Ah! Gotcha You were meaning cockpit shape. Sorry

 

 

Your pic is T 44. you will find these are the tanks used in saving Private Ryan and Wheels of Terror to simulate Tigers of which there are only 2 left. Last of the slab sided turrets before your T-55 saucer type, 85 mm gun. Not many sold, John.

 

yes PAK as said. Don't like the pepper pot muzzle brake. To stop dust being thrown

up and betraying the gun's postion

my original #21

Sent: 29/11/2008 00:34

Well my guess is that is the PzH 2000 SPG fires a 155 mm shell to 25 miles. using a boosted South African projectile. German, Greek, Italian

H 

Here you go Flash, one pepperpot.

 

Here's his pal's nice Zundap, complete with MP40

 

 

Here's his own vehicle and show set-up, which offended quite a few people from time to time. His vehicle is post war and was used in the Michael Caine, Silvester Stallone film...Escape to victory.

How does owning a cannon square with your draconian firearms laws? Could he place it in the living room and point it at the front door to discourage jehovah's witness's?

 

I'm not surprised. Would not you as a Major and Knight's Cross Holder be  a bit hacked off waving a bit of useless belt in the air.

 

I think all MG38 belt was continuous; his is disintegrating link.

That was the very first thought that came to my mind too Flash.

Hobbs.... you can own anything you like, as long as the barrel has a 'De-activation Certificate.' I have a pal, who owned a fantastic WW2 25 pounder cannon, which was actually built under license in Canada. I've been waiting for him to drop off some photies for me for ages, but he's working and living in Wales at the moment. We had some fun with that, as he managed to get himself a complete firing mechanism for it and he used to rig up 'Maroon' charges and fire them off at shows. The crowds, which we gathered close, used to shit themselves and leap two foot off the floor, the bang was so loud, absolutely hilarious.

Yes, it's a tough life processing first thoughts such as is the link disintegrating.

What is the waggon? 

 

We do get problems when these deativated certificated Baikals, sold as gas pistols are reactivated with new rifling, extractors, and capable of handling 9mm Makarov (short)

Hundreds of relatively low-powered gas pistols are known to have been converted to discharge live ammunition in a workshop in the town before being smuggled into the UK. Improbably enough, the man at the heart of the trade was a local vet.

When police raided Andrius Rauba's house and workshop last August they discovered 106 firearms which had been converted, or were about to be converted, into deadly weapons. He had been buying so-called "alarm pistols" - low-powered weapons permitted by Lithuanian law - from the Russian manufacturer, Baikal, for as little as the equivalent of £10 each. He was then remodelling the barrels and even fitting silencers before selling them on for £300. By the time they reached the UK, British police believe they were retailing for around £1,500 a time.

Rauba, 37, who has two children, eight and four, is thought to have tried his hand at a number of enterprises because his vet's salary was so meagre. He dealt in second-hand cars and rubbed shoulders with cigarette smugglers and vodka bootleggers before turning to the conversion of weapons. His house boasts a home cinema, a new kitchen and a caravan in the driveway, which his wife suspects was bought with the proceeds

Some are thought to have been used in several of the so-called black-on-black gun crimes which have claimed scores of young victims in recent years.

In Manchester, conversions now account for more than half the illegal weapons recovered. Rauba's conversions are among the most accomplished British police have seen. He had been converting Baikal IZH pistols, which are similar to the 9mm Makarov, the standard police gun in the Baltics. Each weapon was usually sold with a silencer and live ammunition. They even had new barrels which had been painstakingly rifled to maintain the velocity and accuracy of each round.

So what I am saying is when The Major starts e-mailing us from the Seychelles, we'll klnow he got a good price for the 25 pdr

Flash.... you can see in message one, my mate's old AEC gun-tractor. He had a penchant for gun-tractors, so when he bought his first one.... what goes on the back of a gun-tyractor? why a gun of course, so he bought himself the 25lb'er, complete with muzzle brake. Once he'd laid his hands on a firing mechanism, he converted a few shells to take a maroon charge, which he fired electically, but not before filling the barrel with tissue paper, because once the charge went off, a six foot flame would shoot out of the barrel. It was all very impressive and VERY loud. One day he was approached by a friend for a special favour, he was getting married and would he mind firing a gun salute at his wedding? Certainly he said and so we coupled up the gun and set off for the big occasion. We set up the cannon right outside the tiny church and as it was such a special occasion we decided to go the whole hog and use a few charges instead of one. The knot tied, the whole congregation filed out of the church and stood around the gun awaiting the salute to the happy couple. They were elated by the sight and beside themselves with joyous expectation. A small boy was given the honour of firing it and so we lifted him onto the small wooden seat that was the firer's stool. When all was ready the boy pressed the button. There was one almighty BOOM followed by a twelve-foot sheet of flame from the barrel. The whole gathering leapt a foot into the air with shock, the bride's grandmother fainted and a dozen women or more burst into a mixture of tears and hysterics. The young lad who had fired it set off running in circles, holding his hands across the side of his head and yelling from the pain.Then, burning pieces of paper from the barrel began to float down onto the dresses of the bridesmaids and to top it all off, the vicar then emerged ashen from the church door complaining loudly about the number of windows that had cracked!    We did not attend the dinner.

I would vouch for that.

 

I never know exactly what a maroon was (except a particularly vicious tribe of runaway Jamaican slaves) but a spent a summer (1957) in Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast. The beach was shingle and there were 2 lifeboats manned by RNLI Volunteers.

 

FILE: apgottwold1.jpg TITLE: The Alfred Patience Gottwold DESCRIPTION: CREDITS: COPYRIGHT:

 

Aldeburgh Lifeboat 1950-80 14/5/07 [email protected] FILE: apgottwold5.jpg TITLE: The Alfred Patience Gottwold DESCRIPTION: CREDITS: COPYRIGHT:

Note steadying sail.

 

In top (launching) pic you can see the capstan.

 

Anyway, every so often you'd hear the most godawful double explosion, and I was told those were "maroons" calling the crews out. My Uncle lived in Snape 4 miles away and you could hear them clear as crystal there.

 

No accessible phones in those days of course. So, thanks for the memories To this day I don't know what a maroon looks like. Thank You google, I'll have a shufti soon.