It's cropped up a couple of times as links but I thought deserved a thread of it's own. Rather good when you type in your terms of interest: Sittings in the 1940s (Hansard) I see the old 'German gear is really cool' thing even cropped up : Sir A. Knox - Are our tanks in Egypt as cool as the German tanks? Mr. Lyttelton - Yes, Sir, so far as we know, but I could not give a precise answer to the question. Tanks (Air Conditioning). (Hansard, 29 July 1942) Cheers, Adam.
Cheers for the headsup, Adam. I've garnered a lot of stuff on German & Italian PoWs in Britain from Hansard. Some of it is just footnote stuff, but still valuable. B)
When you see old newsreel pictures of the crew cooking eggs on the fender, it really gives you an idea of just how hot the metal became. As for inside temperatures, it must have been like working and fighting in a sauna! Regards Tom
Tom, In the middle east its a more dry heat that just burns. I remember driving my Land Rover in the +50 degree heat in Iraq with the window open, it was like having someone holding a hairdryer next to your face - it just burned. So you closed the windows and vents and the temp inside the cab just rocketed ! The only time I really sweated was during the night trying to sleep on a cot in +30 degree temperatures. Cheers Andy
Andy, Don't know how you managed to sleep in that heat. My admiration for all soldiers having to put up with horrendous conditions whilst serving their country. Regards Tom
I didn't..... Without going to much off topic or for long..... after the fighting when we were in the Palace complex I'd lay down when it was dark (Nothing else to do -No work at night and no electricity) around 9pm by 11pm I'd wake up and go and sit outside by the bank of the Shatt al Arab until I started nodding off around 3am. Some nights I'd go and lay on the roof of the Palace and watch the locals having gunfights with AK47's from their houses opposite each other settling old fueds now the regime was gone. That was interesting watching the tracer fly all over the place. Then I'd go and lay down back on my cot and get up at 6am for my troop commanders briefing at 630am then I'd brief the troop at 7am and issue driving details etc to the troop that wasn't deployed. Then they day would start again until dusk and repeat....I was glad to come home. I know some people say it gets cold in the desert at night but apart from one night in between two days of rain (in March) it didn't when I was there-It was redders every night and clean cold bed linen was like I'd gone to heaven when I came home. Regards Andy
It's searchable by member as well - I've been following this Gent's involvement in the 'Tank Scandal' debates - really nice to see the plain text of the conversations within the House of Commons as they occurred without the filter of later history. Mr Richard Stokes (Hansard)
