Man Target Tanks

Can anyone remember the Man Target Tanks in Warminster; Dutch and Sooty should as we worked on them for quite a time? does anyone have a photo they could post on the site. Funny story about when I parked the tank up in Netheraven over the weekend, went back on the Monday morning and some one had stolen all the petrol, toolbox and the radio. On discovering this I went to the Guardroom in Netheravon to report it and was met by Csgt Irvine, he said you have had it now having signed for it. I had great pleasure informing him that I hadn’t signed for it, his face when he discovered he was the last person to sign for it was a picture.

As we used to say driving the tank, Milan only tickled it was when we got hit by Swingfire that your ears took a bashing

took a bashing , jeez ask al poole about swingfire blowing the barrell off in otterburn or ask sooty about some dopey boss eyed git completely destroying a land rover by running over it and not even feeling it (2 para c.o if i remember right) oops it was me so don,t bother asking i,m innocent

all i can remember about the target tanks is getting it bogged down in otterburn then having to stay at the Percy Arms hotel for a week waiting for recovery.
Breakfast in bed. it was great

yeah the way we suffered for queen and country eh dai , we should have claimed compo for that percy arms hotel stay -battle fatigue ?

Benney how did you fit into the drivers seat im six foot and it was cramped for me, but you must be seven foot, have you got detachable legs?
anyway i got sent to target tanks because i was naughty, why were the rest of you there?
mad!!!!


p.s. no one calls me sooty anymore

we were mad dai but you , well it was a case of noone else wanted you and we wanted a mascot for the front of the pink elephants, but to be fair you were pretty good at keeping the torch steady if we needed guiding in the dark. no to be honest i was shafted i was in idb just before 1rwf took over and some bright spark thought ooo dutch is rwf won't it be clever to have him in place ready to take over , was i given a choice was i hell but i looovvveedddddddddddd it

I should explain for anyone wondering what the hell Dai, Dutch and Benny are rattling on about.

When the battalion was based in Warminster 82-84, one of its commitments was to staff the School of Infantry's Target Tank. This was a Centurion tank that had been up-armoured, it weighed 70 tons. and was foolishly put in the hands of some of the biggest wastrels the battalion had to offer at that time(me included). It was driven across the ranges and Milan, Swingfire(inert rounds), and small arms would fire at it as they would a normal tank, with a driver and commander inside the tank.

The tank was based at the Command Workshops in Warminster, Dutch was in charge of it, and initially I was his crew member. My first real experience of driving it was at Otterburn(it took 2 days for the lorry to get it there. We were on the range and a Swingfire regiment were having there annual live fire. Dutch had forgotten to pack the turret periscopes!!!(nice one), so there was 3 gaping holes at the top of the tank turret, which is not good!!!!

On our first run, I can remember driving flat out in the tank, absolutely crapping myself, what made me even more scared was that Dutch climbed down from the tuirret, wrapped his arms around me and squeezed his eyes shut, the first round completely destroyed the tank barrel, and all the cordite and flame came in through the periscope holes.......Oh how I laughed. Needless to say, on my return from Otterburn a week later, I decided manning a target tank was not really a career move for me, and perhaps waitering in the oficers mess was more preferable. So in good Royal Welch fashion, I told Dai Hood it was a great job with loads of time off, and like a sucker he fell for it, hook line and sinker, Dai has never forgiven me, over to you Dai.:smile_xmas:

ap1 you bad egg? well you have been a bit sneeky aye "and what about the towels in Bosnia" and we were mates? only joking Al your a star, doddgy but a star!

Some other members of the Tank Crew, Jones 80 (Jock), Jones 61, Dai wont use the nickname again sorry if it offended, remember the 2 day drive up to Otterburn but were not as lucky as Dai and Dutch staying in luxury. I think we all had to be a bit mad to drive the tank, cant remember who the driver was when we were on a Milan firing day. Informed the range crew that on no account were they to fire at the tank as it came up to the brow before making a right turn on to the range run, like talking to a donkey, as the tank came up to the top of the brow, Wham a Milan missile hit the drivers periscope and somehow turned and all the flames started shooting over the drivers head, cant remember who was driving but you should have heard the swearing it was terrible, there again firing cancelled for the day so the Milan boys not to happy. Wonder what ever happened to the civvi fitters Mark, Jason and the one with only one leg was his name Morris. Al didnet know you drove the tanks, good explination.

the nickname does'nt bother me at all benny2 mate.

well as for you Al i did forgive you,[eventually]
i can remember some american pilots commenting on how good the radio controlled tanks were ,then someone told them they were manned "man they must be crazy"

benny the one legged guy was a welder and once when sealing of the armoured plates on one of the tanks he set it on fire and didnt notice till he noticed we were all breaking up laughing on the floor and wondered why . al i only covered your eyes because i did'nt want you seeing what was coming next , its a real sad sight watching a fusilier running around otterburn screaming for mama and i did'nt want you humiliating yourself. oh by the way i never forgot to pack periscopes the bleedin swingfire demolished them , as if id make a schoolboy error like that , oh ok i would but not guilty this time

To drive it was a complete nightmare. I dont think Health and Safety would allow it on the road now.

The drivers hatch was welded shut, so you had to drive using a very narrow periscope, bearing in mind that this tank is absolutely huge, and that Wiltshire's roads are very narrow, a receipe for disaster is in place.

The driving set up was similar to a car only supersized, 3 foot pedals, Acccelerator, Brake and Clutch. With a gear stick between the drivers legs 1-4 and reverse. You steered it using a left and right tiller.

You had to use two feet to depress the clutch pedal, and you needed two hands to move the gear stick. All gear changes had to be double clutched, or it would not engage.

So there you are, rumbling down Battlesbury Hill(from the washdown point), on a public rd........in third gear, ooops going a bit too fast, need to change down to 2nd. LET GO of the steering tillers(look at me mum 70 tons and no hands), two hands onto the gear stick, and two depresses of the clutch, by this time the tank will already be halfway up the hedge, or heading towards the oncoming car, and only the sound of Dutch quietly sobbing in the Commanders turret breaking this nightmare. Another technical hitch was the footbrake could only be applied for 5 seconds at a time, or the brakes would burn out.

As you can understand, my period of employment with the Manned Target Tank although brief, has left me with permanent mental scaring. I'm still receiving counselling, but thankfully the bedwetting has now stopped.

Merry Xmas

speak for yourself mate , mrs changed the sheets again this morning

speaking of periscopes as we were in an earlier part of this topic , when i first joined the mtt in the idb a corporal from the rhf was in command and while we were on a milan firing day the periscope was completely blown off and shrapnel fron milan entered the turret and rammed itself up jock hammill's (rhf) butt , it was so bad medics and transport were called and he was taken away .
needless to say the army was full of concern and the proper safety measures were put in place i.e a block of wood to block the turret and away we went again , as al said health and safety would have a fit today but were we any better -young foolish or just sh*t scared of getting a rollocking for not doing as we were told.
would i do it again ....in a flash

nutter