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Norman D. Landing


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Johan Willaert
11 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Johan, I mentioned that Peter worked with motorcycles in the 50's / 60's, he did display riding for the Cinzano drinks company and each year covered the Tour de France bicycle events.  Here is a shot of him, Jim, Dowdall and George Kimmins doing a display for the public at Brehal France in 1975 on one of the European military tours that he organised through the 1970's.

Apologies I don't have a print of this, this is a negative that I shone a light at the rear and photographed the image  

Edited the photo for you...

Image1.jpg

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General Apathy
On 5/1/2020 at 1:31 PM, Johan Willaert said:

Thx Ken, I've been using that absolutely flat OD shade for all of my projects since 1994... It is extremely close to the Original finish and tarnishes and scratches just as easy...
I love the way it ages...

Picture below shows my harley WLA, same paint, except that all lights and horn are Original finish... you can see how close it matches but also the hues on the Original paint...

PaintFinish.jpg

Hi Johan,  yes great paint colour, love it . . . . . . . . . 

Seeing your leather scabbard reminds me of a funny story involving leather scabbards from the late 90's.  I had six original new old stock examples of the scabbard, at a show in Portsmouth just days before the preserved military vehicles departing Portsmouth for an anniversary tour I had one on show on my trade counter. A well dressed French gentleman inspected the scabbard and asked me to make a lower price, I made a small reduction, and he again said could I make it any lower I squeaked a touch more on it and said that any lower than that then it wouldn't be worth me selling it.  Well we shook hands and he paid me for it, I then said could I tell him something, he said but of course, so I said when you are trying to beat someone around the head to get a lower price it would pay not to wear a Diamond encrusted Rolex watch . . . . . . . . . he roared with laughter and shook my hand again.  He still speaks to me if I ever catch sight of him in Normandy with one of his many vehicles, bicycles to Shermans .. . . . . and everything between. 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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Johan Willaert
18 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Johan,  yes great paint colour, love it . . . . . . . . . 

Seeing your leather scabbard reminds me of a funny story involving leather scabbards from the late 90's.  I had six original new old stock examples of the scabbard, at a show in Portsmouth just days before the preserved military vehicles departing Portsmouth for an anniversary tour I had one on show on my trade counter. A well dressed French gentleman inspected the scabbard and asked me to make a lower price, I made a small reduction, and he again said could I make it any lower I squeaked a touch more on it and said that any lower than that then it wouldn't be worth me selling it.  Well we shook hands and he paid me for it, I then said could I tell him something, he said but of course, so I said when you are trying to beat someone around the head to get a lower price it would pay not to wear a Diamond encrusted Rolex watch . . . . . . . . . he roared with laughter and shook my hand again.  He still speaks to me if I ever catch sight of him in Normandy with one of his many vehicles, bicycles to Shermans .. . . . . and everything between. 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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Funny story... And I think I know the guy...

You mention George KIMMINS in the post about Peter Gray...
If I remember correctly, George Kimmins rode his Harley WLA in the opening scene of the 1979 movie 'Yanks'... See screenshot below...
For some reason I have always liked that film...

Image2.jpg

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Johan Willaert
33 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Johan, I mentioned that Peter worked with motorcycles in the 50's / 60's, he did display riding for the Cinzano drinks company and each year covered the Tour de France bicycle events. 

Wonder if this is them at about 01:24 in this short clip from the 1961 Tour de France

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxp41Hq9pw

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General Apathy
3 hours ago, Johan Willaert said:

Wonder if this is them at about 01:24 in this short clip from the 1961 Tour de France

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxp41Hq9pw

Hi Johan, can't be positive it's Peter Gray with that moving video clip, but I can tell you this one definitely is him . . . . . . . . :lol:

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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On 5/1/2020 at 5:21 AM, Dogsbody said:

Hi Ken, whilst still on the subject of bicycles here's a screenshot of some Dutch citizens getting reunited with a (not necessarily their former) bike again. The place is Nijmegen (you can see the Waal bridge in the background.

 

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Great photo of Nijmegen...looks like the Brit soldier is watching from the rear.

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manayunkman

I wish I still had my old photos of the junk yard at Trun.

I took pictures in 1974 and 1982.

In the 8 years between the two visits scavengers had decimated the supply.

I also had pictures of Alain Roudiex and his collection.

Excellent video Ron.

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1 hour ago, manayunkman said:

I wish I still had my old photos of the junk yard at Trun.

I took pictures in 1974 and 1982.

In the 8 years between the two visits scavengers had decimated the supply.

I also had pictures of Alain Roudiex and his collection.

Excellent video Ron.

That scrap yard would have been amazing to see.A good friend who is from Australia often tells me of finding the old abandoned airfields in the Northen areas.when he was a young kid in the 90s.Said there were aircraft relics were still there.He always wanted to cut a star off one of the bombers but felt bad about doing it so never did.He said finally a lot of the stuff had "disappeared".

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Johan Willaert
38 minutes ago, manayunkman said:

My sister sent me this picture of a Jeep coming up at auction in Delaware.

