I recently posted this picture on another forum I go on and I thought it might be of interest to people on here too.
It's members of a REME LAD in Malaya circa 1956/1957 with their No.5 MK1's. The chap squatting down on the right is my dad.
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I recently posted this picture on another forum I go on and I thought it might be of interest to people on here too.
It's members of a REME LAD in Malaya circa 1956/1957 with their No.5 MK1's. The chap squatting down on the right is my dad.
thanks for the photo. my uncle was in korea. did they also have no. 5 s ?
Time Bandit:
Is that a pair of crossed Kukris painted on the mudguard of the truck behind the band of happy spanners?
it's probably worth pointing out that a REME LAD is a Light Aid Detachment (a REME formation attached to minor units), rather than a very young chap in the REME. :-)
---------- Post added at 08:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:15 AM ----------
No. In terms of .303s, they were armed with No.4sQuote:
Originally Posted by donpr
Yes, they are a pair of crossed kukris on the big scammell in the background. The scammell was too big and heavy for some of the roads and bridges. They were white kukris on a dark green background and I think they were from 17 Gurkha Division.
Nice picture Time Bandit. Been there, done that. Tell your dad that I had a REME Bedford QL machinery and Armourers truck, 17 YC 66
Yup...tight squeeze! I'm not sure if this is the actual time but they got the Explorer stuck under one of these arches and had lift the arch up to free it.Quote:
The scammell was to big and heavy for some of the roads and bridges.
Talking of QL's...Quote:
I had a REME Bedford QL machinery and Armourers truck, 17 YC 66
Ah, but that truck isn't a Bedford QL, it's a Ford WOT6.Quote:
Originally Posted by Time Bandit
Or is it an Austin K2 3 tonner/machinery truck. The figure 11 on the REME sign was one of the support arms of the Brigade, such as the Engineers. The main workshope were always (?) numbered in the 20's or so - such as 2 Inf Workshop (that you'll see marked as FW-M X-XX d/month/year stamped into the woodwork) which was numbered as 25. The Scammel in the 2nd photo will be about 1957 because there is a MERDEKA slogan on the bridge indicating the Independence. A lot of these un-saleable 'funnies' were used as hard targets for the 3.5" M20 anti-tank rocket and 84mm Carl Gustav at Asahan ranges. We did have a few 120mm Mobat anti tank guns for big stuff but to be honest, there wasn't much chance of using big tanks there although the Japanese used light tanks. Ironically, where the Scammels were useful was dragging the old Japanese target tank hulls/hulks around on the ranges
I made a mistake about my QL looking at a photo earlier. It was 77 YC 16 and a really lovely old plodder and I was sad to see it being left behind. But were they happy days............ I suppose they were looking back. Ask your dad how they ever got used to the heat - or the monsoons that seemed to last from the end of August until the following June with just July off!
No, the Austin K2 was an ambulance - as in Ice Cold in Alex. The Austin 3-tonner was the K3 but that had a conventional long bonnet. There was also a larger 6 x 4 truck, the K6.
Both the QL and the WOT6 were "cab-over-engine" designs - like the later RL.
PM sent re Austins. Not strictly Enfield but we also had a big REME 6x4 Austin K6 'gantry' called the pig. Maybe the Austin Gantry had BEEN to Enfield!!!!!!!
I wasn't sure, thought it looked like a QL but it's not really my thing so I'm not too surprised I made a, err...'technical error'!!Quote:
Originally Posted by RossM10
Just to get it back onto an Enfield theme...Quote:
Not strictly Enfield but we also had a big REME 6x4 Austin K6 'gantry' called the pig. Maybe the Austin Gantry had BEEN to Enfield!!!!!!!
Here's another couple of No.5 pics...
Great pics! I'd love to have one of those trucks!
A 17 Gurkha Div Saracen troop carrier no less. Notice those high canvas and rubber reinforced jungle boots. The vehicles were alright for the roads but even the bridge at Parit Sulong across the Muar river was struggling to take the weight of a Scammell if it was towing a casualty.
Was your dad a 'nasho' (national serviceman) of the era time bandit?
Since this thread is now gloriously off Enfields and on the subject of jungle boots, and since it is Easter, I'll take a further liberty and recommend those in the UK look at Mens Casual Boots - Midford Drill in ChestnutCombiLea from Clarks shoes - I recommend these repro jungle boots - now reduced to £39.99 so I got a 2nd pair... I ordered online, paid nothing, got them delivered to my local Clarks store where I tried them on. You can wear them when you shoot Enfields - there, back on topic.
He certainly was Peter...oh, and the Jungle Boots...he still has them...albeit a tad mouldy and manky now! I actually have most of his stuff from over there but the boots are still at his.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
Some more pics...alas not an Enfield to be seen though...sorry!!
So they managed to bog a Saracen, and then a Daimler when they tried to pull the Saracen out....?
