BEAST Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6676 Posted January 1, 2014 Ken, It looks like you have your posting issues resolved! Happy New Year to all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6677 Posted January 1, 2014 Happy New Year and I'm glad to see you back on the forum. I'm always interested in reading your latest finds, thoughts, etc. Erwin Hello Chunky, Kat and Erwin, thanks for the New Years greetings for everyone, and return the compliment back to you as well ken Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, December 31 2013 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6678 Posted January 1, 2014 Ken, It looks like you have your posting issues resolved! Happy New Year to all! Hi Beast, thanks for the greetings to everyone, and Happy New Year to you and family too. Sorry to say the issues are not resolved just yet, again now as I did last night I have disconnected the new tower and rebooted my old tower as I know this works with the forum and the new one doesn't. Whe I get my head around tring to sort out the new system and the problems connected to it I will probably give Firefox a try, I just have an aversion to doing something when you read the promises that come with them ' plug & play ' , ' three easy steps ' which invariably turn out to be anything but. Perhaps I suggest the people who sit in offices and coin these phrases try to remember a phrase that my grandmother from Rhode Island often said ' not worth the price of half a pair of kippers ' ken Norman D. Landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 1 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6679 Posted January 1, 2014 From the photo album sorting through a photo album today I looked as this image taken in normandy in 1976 which was the third year of the MVCG group returning to Normandy with WWII military vehicles. The 30th anniversary trip in 1974 led to the whole world of collecting vehicles, uniforms and equipment for many people in Europe and the USA. On this 1976 trip we had approximately 200 vehicles and I was travelling in my Jeep roughly mid-way along this convoy. Seen in this image is old friend Alec Bilney riding his British motorcycle and acting as a motorcycle outrider for the convoy, he had stopped where we were and told us that the convoy was to be split into two sections in order to navigate the large town ahead and reduce traffic chaos of 200 vehicles passing through. Whilst Alec was explaining this detail to us I worked my way around to the rear of the motorcycle and gently lifted the rear wheel off the ground and suspending it there without Alec being aware of this, note his expression that he has put the motorcycle into gear, released the clutch, and to his amazement the motorcycle is still stationary. Alec died of cancer (67) October 2013 There are many good memories held in collecting, in photographs and in our minds and stories and for me this will always be one of them. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 1 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Willaert Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6680 Posted January 1, 2014 Sorry about your friend, Ken, but great reading about these 1970s convoys... It is the 1978 Bastogne one that got me hooked on OD... Speaking of old pictures bringing memories back... http://www.theliberator.be/othervehicles.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 1, 2014 Share #6681 Posted January 1, 2014 Sorry about your friend, Ken, but great reading about these 1970s convoys... It is the 1978 Bastogne one that got me hooked on OD... Speaking of old pictures bringing memories back... http://www.theliberator.be/othervehicles.htm Johan, what were you doing sitting in my jeep in Bastogne at the age of 12, you could possibly have captured shots of me on that trip and not know it ??? Bring the photo's with you this summer and I will check through them. " The middle and right picture show me at the age of 12 and were taken by my father at a military vehicle rally in Bastogne, Belgium in August 1978. Johan " ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 1 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutiger83 Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6682 Posted January 2, 2014 Whilst Alec was explaining this detail to us I worked my way around to the rear of the motorcycle and gently lifted the rear wheel off the ground and suspending it there without Alec being aware of this, note his expression that he has put the motorcycle into gear, released the clutch, and to his amazement the motorcycle is still stationary. There are many good memories held in collecting, in photographs and in our minds and stories and for me this will always be one of them. Ken, That is you with the beard holding up the motorcycle? You were a HUNK! Heck, you still are but dang you were a hunk! I am sure those of you who have been attending events practically your entire life have lots and lots of good stories. ...Kat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6683 Posted January 2, 2014 Ken, That is you with the beard holding up the motorcycle? You were a HUNK! Heck, you still are but dang you were a hunk! I am sure those of you who have been attending events practically your entire life have lots and lots of good stories. ...Kat Down Kitty...down...Take it easy on the General Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutiger83 Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6684 Posted January 2, 2014 Down Kitty...down...Take it easy on the General Was my drooling on the keyboard too obvious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6685 Posted January 2, 2014 Sorry about your friend, Ken, but great reading about these 1970s convoys... It is the 1978 Bastogne one that got me hooked on OD... Speaking of old pictures bringing memories back... http://www.theliberator.be/othervehicles.htm Hi Johan, well seeing as you enjoy the old photo's from the 1970's here's another one for you, my jeep, me sleeping on the rear , my friend Warwick taking over the driving whilst I slept, my girlfriend Derrie in the passenger seat . Her grandfather was Leo Genn a British actor well known in the 40's & 50's for the many parts he played in British war films, one of which was ' the wooden horse '. The storyline of the wooden horse being about a group of POW's using a wooden vaulting horse to disguise their tunneling in order to escape. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUmilMFR8lg ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 1 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6686 Posted January 2, 2014 Ken, That is you with the beard holding up the motorcycle? You were a HUNK! Heck, you still are but dang you were a hunk! I am sure those of you who have been attending events practically your entire life have lots and lots of good stories. ...Kat Hi kat, oh shucks, thanks ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6687 Posted January 2, 2014 Down Kitty...down...Take it easy on the General Hi Ron, maybe a good job that sabrejet is missing from the forum so far this evening, or he would have been suggesting kat goes to ' Spec-Savers ' to get her eyes checked out. