office with his gin &tonic,but one of the perks the sigs went 1st dug the graves for water,the water truck came up &empty them when we came along days later now filled with water and ice cold one of the few times I was scrubed clean and cool

[Jazzman]

Regarding the rolls razor. They were known as the Padgate alarm clocks in the RAF

[Texas]

Strange nobody's mentioned the 15cwt. That and the 3tonner were the standby's for transport at 3GHQ. On the Transmitter site we had a small, broken down old water truck, still with the tank attached, to get our gear out onto the field. Our 'gear' usually meant, at least, a couple of poles lashed to the sides of the tank. And usually we'd manage to get about a half mile before the lashings came untied and one of the poles, or both, would drop off. What a bloody farce. The Africans must've wondered what the hell they'd joined. Somehow I don't think tying something cylindrical to another cylindrical object is scientificaly sound. Never worked for us, that's for sure.

It must've looked comical though, what with the poles, arial sections, rolls of cable and wire, four incompetent NS linemen,and at least twelve Mogamba/Juluwa tribesmen all on this little 15cwt water truck, bumping and grinding across the great open spaces. All that and the running jokes about being attacked by Comanches.

[Floridablade]

The policy was to ship BLR vehicles out to the M.E. to be run into the ground then when REME could no longer keep them going they were sold off to the locals. I got an Libyan to buy a 3 tonner for me in Benghazi then got a mate of mine in LAD to repair it and we sold it and made a handsom profit. Everybody was on the fiddle it seems in N.Africa, a bloke I knew from earlier days turned up and asked me if I'd received any drums of copper wire, it turns out he had ordered this wire for my troop and came to collect and he expected me to sign for it, now there's cheek for you, but we came to an accomodation.