NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 11 JANUARY 2010

Hi and welcome to another catch up of what was new on Miliblog this week !

Well we fancied a break from the Normandy and Eastern Front Collections, so I have added some more preserved vehicle photos at last ! As usual, I’ve shown some samples below to whet your appetite ! 

For the modellers amongst us, there’s a nice photo of an AEC Militant Mk3 Breakdown showing all the crane and equipment on the back of the vehicle. I believe Accurate Armour have a lovely model available of this Militant and this should help any of you that are building that kit. Next we have another British postwar heavy, in the form of a Scammell Constructor 20 Ton 6×6 Tractor in RAF colours and owned by a member of the Norfolk Military Vehicle Group.

Next we have a rare US Army 1941 Ford 2G8T 1.5 Ton 4×2 Cargo, which is even more unusual as it was taken here in the UK. Some years ago I worked for a catering company based in Stafford, and driving to work each morning I used to see many RAF vehicles driving away all loaded up from RAF Stafford. If only I had been able to stop and take some photos ! Amongst them were about 6 Leyland Daf 50-160 4×2 Trucks, one being 10 KL 44, which I have shown below. Often going home at night I would see them heading home to the camp to be loaded overnight for the next day’s journey.

Now something for our aircraft enthusiasts ! It’s a Vulcan V-Bomber, number XH-538 in fact. If you’ve ever seen and especially heard one of these beautiful aircraft, you are very lucky indeed. If you appreciate British engineering at it’s height -pardon the pun – and when good old Great Britain actually made something, then you cannot help looking in awe at this marvellous aircraft. Our V-Bomber collection is growing and if you have a look in the Aircraft/British Aircraft/Post war to 1970′s/V-Bomber photo gallery you can see some more examples.

Next to show that Miliblog doesn’t just start with World War 2, we have a nice WW1 Wolseley GS Lorry. It’s quite an old photo and looks like it’s taken in Brighton, probably after completing the London-Brighton Commercial Vehicle Run. Does anyone know if it is still around ?

Finally, I couldn’t resist of slipping in two more from the Normandy Collection. The first is of a Red Ball Express convoy of gasoline tankers with a watchful MP and the other is a camp of captured war booty in the form of German tanks. How much would they be worth now ? I’m sure Kevin Wheatcroft would be interested to add to his fantastic collection !!!

So my fellow enthusiasts, back to my trusty scanner and some more for your enjoyment !

Cheerio !

Simon  

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 4 JANUARY 2010

Hello again and welcome to 2010 and what’s been added this week on Miliblog.

Well we have continued adding more photographs and now we have completed Volume 1 of the Normandy 1944 Collection, which we hope will be as popular as our Eastern Front Collection, and have started Volume 2. In fact, judging from the website statistics for December, many of you have enjoyed visiting the Eastern Front Collection, with many visits from our fellow enthusiasts in Germany.

To our military vehicle enthusiasts, we still have many more photos to add to the website of various vehicles. However if you can’t find a photo of your own vehicle yet, then we’d be very happy to receive an email with a photo of your vehicle attached to share with our fellow enthusiasts.

So please find below ten more samples from the photos posted this week.

Have a great week ! With all the snow on the ground, it’s been a lovely playground to test the four-wheel drive systems of our old military vehicles.

Cheerio !

Simon

Normandy 1944 Collection No 212

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 28 DECEMBER 2009

Hi there and welcome to what’s new on Miliblog this week.

Or rather, what was new on Miliblog this week, as we catch up on the weekly newsletters !

Well after posting the first 500 of the Eastern Front Collection featuring the battleground between the German forces and the Soviet forces, we’ve received many emails asking if we had any photos showing the campaign in France after D-Day in June 1944. The answer has been a very loud ‘Yes’ and so this week after much hard work, the first batch of photos were posted into the Normandy 1944 Collection. I’ve loaded ten samples below to show you what are available. Although having seen the photos myself many times, I still get a real buzz seeing our preserved military vehicles actually in action. The Jeeps, the Jimmies, the Beeps, the liberated captured equipment as well as the troops wearing the uniforms and equipment that many of us collect or wear. Looking closer into the photos, you can see the amount of devestation to the French towns and villages that happened during the battles. The Liberation certainly came at a price.