It is a Willys CJ2A model built between 1945 and 1949

1945jeepad.jpg

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manayunkman

In 1974 Trun was full of German stuff.

There was a copula to à Panzer IV.

A chassis to a Maultier Mule.

Lots of tank tracks and bogie wheels from all kinds of tanks and half tracks. 

Between Trun and the Moissy Ford I shipped a ton of stuff home.

The junk yard in Falaise had a mountain of Canadian amo boxes but there were treasures everywhere.

My big score was a wooden German amo full of railroad material from the German occupation.

Nazi passes from Frenchmen who worked on the RR in Normandy, porcelain RR car signs and the like.

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11 hours ago, doyler said:

Thought I would share this as it shows what it took to clean up Kens backyard after the war... ?

 

 

That was great. If love to see one of those helmet ingots. Also, were those mess kits round shaped? 

Mikie

 

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General Apathy
14 hours ago, doyler said:

Thought I would share this as it shows what it took to clean up Kens backyard after the war... ?

 

 

Hi Ron ,  well I have been digging through lots of boxes and cartons during five or six weeks of lock-down, I am tidying through stuff that should have been done before now or I should have made time to do this. 

Here's a new old stock Ford cylinder-head it's already in waxed protective boxing but I also sealed it into plastic sacks as extra protection. Note that the spark-plug threads have been sprayed with a soft wax preventing rust as they are bare metal and unpainted for earthing the plug. The bare metal surface on the gasket side and as can be seen on the top side was greased before packing and a paper cover added both surfaces are in perfect condition. 

I have been meaning to suggest for some time that anyone stocking spare Jeep cylinder heads to protect the threads as they will or do rust badly over time.  Personally I grease the threads and screw in old spark plugs hopefully protecting the integrity of the threads.  

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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General Apathy
12 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Ron ,  well I have been digging through lots of boxes and cartons during five or six weeks of lock-down, I am tidying through stuff that should have been done before now or I should have made time to do this. 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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Hi Ron ,  well I have been digging through lots of boxes and cartons during five or six weeks of lock-down, I am tidying through stuff that should have been done before now or I should have made time to do this. 

I re-discoverd these two water variations of the Jerrycan, the German one is marked ' WASSER ' the American just has the letter ' W ' towards the top of the can. The American can has the earlier style of opening with a screw-cap, this pre-dates the clam-type opening for water-cans which was adopted shortly after. 

Being matt paints and before photographing I sprayed a light oil over them to enhance the lettering . . . . . . . . . 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 04 2020 

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General Apathy
13 hours ago, manayunkman said:

My sister sent me this picture of a Jeep coming up at auction in Delaware.

 

DE5121D3-8A9C-46A3-8831-2354EAE7B44A.jpeg

Hi Pieter,  well it may not be a world war two jeep, but all Jeeps can be fun to drive. As it's a civilian Jeep it would be nice to be kept in civilian colours personally I think red with black wheels would suit this model which I believe was a regular colour scheme post war. 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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General Apathy
21 hours ago, Johan Willaert said:

Funny story... And I think I know the guy...

You mention George KIMMINS in the post about Peter Gray...
If I remember correctly, George Kimmins rode his Harley WLA in the opening scene of the 1979 movie 'Yanks'... See screenshot below...
For some reason I have always liked that film...

Image2.jpg

Hi Johan,  yes George and many other friends were in involved in the making of ' Yanks ' along with their own vehicles and uniforms.

The film was shot in Stockport and the surrounding villages and area.  At that time I had to visit Stockport twice a week to pick up cake and cookie products from Mr. Kipling cake bakeries, wherever I visited in the 70's and 80's I always checked out for local surplus stores. 

I spotted such a store as I drove through Stockport so I parked the truck and walked back to the store, my eyes nearly popped and my knees almost buckled I had found the mother-load of brand new unissued US Militaria. During the war close to Stockport was Burtonwood US Base Air Depot the largest throughout the UK and the European continent, at wars end 18,000 US service personnel worked on the base. Being such a large base and the number of 18,000 personnel then there had been a huge Quartermaster section, when the base finally closed in the 1950's most of the clothing stock went to this surplus store in Stockport. They had so much stock they bought an entire street of cheap houses in the road behind the store and filled every house and every room to chin height with clothing and equipment pieces. As no passageways had been made during filling the rooms it was necessary to work a gap into the room and back and forward up and down the rooms like a farmer ploughs a field picking stuff up checking it for sizes and date labels and placing behind and moving forward. 

I used to take a two hour lunch break each day I went to Stockport and visit the store, as I was a good customer I was allowed access all areas to search through for items I wanted. Before starting I would put-on a new pair of HBT coveralls and tape up tightly the ankles and wrists and wear a dust mask all this stuck had been sat in these buildings for around twenty years, so along with dust I didn't want any possible insect or such invasion of my clothing. I could list for several pages all the items that I saw just two which were the most impressive were the thousands of factory fresh M1 helmets and WAAC brown leather handbags, in that true expression of ' if I knew then what I know now ' regret then the helmets would have been a great pension pot if I had bought more of or all of them.  Sadly I have no photos of this Bonanza we didn't have cell phones in the 70's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What I did do was take a friend with me each week so that we could cover more ground and find more items and the sizes we needed in the allotted lunch break we had.

