The 'Introduce yourself' Thread

Welcome ngtman, we are of the same era.

Sorry you could not make PM contact because my INBOX is full; I shall clear it again! It fills up too quickly!

It's just as well ted angus put up an image of the Pantechnicon and Hippo. Having read your post, I had a clear vision of the Pantech but the brain could not decide what pulled it, certainly not an Antar. Hippo it was! The Austin/Morris LD escort, when used, carried RAF SPs (Service Policeman) who toted the Browning .32 self-loading pistol which they had to draw from the Station Armoury. I think that they sometimes wore 'civvies' and the little pistol was better concealed in a shoulder holster than the standard issue .38 revolver in hip-holster.. The fact that it couldn't knock the skin off a rice pudding suggested that the powers-to-be didn't really think that an attack on a convoy was likely!

Back to the Pantech - I regret that I have no specific details of the rig, just rusty memories from my three years at Gaydon with 232 OCU when we would take delivery of bombs from the local SSA. Anyway, fire me a PM and I shall see what I can remember.

Ted, the Austin/Morris LD, as I recall, had a hose reel with red/orange hose around 1 inch bore? Why did I not pay more attention as a 19 year old? Maybe it was because I was paid only seven quid a week to hoist nuclear weapons:)

Welcome aboard Jon. Yes this is a brilliant forum, anything you want to know there'll be someone on here can help. I too am a nightworker and have missed out on many AiX/ARG events this year, something I WILL put right next year. Just have a browse thro' the threads to see what I mean. Any info,stories or pictures you have, get posting, they will be appreciated.

Pete

Welcome dragracefan,

I, for one, am quite happy that some of our WW2 airfields were adapted for motor sports, Santa Pod (RAF Poddington) being the main drag racer venue. Motor sports has usually saved the runways and taxiways from the hardcore crushers.

Any particular airfield favourites?

That's the one Peter, it carried a small amount of water for the hose reel but it had a PTO driven pump exactly the same size as the domestic tenders and as I said each Hippo carried water to supply the pump. For its size those vans carried a lot of kit. At some point the RAF firemen took over manning the van.. I have photos I will post when I find them they are on the PC but not filed. So that's about 5000 vehicle shots to look at !!

TED

HARRY I saw your request on the MTD site and looked for my info on the trailer but failed to find it: I will have another dig for you
TED

Progress here is the Hippo showing water tank, and the trailer now to find the trailewr dimensions I have them somewhere

TED

Attached files [IMG]/community/54677=2943-ASU trailer 2.jpg[/img]

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Absolutely fantastic! Thank you all for your very quick assistance. I did not expect to get such detailed information and so soon.

Ted I would be so grateful to get the dimensions of the trailer and pic. of the LD. I can hardly wait to get to grips with this now. I have a few small items to finish off and then I will be away for a short time, but as soon as I can get my feet cleared I will be on it. I will probably look for a kit for the Hippo and build the trailer from scratch. Never done that before so it will be a challenge. Ted I also made a mistake in my first post. It was late 50s/ early 60s so I would be away by the time you arrived. Paddy Cavanagh was our Sergeant in the dog-section, but I guess he would probably have moved on by your time.

Peter, you were right about the shoulder holster. We did wear uniform but we were not allowed to wear any RAFP insignia or webbing. Thought we were James Bond with the shoulder holster!

Many, many thanks everybody

Harry

Hi Millarcus,

His service record is a good start, that should give you the squadron he was with and which aerodrome he was based at. From that you need to go to the Public records office, or employ a researcher ( which is not too expensive if you need one when living far away) there you will be able to get a copy of the Squadron Operational record Book (ORB) fro the period you are looking at, from that it will tell you all you need to know about his crew and the details of the plane they were flying. Family history can be a bit different from the truth..... my great uncle was allegedly in Stirlings and had done two tours...... in reality he was in lancasters and managed about 10 missions before being lost!! If you need the name of a good researcher and an idea of fees, drop me a pm as living in Edinburgh there was no way I could find the time to get down there.