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Tiger on the back burner then Andy ?

Number 12 arrived last Monday, can’t wait to get started.

Hi Dennis

Not really on the back burner just runing the builds side by side

Chieftain has always been my Favourite...

Decided on your vehicle yet Andy? Presume it will be HCav.......

Hi Kevin

Yes absoultely Mine will be Modeled on my tank From A Sqn The Blues & Royals from 1979-80 so Pre Stillbrew which I'm not a fan of anyway so that works.

Annoyingly i have no photos showing the Reg and am really struggling to find it

if anyone knows a way of finding out which tanks belonged to which Sgn/Troop i would be very interested please, i have approached the Blues & Royals Assosiation, and all my mates from the regiment and the Facebook pages but nothing coming forward....

Andy

Andy - agreed it can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, and so much more difficult without the ERM. I'm in a similar boat trying to find a vehicle associated with Dad - if indeed there were any!! I only have a distant memory of Chieftains in BAOR bearing in mind I was a youngster at the time. (I found "AFV Job Description"/qualification certificates, but could they just as easily relate to Ferret - Cyprus, late '50s?)

A fully digitised database would obviously make life much easier but I don't believe such a thing exists. Merlin Archive possibly comes close but, again, the public interface is driven by ERM. I don't know if, if one were to contact them, they could search other fields within their data and provide a shortlist of, say, Chieftains associated with Blues and Royals. Much would depend on the structure of their data but - in general - if data is in the system, even plain text, it can be searched/retrieved.

The alternative is to do it the hard way - you're not a million miles from Bovington and a few hours browsing Chieftain record cards may pay dividends? I may have to do that myself.....

Cheers
Kevin

Hi Kevin

Well thats my next stop and being as you mentioned it i have emailed today to aarrange an archive visit

let me know if i can keep an eye out for something for you if it helps out.

Andy

Kevin, Andy, I wish you luck, having been down the same road. I hope I can help.

Firstly, if you haven’t done so already, the Chieftain Tank Appreciation Group on Facebook can be very helpful. There might be people on there who were contemporaries.

Secondly, I’ve found a way of getting to the underlying data in the Merlin Archive. It’s not easy but it did enable me to generate a shortlist of ERMs of tanks which were on charge with 4RTR in the era I was interested in. It isn’t a full list for sure but a starting point. It also looks as though the database only holds records after another 1982 but you can infer what was already on charge. You can then start to search elsewhere, such as in the TM archive. I don’t pretend to know my way around the database but more by luck, I was able to read the tables.

Thirdly, be aware that the Chieftain record cards in the TM are by no means complete. There are frustrating gaps. I haven’t tried to access them but you might find that because of pilfering in the past, the Archivists won’t give you direct access. In that case, you might be in a Catch 22. It might help if you can establish through Merlin the Unit Identification Number for, your regiments. It will be something like A0103A.

For a definitive answer, you’d need the QM(T) records for you regiment, in which he will have listed all the equipment on charge and where is was located. I don’t know if any of these pre-digital age records survive but it might be worth asking Bovington or, along shot, searching the National Archives index, although they only tend to keep policy records.

Let me know if I can help.

Thanks for the info and offer of help Stephen. I for one may come back begging but will see what I can do myself first. I will probably also "sponge" off Andy a bit (if he doesn't mind) as we are both seeking Blues and Royals info.

Cheers
Kevin

Hi Stephen

Thanks so much for the info, i will see what i can find out from the infor you have provided, very helpful thank you.

Good luck Kevin lets keep in contact and help each other out as much as possible - what Sqn was you dad in ?

Regards

Andy

Cheers Andy. I’ll PM you in near future. Think I’ve / we’ve hijacked this particular thread enough for now
Kevin

No32 reporting for duty.

Wow

Compare Chieftain track with Centurion. Guess which ones which?

Enjoying sifting though foamy packing in the boxes, it's like a lucky dip at a Carnival, but this time always pulling out a prize worth having.
(I've got enough cheesy cheeto's to last a month, though they could do with a bit more flavour)

With both tracks assembled they will be over 24kg

Production Situation of Chieftain No. 5