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Willaert Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6688 Posted January 2, 2014 Nice pic, Ken! Is that the same Jeep you still have in your shed??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6689 Posted January 2, 2014 New addition to the shoebox. A couple of weeks back I spotted what appeared to be a US WWII gasoline can, however it didn't raise a great deal of interest for me due to being the wrong color and having a weird non recogniseable pouring cap on it. Anyway being the scavenger that I am I decided that being in pretty straight condition and no holes I would take it and it may come in useful for something or maybe a trade for something else. Upon getting it home I started looking it over and below the handles it's had all the right information, ' U.S. 43, Monarch, 5Ltr ', but the ugly looking cap was very off putting. To be continued .............. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johan Willaert Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6690 Posted January 2, 2014 Aaah, been waiting for this to appear.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6691 Posted January 2, 2014 New addition to the shoebox, Cont ............ So looking at the weird cap fixture it was neither of the two recognisable caps used during WWII, one being the screw thread cap on the gasoline can, and the other being the large round cover and clamp of the water-can. It was then that I could see below the layers of paint on this cap some lettering and it came up as ' McCord ', this is the name all collectors recognise as manufacturer of the iconic American M-1 helmet used in WWII. The light shade of green painted on the can covering the original o.d. factory paint. To be continued .............. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6692 Posted January 2, 2014 New addition to the shoebox, Cont ............ " It was then that I could see below the layers of paint on this cap some lettering and it came up as ' McCord ', this is the name all collectors recognise as manufacturer of the iconic American M-1 helmet used in WWII. " Cont ............. So going to my files I read through a copy of a letter I have written by the McCord company August 1945 to the Quartemaster Corp. stating all of the developments and production undertaken by McCord for the government during WWII. If you have a copy of ' Doughboy to G.I.' see the top left letter on page 16, in the top paragraph it states that they made during WWII ' 69,000 special cam type gasoline-can closures '. So this gasoline can I found here in Normandy is one of the gasoline cans manufactured with one of the 69.000 closures McCord made during WWII. In my forty years of collecting and researching I had either never seen one of these cans and if I had, then I had not paid attention to research of the design. Many US gasoline cans can be seen with a conversion of the screw cap to the exact same clamp used on British and German cans but that is smaller and different in design to this McCord example. I hope that this information will be of use to US Gasoline can collectors and colletors in general. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6693 Posted January 2, 2014 Aaah, been waiting for this to appear.... Johan, regarding the new addition to the shoebox the image with the McCord name on in post #6697 is not so clear once reduced for posting, so here is a larger close up which I hope shows it more clearly. I would be pleased to hear from anyone that could provide any further information on this ' McCord special cam type gasoline closure ' either by way of photograph showing a can in use, or a written article or any other information. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutiger83 Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6694 Posted January 2, 2014 I hope that this information will be of use to US Gasoline can collectors and colletors in general. Ken, You find the most amazing stuff in that shoebox! This is definitely very interesting for collectors. I wonder if anyone else on here has one too. ....Kat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 2, 2014 Share #6695 Posted January 2, 2014 Nice pic, Ken! Is that the same Jeep you still have in your shed??? Johan, it is that very same one sir, it was also my first and the most expensive of all the Jeeps I bought, it was on the road, on the button starting, full tank of gas, UK road tax and a twelve month test certificate, and the seller snatched 120 UK pounds out of my hands for it. He had to sell it as his wife wanted new carpets in the living room. As I drove away having never driven one before I got to the intersection at the end of his road and had to stop at the traffic lights, sat across the traffic lights on the pavement watching passing cars was a police car and two occupants. Trying to appear a confident driver I slipped it into gear when the lights went to green and started to proceed backwards, as all Jeep drivers will know 1st gear position in a normal car is reverse position in a WWII Jeep. It is also the very same Jeep that I collected two speeding citations with. ( framed and wall mounted ) ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doyler Posted January 3, 2014 Share #6696 Posted January 3, 2014 Hi Ron, maybe a good job that sabrejet is missing from the forum so far this evening, or he would have been suggesting kat goes to ' Spec-Savers ' to get her eyes checked out. ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 2 2014 . Im sure he will not be MIA for long Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Apathy Posted January 12, 2014 Share #6697 Posted January 12, 2014 Then & Now ............. La Haye du Puits 1944 and January 10 2014 ken Norman D. landing, Forum Normandy Correspondent, January 12 2014 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabrejet Posted January 12, 2014 Share #6698 Posted January 12, 2014 Did someone mention my name?! Just been watching the last episode of the current "Sherlock" series! Excellent then/nows Ken. Back on form again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneydave Posted January 13, 2014 Share #6699 Posted January 13, 2014 Always enjoy your then and now images, Ken. Thanks for sharing these. And a little late in coming, but I wish you and yours a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year from the other side of the world! Cheers, David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgawne Posted January 13, 2014 Share #6700 Posted January 13, 2014 There's an older stone tower at La Haye du Puis. One of my dad's men put a rifle grenade right through one of the window slits as the companies first shot in the war. One in a million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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