Mounting, Quadruple 20mm Anti-Aircraft, Polsten

[Gunner]

Well, after almost a year of emails, visits, paperwork and phone calls the Polsten Quad is on its way home. The paper file to keep two governments and several layers of bureaucracy happy is now 3/4 of an inch thick and there is more to come when it clears Customs.

I delivered the 'gun' to the Liverpool docks last week while passing through the UK on my way home from military duty in Ghana and it sails on the Atlantic Conveyor (ACL ship) tomorrow arriving in Halifax next Monday and, fingers crossed arrives in Montreal to clear Customs the following Monday.

We hope to have its cleaned up cosmetically for its Canadian debut at the Ottawa Airshow on the weekend of 16 June.

Full restoration will be delayed until my bank account recovers from the latest great adventure... the purchase of a turn key restored Windsor Carrier! More to follow on that adventure!

Here she is as found. More pics to follow.

My thanks to all my friends both MLUers and otherwise who have assisted in this adventure. Getting a Canadian made artillery piece home as a museum artifact is indeed an adventure.

Cheers! Mike

[Gunner]

Well, I guess I still need to work on my photo editing!

Hanno or Rob C... help!

Mike

[RHClarke]

Originally posted by Gunner
Well, I guess I still need to work on my photo editing!

Hanno or Rob C... help!

Mike

Try this:

[Brian Gough]

Originally posted by Gunner


.............. Full restoration will be delayed until my bank account recovers from the latest great adventure... the purchase of a turn key restored Windsor Carrier! More to follow on that adventure!

Cheers! Mike

\

Wow !!! Mike, talk about being low key on major news. Am I correct, this will be the only Windsor carrier in Canada?

Tell us more, soon, please.

Brian

[Gunner]

Hi Brian:

I sent you a PM with some detail I'd rather not publish yet but yes, a WC will be coming home and I beleive it will be the only one in Canada.

Stayed tuned!

Cheers, Mike

[Gunner]

Here's a shot to get us salivating!

Mike

[RHClarke]

Originally posted by Gunner
...I delivered the 'gun' to the Liverpool docks last week while passing through the UK on my way home from military duty in Ghana and it sails on the Atlantic Conveyor (ACL ship) tomorrow arriving in Halifax next Monday and, fingers crossed arrives in Montreal to clear Customs the following Monday.

Cheers! Mike

Mike's cocooned Polsten - note the nice 10.50 X 16 spare tyres...

[RHClarke]

Just add beer and the subject will make more sense...Mike's Polsten and a civy pattern prime mover heading up to the RoRo ramp.

[Gunner]

Safely ensconced on the hold of the Atlantic Conveyor, the Quad Polsten is now in the North Atlantic zig zagging its way to Halifax. ETA is 25 Apr then on a train to Montreal! Should be in Ottawa by 1 May.

Hooray, hooray the first of May... polsten guns arrive today!

Mike

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

Er... what about the pointy bits, y'know, where the bullets come out of?

[Gunner]

Eagle eyed Jiff:

You have accurately assessed that the as found photo has PAHBs which are conspicuously absent from the on the docks photos.

Note the long narrow crate strapped and tarped to the trail legs. PAHBs and RHBsWSI (Round, hollow bits with springs inside- known to some as magazines) were all carefully crated, strapped to the trails, tarped and fumigated (Canadian made crates that have been out of the country require expensive (200 sterling!) fumigation to ensure that no unwanted European bibits and bugs sneek into Canada!

The paper file on this adventure now outweighs the whole mounting!

I have become somewhat of an 'expert' (that is: a has been drip under pressure) so I could put together an aide memoire on the process complete with contacts.

Mike

Originally posted by Gunner
Safely ensconced on the hold of the Atlantic Conveyor,

That's as maybe, but what are you going to do about the Exocet problem?

R.

[Gunner]

Hi Richard:

I figure the Argies don't patrol the North Atlantic so she should be safe!

Any ideas on the dipper switch problem we are having with the FV 432 (where do the wires terminate so we can disconnect for repair or replacement)?

