"British trucks 1989" Topic

Greetings all,
I was wondering what trucks an infantry battalion in the 19th Brigade would have for the battalion mortars and the Milan sections? I know the infantry platoons had Saxons but did the battalion weapons have them also?

Both the Mortar Platoon and the Milan Platoon were initially in 1-ton (Forward Control) Land Rovers, with the Mobile Milan Section in 4x 3/4 ton Land Rovers. This remained the same after conversion of the Rifle Companies to Saxon.

From 1987, a second tranche of Saxons was issued, which enabled the Mortar HQ & OP Teams to be mounted in Saxons, along with the four 'line' Milan Sections. The Mobile Milan Section remained in 3/4 ton Landies.

So to clarify:

The Mortar Platoon in 1989 had HQ and OP mounted in Saxon (I forget how many – 2 or 3 I think), while the eight 81mm tubes were mounted in 1-ton Land Rover (1 per tube).

The Milan Platoon had four 'line' Milan Sections, each with 4x Milan & 2x Saxon and one Mobile Section with 4x Milan & 4x 3/4 ton Land Rover.

If you're unfamiliar with the beast, here's the 1-ton Land Rover 101 Forward Control:

(The 'Forward Control' bit of the description refers to the driver's position being 'forward' – i.e. over the engine rather than behind the engine)

Compared to the 3/4-ton Land Rover 110, as used by the Mobile Section:

Which would usually look more like this in the field:

Thanks!

Many say they are gastly but personally I think those trucks are tough stuff.

I love the old 101 – and there's room in the back for your bed :)

Unless it was a Rapier tractor………….then barely room for #3!
They were very nippy tho! ( Rover V8……all burbly from the exhaust too…)

Land Rover 3/4 ton 109 pictured not a 110. The later 110 has the squared off front-no in set radiator……. ( sorry to be rivet counting!) and usually diesel engined although I did get to 'clutch' a brand new 130 with the same V8 as the FC101………. scary fast with standard Land Rover brakes!

Unless it was a Rapier tractor………….then barely room for #3!
They were very nippy tho! ( Rover V8……all burbly from the exhaust too…)

Land Rover 3/4 ton 109 pictured not a 110. The later 110 has the squared off front-no in set radiator……. ( sorry to be rivet counting!) and usually diesel engined although I did get to 'clutch' a brand new 130 with the same V8 as the FC101………. scary fast with standard Land Rover brakes!

Reminds me of the time we had to take 'war time loads' to the weighbridge to fulfill some Ministry requirement……….at least 50% overloaded, several were close on 100% ..not including trailers and tows…….fuel economy was poor to say the least………..only had to do that once!

Cheers Gaz,

I got confused – everyone around me would refer to 3/4 tonners as '110s', regardless of whether they were Series 2 or Series 3. I was more familiar with the 1/2 tonner air-transportable – they were petrol-engined and enormous fun! :)

Puddlejumpers!I had one in Cyprus for a few weeks……..until the gear stick sheared off in the 'ball' whilst driving up to Troodos……..tad hairy coming back down stuck in third! They gave me a Sherpa van as a replacement……..hardly a fair swap!

Oh God, LDV Sherpas… I wasn't surprised to discover that GAZ bought LDV… Only GAZ (or possibly Yugo, to be fair)could possibly consider LDV to be an upgrade.

Ha ha, hadn't heard about the LDV/Gaz buy out!
Don't knock those 4x4 versions they produce………the Sherpas on the other hand…….

try these links

This lot covers off a lot of the Mech Wheeled and Light Infantry BAOR reinforcement units, Orbat and TOE

British Mech Wheeled Inf Battalions
link

British NATO Reinforcement, Infantry Brigades
link

British NATO Reinforcements
link

The Milan 1 tonnes had a set of racks to stow the missiles and both milan and morter wagons tended to tow trailers as they were largly overloaded. Milan Mobile used 3/4 t Land rovers