Beef's 51 Field Squadron (A)
Unofficial site for 51 Field Squadron(A)
Beefs 51 Field Squadron (Airfields) 1965 to 1973
Last update. Entry on the blog page 20 Oct 09
Click here if you would like me to contact you
Welcome to the web site that is intended to bring together the members of 51 Field Squadron who served between the years of 1965 and 1972. That is not to say that members of 51 Squadron from other eras are not welcome but the Squadron has undergone many changes and these are the only years that I can speak of with some authority.
I have been running this site for a while now and it has had quite a following. However the site was a bit restricted and there were a few problems when I tried d to update pages. So I started another site that has much the same content. The New site gives me more scope to put pictures and other content on without any limitations. Freewebs is a great place to try out your first web site and its easy to set up. If I had any critisism it was that the suport was bit slow. Now however things are getting much better with a new Guest book set up and an easier all round way of doing things.
My new site is at http://www.beef-51.britishforces.com/
so if you want to start your own site these are the people to show you how
Ill continue to support this site because it has been advertised in many places and would take a long time to change. The extra pictues that I recieve from people and any other content will mainly be put on to the new site as there is more room there. I will always appreciate any comments Good Bad or indifferent for both sites.
Whats on the Site.
2 pages about 51 Sqn and a bit about the places we visited.
A page telling you a bit about myself
2 Picture pages with plenty of more space for more photos as they become available.
2 Newsletter pages.
A bit of a blog to wax lyrical about this and that
Then there is a roll call of the people we have contact with. Check it out and maybe find old mates.
If you would like to contact me about anything click on the little envelope above and I will usually get back to you within 24 hrs. (most of the time my computer is on so I would get back to within the hour.)
If you would just like to leave a comment then the "say hi" page is OK but it doesn't let me get your email so I can't reply from there.
Of course this is not an official Royal Engineers site so any opinions that I or any other contributors make are our own opinions and reflections.
I need new Photos, Stories, sketches newspaper clippings of anything to do with the Squadron so that we can share memories. For instance does any one have a photo of the day we got the freedom of Ripon or the newspaper clipping. Or does any one have photos of the lads playing Football or Rugby. After all we did have really good team at both sports.
The Black Ant I spent a lot of hours painting the black worker ant on sky blue back ground on to the sides of various trucks, land-rovers and plant equipment. It got so bad at one time that I actually dreamed about them. The black ant was originally a logo of 5001 Squadron RAF and we inherited from them. When we arrived at Waterbeach it was a bone of contention that we were the only Squadron with our own logo, and there was a move made to prevent us using it. The OC presented the argument that it gave us a sense of pride and bonded us together and any attempt to remove it would have put a dent in moral. The end result was the other Squadrons at Waterbeach started to paint their own logos and we got to keep ours. I have seen various versions of the ant since then but this was the ant that I painted so many times.
There were two versions of the black ant on the badges of 5001 RAF Airfield Construction so that may be the reason other people have different ideas of the way the ant should be depicted.