Video 1970 firing the C1 105mm at Mary Hill

[Colin Parkinson]

The guns were pretty new back then, bush caps and plotting boards as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=SzGGQHVsfnc&feature=emb_logo

 

[FJAG]

Thanks for that.

I went to CFOCS Venture from Sep to Dec 69 and spent more than my fair share of time in the Mary Hill Training area. I never imagined it could be used for live firing or that it had an impact area for 105mm. I can only presume that your impact area was in the water.

Anyway. Notwithstanding that every thing looks quite like it did for my four previous years when we live fired at Meaford with 7th Toronto (up to and including the white nuts on the gun wheel)

:cheers:

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Yea I think they stopped shooting there in 75-76, after that it was Ft Lewis and Yakima

 

[FJAG]

Yea I think they stopped shooting there in 75-76, after that it was Ft Lewis and Yakima

I remember that. When I was with Third Herd I was sent out twice to be a safety officer for the 15th (and what was then 5 BC Fd Bty). I remember once being deployed in a deep arroyo with what looked like thunderstorms up in the mountains. Spent more time looking for an escape path from flash flooding then anything else.

Oh yeah. And then there's the rattlesnakes that get squashed every morning after spending the night on the road's warm concrete.

All in all I preferred Mary Hill. Coincidentally, Billy Joe Royals song "Cherry Hill Park" came out in 1969 and was a big hit. Especially with us. It doesn't take much to make an officer cadet happy.  ;D

Mary Hill used to hang out in Cherry Hill Park
The game she played lasted all day till way after dark
...
'Cause Mary Hill was such a thrill after dark
In Cherry Hill Park
...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyEWCNCKxyk

:cheers:

 

[SeaKingTacco]

That looks an awful lot more like Albert Head than Mary Hill.

Was the prison near Mary Hill built later?

I also wonder what the impact area was, too...

 

[FJAG]

That looks an awful lot more like Albert Head than Mary Hill.

Was the prison near Mary Hill built later?

I also wonder what the impact area was, too...

The William Head prison was standing on the point at the base of Mary Hill when I was there in 69.

I'm just spitballing here but the coastal gun emplacements at Mary Head are about twice as high as the ones at Albert Head and the area from which the 15th is firing (what little one can see of it) appears to be sitting on a fairly high hill. My guess: Mary Hill.

:cheers:

 

[daftandbarmy]

That looks an awful lot more like Albert Head than Mary Hill.

Was the prison near Mary Hill built later?

I also wonder what the impact area was, too...

You might be right. The WW2 gun emplacement in the video looks like the one at Albert Head.

The guns might be firing from the flat piece of ground near the water that is now the grenade range, without the tall-ish trees that are there these days of course.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

You might be right. The WW2 gun emplacement in the video looks like the one at Albert Head.

The guns might be firing from the flat piece of ground near the water that is now the grenade range, without the tall-ish trees that are there these days of course.

That was my impression, too. I cannot think of a piece of ground at Mary Hill that is that large and flat.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Not worth a new thread, but fun to watch the "good old days", i was either a 2IC or Gun Commander that exercise, having lunch brought fresh and hot from the Messhall by Chinook was a treat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AohOggTYSQQ&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR26L96ImyEDubJCbvz3bSZMXCw4hBBnb7HwPNop9BbtP_2S-ACYlh-wkIQ