Canadian Bombardier Iltis "96A"

[Stuart Fedak]

Text removed as information is no longer current

[maple_leaf_eh]

Nine Six Alpha

[Ed Storey]

96A is a fixed Call Sign. No secret decoder ring required although a good working knowledge of the organization of a Canadian Infantry Battalion or any of the other units within a Canadian Brigade will reveal the vehicle's placement within these formations.

Remember, some of these vehicles bounced around between different units and deployments, so the remains of fixed call sign could be only one piece to a vehicle's history.

Much like genealogy, the research into the service use of these vehicles involves more then just one simple email for information.

[rob love]

Simple answer is the 96A is the callsign of one of the MP (or RP) dets. So the callsign matches the vehicle's Military police configuration.

[Michael R.]

Stuart,
perhaps pronounced as 'NINer-six-alpha', . . . without the use of ten signals, aka ten codes.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

I am cutting off the front fenders of a 1985 Canadian Bombardier Iltis ...
So my question is what would the 96A indicate?

Cheers!

Stuart

According to the big book of Radiotelephone Procedure for the Canadian Forces, 96A is not an MP callsign. Niner is reserved for command and staff. Six is reserved for the signals officer. Alpha typically is the first assigned call sign in a group.

If there was to be a fortuitous find for you and your interests, 96A would be the one!

[super dave]

I had one here with the same call sign.

[rob love]

What is the tac sign on the Iltis Dave? Infantry or armoured? I am pretty sure that in my grey matter the memory says 96A is meathead. It certainly is in the armoured corp, and I am pretty sure it was in the 2VP as well.

[super dave]

Sorry no tac sign on that unit.

[super dave]

If you ever need the whole complete front fender I have a few left

[rob love]

It is one thing to purchase replacement fenders etc for a SMP vehicle that is in use all over the world like the M35 (MLVW) but when were the last country in the world to manufacture a vehicle, then you better be buying a lifetime supply of body parts unless you are OK with spending a fortune hacing a contractor make the dies and forms to manufacture them new every 3 or 5 years.

While in some cases the DND will make it's buys based on useage, in others it will be a lifetime buy.

As to not replacing major body panels, there is a big difference between owning one or two, and trying to maintain an aging fleet of vehicles that were driven to their physical limits every time they would go to the field. There were around 60 Iltis in Shilo alone. Multiply that by 2 fenders per truck, and you could have a body man doing nothing but fenders for a year. Patch and play was the norm for the Iltis, as it was for the older M38A1 fleet.

[super dave]

That was only one load Stuart, If I remember right there were about 300 total and here was how some were stacked in the warehouse .

[302Trooper]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

Dave, Nice warehouse space. Dry warehouse space is the way to go. At Prefair in Montreal, they had a wall of fender boxes in the wooden crates, all outside. Over the years, with the snow load on the crates, they all seemed to fall over in a tangled mess.

Having somewhere dry to store NOS parts is the real cost of keeping parts and fleets alive. Locally, we had some repair panels, but the cost of storage was greater than the market for repair panels would support. So we got rid of most of the panels. Now, I just worry about my own small fleet....

Anyways, I am grateful to you, Sung and Marc P. for investing in inventory, good storage and being willing to share with others to Keep Them Rolling.... When I was on TD at CF Edmonton, I went to visit Sung, who showed me some of his warehouse space.

Cheers!
Stuart

96A if the tac sign shows Armoured like Rob Love had indicated it would be the RP's Iltis and not the Sheriff's (MP Sgt attached to the unit) which is C/S 96.

Dave

[Steve Harris]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

When blowing out the rocker panels last fall, a brass casing fell out of the Canadian Bombardier Iltis 96A. I really know zero about such things, so excuse my ignorance in the correct terminology. It appears to be a 9 mm para brass case that was used as a blank. It has the folded upper section as used in blank ammunition. The head stamp is "IVI" which I think is Industries Valcartier.... has the NATO stamp and the numbers 83.

I used my metal shop measuring kit to measure the casing, and it meets the 9 mm specifications that I found.

So what 9 mm handgun would have been in use, and carried in the Bombardier Iltis. Remember this was an MP Iltis.....

Your thoughts?

Stuart

Browning Hi-power, used since ww2. Or Sterling sub-machine gun.

[Jason Graveline]

Originally Posted by Stuart Fedak

snip

So what 9 mm handgun would have been in use, and carried in the Bombardier Iltis. Remember this was an MP Iltis.....

Your thoughts?

Stuart

The C1 SMG or Inglis Browning High Power readily come to mind, but if it was a 9mm blank, I'd guess that it was fired from a SMG.

[Ed Storey]

Since the headstamp date is 1983, it could also have been fired by a C1 SMG as these SMGs were not phased out until the mid-1980s.

One sure way to tell would be through forensics as Inglis/Browning Pistols and C1 SMGs have distinct extractor marks.

[Jason Graveline]

Stuart,

Can you post a picture of the primer showing the firing pin strike? Any nicks or dents on the sidewalls of the casing?

[rob love]

It was only in the last decade or so that the MPs went to the Sig 225. Models 226 or 229 could also be found in other arms of the service. So potentially you could have an MP in an Iltis with a Sig handgun. But the 1983 date on the case makes it extremely unlikely. As the others have said, most likely a SMG-C1 fitted with BFA. There was no BFA for the pistol, and in general, you did not fire blanks from the hipowers. I won't say never, but I will say not very often.

[B. Harris]

Will the fired blank casing eject from the HP. Thats the question.
The pistol might go bang once, and then the empty gets hung in the ejection port ?

Gun plumbers weigh in?

Harris

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by B. Harris

Will the fired blank casing eject from the HP. Thats the question.
The pistol might go bang once, and then the empty gets hung in the ejection port ?

Gun plumbers weigh in?

Harris

Yes. In my experience, the 9mm Browning is not good at ejecting fired blanks.

The extractor pulls the empty out as the slide retracts. The ejection port is big enough for an empty casing or an unfired cartridge, but it is not long enough to eject a fired blank. The star crimp opens out and conforms to the shape of the chamber.