If you are not sure how to visit these collections, go to the main menu and chose ‘Gallery of Photo Collection’. Then chose ‘Original WW2 Photos’ and then ‘Eastern Front Collection’ or ‘Normandy 1944 Collection’. You can start at Tab 1 and as you go through click on a photo to enlarge it onto your screen. Click again and you should be able to really enlarge the photo onto your screen. Some are really sharp photos, taken by the US Signal Corps, while others are a little blured as they were taken by troops at the frontline with their amateur cameras.  Don’t forget, you can also click on any of the sample photos below to enlarge them !

We’re going concentrate on adding more to both the Normandy and the Eastern Front collection over the next few weeks. I hope you will be interested in viewing these photos which give a fantastic insight of what the conditions were at the front line.

Meanwhile a happy new Year to you all and the thoughts of a more prosperous year ahead for all of us. 

Cheerio !

Simon 

   

  

Normandy 1944 Collection No 35

  

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 21 DECEMBER 2009

Hi and welcome to Miliblog in this Christmas week !

We’re all stuffing our faces this week with turkey, sprouts and new potatoes and hoping that we have all been good boys and girls and that Santa Claus will bring us some nice presents. It’s the time of year to think about friends and family overseas, living or working far away from home. It started me thinking of many in the forces away from their loved ones on overseas postings, and with a nice glass of red wine and a mince pie, thinking further back to those from other countries that came together as the Allies in World War 2.  

We’ve featured many vehicles of many nations this year on Miliblog but really have so far included military badges of just the UK and the USA. So following that theme, we’ve added a small number of badges to Miliblog this week. We have Belgian, Canadian and Polish badges as well as others from South America. Many people came to the UK and enlisted in the RAF in WW2 and each were given their own badge to illustrate which country they came from. As usual I’ve shown a few samples below.

So back to the presents and hope Santa has bought us a nice book on old Bedford army lorries !

Cheerio and a very Happy Christmas to you all from Miliblog !

Simon 

Hi there everyone and welcome to what’s new on Miliblog this week

With 500 photographs now in the Eastern Front Collection, we though we’d take a break and add something else to the collection for your entertainment. So we’ve added about 30 new vehicle photos, including some nice Fordson Thames E4 3 Tonners, some M2 Alligators and a film star !

So I’ve added in some samples below for tempt you to visit them. The RAF used many Standard Vanguards in the 1950′s and 1960′s and our first photo shows a preserved Pick Up – or Ute as they are known in Australia. Next we have an unusual Bedford RL 3 Tonner GS, but with a Mine/Armoured Cab. The idea was that when the vehicle went over a mine in the road, the blast was driven away from the cab and protected the crew. The idea was later used by the South African Army vehicles and also later still with more modern military designs. Next is a Land Rover 101 GS with unusual arabic markings and camouflage  

Our next sample is a rather unusual Leyland Hippo Mk3, but as a 4×2 Tractor unit rather than the usual 6×4 Tanker or GS we normally see. Looking at the fashions in the photo it must be from the 1970′s. Next is a National Service special in the form of a Fordson Thames E4 3Ton 4×4 Breakdown truck. Anyone who collects old Dinky or Matchbox toys will recognise the cab from the Ambulance model that was made. Used as a breakdown truck in Aviemore, I’d be very interested to hear from anyone of you who lives in the town and could say if it’s still there !   

Next we have a very interesting photo indeed of a German manufactured vehicle in service with the British Army. It is a EWK-KHD M2 Alligator Amphibious Bridging/Ferrying Vehicle, and on this photo one of the sides has been dropped down. The other side will drop down and the vehicle driven into the river along with  a number of other Alligators. The idea is to join them all up side to side to form a quick bridge to get vehicles across. They even have a motor on the back to manouvre them about the river.

