FV432 in Aden

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www.gettyimages.co.uk

View of British troops in a FV432 armoured personnel carrier on...

View of British troops in a FV432 armoured personnel carrier on patrol driving past burning debris on the streets of Aden town following a period of unrest and rioting during the Aden Emergency in...
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An unusual photo of an FV432 in 1967 in Aden. It is fitted with a Browning instead of the usual GPMG.
I had always assumed 432s only served in BAOR, Berlin and training units in UK and Canada. Anyone know more?
 

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Interesting stuff. Were the 432/3 only used by the REME,/fitters? The Infantry had Ferrets, Saracens and Saladins?
 
The turret in that last photo reminds us of the Browning turrets installed on Ferrets and Saracen APCs.
The British Army had many thousands WW2-vintage Browning MGs still in stock.
 
There were Brownings around for a long time, we used the fifty as a ranging gun when I first trained in Chieftain gunnery and there were still thirties around in the armouries then.
 
Was the Browning rechambered for .30 NATO standard ammo at this time?
 
hmvf.co.uk

Ferrets in Aden - new service pics

Hello everyone A friend of mine has kindly allowed me to post his service photos from Aden. The ferrets which can be seen are: 86BA57, 04BB56?, 00CA67, 00CA69. As you can see, ferrets are without any bins or mudguards, and some have sand tyres, plus the rear light / jerrycan arrangement on 86BA57...
hmvf.co.uk
thread from.2013 has another pic of the unturreted 432.
Thanks to Fluff above we now know that the two were REME fitters vehicles
 

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Is the turret on the commanders hatch?? That seems a more sensible solution to the one adopted with the Peak Engineering turret on the central hatch.
 
That's the only place left for it, over the passenger/load space would reduce access and usability. Easier to do also.
 
JohnR said:
Was the Browning rechambered for .30 NATO standard ammo at this time?
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I assume you mean 7.62mm (Cal. .30 was not a NATO round).

Not as far as I know, although I'm open to correction. Some countries converted Brownings to 7.62 mm (South Africa, IIRC) but I don't think that the UK did: they kept them in .30 until they were replaced by the GPMG.
 
There would be a certain amount of .3 but how much in storage that started out as .303 as that was used for a while by the RAF.
 
Foo Fighter said:
There would be a certain amount of .3 but how much in storage that started out as .303 as that was used for a while by the RAF.
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The RAF's rifle-calibre Brownings were all in .303, but they were to a modified design, firing from an open bolt to avoid cook-offs (to which Cordite was prone). And of course, all of the aircraft Brownings, whatever the calibre, were much faster-firing than the army guns - around 1,200 rpm rather than c.600 rpm.

Britain used Cal. .30 Brownings in WW2 mostly, I think, because a lot of US Lend-Lease AFVs came fitted with them. Presumably most of those were returned to the USA after the war.
 

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