It's actually not mine, and nor is it a tank, it's an AS-90, known officially as Gun Equipment 155 mm L131.
It's basically an armoured self-propelled artillery unit used by the British Army. It can fire standard charges up to 24.7 km using 39-calibre long barrel or 30 km with 52-caliber long barrel.
The photograph was taken at Sanski Most in 2001, a Serbian populated town in Bosnia and Herzegovina in what was, prior to the Dayton Peace Accord of 1995, the Serbian Republic of Krajina.
Myself, one of my SNCOs and a couple of 'civilians' lived in the Royal Artillery camp for a period of 4 weeks conducting an operation (we'd told a fib to get into the site) and when leaving, I reported to the BK (Battery Kaptain) to thank him for his hospitality; he thanked me for fixing his Sky TV (which we'd one on the first day) and then said "by the way Q, if you are anythig to do with the Bowman Trials team, I'm a Dutchman." I smiled, said nothing, saluted and we departed for home, Gornji Vakuf 130km away.
This brings back memories. This was my weapon too. My job was to find new locations, calculate the coordinates from trig points and organise the cannons on the new site. Then calculating the amount og gunpowder, direction and elevation of the shot. We used the M109G howitzer. This was back in 1981.
May 16th, 2024
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