Early 32 Scope?

[mrclark303]

John,
As Peter will bear out, we tried everything in Malaya predominantly to see how long it lasted.
I can say hand on heart, it looked great in its box, but once it saw the jungle and the humidity and constant rain NOTHING HMG gave us worked for long.

Even the issue "Jungle webbing" that literally slid off you when it was wet. Made of plastic with anti slip buckles....NOT.
Designed by a civvy in the UK somewhere.

44 Pattern was all we ever preferred, it was designed for the climate back in WW2 and did what it said on the box!
We ditched the Prismatic compasses as they filled with rain, and ALWAYS navigated on SILVA shop bought at De Borras in Aldershot in the day.........crazy !! Don't think we ever bothered with NVG's as we knew the issues.
No different to the 9 Frigates tied up in Portsmouth currently cos their engines overheat in Gulf temperatures exactly where they are needed now!!

My mates a wildlife documentary camera man Gil (a highly successful, well known chap these days), the equipment he took to the far East was state of the art professional (early 90's standards), designed for arctic to tropical use ... Failed after 3 days down in the Delta and only came back to life after being in an air-conditioned room for two days.

It was apparently unusually humid, even by their standards, my KSB boots fell apart after one week and the sleeves literally fell off my shirt as the stitching failed on our clothes.

Heat, humidity, giant cockroaches getting into everything,bitten from head to toe by insects, it has to be experienced to be believed.

I was a young man then, I couldn't tolerate it now, give me hot and cold running water and Aircon and a comfortable bed, any day.