Lastly we have our film star ! The Chevrolet 1.5Ton driven by Pop Larkin (David Jason) in the British TV show of the 1990′s, ‘The Darling Buds of May’, it also carried Catherine Zeta-Jones who was making her first TV appearance before moving on to the bright lights of Hollywood. 

So have a great week doing your Christmas shopping and we’ll see you next week !

Cheerio !

Simon

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2009

Hello again and welcome to this week’s newsletter of what’s new on Miliblog.

Well my trusty little scanner has been working flat out and we have now completed 500 photos in our Eastern Front Collection. We still have some more to bring you, but I think maybe we all fancy a change ! Below I’ve added some smaples from this week’s additions, and the first one shows again that there were many horse-drawn transports in the German Army. Just look how tired these guys are. Next is one for you aircraft enthusiasts, which is a Fiesler Storch (Stork) communications and reconnaissance aircraft. If you would like to see a preserved example, the Aircraft Museum at RAF Cosford, in Shropshire UK has a fine example on display. The next photo shows a load of early Russian T-34 tanks after a battle. What force it must have taken to flip over one of them. Ideal photo for our modelling friends shows a Pak 37 37mm anti-tank gun, complete with crew in firing position. The last sample for the week shows just how unprepared the German Army was for the cold and for winter camouflage, having to use ‘liberated’ white bedsheets to cover their field grey uniforms.

So let’s have a look in the scanner box and see what we have for you for next week !  

Cheerio !

Simon

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2009

Hi and welcome to another late weekly report of what’s new on Miliblog this week.

Sorry but scanning over 500 photos of the Eastern Front certain takes a load of time and so the report this week is just a short one. Below are some samples of the photos we have added to the Eastern Front Collection with the first one showing two soldiers using a local hand cart to transport their radio. Useful photo for modellers who may want to reconstruct this scene in miniature and also shows detail of the army radio. Next we have a nice Horch field car stuck in the deep snow and illustrates just how hard the conditions were. Following that is a photo of an early Russian T-34 tank with it’s turret completely blown off.  We often think of huge columns of motorised transport heading East in the invasion of Russia in 1941, but this next photo reminds us that a great part of the German Army’s transport consisted of horses. There have been many stories of good strong farm-horses being conscripted from farms all over Germany and Austria to be used to pull wagons on the Eastern Front and I think this photo just illustrates what we have been talking about.  Next photo is one for the modellers and shows a strongpoint made from logs. Who knows, we may even see a copy of this at the War and Peace Show in Kent next July ! And the final sample photo this week shows a nice convoy of Opel and Mercedes 3 Tonners, but in better weather. Again another interesting photo for our modelling friends as it shows just how the canvas cover hangs loose on the truck.  

So it’s back to my trusty scanner and wish you all well !

Cheerio !

Simon 

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2009

Hi and welcome to this week’s newsletter of what’s new on Miliblog

Well we’ve been concentrating on scanning more of our Eastern Front Collection and getting them onto the website for you to see. So we are a little late again in catching up on our newsletter but for a good reason. Once we’ve scanned in our first 500 for the collection, then I’ll pop on a few more preserved vehicles from the scanning box.

Until then, please find below some samples to tempt you to visit the Eastern Front Collection. The first one is especially interesting in that it shows a British Valentine Tank, sent to the Russian Army that’s been knocked out and being inspected by German troops. 

Have a great week !

Cheerio !

Simon

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2009

Hi there and a welcome to what’s new on Miliblog this week, although a little belated !!!

So as we have mentioned over the last couple of weeks, we have a huge collection of original photos from the Russian or East Front of WW2. These were mainly taken by the troops themselves rather than any official government photographer and show the horror on warfare. Some may be a little graphic in detail, and if you are offended by this I apologise, but that was what went on at the time. We have called it the Eastern Front Collection and can be found under Original WW2 Photos. 

