Holly Roller - general appearance during wartime?

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Jack Geratic

Chris, thank you for the low down on the antennas. The A set aerial - would it be tapered, or uniform diameter top to bottom, and any idea the diameter?

This is a top view of the antenna pot located on the hull front. Would the hole confirm there was an aerial in there at one time? It does seem to match the one on the turret bustle.

regards,
Jack

The aerials used were made up of one to three "Aerial Rods F" which continued in service (effectively unchanged) until the 1970s and Clansman took over. The original rods were 48" long, in three sizes to give you the option of 4 -16 feet of rod (the 16' one only usable when stationery) and push-fit. These kept falling apart on the move and the Canadians improved them by lengthening the rods by an inch and a half and rolling a thread into each end so they would push in and then screw together, solving the problem. These were universally adopted, with much rejoicing. Rhe rods have a slow taper, the first rod is swaged down to fit the aerial base and only threaded at the top. The top rod tapers to a point. You can add two middle sections to get the 16-ft monster.

Anything fitting this description (48 or 49.5 inches long) should be an "F" rod, even if it has NATO stock numbers on it. Shorter top sections are Larkspur VHF sections for the C42 and friends. One metre ones are probably Clansman.

The holes in your tank are definitely for Aerial Base No.8, Mounting No.1. The large central hole takes the "conduit" feeder tube from Aerial Feeder No.4 on the back of the variometer, the mounting drops over that (and has a pin that locates into the small hole to prevent it rotating and working loose, a lock washer and nut secures the mounting to the conduit, and the aerial base bolts onto the mounting. There will be another locating hole on the underside of the armour that takes the locating peg on the end of the variometer, to stop that unscrewing.

I've got all the bits and will see if I can take and post some photographs for ID purposes.

Chris.

[Jack Geratic]

Giving this thread a little bump ...

Chris, any more info on those antennas?

-------------------------

Been thinking about the 1945 incident as revealed by Perry. Could the AT hit on the hull's left done enough damage to have required the whole sale replacement of all the road wheels on that side, thus explaining why there is two complete different set types found on Holy Roller? Maybe it was a HE round that caused a fire and burned the rubbers off??

regards,
Jack