The British Army of the Cold War

[Gadge]

Yesterdays project:

 

A proper BAOR MKIV helmet.

 

Got my Mkiv, stripped everything off it, coat of nato green paint (pretty pointless given the next step), then made a hessian cover for it.

 

Once it was covered I put on a green wide mesh net.

 

Then tore an old 70s shirt up into strips for scrim, added this with a shredded sandbag and a few strips of vehicle cam net.

 

Left it out in the rain, chucked it in the ashes of the incinerator bin, left it in the rain a bit more, kicked it around the back of the garden in some earth....

 

Now looking like its been 'on exercise' in germany for a month!

 

Pics to follow.

 

 

[LDM]

Some cool pics there as said all you need is the SLR!

[WYATT666]

i need some tropies lol bored with using my light weights lol

 

ah well new land rover starting soon same as the show season lol

[Gadge]

I used to wear tropicals all the time on exercise before 95s came in, partly because they were pretty good for drying quick and partly because they were considered a bit nifty

 

My usual field kit was tropical trousers, sas smock, norwegian shirt and a cut down c - ra p hat. Foot wear wise I used to wear US jungle boots and pack a pair of goretex inner socks for wet days... mind you I had an incredibly tolerant major whose only caveats to kit were:

 

"If its green*, it works and you dont look stupid you can wear it"

 

By green we used to mean Og or dpm rather than just plain 'green'.

 

 

[WYATT666]

I used to wear tropicals all the time on exercise before 95s came in, partly because they were pretty good for drying quick and partly because they were considered a bit nifty

 

My usual field kit was tropical trousers, sas smock, norwegian shirt and a cut down c - ra p hat. Foot wear wise I used to wear US jungle boots and pack a pair of goretex inner socks for wet days... mind you I had an incredibly tolerant major whose only caveats to kit were:

 

"If its green*, it works and you dont look stupid you can wear it"

 

By green we used to mean Og or dpm rather than just plain 'green'.

 

but thats what make the british army so good a coping with everything, gadge been meaning to ask you dont have any pics of military vehicles while you were in the mob do you especially land rovers (ever the interest) and armour?

[Gadge]

Yeah actually *somewhere* i've got three cds full of pics from telic, i can try and dig them out for you.

 

Most of my personal pics thought have the occasional lorry or landy in the backgorund but to be honest I neve rpaid them much more attention as they were a means of getting from A-B.

 

I do have a pic of my mate next to his clanger II if that helps but I'll have to scan that in.

 

The only one i have with any vehicle in it that instantly accesable is this...

 

 

Which is the back of a 4 tonner!

 

I'm at senny this weekend but when i get back i'll try and dig out the telic CDs.

 

As my days were all pre digitial camera most pics i do have are on proper film and most of them are larking about with mates around lines, i have a few taken on exercise bit camera flash isnt very 'tactical' and tended to be frowned upon by ncos

 

 

 

 

[WYATT666]

yeah tactical camera flash tends to get you shot at lol

 

but any pics would be awesome i just keep em on record for when i get asked about land rovers and armour (seems to be all i get mail about lol)

 

cheers all the same

[Gadge]

60 Pattern with SMG

 

 

68 Pattern (also with SMG )

 

[33lima]

Nice pics Gadge! Assume the SMG is a de-ac, a modern airsoft GBB Sterling would be a great boon.

 

Some more pics from the archive, the first inspired by Gadge's SMG.

 

First, a Ferret from an n/k cavalry regt at a VCP on the lower Cavehill Road in north Belfast, this was taken in the days after the Bloody Friday IRA bombings so late July 1972. Four Ferrets came S down the road and pulled into a herringbone formation to form a chicane, the crews dismounted, and they started searching traffic. Stayed longer than the usual snap VCP so mum was able to provide some tea and biccies, then I got a couple of snaps on the old instamatic. Vehicles were in Deep Bronze Green and Black disruptive pattern. Crewsin 68 pattern DPM, US-style flack jackets and armed with Sterling SMGs.

 

 

A few different pics to follow if I have time before dashing off to work, else this evening.

[33lima]

These are from a January 1972 Army recruiting pamphlet "Your Life in the Army", sorry the quality is not great, a couple more willfollow if i can get my dodgy scanner scanning again:

 

 

 

[33lima]

Some more pics from the Army careers pamphlet, ilcluding some higher-res scans from the previous lot:

 

 

 

 

[33lima]

d[double post content zapped, can't find the "delete" button, doh!

[33lima]

Sorry, double post deleted.

[Gadge]

Its an AEG actually. Takes AGM sten mags (the curved one in the pic feeds badly so straight ones are used in skirmishes), belongs to a guy in PBI.

 

Its a beautifully made custom job too.

[33lima]

Wow! Very nice! Have never seen pics of such a good custom SMG, only the old "classic" bottle-fed jobs.