I never found any more places with so much volume and quality like this ever again.

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

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Johan Willaert
11 minutes ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Johan,  yes George and many other friends were in involved in the making of ' Yanks ' along with their own vehicles and uniforms.

The film was shot in Stockport and the surrounding villages and area.  At that time I had to visit Stockport twice a week to pick up cake and cookie products from Mr. Kipling cake bakeries, wherever I visited in the 70's and 80's I always checked out for local surplus stores. 

I spotted such a store as I drove through Stockport so I parked the truck and walked back to the store, my eyes nearly popped and my knees almost buckled I had found the mother-load of brand new unissued US Militaria. During the war close to Stockport was Burtonwood US Base Air Depot the largest throughout the UK and the European continent, at wars end 18,000 US service personnel worked on the base. Being such a large base and the number of 18,000 personnel then there had been a huge Quartermaster section, when the base finally closed in the 1950's most of the clothing stock went to this surplus store in Stockport. They had so much stock they bought an entire street of cheap houses in the road behind the store and filled every house and every room to chin height with clothing and equipment pieces. As no passageways had been made during filling the rooms it was necessary to work a gap into the room and back and forward up and down the rooms like a farmer ploughs a field picking stuff up checking it for sizes and date labels and placing behind and moving forward. 

I used to take a two hour lunch break each day I went to Stockport and visit the store, as I was a good customer I was allowed access all areas to search through for items I wanted. Before starting I would put-on a new pair of HBT coveralls and tape up tightly the ankles and wrists and wear a dust mask all this stuck had been sat in these buildings for around twenty years, so along with dust I didn't want any possible insect or such invasion of my clothing. I could list for several pages all the items that I saw just two which were the most impressive were the thousands of factory fresh M1 helmets and WAAC brown leather handbags, in that true expression of ' if I knew then what I know now ' regret then the helmets would have been a great pension pot if I had bought more of or all of them.  Sadly I have no photos of this Bonanza we didn't have cell phones in the 70's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What I did do was take a friend with me each week so that we could cover more ground and find more items and the sizes we needed in the allotted lunch break we had.

I never found any more places with so much volume and quality like this ever again.

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

I continue to be amazed at the sheer quantity of items produced in the US during the war...
Absolutely mindblowing!!

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manayunkman

Thanks for the information on the Jeep.

I wish I could afford one but it’s not in the cards.

The example shown looks like it needs a complete do over.

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Johan Willaert

Just to illustrate how far the marking of their parts went in the Ford jeep factory...

this is the steering tube to body dash  clamp with its attaching hardware... ALL parts have the typical F mark....

7BCFF92A-A8DD-486D-8094-62B0C9CE0F28.jpeg

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12 hours ago, General Apathy said:

Hi Ron ,  well I have been digging through lots of boxes and cartons during five or six weeks of lock-down, I am tidying through stuff that should have been done before now or I should have made time to do this. 

Here's a new old stock Ford cylinder-head it's already in waxed protective boxing but I also sealed it into plastic sacks as extra protection. Note that the spark-plug threads have been sprayed with a soft wax preventing rust as they are bare metal and unpainted for earthing the plug. The bare metal surface on the gasket side and as can be seen on the top side was greased before packing and a paper cover added both surfaces are in perfect condition. 

I have been meaning to suggest for some time that anyone stocking spare Jeep cylinder heads to protect the threads as they will or do rust badly over time.  Personally I grease the threads and screw in old spark plugs hopefully protecting the integrity of the threads.  

 

Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, May 03 2020 

.IMG_5012.JPG.84aeaca15e0da72ea2c5e62959d239cc.JPG

fullsizeoutput_4fb3.jpeg.0086bcf18de0094f5e7041231b1ea3cc.jpeg

 

From a historical perspective, it is great that you documented what I am guessing was the original factory packaging.  Most people probably don't care how things were packed up and shipped out,  but to me it's all part of the story.

 

Mikie  

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cutiger83
11 hours ago, Johan Willaert said:

I continue to be amazed at the sheer quantity of items produced in the US during the war...
Absolutely mindblowing!!

Johan,

Our factories were not being bombed. We did not have to keep starting over from scratch. That is one of the main reasons why we were able to produce on such a large scale.

Kat

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cutiger83
22 minutes ago, Johan Willaert said:

Just to illustrate how far the marking of their parts went in the Ford jeep factory...

this is the steering tube to body dash  clamp with its attaching hardware... ALL parts have the typical F mark....

7BCFF92A-A8DD-486D-8094-62B0C9CE0F28.jpeg

Johan, 

These little trivia items are too interesting! Thanks for posting.

..Kat

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