Facebook: Friends of the Tank Museum

[fsn]

The British had seen the potential of German ground attack aircraft in the 1940 campaign, and put work into providing tanks with their own air defence.  This is a twin Bren "Motley mount", which could be fitted to trucks and jeeps as well as tanks.  Generally, the 100rd drum would be used in the AA role, but the Bren was limited by its relatively low rate of fire – good in a ground gun, but bad for AA – and its rifle calibre.  The solution would be to move to dedicated AA vehicles with weapons of at least 20mm calibre


Presumably you would need to take a tree stump with you

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Presumably you would need to take a tree stump with you

Not on a tank you oik !

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Telegraph poles???

[Techno II]

I agree, Will.....

Circa 1190 AD, I reckon.

Thank goodness it's illegal to wear shorts like that in our enlightened age. 

Cheers - Phil 

[steve_holmes_11]

Can I get one for my Skoda?

[OldenBUA]

It has an interesting 'shoestring, handlebars and farm implements' approach in the design.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Not checking - but from memory most crusiers had provison to stow the mount - but given the tiny size of the turrets didn't. Never found any record of the abortion being used !

[fsn]

Does look like a Dad's Army sort of affair. 

[steve_holmes_11]

It has an interesting 'shoestring, handlebars and farm implements' approach in the design.

Not the worst thing I've seen form that era.
Relatively compact - I assume the fixing point attaches to the turret tear or turret bustle.
Take a look at the standard issue "bren" AA mount for a Meccano hobbyists nightmare.

I am contemplating how it might have performed in a forced marriage with a Bren Carrier.
The early carrier platoon had groups of three: Command, ATR and Mortar.
Consider replacing ATR with a "Gun" carrier mounting twin Brens on this mount.

An ideal mount for what-if duelling against the Italian tankettes.

[fsn]

Yeah, but you'd still have to take the tree stump. 

[fsn]

It turns out there's not really an upper limit on how many blokes can fit on one truck, if the alternative is walking


Question. What's keeping that tailgate up?

[fred.]

Looks like 40-50 blokes!

The loading limit is just given in tons, so they are probably fine! As long as the tall-gate stays in place...

[steve_holmes_11]

Solid tyres.
That's going to get bumpy.

[fsn]

For those of you of a winter's bent ...

Aerial pictures over the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge - Early 1945
LIFE Magazine Archives - John Florea & William Vandivert Photographers

[fsn]

Napoleon may have said that an army marches on its stomach, but feet are pretty important, too.  This was especially in the trench conditions of the Great War, where trench foot could take men out of action as effectively as a rifle bullet.  As a result, British officers were expected to conduct regular inspections of their men's feet


How many feet do you have to inspect before you stop saying "this little piggy..."?  also that's a wonderfully clean trench. Could this be a publicity shot?