No appoligies needed. How many photos does one see of this conflict? Thanks for sharing them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Time Bandit
I can't quite remember which way around it was, I think it was the Daimler they were trying to recover when the Saracen went in but I could be wrong? If I mind on I'll ask the old man when I see him over the weekend...he did tell me but it was a few years ago and I've forgotten.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunderbox
---------- Post added at 04:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:16 PM ----------
Cheers...must admit I felt a bit unsure about posting them as they are a bit 'off topic' when it comes to Enfield's. I've a couple more I'll post up later on and that'll be the last of the ones I scanned from his album.Quote:
Originally Posted by HOOKED ON HISTORY
Off topic but great pics of the era. We were always armed when out of the clean areas of course. Like HoH says, the place and time just didn't lkend itself to pictures and photos! Once you got further than 100 yards from the main roads and the rubber plantations, you were pretty well in a permanent green phosphorescent-like half light. The= recovery crew were obviously in the pineapple plantations and going through them would just rip your OG trousers to shreds in minutes and those deep monsoon ditches were full of everything you could imagine. From what was politely called 'night soil' to snakes. You might not have noticed the Bren in the cupola mount on top of the Saracen and the fact that the Scammell has sand tracks ( a rubberised set of tracks called 'hush-puppies') around the rear drive wheel set. Without them, on that ground and you'd have lost the Scammell too.
Even further off topic, some heavy vehicles such as the heavy old Saracen simply couldn't be recovered and I know of one that toppled over into a small ravine. They looked at it and from the road about 20 or so feet above, even using rightangle pulley blocks and winches, it was a lost cause............... So the still serviceable wheel station assemblies were removed/recovered as were the useful bits. The thing was destroyed with a couple of cutting charges and it's probably still there! Same as a Landrover put down in a bit of emergency/hurry in a small jungle clearing. Too dangerous to re-lift so that was just left too!
Right, here are the last few pics that I have scanned from Malaya. When I took the album to scan the pics a few years back I was talking to my dad about them, usual stuff, who, what ,why and when and all that and what he did say was that they all swopped their pics around so half these pics were probably taken by someone else and half my old man's will be in someone else's album somewhere so I guess I'll never get to see those ones...which is a bit of a shame!
Anyhow I hope you enjoy seeing these! :)
Some more...
Last ones...
I know my dad didn't take these pictures, not sure who did but I've seen others from the scene before on the internet, these were got when the pics were swopped around. I 'think' the old man might of been there though, or at least members of his unit were anyhow as he did tell me the story about the accident...which once again I've forgotten! Whatever the tale, here's some pics...
Daimler Dingo: 1
Civvie car: nil.
Badford QL in the background in some of the top photos. Strangley. it has a wire mesh 'canopy'. That was an anti-riot thing as I seem to remember.
First and last photos, bottom set, is a locally made/converted wheeled armoured troop carrier based on the chassis of a Bedford QL. Simply for protection of course but some roads simply couldn't take the big heavy 6 wheel Saracens - as you can see! The double headed eagle badge/logo on the front of the turret is that of the 14/20 Kings Hussars unless anyone can say differently.
Looking at that looooooong straight road, you've got to ask yourself the obvious question haven't you?
One of the Ordnance blokes from the big vehicle depot in Johore told me that vehicles and stores destined for Malaya made a one-way trip. None ever returned to the UK EXCEPT for the big withdrawal in 1969/70 and then, only the strategic vehicles such as the newer Bedford ambulances and RL fire engines were returned. The remainder, like the old K2 and Commer ambulances and QL fire engines plus EVERYTHING else was sold off to foreign nations or left for the Malay and Singapore Armies
Can you see the big heavy mount for the equally big and heavy 7.92mm BESA MG c0-axial machine gun in the Daimler armoured car turret?
Another interesting point for you vehicle observer anoracks out there........ Where an Army vehicle such as the Daimler has a number plate commencing from 01RA00 to 12RA00 and so on up to 99ZZ99 it indicates to us REME types who needed to know, that these vehicles were usually old wartime or immediate post war vehicles that had previously had a 'census' type number painted on the door - such as L-123456 or A-123456. My old Bedford started its life as a 'census' vehicle with an L- number, and was then allocated a 'proper' number of 77YC16 that indicated its old wartime status. In reality, it just told us that these were tired-out old heaps of crap!
But for NEW vehicles coming into service AFTER the war, they were allocated new numbers starting 01BA00, then 02BA00 and so on. So a much later vehicle, like the Scammels (BD) and the land-rover (BR) would have XXBDXX type numbers. A couple that I had that I remember were 16EL61 and 78FM14 and so on
Just thought that you'd be interested..............
I've no idea as such but I do know my old man was REME attached to the KDG (Kings Dragoon Guards??) if that is any help? That's him working on the Ferret and I think the turret was the one off that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
I thought that would be the case, my dad once said he wondered what ever became of 'his' Scammell (it was his toy when he was there!!) and I said I doubted if it or most of the other stuff would of ever left the place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
The double headed eagle on the turret is the regimental badge of the Queens Dragoon Guard on blue and white ground. Commander in Chief until 1914 of QDGs was the austrian emperor therefor the austrian eagle.
Close links are maintained to Austria until today.
So said that India purchased thousands of vehicles that the Malay and Singapore Armies didn't want/need prior to us leaving. When I was there there weren't many Scammels because the roads just couldn't take them. Most of our recovery work was done by what we called 'Bedford Lights'. A Bedford RL converted by Boughton into a lightweight recovery tractor. But 'up-country' or off road, even these struggled because the rear axle had twin wheels bolted together and while these spread the load, when they bog in, then unless you have a ground anchor, that's where you stay until you get the shovels and ground mats out.
Do you think that we've gone off topic enough yet?
PLEASE feel free to say if it's gone off-topic for long enough. But interesting when you've been there and done it in the constant rain, humidity and soul destroying and energy sapping heat
One part of the story is quite obvious. The folks in the car lost. Ouch!Quote:
Originally Posted by Time Bandit
Your certainly right there!!Quote:
Originally Posted by HOOKED ON HISTORY