War & Peace 2012

A subdued  2012 show due to loosing some of our allocated ground to a nearby WWII group. This resulted in being unable to put up our museum display  platoon tent due to the lack of space for vehicles and  planned displays.

This was  very regrettable for the public and specially for our members who 
spend all year preparing and building for the show!  The appalling British weather we had leading up to the show opening  certainly did not help as well. 

Despite all this, we still managed to win First Prize for  "Best Artillery Award".

As previous years, Charlie 2/7 Mortar platoon was part of our main display and the 2/327th INF, 101st Airborne provided us with a first class continuation of the Vietnam Experience.

This year RT center display was Stuart's M1 A1 155mm Howitzer with full crew and M332 ammo trailer and load of ammo!!! This was incredible and deserved a place in a full time museum!

As on previous years we had donation boxes in various places on our display as we collected on behalf of 
"BLIND VETERANS UK", previously known as St Dunstan.
http://www.blindveterans.org.uk

Thanks to generosity of the public we managed to raise £38.70 
with a further £20 collected during a previous smaller vehicle display.

Our Prize winning artillery piece was this Aussie marked L5 105mm Pack Howitzer, 
thanks to the Aussies for their hard work.

L5 105mm Pack Howitzer
 
The L5 Pack Howitzer was designed and built in Italy by OTO Mellara and was originally known as the Model 56. Specifications for the design stated the requirement for it to be fully transportable throughout the mountainous regions of Italy and Europe. Hence the pneumatic tyres for high speed towing and the ability for it to be dismantled into 112 sections for transport across rough terrain.  The weapon was, in fact, light enough to be carried slung underneath the Bell UH1 Iroquois helicopter.
Original production began in 1957 and was soon adopted by many countries throughout the world. Production ceased in 1984 with some 4200 weapons delivered. The weapon has seen action in many combat areas, including by the British in South Yeman and Borneo, Australia and New Zealand in South Vietnam with Argentina using the weapon in the 1982 Falklands campaign.
The L5 has a very short barrel with a multi baffle muzzle brake, a hydraulic buffer and helical recuperator and a vertical sliding wedge breech block. The weapon's normal crew was seven men and was towable by a long wheelbase Landrover. An advantage of the L5 was that it fired the same 105mm ammunition as the American M101 and M102 field guns.
This type of ammunition was manufactured world-wide and included High Explosive (HE), smoke, illumination and High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT).
A modification developed during the Vietnam conflict was the Flechette round, designed for local defence, in which a round fired at close range exploded shortly after leaving the barrel, sending out thousands of 2" finned steel darts. The maximum range, at full charge, was 10575m or 11565 yards.

FIGHTING 92nd ARTILLERY 
1ST HOWITZER BATTALION

2/327th  INF 101st Airborne

"NO SLACK"

Arena Battle photo report from Phil Royal

The Glynde Epic 2012

Where British Civil history meet Vietnam. 
Glynde place, near Lewes, East Sussex. 

For us, this was one of the best show of 2012, the weather for once stayed mostly dry for this 3 day events in 
the magnificent grounds of an Elizabethan Manor house with views of the South Downs.

For 3 days, we went back in time to the 17th century when the army of King Charles and Oliver Cromwell 
would  once again cross swords and 16 foot pikes as well as exchange muskets and canon fire.

More recent history was represented by Napoleonic Wars reenactment societies as well as WWII 
and of course our Vietnam experience. 

This was truly an Epic event and we would like to thanks organizer, staff,  participant and the public 
for this great 3 days of Living History.
       

Saturday

Sunday

 

Monday