When Commando Gets Creepy: Haunted

 Welcome to the third installment in this series. I wasn't originally planning on it being a series, even a short one, but I find that what I plan to write and what actually happens don't always match. 

 What we're currently looking at is the long-running British comic series called "Commando", which is a digest sized title focusing on wartime heroics and tending towards titles such as "Desert of Death" and "March or Die" 

 But every now and then Commando gets a bit strange. 

 Today I'm going to bring up another three examples of  stories with a supernatural element. A bit like the last lot, an item has a history and some unexpected properties. However this time the object in question is a lot bigger. And can move. And has guns. 

 Better hope it's on your side. 

Commando 2050: The Haunted Tank (1986)

 I mean, the title says it all. 

The story: "New boy" Sid Raleigh has finally been accepted by the rest of his tanks crew which means they let him in on a big secret: Their particular  tank is haunted, most likely by the spirit of a notorious practical joker.  Sometimes the tank will stop for no reason. Sometimes it will start for no reason. Funny thing is, it always saves the crew from incoming danger.

  Sid is a bit dubious, as you'd expect, but we all know how this goes.  Eventually Sid and his mates get dragged into a nefarious Nazi scheme and the ghost has to take decisive action. 

An entertaining story that manages to work with the premise without making it too silly. 

  

A Fistful Of Books September 2023

  In 1976 John Miles had a hit with "Music" where he told the world "Music was my first love and it will be my last"

  I can respect that. However in my case the first great love of my life, the one which has been with me for many years and will almost certainly be right there in my final days is books. 

 Reading is one of the few skills I picked up easily and I went for it hard.  Chances are, I would default to sticking my nose into a book and dragging me away from it was a tough job. 

 As an aside, none of this meant I was ever any good at studying. My brain does not work that way.

  The point I think I was trying to make is that I have always loved books and always wanted to get more books every chance I get.  When I visualise my dream home, the first room is always a gigantic library. The rest of the house is an afterthought, although in more misanthropic moments, the entrance to the house would have a gigantic neon sign inviting visitors to fuck off.  Possibly some automatic gun-turrets too. 

 So anyway, I bought myself some books from the second-hand place in Fratton Bridge Centre. Wanna see what I bought?

Visiting The Wight Military Heritage Museum

 I love a good museum, me.

  I'm particularly keen on military or aviation museums and after doing most of the ones in Portsmouth and Southampton, I fancied doing something a bit further afield.  

  Then I found out about the Wight Military & Heritage Museum just outside Cowes and promptly put it on my list of places to see. 

Well, after several years, this weekend I finally got around to it.  Naturally I managed to pick a day when it was frigging raining.

  You don't need to know about how I got to the museum but I will say that the most awkward part of the journey wasn't getting to the island, it was finding the damn bus-stop in Cowes.

  I also managed to miss the stop for the museum so had to do some trudging back down the road.  Damp trudging, because as mentioned earlier, it was raining. 

Anyway, I finally got there and the first thing I saw made it all worthwhile because sat outside was this:

 A Conqueror heavy tank

 I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Conqueror. It was supposed to be some extra firepower to help the Centurions deal with oncoming Soviet armour. Luckily it never came to that. 

  Also, my dad drove one of these as a target tank. He told me once that they had a card table set up inside.  Make of that what you will.

 

The entrance and just next to it, a shed with books in it. 

 And why not?

 Once past reception and inevitable gift shop I moved on to a display of weapons: cases with assorted rifles, machineguns and other small arms.

Next up: a chicken. 

 Well it did say this was a military & heritage museum.

After another display of WW2 home front stuff set up as shop-fronts I got into the good stuff. 

 A French truck/ambulance from the Indo-China war. 

An absolute behemoth of a truck. A WW2 Scammell.

According to the volunteer I got chatting to, after the war a lot of these ended up working for fairgrounds. It also took a lot of time, effort and money to get this one back into working conditions.

 An Abbot Self-propelled gun.

 

 There was an option to sit in the drivers seat after a small donation but after climbing on-board I quickly realised that there was  no way I was going to fit into the driver's compartment and even assuming I managed it, I sure as hell wasn't getting back out again without a crowbar, a gallon of grease and some personal injury.  I settled for sitting on top of it which is still cool enough. 

