A perfect picture of the .303 inch Vickers Medium Machine Gun not long before it was withdrawn from Service. The cloth belt holding rounds has been fed into the gun by the No: 2 , the can containing water for barrel cooling linked by pipe to the barrel lies underneath with the gun fitted onto the very heavy tripod. The No: 2 is wearing ‘58 Pattern Webbing but has a ‘44 Pattern water bottle, carrier and mug which was a popular “proff” item as the bottle and mug were aluminium so, you could both brew a wet and drink it from the mug. Being aluminium you had to stick some black masking tape on the mug lip or end up with burnt real lips I still have mine!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 17:26:06 EDT
Close examination of the two Grenades next to right hand man shows that Fuses have not yet been inserted into a Grenade base, ie. No Teeth !
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:21:23 EDT
This photo must have been taken quite early on as he is not wearing a Reserve (chest) packed Parachute.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:18:07 EDT
This is a ‘free’ climb and Marine Wellman is wearing heavily cleated J Army Pattern boots.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 16:16:06 EDT
This photo show the ‘new’ Combat Suits which came in. Plain drab green colour and being G1098 so could be exchanged one-for-one, most people preferred the Dennison Smock traditional Commando Dress.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 11 Sep 2020 15:51:50 EDT
The string around the waists are Jack-Knife Lanyards which were issue items.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Thu 10 Sep 2020 09:49:00 EDT
Small point here it will be seen the Commissioned Officers are all carrying “Swagger” sticks and wearing fawn coloured short Puttees, the ORs are
wearing Khaki short Puttees. The “Swagger” sticks were leather covered
going out of use in the 1970s.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Thu 10 Sep 2020 06:01:18 EDT
The goggles the men are wearing are taken from the standard issue
Respirator (gas mask) and made of celluloid. The attack on Suez by 45
Commando RM was the first time the Corps had used helicopters in an
Assault across water from an Aircraft Carrier and the goggles were used
to counteract the blinding dust thrown up on landing. An interesting point
regards these goggles is the Field Marshall Erwin Rommel can be seen wearing these British issue items having found them perfect for the same reason (dust) in North Africa during WW2.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Thu 10 Sep 2020 05:35:36 EDT
The Grenade in this picture is the No: 94 Energa Infantry anti-tank weapon which is fired from the .303” Lee Enfield No: 4 Rifle using a projector all
Men carried. The rocket shape can be seen with the tail-fins to the left of the picture. It was fired using a Ballastite Cartridge and was a ‘hollow
charge” action. It had a ‘graze-nose-fuse’ so did not have to hit square on the target. It could be fired at any target if necessary but the cartridge had
quite a kick’ so the trigger would only be stroked with a straight index finger
And the rifle butt dug into the ground if necessary.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Thu 10 Sep 2020 05:27:18 EDT
They are...not me!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 04 Sep 2020 08:57:09 EDT
Should read ‘proffed’
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 04 Sep 2020 06:29:02 EDT
Alan Richardson was a very Senior Fire Chief in Gwent afterwards, may even have been Fire Chief for County.
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 04 Sep 2020 05:18:17 EDT
I had great difficulty understanding what Jock was saying but every time I bumped into him after that he would buy me a pint! Drown away Royal!
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 04 Sep 2020 05:16:32 EDT
Yaffling scran (Marine term for eating food) NOT haggling,
Posted by PrichardDavid R L on Fri 04 Sep 2020 05:10:41 EDT