 

If there's a piece of Cold War Brit kit or weaponry you don't already have, it must be pretty obscure...apart from that SLR! Have just now fitted a real flash-hider to my KA one having previously replaced the inaccurate KA carry handle with a real one. The KA flash hider is reasonably accurate re exterior dimensions but the more slender, "bored out" internal dimensions looked a little bit off and it can now take a real bayonet, not that I would run about brandishing such a thing

 

Have you considered an airsoft 66, something else pretty desirable for a later cold war infantry loadout? I was thinking of this one but it's a bit pricey for a clone:

 

http://www.gunnerairsoft.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1731

 

Big Sam at my local site, Foxtrot 58, has one of the even pricier Deepfire originals but it won't fire, the machining of the internal grenade holder seems to block or otherwise interfere with the tube's trigger machanism, tho a bit of filing might have done the trick.

[Gadge]

We were fortunate to be given a load of used pyro and drill purpose munitions when at base last weekend.

 

So we aquired drill purpose grenades, schermully flares, miniflares, 84mm carl gustav and even an AT landmine!

 

Not thought about a LAW much.

 

I dont have very much obscure brit kit anymore TBH, i used to have containers full at one point (para smocks, sniper smocks, tanks suits, a box of early sa80s mags etc etc) but ebayed it all during a period of much brokeness These days I've only really got some sentimental stuff nicked from my first issue and stuff i've recently aquired on the cheap!

[33lima]

A few more reference pics from various older sources

 

An infantry section's gun group debusses from an FV432 (with the GPMG turret):

 

 

Infantry mount up in a Vickers Valkyr wheeled APC (manufacturer's publicity photo I think), again wearing '58 Pattern webbing in CEFO, 68 pattern DPM combats, Mk4 tin toms, DMS boots with puttees:

 

 

Green Howards mobile patrol in Belfast c.1974. From the furled flag it looks like a Loyalist area, probably Shankill Rd/Crumlin Rd or other part of N Belfast. Nick Curtis's book "Faith and Duty" gives an excellent account of their tours. Note the Rovers lack the GRP Vehicle Protection Kits fitted by the later mid-70s:

 

 

Two Humber "Pigs" back up a foot patrol in the Ardoyne, Belfast, probably late 1970s/early 1980s. Location looks like Estoril Park looking WNW, with the white mass of the old cinema on the Oldpark Rd visible on the RH skyline and the roof of Oldpark RUC station, without the prominent elevated sangar/OP built in later years, also just visible just left of the centre skyline. Regiment is n/k, doesn't look the Gunners (who actually made very good infantry in the IS role, thinking especially of 5 Heavy Regt, RA)- they might be the Devon and Dorsetshire Regt which I remember did a tour or three about that time. Note the olive green lightweight "denim" trousers, '58 belt order, NI patrol boots (or private purchase Doctor Martins?), US-style flak jackets not worn for mobility - don't think they are wearing the later INIBA (Improved NI Body Armour) under smocks. Orange car on the L looks like a Mk1 Ford Escort estate, remember those?

 

[33lima]

..and a few more...

 

Infantryman, mid-1980s, still with SLR, '58 Pattern webbing and probably '68 Pattern DPM suit but with Kevlar Mk6 helmet instead of Mk4 steel. Carl Gustav Medium AT Weapon (aka "the 84") carried on shoulders. Pouch on RH shoulder probably carries the 84's optical sight. High-leg boots have replaced the old DMS ankle boots. The yellow Blank Firing Attachment (BFA) on his SLR seems to have been coated with cam cream to make it less conspicuous. A '58 Pattern cape carrier (aka "bum roll") is attached to the top of his bergen:

 

 

Gurkhas c.1980, with SLRs (one with a SUIT sight mount on its top cover) and a Big Knife:

 

 

Too much - too little - just right (again, mid-1980s, Mk6 helmets with earlier kit):

 

 

A Royal Marine Commando "Bootleg" posing with an IWS image intensifier from a castellated wall somewhere in the Ulster countryside, mid-1980s probably. Radio is a Clansman type, possibly a PRC 350:

 

[WYATT666]

the pic of the S2a 88" landys are not kitted with the VPK kits because the VPK was external plates and a solid/hard roof with a hatch similar in style to the current snatch/vixen landys, the kit that is in use there is a base mod using fence to protect the lightsthey would also have used the same on the roof under the rag top to stop rocks etc coming through the roof

[33lima]

Some more pics from Op Banner:

 

Cpl from 2 Para (Blue DZ flash below para wings). Denison smock (1959 pattern) and plastic furniture on the SLR so probably mid-1970s. Trousers look like the OG lightweight "denims" as they don't seem to have the prominent seams just above knee and ankle of the heavier 60 Pattern. Rifle is slung from the rear sling swivel to the right wrist to prevent it being snatched. Paras sometimes wore flak jackets under their Denison smoocks (as seen in the Bloody Sunday film,tho most in that wore WW2 smocks). Flak jacket, DMS boots with puttees. May be wrong but the location might be the S end of the small Wolfhill estate in Legoneil, N Belfast, there was a small path there you could use if you wanted to avoid the single road in or out.