There are quite a few in the collection, so to make it easier, I have split out the first 250 photos and called it Volume 1.  They are quite diverse, from Russian POW’s, lorries and cars stuck in the mud, soldiers all kitted up standing by for a battle and even horse-drawn supply wagons. One thing that amazes me to see is just how un-mechanised the Germany Army was, having to rely quite a lot on these horse-drawn vehicles.

I hope you enjoy visiting the collection. Whenever I look at these photos, it really brings home how grim the winter fighting was for both sides. Look deep into the photos, as some are pretty atmospheric. I’ve included 8 examples below for a taste.

So it’s back to my trusty scanner and a hot cup of coffee !

See you soon !

Cheerio !

Simon   

NEW THIS WEEK – MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2009

 

Hi there and welcome to this week’s newsletter of what’s new on Miliblog.

Well to start with, as promised last week,  we have scanned and sorted 60 photographs of German WW2 servicemen from all areas of the forces. I’ve included 4 samples below to illustrate them. To find them simply look at Gallery of Photo Collection/Original WW2 Photos/German WW2/Studio Photos.

As we said in the header, we hesitated at first in putting these photos on the website, but fealt justified in that there are many enthusiasts all over the world who have an interest in uniforms. Whether it be in making accurate model figures, collecting uniforms or even battle re-enactors. As we continue to say, we are NOT a political website and so these photos are shown purely for the historical interest.

We also visited the Classic Car Show at the NEC Exhibition Centre near Birmingham this weekend and armed with my old digital camera we set off early to beat the crowds. Got there to find the **** camera chose not to work again. So an easy answer to the question ‘what do I want for Christmas !’ However despite asking our daughter to take some photos of nice green machines rather than the shiny American Mustangs, the light in the NEC was pretty bad and so hardly any of the photos came out good enough to share with you. So I am very sorry to the team on the Ex-Military Land Rover Association stand, who I promised one lady especially her photo would be on our website, we let you down. I can say however that their display of Landies of all sorts was fantastic. The fully kitted Land Rover 101Vampire was especially impressive with the interior all kitted out. The guy there told us it was used in the Cold War days and sat by the border listening into the East German and Russian radio traffic. Also a big thank you to Andrew Baker of the Alvis Fighting Vehicle Society who was exhibiting one of his superb Alvis Scorpion CVRT Tanks on the Alvis stand. He told me he has over 40 similar tanks at home and has a unique collection of evry model produced by Alvis in the CVRT range, including some pretty rare ones. My daughter said it took me at least an hour until I closed my mouth again after hearing that !

Next is a big thankyou to Martin, I’m sorry I don’t know your surname, who emailed us asking if we had any military coaches on Miliblog. Not yet was the answer, but a quick look in the ‘to scan’ box came up with a few that I couldn’t yet identify. I quick email back to Martin came back with a whole load of detail on the coaches and their history. So we have now been able to add another area of military vehicles to the website. If you read this Martin a big thank you for all your help ! A lovely photo of a Bedford SB3 Coach is shown below and if you look closely, you will see it’s from RAF Wildenrath in Germany. Another photo, also a Bedford SB3 but with a later Strachans body with a certain 1970′s faded photo look on a nice sunny day. Finally a Leyland Leopard Coach carrying the Queen’s Colours Squadron of the Royal Air Force. In fact he us a lovely photo of one such coach at the end of it’s service life, up for sale at the auction.

So as we mentioned last week, we will soon be showing a huge collection of original photos from the Russian or East Front of WW2. These were mainly taken by the troops themselves rather than any official government photographer and show the horror on warfare. Some may be a little graphic in detail, and if you are offended by this I apologise, but that was what went on at the time. We have called it the Eastern Front Collection and can be found under Original WW2 Photos. 

So back to the scanner which much work to do !

Have a great week !

Cheerio !

Simon