Simon F

Thanks Chris for your observations.

My hunch about the second picture would be that it is a merchant ship or RN trawler, a lot of which would have been armed and manned by the RN in wartime. The indications for this are the relative small size of the gun, the apparent smallish size of the vessel and the general state of the rigging (merchant fleet don't hold as big a stock on upkeep and general appearance of vessels). The ship in company in the background also seems to be merchant by it's silhouette, which again could be a good indicator of this.

It is most certainly a dead ringer for the pics HMML131 from the link, I have reproduced the pictures here, but will remove them if necessary.

The second pic has me thinking WWII

If you look at the link here, I think we are certainly into the realms of an early Motor Torpedo Boat for the first picture perhaps around the 1900's?

Let me know your thoughts?

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/moto...rpedo_boats.htm

Hi Coldstream, many thanks for the welcome and sorry for the late reply, I have been flitting around a bit with the job recently.

Excellent pictures.

The first picture certainly seems to be a submarine and I think you are right in regards to this not being the L class, they had as far as I know the weapon mounted further up on a platform by the conning tower and not so far forward on the casing. I shall have a cast around and see what I can find out. Although I have to say that I have not seen the cross spar on a submarine and I am a thrown by the guardrails around the boat.

Here is a link to an SSG for reference.

http://www.tactical-life.com/online/tactic...ec-ops-fighter/

Uniform shirt. I have blurred the name badge.

Smaller knife.

I have been in contact with an American SF officer since I bought some of his items from ebay a couple of years ago. Knowing that I was a collector and with his impending retirement he offered me some of his other items to enhance my grouping.

I just wanted to get some thoughts from you guy's about these two SSG knives. I have already bought the items, that are in transit as we speak, but I have little knowledge about the SSG or the training that I presume US advisors/SF give the unit.

Here are the specs, sorry about the pics but as I mentioned these are not yet in my possession. If there is some interest I am more than happy to post other shots when they arrive.

Pakistan Special Service Group: large knife 10 inch blade, 16 inch overall length.

Medium knife 6 inch blade 11 inchs overrall: both with leather scabbard and red velvet presentation case; both engraved with "Special Service Group" on blade, carbon steel, blued, hardwood handle.

Other items include:

Pakhol hat and Khyber dagger with scabbard; from the Waziri tribe of the afghan/pak border.

Pak Army working duty uniform, shirt , pants, beret , rank, emblems and decorations.

Being worn on a hanger Phenom Penn, Cambodia in 1948 during a parade for 3/13 DBLE.

Reverse

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your badges.

No need to apologise, as far as I am aware FFL is a recognised acronym for the French Foreign Legion and the picture made it apparent what you were posting.

This is just an observation as one fellow forum member to another, I hope you can post some more.

Here sadly is my one and only.

Hi Steve

Here is an interesting link to some info that may give you a lead.

http://www.voodoo.cz/victory/victory.html

Also some information cut and paste from a online word document.

1759 HMS Victory started to be built at Chatham. The designer was Thomas Slade.

1765 7th May, HMS Victory was launched.

1778 Fitted out for service and commissioned. Battle of Ushant.

1780 Hull sheathed with copper.

1782 Relief of Gibraltar.

1787-1788 Major repairs at Portsmouth.

1789-1792 Served with the Channel Fleet.

1792-1793 HMS Victory refitted with armaments increased.

1793 Served with the Mediterranean Fleet as Lord Hood?s flagship.

1797 Battle of Cape Vincent. Later, HMS Victory was converted to a hospital ship.

1801-1803 HMS Victory repaired, refitted and modernised.

1803 After France declared war on Britain, Lord Nelson joined the Mediterranean Fleet and HMS Victory to blockade Toulon.

1805 21st October, Battle of Trafalgar.

1806 Extensive repairs at Chatham.

1808 Served in the Baltic as Admiral Saumarez?s flagship.

1808-1809 HMS Victory helped evacuate troops from Corunna.

1809-1810 Served in the Baltic as Admiral Saumarez?s flagship.

1811 Transported troops to the Peninsular War.

1812 HMS Victory ends her sea-service.

1814-16 Major refit and moored in Portsmouth.

1842-1922 Moored off Gosport.

1922 Moved to dry dock for restoration.

1928 HMS Victory opened to the public.

1941 HMS Victory damaged by a 500lb bomb.

2005 Recent major restoration to a high standard makes HMS Victory the only 18th century 100-gun ?line of battle? ship now in existence. She is the oldest commissioned warship in the world.

Sources of information:

http://www.hms-victory.com/

http://www.answers.com/topic/hms-victory

http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org

Hi

You can find some interesting info here.

http://www.mcdoa.org.uk/RN_Minewarfare_Branch.htm

Hi Tommy

Here is a link for you. It has a small amount of info on your chap in reference to a 1926 newspaper report and a book about the Tin Openers that will possibly hold some more information on him. I hope you find what your looking for. It would be great if you could post your findings back here, I for one would be interested to know more.

Good luck.

The Tin Openers by Kendall McDonald

http://www.divernet.com/cgi-bin/articles.p...mp;sc=&ac=d

In short she wasn't a troop ship, she was one of the merchant fleet ships that was requisitioned through "STUFT" Ships Taken Up Through Trade. Before the british armed forces had a rapid reaction force there was need to transport a large amount of men and materials to the Falklands to retake the islands, so this was the way we coped with the logistics of this process.

