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.................................................................................................................................The next Fandance is Sat 18th May 2024......................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................TO PAY YOUR MEMBERSHIP FEES .....................................................................................................................................Please set up a STANDING ORDER to: ............................................................................................................................... Lloyds Bank Sort code: 30-90-09 a\c No: 30516068
Having taken into account the current COVID restrictions that currently apply in the different parts of the UK, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 reunion.
The Chairman Nick Butler will be heading up the Fan at 0930 hrs on Saturday the 15th May and he will lay a BAFC wreath on behalf of the Club at the summit.
He will also toast The Fallen.
If other members wish to make their own pilgrimage up the Fan at their own risk please follow the relevant COVID restrictions that will be in place.
As a Club we are not able to accept liability for members safety and well being over the weekend of 14/15 May. Our Clubs insurance that normally covers Fandance will not operate this year.
Update to follow reference Aldershot 10 Miler on the 20th November 2021.
.........................................................................................................................The 10 Miler will be held on w/e Saturday 23rd November 2024........................................................................................
Tha loaded a Blindicide round to fire n launch downash n wi the kick tha got, it wuz about az accurate as my dart throwing where I do a lap of honour if I hit the boord!
many thanks for the info dave,i was 84 charley gustav number 2,then number 1 for most of my time with b coy 1 para.
my accuracy wasnt that much different,but when I piled in at Denmark in 77,i bent the fooker into a u shape..total write off like my spine etc,busting 5 vertebrae in the process!!.
many thanks for the info dave,i was 84 charley gustav number 2,then number 1 for most of my time with b coy 1 para.
my accuracy wasnt that much different,but when I piled in at Denmark in 77,i bent the fooker into a u shape..total write off like my spine etc,busting 5 vertebrae in the process!!.
Now that sounds nasty downash. A right old bang up. Vibes eternal....Does it ever change ? That must have took some getting over. They put you blokes out in high wind or summat ?
"If they control your speech.....they control your life" Me
Now that sounds nasty downash. A right old bang up. Vibes eternal....Does it ever change ? That must have took some getting over. They put you blokes out in high wind or summat ?
long story trubritt,try to keep it short,low ground speed,i was number 1 in the door with the 84 exited easy enough but I think the 1 second stagger wasn't quite so,banged shoulders plus rivet inspection into both of us in bad twists.
my opposite number was to my line of drift and slightly below.shouted to him that I was letting my container drop on the jettison rope.
on doing this I hit him on the neck with it,thus knocking him out..luckily not breaking his neck!.i drifted over the top of him and ran across the top of his chute grabbinghold of the apex,only with 1 hand.
I couldn't reach the jettison strap to let my fooking kit go,my hand lost its strength,so slipped down his chute with mine collapsing on me.
last thing I saw was being above the height of a set of pylons near the d.z.,and piled in with full kit and rig from about a 100 ft.
spent 3 months in hospital but I don't think I fully recovered my fitness as pre-pile in.now 40% disabled on a war pension,the rest is history,and finished my military career.funny enough,i was to be acting lance-corporal on that jump,their you go!!.
it was purely luck and nothing else!,the Danish specialist was totally baffled that I was not paralized from the neck down,at least not from the waist down.
he said if it was one more vertebra up it would have been a classic hang mans break and I wouldn't have felt a thing,19 years old and all over!.
glad to say mate,i still have all my faculties albeit with aches and pains,just had my 59th birthday,but did caterrick 10 miler tab
last year,now that really hurt!..utrinque paratus
rarely told the story to a civvie dave,they just wouldn't believe it would they!.
I have got a photo of it somewhere,taken by an officer from a-coy just as I was sliding down the side of my mates chute.
it appeared in the following months peggy mag,stating that we were arranging to meet in the local hospital later!.
my mate landed on a full chute albeit knocked out,all he had was a torn Achilles tendon,and was discharged a few days later.
Wasting breath talking to civvies downash, they,re on a completely different planet, especially the one,s who,ve done a charity lob n know everything Airborne. They just don,t av a fukkin clue but claim to know everything. Military lob they,d av a fukkin jam tart attack befoor gerrin on the chalk, that,s if they could actually manage ta stand up!
What was the kick like firing the Energa !! and was that the stance you fired it.
Taff, we used it in anger...........anger that there wasnt a flucking target up Country.
The lad in the top photo using it in standing position is the only way to enable to see through the sight.
Except we were trained with the left arm striate and over the stock, not under, as it was difficult to control.
Picture this, you get contact, the sec comm gives you the order to use it. Not against a tank but like a glorified grenade.
So bullets are flying around, you have to first unload, then you fix on that thingy on the the end of the barrel, (forget what you call it...never mind.
Then you load a ballistite cartridge, (a glorified blank) then you fix the grenade on the end, making sure you have armed it.
Then you contort your body in such a way to enable to aim, then that after deciding the distance to enable to know the elevation on the sight.
Target selected you fire, it falls short by about 20yds, so you reload a cartridge, and another grenade, arm it fire.
You then have to unload take off the thingy, load with a mag of ball and carry on.
All that to fire 2 grenades, and in the meantime a fire fight pursues.........a useless piece of kit. Why the fluck did I have to carry it?
Thank god I didn't have to use it. On top of which the scout chopper had to go diffy a pair of headphones.
There again why did we have the 84 and the wombat up Country when there were no tanks?
Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam
A Great Civilization is not Conquered from without
Until it has destroyed itself from within W.Durant
One thing I regret is never seeing the wombat and 84 cannister rounds,which I'm sure would've been devastating against attacking infantry.All we ever saw were TPTP and HEAT/HESH.We always used to get excited opening HESH containers,in the hope of seeing the 'new' black headed round,but always got the sand coloured ones dated 1957 or so.The 84 also had smoke and flare rounds,something again I never saw,but was the reason the Yanks bought it,and got rid of their equivalent which only fired HEAT.
it was purely luck and nothing else!,the Danish specialist was totally baffled that I was not paralized from the neck down,at least not from the waist down.
he said if it was one more vertebra up it would have been a classic hang mans break and I wouldn't have felt a thing,19 years old and all over!.
glad to say mate,i still have all my faculties albeit with aches and pains,just had my 59th birthday,but did caterrick 10 miler tab
last year,now that really hurt!..utrinque paratus
well done you mate, couple of our blokes had a similar accident, but unfortunately one is in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, while the other got away with light injuries. Case of there but by the grace of God !
We did fire practice rounds somewhere in Aldershot with 3 troop, reading what you say about the way to hold the rifle when firing makes me wonder if we actually stood up like the guy in the picture and fired? I thought we did but it was a long time ago, and we only did it once, seem to remember the round would splatter chalk on contact.
I seem to remember standing Tony.
"We're surrounded on all sides... Good... you're obviously in the right place".
One thing I regret is never seeing the wombat and 84 cannister rounds,which I'm sure would've been devastating against attacking infantry.All we ever saw were TPTP and HEAT/HESH.We always used to get excited opening HESH containers,in the hope of seeing the 'new' black headed round,but always got the sand coloured ones dated 1957 or so.The 84 also had smoke and flare rounds,something again I never saw,but was the reason the Yanks bought it,and got rid of their equivalent which only fired HEAT.
Whilst on one of them NATO demo's, we were told to dig a hive type trench, for over head cover.
Which we did, but evacuated before the RHA fired their cannister type round, which exploded approximately 40' above the covered trenches.
We couldn't find the trenches afterwards.
Same here Pat never saw cannister rounds for the Wombat, although we were instructed on them, in theory
Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam
A Great Civilization is not Conquered from without
Until it has destroyed itself from within W.Durant
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