After that we get something rare:

 

 This is an experimental mounting for four Polsten 20mm cannon which was tested on the island but never went into production. 

  See that door behind it? That's where we are going next.  

The next room had a collection of cool stuff including an ongoing rebuild on a Britten-Norman Islander

Plus a Saracen APC

They had some other AFVs and guns but the pictures didn't come out that well so here's a squaddie tea set.

 The British Army has always understood the value of a good cuppa. 

Hmm, I thought I wonder if there's anything outside. 

Yes, there was.  A Centurion AVRE for starters. Which my dad also drove. 

That's a big gun isn't it?

There was also a Centurion Recovery vehicle.

 

And something rare, if a bit knocked about. A prototype Centurion SP Gun.  According to the volunteer, they fitted it with a 5 inch gun but unfortunately the recoil was too strong and it kept breaking itself.

Now while I was poking about outside , I couldn't help noticing some other vehicles a little further away.  Or wrecks, rather.

 I'm not sure if I was supposed to go take a closer look but in lieu of any big red signs reading "No" I wandered over.

Jackpot. hat I found were he remains of two Conqueror recovery tanks and a conqueror gun tank, looking very forlorn but still striking.

All of which did leave me feeling a bit sad that the poor things were in such a state but at least I got to see them.

 Finally I set off back to West Cowes but did pause long enough for a selfie!

And that was the Wight Military & Heritage museum. Did I get wet? Yes.  Did I have to put a bit of effort in to get there? Yes.  

Was it worth it? Oh very much yes.

I didn't post all the pics I took so there's more to see than what I showed you.

A big thanks to the staff at the museum who were very pleasant indeed.

That's all folks. 

D-Day Display on Southsea Common.

D-day has been a big deal down in Portsmouth. We've had dignitaries, concerts and all sorts of things happening, not to mention a sudden explosion of Union Jacks everywhere.

So the weekend before last I read that there was going to be something on the Common and decided to go take a look.

 "Hmm". I thought. "Where is everybody? "

This bird didn't seem too bothered.

As I trudge home a solitary WW2 truck trundled past. 

 Yes, you guessed, I got the dates wrong. 

So a week later and with the weather suddenly deciding to crank up the wind-machine, I tried again.

This time I got to check out a small military vehicles display.

Mostly trucks and cars but with a few interesting items to be see.

Starting with this , which is was called a "Tower truck" for obvious reasons. 

I did try and avoid getting people in these pics so if you're here and don't want to be, please let me know. 

 

  Now an somebody please tell me what this thing was used for? 

What really made me happy was this Valentine, a tank I've always had a soft spot for

As you can see from the canvas screens, this is the Duplex drive version which must be ultra-rare by now.  

  Personally I wouldn't want to be the driver on this thing because the idea of a floating tank is so bizarre that only a genius or complete loonie would come up with it. The first briefing must have been interesting.
"See this tank. We're going to make it swim and guess who's driving it?"

Note the lifebelt. A bit optimistic I feel. 

  

 I don't know what this is but damn, I feel lucky to get this close to one. 

Ooh look. A Duck. 

I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to climb aboard so played safe and didn't.

That's All Folks. 

Happy Valentines Day.

Here's a Valentine for you. 

(Valentine Infantry Tank at the Bovington tank museum.)

It's probably only funny if you're me. 

Bovington Tank Museum

 
This week it was my Dad's 65th birthday and as a bit of a treat I said I'd take him and Mum to Bovington Tank Museum.
  Of course being an ex-squaddie and a fully paid up member of the regimental association, Dad got in free. And did all the driving. Meanwhile Mum paid for me and her to get in.
 So really I just treated Mum and Dad to breakfast on the way up.

Hmm. Doesn't sound so generous now, does it?

It was quite a good breakfast mind you. I particularly liked the sausages.

 The British Army has been training tank crews at Bovington since 1916 while the museum was founded in the 1920s on the suggestion of Rudyard Kipling. It is currently the world's largest collection of tanks, many of which are kept in running order.
 I visited Bovington during the 1970s and I have vague memories of it being pretty much an enormous shed stuffed with tanks. These days it's a lot more sophisticated.