To name a couple

SS Canberra - Which was used as a troop transport for elements of the Parachute regiment and the Royal Marines

Atlantic Conveyor - Sadly lost, which was used to transport aircraft and materials in support of the troops.

RMS Queen Elizabeth - Carried the 5th Infantry Brigade.

Uganda was purely a hospital ship but I guess that she was used as a resource to get the boys home again on completion of the war.

To become a submariner in the RN you have to pass a number of courses on top of basic training. If you are straight from training you will complete a basic course which lasts around six weeks (when I did it), in which you learn the basics of a submarines workings, nuclear reactors, trim and drain, ballast tanks ( a lot of diagrams, facts and figures).

On successful completion of this course you then take a course specifically for the class of submarine you are joining (for me the old Valiant class) which was a further 4 weeks and this would be similar to the basic submarine course but would concentrate on systems, propulsion and various fits specific to that boat (submarines are known as boats over here). Again once complete and dependent entirely on what you are streamed as you then complete further training such as Sonar operation or Tactical systems for the old Operations branch and engineers go off to learn about the equipment they will be maintaining, stokers go from steam and gas to nuclear (obviously).

Marine engineers, weapons engineers and the secretariat branches can pretty much transfer at anytime, for the Operations boys you really needed to go from basic or transfer over early doors as experience is the key. Sonar operators on boats use a lot of listening equipment as their bread and butter skills, whereas us skimmers ping on active Sonar for the vast majority of the time and with all that sound pouring into the water you don't require a great deal of audio skills

On top of this there is also a period of escape training in the tank in which the guy's learn how to escape at various depths. This training has to be repeated on a regular basis (blocked sinuses or a cold can really screw up your day).

Finally when you join your first boat there is the part three training to be completed. This consists of tasks that need to be completed to ensure you are safe to be a fully competent member of the boat. Everyone from the most junior member upwards needs an intimate knowledge of that particular boats systems as ultimately anyone of them could be in a position to save the rest of the boat by basically knowing which valve to open or close. This phase normally takes about three months and considering all boats do 1 in 2 watches (6 hours on, 6 hours off) you can imagine how tired the part 3's get!!

Finally, after al this, you are awarded your Dolphins in the Captains cabin, which are at the bottom of a glass of rum and it is good form to catch them in your teeth, not swallow them whole!!

It might be of interest to note that new dress regulations means that all Senior ratings from the submarine branch now wear Dolphins 38 mm above the left pocket of their working shirts. I only know this because I work in a building full of them..... joy!!

Thanks Herl? for your informed reply, appreciated as always

Thanks for that valuable info. A little one armed paper hanging here but it looks to be no greater than 2.5 mil My doubts are that these numbers are stamped/punched rather than engraved and that the depth of the stamping makes the numbers seem larger than they are, if you catch my meaning?!

Nice wings herl?

Thanks for the comments

The number on the Augis are stamped not engraved, does this mean they have been doctored?

Reverse.

Hi herl? thanks for that information it starts to make more sense now.

I apologise for these not being Drago marked but was looking for an opinion on this latest bird, AUGIS dated for 1950.

This is from the previous link and the only info I can find on AUGIS makers marks. I don't know what grenu means as this has translated over from google I think it is granularity or granulated back. Thoughts?

A. AUGIS LYON / 28 Mte St Bartholomew

back on smooth and grenu aluminium from 1942 to 1952

A. AUGIS / 28 Mte St Bartholomew / LYON embossed on smooth cartridge

On grenu back from 1946 to 1960

A. AUGIS / 28 Mte St Bartholomew / LYON relief without cartridge

On grenu back from 1952 to 1970

Hallo Gents,

is it possible to date a set of French Para wings produced by the firm of:

ANDOR 30 p(?) CHR. COLOMB. 94 - IVRY - FRANCE.

Post may be deleted or moved to a new Thread for French Para Wing Variations.

Kevin in Deva.

Kevin, according to the above link:

ANDOR:

1960-1980: manufacturer of 60 to 80 years installed at Cannet in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Hope this gives you some idea?

Here is a link to a site that gives information on the majority of badge makers, it is translated through google, so needs a little careful reading but gives differing years to the Drago maker marks.

<a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...l%3Den%26sa%3DG" target="_blank">http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=e...l%3Den%26sa%3DG</a>

DRAGO:

Before 1940: 25 rue Beranger.

1944-1947: DRAGO, Paris-Nice.

1947-1952: 43 rue Olivier M?tra.

1952-1960: 3 rue de Romainville.

1960-1990: DRAGO, betting.

or

Gio Drago D Street Gioffredo Nice 1936-1944

D PN Drago unaddressed Paris or Nice 1936-1944

D B?r Drago 3 1936-1947

DOM Drago 43 1946-1952

D Rom Drago 3 1950-1959

D Drago 3 1956-1987

Drago Noisiel Marne D-Marne Valley 1988-1992

DAB Drago from Drago 1993 brand is acquired and exploited by Ets Arthus-Bertrand in Palaiseau

1990-1995: Marne-la-Vall?e.

This information is a little conflicting but does seem to indicate a period of overlap (1950 - 52) where wings/badges were made with both sets of markings, 43 rue and 3 rue, perhaps surplus stock after the change, two factories, etc?! This would seem to offer a feasible explanation to the markings on my sets dated 53?

Perhaps. My friend Herl? tells me that the wings with the "Reproduction" and "Interdite" are second pattern/model, perhaps that is the reason? I really must get some reference books!!

Yes, more wings please, I am out!!