Over the last few years at the War and peace Show we have had WW" search
lites lighting up the sky (with a degreee of caution because of the
proximity to the airports....yes, its amusing to pick out 747's stacking for
Heathrow but a bit risque) The lites were mounted on very rare petrol
electric Tilling Stevens trucks(wd model), ironically manufactured in the
late 30's just 9 miles from the Hop Farm.
This display is to be outdone now as Rex Cadman who organises the event has
recently brought back from Norways' reserve of military kit a couple of
complete WW2 GEC trailer mounted Searchlites approx 8 foot diameter with
plenty of arc rods.
Happy new year to you all, NIGE
----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Smith" <timothy.smith1@worldnet.att.net>
To: "MV List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>; "Mil Veh List" <MVlist@egroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2000 7:55 AM
Subject: [MVlist] Serindipity...plain and simple
> Hi list.
>
> Ain't it strange how things sometime all fall together at once?
>
> This autumn I managed to slip away for a little while to Big Bend National
> Park with a pal of mine where we stayed at a campsite called Glenn Spring.
> This is located in a rather desolate desert area in West Texas only
several
> miles from the Rio Grande "River" (too thick to drink & too thin to plow).
> Back in the 19-teens, Glenn Spring was the site of an Army Camp (6th Cav
if
> memory serves me correctly) whose duty it was to firm up and patrol a
rather
> "fluid" southern border of the United States on horseback. (Shades of the
> Wild Bunch!) This was back in the heyday of Villa and Caranza down in
"old"
> Mexico. Spoiling parties composed of Mexican banditos and other persons
of
> low character regularly raided the borderlands of the US for personal gain
> or to gather items and/or persons to ransom in order to support the
expense
> of the Mexican revolution. Anyway, there is still quite a lot of the
> encampment to see if you know what to look for and where to look. While
> poking about (I am an bonifide scrounger even while on vacation) I came
upon
> some rather oddly shaped carbon-arc rods with a copper conductor on their
> bases. Some were burned and some were unused. Now I know of only one use
> for such a rod and that was for a search light. But at the time this was
> only speculation. VERY odd since the last time the camp was active that I
> knew of was in the late 19-teens. Well, we also found government .45 cal
> and 30-06 brass shell casings dated from that era and dated 1941! Could
the
> Army have had a listening post and/or anti-aricraft gun emplacement posted
> there in WWII? I can picture a completely bored bunch of doughboys
sitting
> in the middle of nowhere, amusing themselves by plinking away at cans and
> bottles while watching for enemy aircraft that would never arrive. Well,
I
> had to verify that the rods were of a type used in the search-lights in
> order to be one step closer to solving the mystery.
>
> This time of the year, many fireworks stands pop up along the freeway,
> selling to prospective New Years revelers and one of the tools for drawing
> attention of otherwise dull-witted drivers is to put a searchlight out in
> front. There is a company here in town who has taken WWII searchlights
and
> mounted the lamp assembly and generator on one custom trailer, discarding
> the original two-trailer configuration (the heathens)! So on the very
same
> day I discovered the WWII searchlight trailer, I found a searchlight in
> operation with someone actually there maintaining it who I could ask
> questions of. I stopped by and introduced myself, described the carbon
arc
> rod to the fellow who stated that what I had found on the ground in the
> middle of the desert was very likely just what I thought it was. And,
> making a sweet deal even sweeter, he let me stick my nose in the generator
> section to see (and HEAR!) the Herc JXD (essentially the same engine that
> powers my Scout Car) happily humming along keeping the searchlight powered
> up. (I know this sounds stupid, but I was thrilled.)
>
> There are forces at work here I am sure I don't understand.
>
> It's going to be a strange new year.......
>
> Happy New Year, guys and gals!
> TJ
>
>
> Regards,
> TJ
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 23:13:26 PST