Graeme Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I came across this picture a couple of days ago, of myself and the other members of FRG7 (Forward Repair Group 7 Armoured Bde, for those that don't speak Army!), taken near Hildesheim in the Autumn of 1984. We are stood in front of one of the three very early Chieftain ARRV's (note the frame for the CV12 powerpack at the very top left corner of the picture) that we used when supporting the Royal Hussars with their then new Challenger 1's. I'm at the left of the front row, and dammit I used to have a full head of dark hair! However the picture is notable in one other respect - at the right end of the back row is Mick Dowling MM, the only REME soldier KIA in the first Gulf War The nickname on the ARRV's bin, seen between Mick and Mark Bowman stood next to him, was "Old Snakehips"...and note the old Centurian ARV in the background. Note the bright silver colour of the inside of the tracks and the guidehorns. Oh, and god knows what the other two herberts in the front row were doing... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 'Ere, I remember Lionheart, '84 I was third Crab from the right with an SLR at Laarbruch! Nice 'Tasche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Would it be untoward of me to ask how the Challenger Is performed when brand-new? Did they have many teething troubles at that stage? I seem to recall their poor performance in a gunnery competition lead to some searching questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 Would it be untoward of me to ask how the Challenger Is performed when brand-new? Did they have many teething troubles at that stage? I seem to recall their poor performance in a gunnery competition lead to some searching questions. They did pretty poorly in the Canadian Army Trophy when they first came into service but after some training and mods I think they did better. Challenger was a massive leap forward over Chieftain (the best tank in the world, if it broke down in the right place); especially for us on the spanners - a pack change was about an hour instead of around 4 hours, although changing the gennie engine was as bad as in a Chieftain. The main failing was that the steering pumps would fail due to low hydraulic pressure; compounded by the fact that the warning light for the driver was actually a Land Rover tail light, positioned right in front of his eyes...so some of the drivers would take the bulb out, thereby not realising that the oil pressure was low. But that's why we used to call tank drivers 'boinks'...'cos when they came out of training they were stamped reject on their foreheads...boink! You didn't dare tell a driver to fill the engine with oil, because that's what some of them would do, right to the top 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheesey153 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Would it be untoward of me to ask how the Challenger Is performed when brand-new? Did they have many teething troubles at that stage? I seem to recall their poor performance in a gunnery competition lead to some searching questions. I concur with Graeme: Challenger was hugely improved over Chieftain. Now, whether that was due to Chieftain being crap in the first place, or Challenger being extremely good I do not know...but from a crew perspective it was very good in terms of automotive performance - fast, reliable and comfortable. Gunnery was the same as Chieftain (essentially the same turret) - with a competent crew it was very effective indeed. The 'poor' performance in CAT '87 (?) was relative to the M1s and Leo 2s (and some Leo 1s I think!) which is fair enough considering Challenger 1's turret was a decade or two old, and no particular fault of the tank which was only purchased because of Iran's cancelled Shir order, and was only ever meant to be a stopgap between Chieftain and a new generation MBT...Challenger 2. We experienced no teething problems when we got ours brand new in '85. It was a delight to dump our knackered old Chieftains on to 3RTR and take charge of lovely shiny new Challengers I don't recall any warning lights as described by Graeme but, there again, gunnery was my bag, not driving. And look, if the engine goes wrong you call the Rough Engineering Made Easy guys and let them fix it while you have another cuppa..... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oggy4624 Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Lionheart - wasn't that the one where the US paras dropped in the wrong country? (Holland instead of Germany) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 You didn't dare tell a driver to fill the engine with oil, because that's what some of them would do, right to the top Heard that was done at Odiham in the MT section. A Metro I think it was. My MT driver mate there was told to paint a Fork lift yellow. So he did. The whole thing. He wasn't happy in the job at the time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oggy4624 Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 (edited) Like thw liney at Northolt that was told to paint the tractor/tug for AOC's parade - he painted it pink. It looked really .....different. Edited June 27, 2014 by oggy4624 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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