military vehicles in Northern Ireland

[fv1620]

Richard you are quite correct, this indeed in the normal meaning of things, a Mk 1. People seem to assume that a pig with a barricade pusher is a Mk 2 ie uparmoured which this clearly isn't.

This pig was one 200 recovered from dealers & scrapyards for use in N.Ireland. The barricade pusher was fitted to most of the Mk1s & Mk2s. The rams were designed also to be fitted to Saracens, though in practice this didn't happen. The EMER for this mod was issued in 1975.

This is the only Mk 1 Flying Pig I have seen ie fitted with defensive screens. The EMER for this was issued in 1976.

This pig has an unusual feature in that on the tops of the rear doors fold down. I assume that this would allow troops to observe and fire from the rear. There is evidence that there were rear facing seats to faclitiate this.

I have only seen one other pig with this type of rear seating & where rear door flaps had been fitted. It is in my garage, but on mine the rear flaps have been welded up. So it was not a success I assume.

I took the picture in an ordnance dealers yard about 20 years ago. There were several Mk2 Pigs, 20 Shorlands & 20 Salidins.