Libya....

[David Morton]

The problem with the SLR was it was difficult to conceal a few extra rounds abouts one's person after the mandatory monthly range detail in Northern Ireland. The 9mm round was much easier to conceal and fitted the FN/Bowning pistol and the Sterling mk4 machine gun. Why you ask? Because the guard commanders personal issue of ammunition was sealed in black sticky tape and if the tape was undone, it meant a weapon had been loaded which was considered by those higher up as bad form. In reality, we used the extra rounds concealed about our person after range practice to load two magazines and installed one just in case. I don't think the I.R.A. would wait while we unwrapped our rounds. The pistol could accept thirteen rounds at a push and the Sterling thirty four I recall. I guess if anyone ever got caught posessing pockets full of 9mm rounds it would have been a disastrous event in their career. My issue weapon was the pistol but I don't think I could hit anything with it - it would frighten people no doubt (me included) but useless at anything smaller than a barn door. Still, I was never a Pongo.

 

Nicest weapon I fired during my military training was the Bren Gun. Lovely piece, albeit with limited number of rounds.

 

[David Morton]

To the best of my knowledge, the Bren Gun was never a weapon in the R.A.F. so I never tried it. Apart from the R.A.F. Regiment, the Sterling was about the limit of the boys toys for the mere mortals.

 

[Keith]

RAF Regiment most definitely David, in WWII all theatres and latterly in Germany and Aden - Airfield Defence mainly. (Obviously )

 

[Mark]

The very nice chap building my P4 for me, talks of having often taken a Bren gun to race meetings and mounting it on the pit box wall to intimidate the opposition! LOL

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

I read you comments with interest David, that is so typically "Oh what a Lovely war" wrapping the ammo in sticky tape so the higher ups would know if a gun was loaded. Sadly that sort of bollocks still goes on today and puts our lads in danger. They do not learn from history.
Our weapon was the F.N. SLR. 7.62.mm

The L1A1 is the Australian version of the Belgian FN FAL rifle. It entered into service with the Australian Army in 1959. The L1A1 was a reliable, hard-hitting, gas-operated, magazine-fed semi-automatic rifle, with a maximum battle range of 300 metres and a practical rate of fire of 20 rounds per minute. In Vietnam the L1A1 was the standard personal weapon of the Australian soldier. With a full 20 round magazine it weighed 4.96Kg. The standard issue was 5 magazines per rifleman but almost all carried as many filled magazines that they could get their hands on, often dispensing with food rations in order to find room for the extra ammunition. The rational to this was that the extra 7.62 mm rounds fired from an SLR rifle would do more damage than throwing a can of Ham and Lima Beans.

 

[Jack]

Right on Pete! The FN is a great weapon. Sounds like you have experienced the ham and lima beans too!

 

[David Morton]

The other gun(s) we had to play with was so much bigger.
The twin Hispano-Suiza canon in the nose of the Shackleton. The most
uncomfortable position in the aeroplane, especially in northern climes
as the freezing wind whistled in past the guns all trip long no matter how much bodge tape you applied.

 

[Jon Briggs]

There's a couple of Shackletons down in Pafos. Along with some other interesting stuff. Just shoved to one side of the runway. I had a wander around them a while ago it was such a shame to see them in that state.

 

[domtoni]

When I came to Europe in 1985, our company had bought the Hispano - Suiza defense plant in the Netherlands which made the .50 and 20mm cannons used, probably on this aircraft. Thanks for the picture Dave.

 

[David Morton]

Jon,
just for the record and the nurds amongst us they are Mk 2 phase 3 AEW variants and the airframe numbers were WL757 and WL747. We had them on 204 sqn and 210 sqn at R.A.F. Ballykelly in N.I. before they were modded to AEW status. The last squadron that had them in the R.A.F. was 8 Sqn at R.A.F. Lossiemouth.

 

[Keith]

Jon,
just for the record and the nurds amongst us they are Mk 2 phase 3 AEW variants and the airframe numbers were WL757 and WL747. We had them on 204 sqn and 210 sqn at R.A.F. Ballykelly in N.I. before they were modded to AEW status. The last squadron that had them in the R.A.F. was 8 Sqn at R.A.F. Lossiemouth.

Nerd! :laugh:

 

[David Morton]

I stand corrected. "Nerd" it is
Dom, the Magazine, belt feed,sight and control joystick were made in High Wycombe - very close to here - by a company called Bouton Paul. I have to say they were absolutely essaitchonetee. It got to the stage where we often took an armourer with us to try and unjam the guns - a frequent occurence. I guess they had continual salt spay being blown into the muzzles at 160 knots and failing after a couple of rounds was probably to be expected. I hated them and everything to do with them. After the Biera Patrols they were mostly removed anyway and the nose aperture blanked off.

 

[Keith]

I stand corrected.
Dom, the Magazine, belt feed,sight and control joystick were made in High Wycombe - very close to here - by a company called Bouton Paul. I have to say they were absolutely essaitchonetee. It got to the stage where we often took an armourer with us to try and unjam the guns - a frequent occurence. I guess they had continual salt spay being blown into the muzzles at 160 knots and failing after a couple of rounds was probably to be expected. I hated them and everything to do with them. After the Biera Patrols they were mostly removed anyway and the nose aperture blanked off.

Ha ha, so was the Boulton Paul Defiant! Probably the most bizarre aircraft in WWII. Whoever "procured"that shit heap on behalf of the MOD was on a bung the size of US National Debt...

 

[domtoni]

I stand corrected. "Nerd" it is
Dom, the Magazine, belt feed,sight and control joystick were made in High Wycombe - very close to here - by a company called Bouton Paul. I have to say they were absolutely essaitchonetee. It got to the stage where we often took an armourer with us to try and unjam the guns - a frequent occurence. I guess they had continual salt spay being blown into the muzzles at 160 knots and failing after a couple of rounds was probably to be expected. I hated them and everything to do with them. After the Biera Patrols they were mostly removed anyway and the nose aperture blanked off.

I have no experience of this kind weapon system, so can't comment. I remember the stories of how the owner of Hispano Suiza had factories in Germany and France during WW1, and sat in Switzerland collecting his royalties as the Germans and French blew each other apart. And our factory built these weapons through the mid 1960s before it was sold to American Bosch.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Right on Pete! The FN is a great weapon. Sounds like you have experienced the ham and lima beans too!

And the spam.
Spam spam spam spam spam.:thumbsup:

 

[Jack]

the mystery meat in a can...

 

[Keith]

Captain Morgan and Spam Fritters...

Droool.......