21 AFV and 75 AVD

[Clive_Dakers]

From one who was there:

http://raoc.websitetoolbox.com/post?...light=brackley

75 avd at brackley northants was a hugh ww2 bomber command airfield , it was known as RAFturweston, i think when i was there in the 50s there was 40 to 50,000 vehicles of all shapes and sizes ,a lot of them BLR they had just about every vehicle there was in the british army at brackley , and as i say the amount of space and ground was immense , ginger ,

apparantly it was a den of iniquity

brian i had just been made up to cpl so no extra promotion , now i no jack d can vouch for us on the next one , 56 suez , petrol rationing , 75 avd brackley was a hugh field park with upwards of 40,000. vehicals of all shapes and sizes ,the bulk were beyond local repair and just parked on the old airfield that made up 75 avd , now most of these vehicals were still filled with petrol and diesel , and it was quite easy to remove into old jerry cans , the mt sgt and cpl and several others suddenly became quite rich , there was a ready market among local farmers and transport firms for diesel ,and an even bigger market among the various yank airfields and barracks for petrol as most of them had big cars , if i remember right the mps and sib ,pounced one day and carted off several ncos , the said ncos had to try to explain how they could own and run hugh buicks and pontiac american cars on army pay , several were national service men on 28 shillings a week , there was panic all round among the local farmers and yank military establishments , i do believ a few lads got colchester and a d d , but you have to hand it to them they were very enterprising , ginger

[Nick Bullock]

Hi Richard and Clive

What a great story, thanks for sharing it. So its seems they were one and the same place, it sounds huge and I had never heard its name mentioned before. So reading between the lines it was an 'end of the line storage centre' for unwanted vehicles awaiting disposal and that John Marchant link is a classic, what a memory!! better than mine by miles.

I would be interested to know a little more about 21AFV, I have managed to find that 21BVD was at Feltham, were they the same place?

There is another code to thow into the pot, that being ORD 13a, I understand that 13 Ordnance company were based at Stöcken Barracks, Hannover, Germany. Same question realy, would the 'a' be armoured??

thanks for helping here, it makes fascinating reading.

kind regards
nick

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Nick Bullock

I would be interested to know a little more about 21AFV, I have managed to find that 21BVD was at Feltham, were they the same place?

There is another code to thow into the pot, that being ORD 13a, I understand that 13 Ordnance company were based at Stöcken Barracks, Hannover, Germany. Same question realy, would the 'a' be armoured??

Nick,
I wonder if 21AFV was the correct designation, perhaps it should have been 21AVD ? Then it might line up with Feltham, which was known as 21BVD.

Additional info............75BVD and 72BVD ( Market Harborough), were both sub units of 7 Vehicle Group HQ at Castle Donnington.

[Clive_Dakers]

ORD 13a sounds more like a department in a ministry. 13 Ord was 13 Ordnance Company, part of 1 Ordnance Battalion serving 1st Division.