squibb,
You seem to have hit the nail bang on the jolly head! Of course these 155B1s are just to replace old man Bristow's S76s, and the Italian truck jobbies are to replace the industrial drillers' amazingly successful 155Bs (whatever happened to the A?!!). Remember the Gallic wunderkind was trained up by Ray Smellonds, who was responsible for many of the industrial drillers' dubious advances. He was never noted for his brain power, and indeed, seemed modelled on a typical cavalry officer (though without the class dear boy!).
A little birdie tells me that the B1s may never actually be quite on the 5N register - too much filthy lucre to pay to the jolly old revenue. They were brought in on the QT and that's how they'll stay - even if the earlier-mentioned Day Vally-chappie tries to tells these Johnnies-come-Lately that it simply isn't done. Neturelly, for the European Latinos, this is all something they don't quite ken, being not only foreign, but also renowned for their inability to take their drink, un-like proper cavalrymen.
It all seems like something from Alice-in-Wunderland or the Night Garden as the Ninky-Nonks and the Tumblieboos roll, across the scenery oblivious to anything in the real world most of we chaps have to live in. It seems that Aero has experienced a surge of life and are yet again having to help out the Johnnies-come-Lately in Warri who, even with the Industrial drilling conglomerate's machines and those form their erstwhile Nordik partner, are unable to cope! Meanwhile, down in the wastes of the western swamps in Port Harcourt a young Viking chappie is wondering how to cope with his perfectly Nigerian oriented deputy who despite his shirts and suits from New and Lingwood actually got his Oxford doctoral diploma in Theology from that world-leader, Oxford Brookes University.
Word on the street is that the interlopers, disappointed with their Portuguese and Danish pastry alliances, now feel that with the jolly old froggies, they have at last found a soulmate where money is definitely one step above principle. It seems our jolly old chums Jonny l'oignon are ready to operate tea-drowners' machines in place of their native Oignocopters for an unholy alliance with the Johnnies-come-lately! Interesting times - is this Wellington versus Napoleon with native auxiliaries battling again? Isn't that a pip?