L14A1 Carl Gustav 84mm Anti Tank

[browningautorifle]

PEGASUS is returning

Well done that. The proper thing too.

[CINDERS]

Pegasus used to be here in Australia the symbol used on the Mobil service station Red on a white background.

[Peter Laidler]

Quite right too. There's only one airborne Forces logo.

[Gil Boyd]

I am some way now into completing two models of the Carl Gustav 84mm Anti Tank Gun in view of the lack of deactivated UK MOD versions and parts available.
I share this image with you to show a wartime U.S. Paratrooper emplaning with a bazooka and the trauma he no doubt had trying to hold onto that and steer his chute!!!

[Peter Laidler]

Maybe that's why the later 3.5" rocket launcher were in two parts.

The 84mm Charlie G is one of the few things we still retain as mobilisation stores. Maybe that's the reason why the MoD won't release one to you. Seems a shame really. Versatile bit of kit but later/more modern ones are much lighter

[Gil Boyd]

Peter,
I bought two front handles off the website for £40 and also the telescopic sight for £40 the rest is 89mm stainless tubing a rubber mat and lots of jiggery pokery.
My aim at the end is you will not be able to tell the difference up close.
Pictures to eventually follow. I am doing two one obviously with the telescope and the other open sights.

[Peter Laidler]

Talking of which........... Just after the Charlie G had come into service, not long after I'd finished my apprenticeship, (we were trained on the 3.5" rocket launcher.....) my old boss, S/Sgt Horne had just collected 3x Charlie G's from 27 Command Workshops where they'd been taken for them to look over and familiarise themselves with them during a quiet period. He brought them back in the boot of his newly imported Opel Kapitan (the posh German equivalent of the De-Luxe Vauxhall Victor no less) and stood them up on their venturi's on the raised loading ramp outside the Armourers shop while I ambled round, up the ramp, to pick them up and take them into the shop. As I was walking the few yards up the ramp to the 3x Charlie G's, one of our old winch and jib mounted recovery Half Tracks came around the MT hangar opposite. As it did so, the wind and the rumbling vibrating road shook one of the Charlie G's which rocked onto another of the charlie G's........... And I could see it all happening in slow motion............. Try as he might, he couldn't control 3 rocking Charlie G's at eye level above him - and I was powerless to help! One after another two of the heavy Charlie G's fell crashing down onto the roof, rear screen, real wing and boot (the fender and trunk for you Colonials out there), totally smashing them and the rear of the car to bits............

I know I shouldn't, but I was only 19 and couldn't help it. I literally fell about laughing as did a few of the MT drivers stood drinking tea outside the large hangar followed shortly by Cpl. Alex Findlay and L/Cpl Peter McDonald who dashed out of the Armourers shop to see what all the racket was about. The Army wouldn't compensate him for reasons best known to themselves and his insurers were not happy rabbits either because rather stupidly, he'd told them that he was using it at the time to carry military hardware!!!!!! The car was repaired but he had to make a SUBSTANTIAL contribution to the costs. But while the car was SIMILAR to the UK built Vauxhall, it wasn't the same and the parts had to come from GM in Germany which took a couple of months.
A couple of years later Alex sustained severe injuries in a train/rail crash at Paddington while the very bright Pete McDonald went on to become another of the REME Apprentice Uni Graduates.

My punishment was being posted to Australia

[Paul S.]

I am some way now into completing two models of the Carl Gustav 84mm Anti Tank Gun in view of the lack of deactivated UK MOD versions and parts available.
I share this image with you to show a wartime U.S. Paratrooper emplaning with a bazooka and the trauma he no doubt had trying to hold onto that and steer his chute!!!

Gil, that photo and your comment reminded me that the Americans used a troop parachute (T-5?) during WWII that opened top to bottom unlike the X-type parachute British Commonwealth forces used. The crux of it is that the Yanks did what amounted to a 'gallows drop' as the canopy opened first and they risers, etc. were still spilling out to full length. The opening jolt with the American parachutes was severe to put it mildly and that bazooka might have 'landed' well before - and in a very different place than he did.

[Gil Boyd]

Paul,
Yes absolutely correct, and my view on the way 82nd and 101st jumped with "vital" equipment in their hands. We Brits tried the sten under the straps initially in 1942, but found it did more damage to the jumper and to the weapon if it wasn't lost in the first place on the descent.
An interesting area of who applied the logic or the mindset of Military Parachuting in those early days.
The image shows the guy emplaning, and one would expect him to be carrying at least two rockets in his kit to make the whole point of taking the bazooka in the first place, so if he dropped it on the descent his Platoon would have been in serious trouble, because it is the function of all Paratroopers to stem the flow of armour initially, whether it was WW2 or BAOR.
All I can say is, thank God we never had it come to that. There were simply not enough rounds made for the Charlie G to stem the Soviet flow had it occurred!!!!!!!!!!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Firing HEAT rounds in a dusty environment was "interesting". Think: standing in your own personal sand-storm being "cuddled" by your No2 / loader. Even with decent ear-protection they were LOUD.

And as for firing illumination rounds....

Barrel almost vertical, you find yourself suddenly engulfed in a world of fire (and the usual noise) on ignition. And then, as the blast field collapses, there is a sudden inrush of dust and litter from the surrounding area.

The Illum. rounds were, however, brighter and lasted a bit longer than those from the 81mm mortar, just much nastier to launch. and the gun team made very fine aiming marks of themselves.

Delete infantry badge, insert the electric horse badge!