Chieftain info and banter

[Mark Heaps]

Barrel-scrim or no barrel-scrim may also have depended on how far forward the tanks were and whether they deployed straight into battle, going out of barracks guns blazing if necessary, or deployed from barrracks to an assembly area to await tasking.
If the former, then yes, barrel-scrim was good. Straight into the firing position, ignore the full cam-net. And fight as long as you could.
I served the latter group and none of of "my" tanks had barrel-scrim or any other scrim. We fought "clean".
In my experience, the only vehicles that used scrim were the recce vehicles. They needed the camouflage but would never have been static long enough to warrant putting the cam-net up.

[Mark Heaps]

Scan 26 May 2019 at 10.23.jpg (142.67 KiB) Viewed 4675 times

Picture copied from Stephen´s Chinese Eye Chieftain thread.
What this shows is not a pack-lift being done by the attached fitter section but a pack-change being carried out by a FRT ( Forward Repair Team ) from a REME Workshop and being done in an ECCP ( Equipment Casualty Collection Point ), the REME Workshop is in this case there to support the exercise, but not part of it so are non-tactical and therefore no cam-nets up.
The dead pack has been lifted out of the tank and placed on the ground. The photo shows the new pack( nice and clean ) being off-loaded from the FV434 and being placed on the ground. The next step for them would be to load the dead pack onto the FV434 before they started fitting the new pack into the tank.
If it had been up to the fitter section, then the priority would have been to get that new pack into the tank first and then try to save the old pack if the situation allowed.
One thing of note is the Chieftain long bin fitted to the FV434. We carried them as spares in case a tank needed it, honest

[Stephen White]

"Liberating" bins was a national sport. A common Chieftain mod involved adding two back bins, one either side of the NBC pack (as "spares" of course). I don't believe it was ever approved formally but it did become very common in the later years of Chieftain's service. I always felt for the 434 crews, who didn't enjoy the luxury of the vast penthouses often fitted to the ARVs. It seems 4 tonner canvas was as "acquirable" as long and back bins.

[Mark Heaps]

"Aquiring" or "liberating" suggests we illegally obtained them from other vehicles and depriving them of those items. I do not recall that happening.

I would suggest that the fitter section were at times too keen to condemn an item as unserviceable and demand a replacement.
We then later found out that the un-servicable item could be re-roled rather than just being scrapped

I remember us getting a refurbished FV432 from Base Overhaul in 2002. We demanded two Chieftain long bins and we got them

[Mark Heaps]

REME workshop 434s had to be able to carry packs so no penthouse.
Fitter section 434´s did not have to carry a pack so a penthouse was a must. We REME did like our comforts.
Best penthouse I ever had was on a 434, 3 beds with matresses, BV sockets remoted up into the penthouse, remote-start moved from the 3rd man´s hatch up into the penthouse and fully blacked out. We could switch on interior lights, start the engine and boil the BV, without getting out of our sleeping bags.

[Stephen White]

"Aquiring" or "liberating" suggests we illegally obtained them from other vehicles and depriving them of those items. I do not recall that happening.

I crewed a CHARRV that "acquired" a set of Lynx helicopter rear seats but we only managed to hold onto them for about 4 days.

Ummm. The powers of write off were a miraculous thing. Witness the Bicester stores fire...

[Mark Heaps]

The powers of write off were a miraculous thing.

They were indeed, especially when accompanied with an NM&D (Neglicence, Misuse & Damage ) which resulted in the responsible person being personally liable for part of the replacement cost.

Young troop leader straight out of Sandhurst and first time on the tank park.
His troop of three tanks get driven out of the hangar and he informs the Troop Sergeant that the tracks are squeaking rather loudly and something really should be done about it. Tp Sgt quick as a flash praises his observation, that must be rectified immediately as the enemy will hear them coming from miles away.
Young officer asks what need to be done and is informed the track pins need to be oiled. He gets a squirty oil can thrust into his hand and a few troopers join him in this task. The troopers get called away one after the other for dental and medical appointments until just the young officer is there.