Mike

[Gunner]

Yesterday was the big day! The Polsten Quad 20mm finally arrived in good form after weeks of sea and road voyage from Bristol, UK to Ottawa via Liverpool and Halifax.

Proud Daddy, Gunner Mike noted with a grunt, that the 'little' one weighs in at just over 6000 pounds!

Delivery was at Customs House in Ottawa as a bonded shipment at 0900 yesterday. The actual clearing of Customs was somewhat anti-climatic after the paperwork adventures to get everything lined up. Goes to show... do your homework, get ALL the paperwork done and in order and the process took seven minutes including a congratulations from the Customs House supervisor on bringing a unique piece of Canadian history home.

The most excellent trucking firm of Central Freightlines of Truro Nova scotia (call Jake for your shipping needs at 1-902-895-1858) picked the gun up in Halifax, in bond, charged me LCL rates (about $900) and after clearing customs in Ottawa, drove the gun directly to the museum where we unloaded with our own resources. Talk about great service at a great price! My special thanks to fellow MLUer, Brad Mills, for his advice and the contacts for East coast trucking.

I want to publicly acknowledge fellow MLUer Clive Law for his always excellent advice and assistance. Thanks, Clive!

The folks at DFAIT who handle this stuff were most helpful and put to shame the reputation our civil service has for being unhelpful. They took a great deal of time to explain all the paperwork to me and suggested corrections that would make things simpler... we did burn up the fax machines but thats what faxes are for!

I have to mention Bob Grundy of British Military Vehicles (BMV) near Liverpool. Bob was kind enough on 12 hours notice to provide storage space for three days and to allow the fumigators to treat the gun and its wooden crates to meet phytosanitary standards for importation. Bob was a great host and drove me about the area, found me a cheap hotel and is handling the next big project... the Windsor Carrier... watch for more under the Carrier forum.

Lots of other folks helped out and they will all receive personal letters or emails. Suffice it to say... this was not a lone effort; my eternal gratitude to all the folks who provided advice or assistance. Thank you all.

Mike

[RHClarke]

Originally posted by Gunner
...Proud Daddy, Gunner Mike noted with a grunt, that the 'little' one weighs in at just over 6000 pounds!...

Mike,

Ouch! That hadda hurt coming out (of the wallet). Nevertheless, congratulations on taking the action to repatriate a piece of our heritage. Good on you! I can see the Cadets lined up to man the mount at Merrickville this July 1st...

Check your calendar to see if you can free up a Saturday evening (Arty Day perhaps) for fine dining chez nous. Note that Doc Hopper is turning 65 this month and there is a party to celebrate (I thought he was 65 fifteen years ago...). See PM for URL to invite.

Once again, Braaawvoh!

[Greg]

Gunner inspecting his new baby as it arrived home.

Cheers,
Greg

[Gunner]

Great picture, Gregg. Thanks!

Thats Gregg with his back to the camera for those who haven't met him yet!

A little update- we have the pup engine out and are working on getting it running. The four guns have been dismantled and are being derusted. The de-militarisation done at Brimingham Proof House was very well done... in the barrels a long 1/2 inch wide slot is cut from breech to past the forcing cone but just short of the body housing. When the barrel is installed it is invisible but absolutely prevents the firing of even blanks as there is no support for the casing wall in over 10 % of the arc. A number of other things were done to the breech block and other gubbins but cosmetically they look very good. A fair bit of rust in the lower two guns indicate that they were not under the tarp for some time during its storage.

The next step will be to pull the elevating ram to polish the shaft... don't want rust damaging seals that are still holding oil!

A detailed restoration will probably wait until next year, right now we want it looking passable for the National Aviation Museum Airshow in August.

More photos to follow.



Mike

[Marc Young]

Good to see my old Polsten has made it over the pond.
I was going to give it the full restoration treatment, then my wife had a baby, suddenly all my time evaporated, funny that!
I used to knock a restoration out in 4 months but it now takes me over a year just to paint a motorcycle!
I look forward to seeing mike give it the TLC I couldn't!