 

 

Riot control, location n/k, possibly Belfast. Regiment n/k. Smocks are 68 pattern, trousers OG lightweights. Helmets are later-pattern not the early visored Mk4 so probably dates from mid-to-late 1970s or early 1980s. Centre soldier has his SLR slung to his wrist via the usual "IS Loop" ((IS=Internal Security, being the term for the Army's duties in NI at that time). note the early black rubber anti-slip pads or patches on his flak jacket's shoulders to prevent the butt slipping and the left-hand soldier's later-pattern rigid green nylon shoulder pads with vertical bar to help keep the butt in the shoulder - accurate shooting wearing a "flacker" was not easy! Webbing is 58 pattern.

 

 

Foot patrol, Forkhill Co Armagh, Summer by the look of it, probably early 1980s. Regiment n/k. Smocks 68 Pattern, OG lightweight trousers, 58 Pattern webbing, n/k high boots, possibly DMS modified with leather extensions or maybe they're one of the regts who wore dark gaiters instead of khaki puttess. Guy behind ptl comd has a wooden butt on his SLR, not common by that time. Neither the 1970s flak jackets not the later unde-smock INIBA are worn, for better mobility on foot. Ptl comn wears cammed-up 8x30 issue binos.

 

 

Finally one of SAS in training, date & location n/k but probably mid-late 1970s. Guy with the SLR has some 58 webbing and a cammed face veil, not sure about the rest of his kit, cap is not the issue combat cap (aka "cr*p hat"). Further guy armed with M16A1 and wearing a Denison smock.

 

[33lima]

Ferret, Saracen and crews attend an incident in a rural area in NI, c.1970. All look to be wearing the olive green 1960 Pattern combat dress, DMS boots with black gaiters, 58 webbing. Unit n/k but looks like a cavalry regiment. Sterling SMGs carried, tho that looks like an SLR propped on the Ferret's turret hatch. Note the cable cutter angle-iron welded to the Ferret's turret.

 

 

Para on foot patrol in front of Belfast City Hall, about 1971. "Hairy" shirt worn with collar outside 59 pattern Denison smock. Blackened cap badge. Smock's elasticated cuffs seem to have been stretched by wearing sleeves up. Mix of wood & plastic furniture on SLR was quite common but got less so. Belt is 58 Pattern. Not clearif trousers are 60 Pattern or OG lightweights, possibly the former. DMS ankle boots with khaki puttees. Guys in RH background are bus inspectors not RUC.

 

 

Troops waiting to board a n Army Lynx. Location, date & unit n/k. Guess at late 1970s/very early 1980s as the radio is an A41 from the Larkspur range (anyone remember tuning them to find the "zero beat"?)and not the later Clansman type. Smocks 68 pattern, 58 webbing. Like the nearer guy in the SAS training pic in the last post, the Sgt in the LH foreground has the later rounded, 3-hole wooden hanguard on his SLR, not the early triangular 2-slot pattern. Bloke in the middle carries an "84", the Carl Gustav AT weapon (which was a recoilless gun, not a rocket launcher as sometimes described) generally allocated one to each infantry platoon HQ along with a 2 inch mortar, along with an A41 radio,so this could well be part of Pl HQ waiting to emplane.

 

 

 

Black & white pic showing a Pl Comd (Lt) and a Sect Comd (Cpl)from the Queen's Regt, c.1985. Both wear pen-holder brassards on their right shoulders, which were considered quite "ally" in those days. Combats are 68 Pattern, webbing 58 Pattern. Location n/k but could be NI (or training for it) as they would not normally have their SLRs slung to their wrists otherwise.

 

[Blue4]

Just been up in the loft and found this old 'rubberised gas cape' fantastic condition with minimal marking!

 

 

Tucked away in an old 58 poncho roll - no idea where it came from...

[ratboy44]

monty's locker has (had) a load of BAOR/cold war kit and kaboodle which members of out group have been buying off him, sure he'll have a bit left over.

 

how about airsoft artillery? mobat anyone?

[Gadge]

Just been up in the loft and found this old 'rubberised gas cape' fantastic condition with minimal marking!

 

 

 

Tucked away in an old 58 poncho roll - no idea where it came from...

 

 

Thats the 1950s era rain cape from the look of it. The gas capes are very different.

 

I think they start being made in green from about 1945, later on they turn into bigger hooded ponchos.

[Blue4]

Thats the 1950s era rain cape from the look of it. The gas capes are very different.

 

I think they start being made in green from about 1945, later on they turn into bigger hooded ponchos.

 

 

Cheers Gadge

 

It'll be up for sale soon as I have no need for it!!