The story of the the Black Prince (or whichever tank is buried at the prison,)involved the Multi millionaire owner of a very large MV Collection who I worked for at the time. I know he was not one to delve into pure rumour collection-wise.

The Wartime Challenger as I understand was based on ??the Cromwell/Centaur hull Mated with the box turret of the Bishop??

This was certainly what this tank looked like from Photos and how it was put across in the magazine.

I believe that the bunker itself is at Watnall, Notts – a brief mention about the programme can be found in this link http://www.nottinghampost.com/Secret-bunker-given-stunning-TV-makeover/story-20609750-detail/story.html

Watnall was the HQ site that covered Duxford during the Batttle of Britain- Leigh-Mallory’s hideout, so its history is very important. Nice to see part of it being bought back to life. I’d love to go down into the underground parts, alas it is full of water.

I just wanted to share an eyeopening moment I had last week at a Rock concert……there were apparentley 45,000 people there in the stadium…..as I was perusing the crowd from above a thought crossed my mind that I was seeing 45,000 people in one place that looked like a sea of human beings, and the losses in BOMBER COMMAND were a good chunk more than that!!!. seeing so many people in one place hit home hard just how many people 55,000 actually was, its easy to roll the figures of the tongue or read it from a book, but to see a block of 45,000 people let alone 55,000 people all stood in one place really brought home just how many sacrifices were made, wether it was being shot over dresden an a blazing lancaster, or in a humble (but still every bit as important) accident whilst training.
I know you chaps on here will appreciate fully just how many 55,000 losses was but to the younger generation like my 16 yr old it was a great visual representation of the WW2 losses, and thats just in BOMBER COMMAND……..

A very sobering site to see, I often compare the BC losses to the number of empty seats in some football stadiums- that brings it home.

But to me the most sobering thought………..the casualty figures I often see quoted for the Second world war are around 60 million- thats roughly the UK population.

If you can imagine, every UK street, road & building being empty then you’re pretty close.

If you can do that, then you can understand why we cannot ever afford to forget those who gave.

A T.7 with the cockpit section removed is basically a Mk.4 airframe when it comes to the important bits. Where to find a Mk.4 cockpit though? That is the question.

It is my understanding that the T.7 cockpit was basically a stretched F.4, so in theory at least,you could back- engineer one to F.4 standard.

I may be wrong on this, but you could, in theory as least, use a T.7 airframe, the Cosford prototype for reproducing engineers drawings for cowlings & canopy, and a modified set of NF Meteor outer wings reproduce a MkI or Mk III.

In the 1980’s I was stood at a burger van next to the former RAF Hemswell. The van owner told me about an old military ambulance in one of the sheds. On investigating, I found a near complete Austin K2 ambulance, minus front wheels. I contacted the site owners, agreed a purchase, but before I had chance to collect, someone had stripped it down to its chassis. Needless to say I was gutted!!!!!!:mad::mad:i
[INDENT][/INDENT]

Which cockpit would that be?

To my knowledge, it was a film mock up.