tanks

[Vic Eaton]

HELLO ALL
Coming soon as soon as i can find someone to put them on
are two pictures of tanks they are mk five cruiser tank
called COVENANTERS i have had these pictures for fifty years
my farther framed them during the war and put them on my bedroom wall looks like they were taken here in england
regards to all vic eaton uk

[Richard Farrant]

Hi Vic,
The Covenanter was only used for training in the UK, so your photo will almost certainly be over here.

There is a Covenanter bridgelayer displayed at the Lancers Museum, Parramatta, Sydney, must have been a rare escapee from the UK.

Richard

[Vic Eaton]

HELLO RICHARD
Thanks for the info on the COVENANTERS Yes it does say
on the photoes that they are on a training exercise the first picture shows eight tanks with what looks like a bedford MW
and a bren carrier in the background and the second picture show three tanks close up vic .
PS stamped on the front it says BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH NO BH7943

[Douglas Greville]

Originally posted by Richard Farrant

There is a Covenanter bridgelayer displayed at the Lancers Museum, Parramatta, Sydney, must have been a rare escapee from the UK.

Richard

I may be mistaken, but Puckapunyal has what appears to be a Covenanter Bridge Layer - which would be an exceedingly rare beasty I would think?
If it isn't, then it is definetly an A - something, pre Crusader for
sure.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Douglas Greville
I may be mistaken, but Puckapunyal has what appears to be a Covenanter Bridge Layer - which would be an exceedingly rare beasty I would think?

Doug,
I have just dug out my guide book from Pucka' and you are right, they also have a Covenanter bridgelayer. According to the book, 8 of these bridgelayers were sent to Australia in 1943 and were used on active service on three occasions, at Bougainville, Balikpapan and Labuan.

It was the gun tank only, that did not see action.

Richard

[John McGillivray]

There was a movie made in 1944 called "The Immortal Battalion" starring David Niven which had some Covenanter tanks in it, along with a lot of other British Army equipment.

[Vic Eaton]

HELLO JOHN
Ill look out for that film it could well come up here one day
judging by the old films they show here at times like christmas
but i expect that will be the one that never comes should soon be able to put some photos on here
regards vic

[tankbarrell]

Vic,
The film has been on over here, but it was called 'The Way Ahead'.
Some good footage of Covenanters moving cross country. Incedentally, there is a Covenanter under slow restoration in New Zealand. It is an ex-bridgelayer but will be restored as a gun tank. I can confirm the Pucka and Paramatta Covenanters, saw them both earlier this year.

[Tony Smith]

I'll bet the weather was a pleasant change from the dreary conditions so often found in England

[tankbarrell]

Tony,
I see you caught my worst side....:
And to think they call it sunny paradise, I hadn't seen rain like that since Beltring

[Vic Eaton]

have a look at this one

Originally posted by Tony Smith
I'll bet the weather was a pleasant change from the dreary conditions so often found in England

Ah, but think of the fun getting your old army truck/carrier/tank muddy; Ballard had a fit looking at the Blitz video and people driving (sometimes) through the only sticky patch in Oz. One slightly soft Beltring he grumbled for 5 days and spent the time with an electricians screwdriver picking the putty from the DTB F15 Trakgrips, as you do.

This what you should do (if the dumbware lets me attach it that is). . . . . . . .

R.

[Mike Kelly]

The local MV club here in past years had the occasional mud bash trip in the bush . These days the precious Jeeps are deemed to be too valuable to treat this way . Get the MB or GPW muddy - Hell will freeze over before that happens again . Nowadays they are treated like show ponies , polished and pampered til they shine !

The Covanteer tanks . A Late night movie often screened here has people running around saving a rare bird called the TAWNY PIPIT . The film was shot in the UK during WW2 , it has some great close up scenes of Covanteer or similar tanks on training .
The army uses the birds nesting ground for training purposes .
Cannot think of the film's name ! Old age again .

Mike

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by FV623
This what you should do

Ahhh, now that is Owen Perry's Windsor and looking at the ground, must have been at the infamously wet Denmead.

Richard

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Mike Kelly
These days the precious Jeeps are deemed to be too valuable to treat this way . Get the MB or GPW muddy - Hell will freeze over before that happens again . Nowadays they are treated like show ponies , polished and pampered til they shine !

Mike,

What about this one: http://members.lycos.nl/elevado33/scriptgpw/HTML/
An early Ford GPW "script" jeep for a mere €22500 / 26,746.74 USD / 34,835.82 CAD / 37,089.22 AUD....
It is the most expensive one I have seen advertised to date (though I don't pay particular attention to jeeps). Before the Euro came the magic figure was 25000 Guilders, roughly half of what the owner of this GPW is asking. I wonder if it actually sells for that price, though.

Check http://www.milweb.net/ for more price ideas - it seems M201s are about evenly priced as MBs/GPWs these days.

So how did we go from talking tanks and ended up talking jeeps?

Hanno

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
So how did we go from talking tanks and ended up talking jeeps?

Y'know what we call'em, and why. . . . . . .

R.

Originally posted by Richard Farrant
Ahhh, now that is Owen Perry's Windsor and looking at the ground, must have been at the infamously wet Denmead.

Richard

Indeed so, I even had to pull it out with the 623 so "infamously wet" is appropriate; in fact the Stalwart was stalwart covering some 30 miles around the Demead site.

I pulled them all in and I pulled them out again, as the saying goes. . . . . . .

R.