QM then walks along the tank park and enquires what the young officer is doing. Young officer explains so the QM praises him for his conscientiousness then asks what oil he is using.
YO - "I do not know. It is what is in this can"
QM unscrews lid, sniffs the contents - "You prat, you have used the wrong oil and ruined these tracks. Quick march up to my office"
YO was almost in tears when he saw his bill for 50% of the cost of the three pairs of tracks.

Good job it was just a wind-up and his welcome to the regiment.

[Mark Heaps]

Another photo copied from Stephen´s Chines Eye Chieftain thread

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Note the lack of anti-slip where the driver´s hatch would seal and where "scabs" have broken off the hull forward right of the driver and left hand front of his hatch.
This suggests to me that they got an initial base coat which was allowed to dry. The hatches were then closed and they then got a second coat of paint.Whilst the second coat was still wet, sand was liberally sprinkled over the areas to be non-slip and then a third coat of paint over the sand. I do not recall any sort of patterning indicating any tooling was used. The scabbing could be areas where too much sand accumulated and the paint over clumps of dry loose sand then got broken offf

[Stephen White]

Pattern from tooling and chipping:

[David Battson]

query

Could be it was for something like this mine plough control box.

[Mark Heaps]

Scan 26 May 2019 at 10.23.jpg (142.67 KiB) Viewed 4479 times

Back to this photo of a pack change.
The radiators are in the vertical position for two reasons. One being that it helped centralise the weight of the pack under the lifing eye, the other being that it helped observation of the pack bay to prevent the pack snagging on the way out or in. Great care was taken to prevent the pack rotating out of control and the radiators impacting the crane jib, thereby damaging the pack or worse still, damaging the jib.
The pack is being lifted using a set of "chains". A 4-legged sling that could be used in a 2, 3 or 4 legged configuration with the legs set at the various lengths needed due to whatever pack or GUE that was to be lifted. Later, the Universal Lifting Beam was introduced for vehicle packs, two pieces that went together in a "T"-configuration, a central lifting eye, and holes positioned in both bars corresponding to the various packs. The "chains" were then only used for lifting GUEs / APUs.
The Universal Lifting Beam was not really suitable for lifting packs out of the FV430 series so 24A carried an H-frame lifting beam which was similar but specific to the FV430 series.

[Mark Heaps]

This time a photo copied from Phil Woollards thread.

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Look bottom right and you can see something red-coloured between the two front hull-bins. These are the external twist and pull controls to activate the fixed fire extinguishers in the case of a pack-bay fire, there was one either side of the vehicle. I never saw them painted anything other than matt red.

Also it seems that Chieftain TOGS may only have had an armoured door in front of the TISH. Challenger 1 had an armoured door and a flash door. The flash door was sprung-loaded but retained to the armoured door by a solenoid operated catch. If a nuclear event was detected, the solenoid would operate, releasing the flash door to fly shut to protect the TISH and the armoured door would follow under motor control. Once the armoured door reached the closed position, it would re-engage the flash-door as long as the solenoid was not still operated.

[Mark Heaps]

Now for a photo copied from Pete Nash´s thread

The number plate light had a rotatable cover. The photo shows it in it´s normal position with the wide slot aperture to the bottom to illuminate the number plate. At the top and blanked off at the moment is a small circular hole, about half inch in diameter. In war time conditions, the cover would have been rotated through 180 degrees and the wide slot aperture would have been blanked off just leaving the small dot illuminating the number plate.
During the normal 3-year tour of a REME ECE at a unit, it was normal to replace the number plate lights on all vehicles, not because they had become faulty but because young crewmen had slapped paint on and around them preventing the cover from being able to be rotated.

[Mark Heaps]

Also the condition of the rear reflector indicates that it and the rear fender have been replaced.
Prior to repainting in unit lines, grease was liberally applied to all areas not to be painted, markings, lenses, reflectors etc. Once the new paint had dried sufficiently the grease with its coat of paint were wiped off. Realistic would be paint on some areas of the white surround and at other points, clean surround, old paint and then the new paint

[Steve Lewington]

Hi Mark
I remember the grease painting only to well lol
Keep up the comments they bring back some fond memories.

Steve